The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1905-12-02

Another Debt to Coal Tara New Break
water-Dan9ar from Collars-The Dou-
BILE Greed for OLA New
Material-C ar-phobia - Heat Waste In
Cooking Flicker and Glow In lightning.
Adrenalin, which has made bloodless surgery
possible is the active principle of the suprarena
glands. two fmperfectIy understood little bodies
placed over the kidneys and in man about as
large as marbles. The properties Of the secre-
ton Of these glands led TO q long search for the
active principle. and this was at last isolated in
1901 by DR.. J. Takamine. the Japanese chemist.
The discovery has proven Of extraordinary i'm
portance. Adrenalin is powerful astringent
ana drives the blood away from any living sur
face. It Is especially useful in delicate surgery
upon the nose and throat, but it stops dangerous
hemorrhages. relieves congestion Of the eye. and
Is the most powerful heart stimulant known. As
prepared BY long and delicate process from the
glands Of the sheep. it is costly. method Of
cheapening It would be 3 boon to humanity, and
the making of it from coal tar. as announced By
DR.. d. Dakin. is Of corresponding interest.
sfs
The floating breakwater under test at TorQuay
is timber frame sinking to depth of 10 feet
and supported at the land end by pontoons, the
structure being thus tilted toward the sea. The
frame is moored on both sides by long chains.
As storms have little effect below depth Of II
or Is feet It is believed that the structure will
enectually break the force Of the sea, and ex-
perience with buoys and pontoons gives conf
dence that the chains will hold.
sss
The pressure of stiff high collar on the pneu-
mogastric nerve has been found by Or. f. B.
Brubaker to produce unpleasant symptoms, like
numbness, nausea, lassitude and depression Of
spirits. He believes that prolonged pressure by
q close-ftting collar would tend to serious dis
ease. such as lung disease.
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In the examination Of food substances and
other materials microscopes often find it neces-
sary to compare two slides. This soon becomes
very tedious by the usual method of substitu-
ting one slide for another or using duplicate
microscopes, and a laborious study of starches,
hbers. ETC., has led two English investigators to
devise much simpler process. The new idea is
piece Of apparatus known as the Ashe-F inlay-
son comparascope. The second slide is placed
upon q horizontal rod attached to the side of the
nose-piece of the microscope. and mirror and
lens project the image into the piece, where
an inclined reflector defects the rays up the
microscope tube. The tube itself is divided by
removable plate, so that the images Of the two
slides to be compared appear side by side in the
field Of view.
The penguins, Of which about dozen species
still exist on the rocky islands and coasts of the
southern hemisphere, are of unusual interest as
the survivors of the great fiightless birds. HUI
man greed has geen attracted to these rare crea-
lures. and DIR. E. A. Wilson, an English natural
fok &Tof IL L.
thousands of them have been slaughtered for oil
on Macquarie Island and the Aucklands. not
less than 100 tons of the oil having been recently
placed on the market. A new scheme is to es-
tablish great oil cauldrons in the Auckland
Islands. Thus far the 'rookeries" of these
islands have suffered comparatively little from
man, but the carrying out of the new project
viii bring speedy extinction to one Of the most
unique life forms Of the world.
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Silicon, the most abundant metal in the world,
has been unknown on account of the difficulty
of separating it from oxygen. but the electric
furnace has now made it obtainable in quanti-
ties to meet any demand. Unexpected to have
some Importance in iron alloys. It gives to
steel valuable electrical properties, it imparts
such hardness as to make some alloys possibly
useful as abrasives, and the compound known as
s'calorite" serves like thermite for obtaining
high temperatures.
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The curious dread Of cats that has been studi-
ed for three years by DR.. s. Weir Mitchell, of
Philadelphia. may open up a wide field for in
vestigation. An advertisement brought 159 re-
plies from different Notwithstanding Ger
many, Egypt and India-and about two-thirds of
them mentioned cases of fear of cats, the others
referring to asthma from cats. This asthma,
due to odors, may be excited by the presence of
horses. dogs cats or sheep, or even of roses. ap-
pies, oranges or bananas. The cat-phobia comes
instantaneously, and may be very severe, cata-
lepsy having developed in one case, and tempo
rary blindness in another. Il passes with the
going Of the cat, leaving sense of fatigue and
depression. It is not confined to women. nor
are the men always timorous, and one army
ofacer who had fearlessly hunted dangerous cats
the lion and the tiger-would go far out of his
way to avoid the domestic cat. Families are
sometimes affected. Some emanation seems to
be the active agent, the cat in many cases being
unseen, and it is suggested that supersensitive
nerves may be affected by waves of the ether
that do not yield light. heat or odor.
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The loss of energy in generating electricity
anu RECOMMENDING IL lubO uedG makes eleCCrlc
heating very costly for most purposes. In cleo
trio cooking, however. this waste is Offset by a
greatly increased efficiency of application. A
recent determination shows that only 2 per cent.
of the total heat Of the ordinary kitchen range
Is used for cooking the food, IL per cent. being
wasted in obtaining glowing fire, 20 per cent.
going up the chimney and IS per cent. being ra-
dated into the room. A good electric cooker
applies 90 per cent. of the heat energy to cook
ing the food.
The flicker" sometimes noticed in lightning
proves to be due to the fact that several flashes
sometimes five orsix-follow one path too rap
idly to be separated by the eye. The trails
shown in photographs Of very bright flashes are
caused by incandescence produced in the air for
very brief period.
The winter Excursion Book
Just issued by the Passenger Department of the
Pennsylvania Railroad Company, is one OF the