The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-01-29
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY
A POSITIVE CURATIVE AGENT IN
 MINERAL WATER.
The New Hot BOttle-CarbOnic Acid Plant FOrcing-POwer from Re- Questionable Plants
 Injury from Lights.

the gases of mineral springs has sug- gested a possible explanation of obscure points in the action of mineral waters on the human system. How widely distributed this elemnt may be Is diff ficult to determine, but eminent chem lsts have recently found in quite num- Der of springs indications of helium, the gas into which the radium ema aa- ton seems to change. Like results. are now reported by Charles Moureu. of Paris, from an investigation of twelve other radioactive springs of France and Austria. In the analyses, the gases of these springs were sepa- rated into carbonic acid, oxygen, nitro gen. and a residue containing argon, helium, and other rare elements. This last portion or residue formed from 0.5O to 2.O6 per cent of the total gases of the different springs. The range noted In radio activity was very great. the spring at the top of the list being fifty times active as the one at the bottom.
 The up-to-date hot water bottle lacks the water. In its place are coils of fine wire, and when the bottle is connected with the plug in an electric lighting fixture. the current heats these coils to the desired temperature, which is main ldlu6U dS IOHS dS hGcuSu H6 dQ- vantges are obvious. The bottle is neither too warm nor too cold, it does not scald. and 1t promptly gives the proper heat without waiting for water to boil.
 Keeping one lot of plants for two months in an atmosphere containing five times the normal proportion of car bonic acid, and another lot in ordinary air, E. Demoussy has shown an aver age increase of growth due to the car bonic acid of 60 per cent. The plants included lettuce, tobacco, castor, gera- nium and mint, only fuchsia showing no increase.
 In our industrial age the discoverer of an abundant new fuel must rank as a public benefactor. The experi- ments s. Bordenase has been making in France indicate that the great quantities of refuse vegetable matter produced on farms may be economical Iy used for making gas to run small farm motors, and that it is even prac- ticable to make regular annual crops of fuel a profitable industry. He has tested dead leaves, straw, hay and other substances. The materials were compressed into bales for convenient handling and the cost of one horse power per hour swas found to range from about four-fifths of a cent with leaves and low grade hay to one cent with oat straw and a cent and a half with hay of average quality.
 What seems to be true mimicry in plants has been pointed out in South Africa by Dr. R. Marloth. Of four singular species belonging to the ge- nus Mesembrianthemum, two resemble both in form and color the quartz peb- bles among which they grow, and the others have each two leaves about the size of a ducks egg, with a surface like weathered stone and stone-like brownish gray color tinged with green. At least two of these species do not change their characters under cultivation. A species of the genus Anacampseros has leaves covered with white papery stipules. and also re- sembles the surrounding quartz peb- bles.
 The injurious effects of light on the eyes are found to increase with the number of ultraviolet or chemical rays contained. This is the conclusion of pr. A. Staerkle. of Basel. who shows that petroleum is the least harmful light and is followed in order by gas light, electric light, incandescent gas- light and acetylene, the last named being most harmful. Thick colored glass-gray, yellow. red or green lessens the injurious rays.
 When the newest English 'penny-in- the-slot" apparatus receives its coin, a music box at a distance as in anoth- CT room, begins to play. being Oper- ated by wireless telegrapy.
 
 Actelyne black. a fine quality of car bon or black pigment, is obtained as a by-product at Foligno, in Italy, by an interesting process lately described by H. Becker. The residue from purify ing crude sugar by the baryta process that is, by treatment with barium hy- droxide and then with carbonic acid consists of moist barium carbonate, and this Is fed with carbon into an elec- tric furnace, where 1t Is converted into barium carbide. The carbon mon- oxide evolved is burnt. the heat evolyel being used to dry the raw materials. The carbide produced is at once de- composed with water so as to obtain barium hydroxide. and the acetylene liberated Is made by imperfect combus- ton to deposit its carbon.
 The ingenious adulteration lately de tected by French chemist consists in the addition 10 poor or skinned milk of cheap fats-such as coacoanut but ter or pork dripping-and thus bring ing the proportion of fatty matter up to the standard required by the inspec- tors. The foreign fat, which may be dissolved out by benzine without af-