The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1908-03-21
Sffllt6liancs BaltimOy County Union.
sCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

eSffElR8Aasncs Baltimore County Union.
sCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
Bacterial Fertillzation-Plant Poisons In
the Soil A Caves Inhabitants - Fire
Producing Alloys - The Work Cure
Washing Away of South Afrfca-Scar-
let Fever Diagnosed by Sound-Spider
Vision-Fatigue Poison.
The MISUNDERSTANDING bacilli discovered in
root nodules twenty years ago we're derived
from arabic soil, but we're attracted to legumin-
Gus plants only. though the variety favoring
peas differed from that found on lupins. With
the leguminous plant of its choice each form OF
microorganism entered into true symbolic
relationship absorbing nitrogen from the air
and feeding it to the higher plant and receiving
carbon in return. In experiments at Kings
College. London. during the last two or three
years. Prof. Bottomley has not only shown an
increase of so per cent. in the yield Of legumin-
GUS plants in soil sown with the proper bacilli'
but he has succeeded in producing varieties of
the bacilli for other plants, thus increasing the
yield also of cereals. roses. cabbages and t0ma-
toes. His method has consisted in cultivating
several generations of bacilli away from the
leguminous root in an extract of the new root,
the descendants thus acquiring a taste for the
new food. There seems no reasen to doubt that
nitrogen-fixing bacilli may be adapted to all
green plants. and the soil may be fortified with
out the nitrates made by chemical and electrical
processes.
The growth of number of successive crops of
the same plant has been lately found not only to
exhaust the soil for that plant but to develop an
active poison for it. Steam distilIation of q
wheat sick soil yielded crystalline substance
that is toxic. to wheat and from a soil exhausted
for cowpeas crystalline substance was obtained
that is toxic to cowpeas but not to wheat.
In Mayfeld's cave In Indiana, A. NJ. Banta has
captured 80 species ofgHies,!two of them new to
science 30 species of other insects and 81 species
OF the spider class.
The remarkable 'pyrophorous alloys" now
being made in Treibach, Austria, have resulted
from the experiments with the rare earths Of
Auer Won WeIsbach. the inventor Of the mean
descent gas-mantle. They contain iron. with
such metals of the rare earths as cerium and
lanthanum, and on being scratched with steel
they produce very brilliant flashes, with little
heat or smoke. The sparks-which may be as
large as a mans hand-are sufficiently hot how
ever, to ignite finder, inhammable gases, alcohol
saturated wicks. Its suggested that this curious
property gives advantages for many uses, such
as lighting gas lamps from distance by friction
with a steel moved by an electromagnet, igniting
explosives at less risk than from the present
Eliminates. yielding flashes from buoys under
impulse of the waves, military signaling and
fashlight photography. When the proportion
of iron is about 30 per cent, the slightest touch
of steel yields shower of sparks. The light
varies with the different alloys, and nickel, cobalt
49, -. -
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Graduated labor in pure air is the medical
treatment prescribed by DR.. NJ. 8. Paterson, an
English physician, for pulmonary tuberculosis,
and three years trials at the Brompton Hospital
Sanatorium have shown great Improvement In
general health and resisting power. Onlyrestis
permitted while the temperature is above go in
the female. After few days of normal tenn
perafure, light work begins and is slowly
increased = the temperature being carefully
watched-through such grades as % walking
from half mile to ten miles, C2) carrying baskets
of mould, (S) using small shovel, "a using
large shovel, 90 using pick axe, and tD using
pick-axe six hours day.
az
The rapid water-erosion of parts of Cape
Colony is attributed chiefly to burning of vege-
tation and the starting of paths by cattle and
WdBOuc OuCC ctdItCus CAOcAOA 10 fCAJ A"PANs ~Ae~
the Ongers or Brak River, which did not exist 60
years ago, now averages 800 feet in width and ID
feet in depth.
The scarlet fever heart is popularity lately
noticed. for the first time, by German medical
man. With the stethoscope it is recognized by
areduplication of the first heart sound, followed
by a rough rasping or scraping, and this appears
at the onset of many of scarlet fever, often
when no other symptoms are to be detected. In
some epidemics these sounds may be heard In
the majority Of cases, while at other times they
8 % egeat value IN diagnosis ana may be the
only warning signal to guard against the spread
of infection. A boy who was pale, languid and
anaemic had no other symptoms except the
irregular heart sounds. From these his case was
decided to be scarlet fever and subsequent peel
ing of the skin proved the correctness of the
diagnosis. Certain children in the chicken-pox
ward of a hospital were restless and obviously
i'll. The heart sounds indicated scarlet fever
and in these cases, too. desquamation followed.
although there had been no eruption or other
sign. Directly afterward this ward had an out
break of scarlet fever in its usual form.
~
The eyesight of spiders is found by DR.. Alex
ander Petsunkevitch to be not only very poor
but to vary greatly in different genera. An in
sect that would be visible and recognizable to
the human eye at a distance of a yard would
appear to spiders of the genus Phidippus only as
a tiny, ill-defned moving object, and to MEM
bers of the genus LYcosa would be invisible.
The poor vision is largely due to the peculiar
shape of the retina while the Lycosa owes its
special inferiority to a retinal image scarcely
covering the diameter of one nerve-rod. that of
the Phidippus extending over nearly seven ter
limitations of nerve-rods.
sss
The fatigue toxin obtained by Weichardt from
the muscles of tired animals has been now ex-
tracted by him from such vegetable substances
as opium, poppy-heads and curare and has been
also prepared by oxidizing albumins. When
swallowed the vegetable toxin yields the same
fatigue effects as the animal toxin.