The Kemper herald. (Scooba, Miss.) 1875-1908, 1906-08-02
SCIENTIFIC SCRAPS.

"A naturalist says: Men and animals
are born with a propensity to fight.
Is there in the whole range of the an
imal creation one animal that does
not fight, II it has enough and
powers of locomotion? Oysters and
CLAIMS cannot fight. If their organ OF
combativeness is not wanting, they
have no use for it. They even devour
each other, and may be said to eat
themselves, for, changing their shell
and stomach every year, these re-
mains are generally the first morsel
to glut their new system"
The peculiar substance, known as
asbestos, which was regarded as val
ueless a century ago, Is now In de-
mand for many purposes. 1t is made
into roofing felt, cement, theatre cur
tains and various heat-resisting artl-
cles, and has been recently spun into
a light and fairly strong thread. Even
ropes, with or without steel cores, are
made from it for fremen. A new n
rather surprising application is for
army stockings, which have been
shown to be less irritating to the feet
of soldiers on the march than other
stockings, and the war department OF
Austria is considering their general
adoption.
The unsanitary stabling Of cattle in
YfoJu rno1ac f,horoy11nciQ VQrV nrQV9-
lent among them. There has now
been established a company for insur-
ing butchers against loss by condemn
alton of beef by the sanitary officials.
Butchers pay to this company a pre-
MUM for each head of cattle slaught-
cred in the municipal abattoirs or for
brought there for inspec-
ton, and if the meat is condemned
the company reimburses the dealer
and retains the carcass to be sold for
food, after being sterilized, if only
partially infected, or to be used for
Industrial purposes if found unfit for
human consumption.
A beautiful little experiment that
shows the relation between friction
and pressure, is due to Robert S. Ball,
Jr. Take a yardstick, or any smooth,
straight rod of uniform section, and
support it upon an outstretched finger
of each hand. Then o the sup
porting fingers inward toward the cen
ire of the rod. The fingers will inva-
MO bI1y roaat of fha ooptro a1fh0uOh at
the outset one may have been much
more distant than the other. The
reason Is because the resistance to
sliding, arising from pressure, is In
versely proportional to the distance
from the medal line of the rod. Slid
ing takes place ver that finger which
is the more distant from the centre.
At a recent meeting of the Torrey
Botanical club Mr.. George V. Nash re-
marked that there seems to be a gen.
eral misconception as to just what an
orchid is. Many call any plant which
grows on a tree, or has some peculiar
feature, an orchid. The mistake is
frequently made with the pitcher
plants and the "tailflowers." The
uniting in one organ, called the col
umn, of the stamens and pistils serves
to distinguish the orchid family from
all related ones. The orchid family
embraces 5000 or 1000 species. of
which comparatively few are found in
the warm temperate, and almost none
In the cold temperate. zones. They
are mostly distributed in the tropical
regions, in hot, humid places. Or.
chids, however, do not Invariably pre-.
fer humid conditions. Nearly all trop-
zeal orchids grow on trees, but in TEN.
perate regions they grow.in earth.