The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-02-05
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY
INSECT HEAT = TWIN EARTH 0UAKEs-.-CARBOLINEUM--sEA
 SOUNDING BY SOUND.
HEosion in Britain--Lubrication for ships-The New Life-Preserver stufang--AIimicry that Does Net Imitatc--Gsenius Not
 Wanted-A Longitude
 Standard Settled.


 A growing idea is that all living forms--even plants. fishes and insects must develop some bodily heat, even though the amount be very small. Bringing together various observations, a French entomologist. A. Acloque, finds that a thermometer thrust into an ant hill has shown a rise of five de- greco. that bee-hives are warmer than 1he outer air in winter, and that when the bees were agitated the hives have grown so hot as to melt the wax. One observer has noted that creatures giv- ing off the least heat have greatest resistance. Caterpillars may be frozen to brittleness and may exist for weeks in cake of ice, yet may become active again on thawing out. On the other hand. insects may live in intense heat, termites and others in Brazil and else- where being active on the burning sand under a vertical sun. This resistance to great heat and cold is not under stood. and is fact, 1t may be added, that should be kept In mind by those who speculate on the possible life of other worlds.
 Earthquakes often have more than one focus or apparent source. Pointing this out, Dr. c. Davidson notes that in Great Britain one earthquake in every twenty Is a twin, with two distinct foci, and that the strongest shocks have had this character. The distance be- tween the epicenters varies from four to twenty-three miles, the average for seven recent earthquakes being between ten and eleven miles. The f0ci seem to be at different points on the same fault, and the phenomenon Is evidently not due to refraction, reflection or di- vision of the earth waves.
 Heating together and mixing thor oughly 95 parts of coal tar oil and five parts of asphalt from coal tar, Is rec commended by a German authority for a reliable liquid to preserve wood from mold and dry rot. It gives a fine brown color, and is waterproof.
 An important advance in deep-sea surveying, saving much of the labor of present methods, is claimed for the acoustic sounding of H. Berggraff, a Norwegian engineer. The depth is es- ffmated from the time taken by sound to travel to the bottom and back, the echo from 1000 feet being received in one second, and the apparatus consists of a transmitter, an acoustic receiver, and a chronometer. The transmitter Is a slowly revolving disc which at each revolution closes an electric circuit and energizes a magnet operating a viberating armature. At each contact q sound is sent to the bottom of the seq. and the vibrations are turned to the only pitch which the specially con- structed receiving microphone will re- spond. In accurate work, the time of contact and that of the return of the sound are registered with great pre- eision on the revolving drum of chronograph.
 Recent gales and high tides have renfnded the Englishman that his lit- tic is1and is being gradually swallowed np by the sea. It has been found that Ereat Britain lost 14s.906 acres be- tween 1887 and 1880, and 29,155 acres between 1880 and 1890. A survey in the reign of Edward L gave the Duchy pf Cornwall 1.500,e00 acres, but the DTdance Survey some years ago showed that this had been reduced Ato S29, ,500 acres. Villages have disappeared in khe ocean. as in the case of Dunwich. Df which nothing remains but a ruined shureh on the edge of a cliff.
 Half ton of the curious vegetable product known as kupok, reaches Ann pterdanN yearly from Java. It is a yel- low, wAdding-lilEe material, which kovers the seeds of the Erlodendron, a sapid-groWing tree of the MaIaccas, and its fiber is remarkable as being much lighter than cork, so that 1t will &uppoIE Tn the water L0lrIy-uVS times tta own weight. The fibre, however, fesists all attempts at spinning or weGving It Is silky, only about an inch long, and Is made into thin rings. The claim Is made that kupok never de- oaYs. 4 ten-ounce mass will support a man in water, and the substance Is expected to become useful for life-sav- ing apparatus, and Is even looked upon as the probable future stufang for all ships beds.
 Speaking to British students on ''AGImicry'' in arrivals Dr. W. E. Hoyle, the other day pointed out the inappro- priateness of the term. The peculiarity described is a protective resemblance, and not a conscious imitation. Butter fies of different species that resemble each other cannot be said to be aware of the fact. Various theories have been offered to account for these resem- blaneos of creatures to others and to their surroundings, but the simplest ex- planation is that it is due to natural ssIection. Forms less disguised have been weeded out by enemies in the struggle for existence.
 Ball playing seems to be physiolog- ieally beyond feminine powers After careful investigation, the principal of a girls college finds that a larger and Iower-setting collar-bone makes the movement of the girls arm less free than that of the boys, so that she can not hope to throw well.