Amador ledger. (Jackson, Amador County, Calif.) 1875-19??, 1908-02-07

Tree Planters. 80 A Mine Testing
Lamp. improving the Electric Arc.
Gas Engine First Aid.
In the curious case recorded by Dr.
Vaughan Pendred, of Coventry, Eng.
bright lad of six, who has been
making rapid progress with his pen
and is proud of his success, Swrites
with equal facility forward or back
ward. When acting by himself, he
begins at the right hand side of the
paper and writes to the left. From
copy he writes normally, but, on be-
Ing asked, declares that the mirror
writing" is the correct form. Such
writing seems to be less rare than il
supposed. Among several hundred
persons in good health a medical
Investigator some years ago found
more than five per cent to whom
mirror writing was natural, but it
appeared that these persons were
either lett-handed or temporarily u.s.
ing the left hand. In mirror the
left hand reversed writing of right
handed persons showed the usual
characteristics of hand writing. The
popularity is especially common
among expert penmen, and seems Ito
be still more frequent in nervous and
An nj
made to explain it by the Collateral
action of the brain. The right hand
is normally guided by the left cere-
bral corteX, and it was shown that if
this instead of the right cerebral
cortex should primarily control the
left hand, that hand would write
backward.
The puzzling phenomena of the
earth's atmosphere-especl those
of the aur ora-are found by Svante
Arrhenius to be best explained as
effects of solar dust. The influx of
such dust would be greatest when the
sun is most active, and it is then that
aurorae and magnetic storms attri-
buted to the dust when electrified
are most numerous, and clouds also
are especially abundant. Jupiter
shares in the dust, becoming lighter
in hue in sunspot maxima, owing to
increased cloudlness.
The air is found by Prof. MIGUEL of
Montsouris to contain most microbes
at nine in the morning and nine in
the evening; fewest at three in the
morning and three in afternoon.
The mechanical diet indicator of
Prof. Irving Fisher, of Yale Univers-
ity, is designed to show automatically
the proteid, fat and carbohydrate IN
any dietary, and it not only indicates
the proportions but also points out
the easiest way to bring the ration up
to given standard. The machine
consists of an iron upright nine
inches high, from which is suspended
a basket holding a card printed with
a right-angled triangle as a flood
map" Each individual food has it's
own location. The latitude" of any
food represents in calorles the food
value of its proteid; the "longi-
tude," food value in fat; and dis
lance from the hypothenuse, value in
carbohydrate. Serving each food in
portions Of 100 calories OF food value,
or some multiple, weighted pin for
each portion is placed on the map.
The weights Iepresent the food value
OF the ration, their positions show the
percentages of proteid, fat and carbo-
hydrate, and when the basket is
allowed to swing freely a pointer in
dicates on the map the center of
gravity of the pins. The map is so
gagged that properly balanced
ration will bring the center of gravity
within charted "normal rectangle."
In trial of five months, nine stud
ents were guided largely by appetite,
and by noting the indications of the
map were able easily to vary the diet
so as to reduce the proteid to a stand
ard set as desirable.
Investigating the effect of COM
pressed air on health, two British
engineers have shown that a pressure
OF 81 pounds per square inch-more
than six tmospheres-may be enduI-
ed without unpleasant results The
pressure must be taken off at a uni
form rate, however, at least twenty
minutes being allowed for each
fifteen pounds of reduction, and
capillary circulation in the body
must be kept up by muscular exercise