SCIENTIFIC AND USEFUL.

Bruce Herald, Volume XI, Issue 1084, 4 February 1879, Page 7

SCIENTIFIC AND USEFUL.

Sucking the thumbs may cause a peculiar deformity of the chest in children and even form a dislocation of tbe jaw.

Arsenate of gold, a combination of gold wi?b arsenic, is claimed to possess extraordibary power in the cure of nervous affections.

Twenty - six alkaloids have Wen discovered in Peruvian bark. Tbe only ones yet used as me licines are qtiiua (or quinine), quiuiuidia, cinchona and cinchonidia.

Naws from the Panama states that the volcano Cotopox is ia a state of violent activity. Its crater is surrounded by ice and snow, but the clouds of smoke rising froxn it can be feen even at Quayaquil on on the shores of the Pacific.

M.- Feray has an article in tha ' Moni« tetir Sciantifique en the various kinds of wood ashes sold in France as the source of alkaline lyes. He slates that the. French annually expend in the washing of linen, &c, 1 500,000 francs. It ia difficult to clean glass bottles and other vessels that have been soiled with fatty substances; but if a concentrated solution of permanganate of potassium, to to which a few drops of hydrochloric aciil are added be used as a wash, the cleansing is effected speedily and thoroughly. The,' Daily News ' correspondent, under date November 2, telegraphs that after numerous variations the activity of the eruption of Vesuvius appeared to be then J atits height. The lava .flowed into ehe same ravine into which it fell during the eruption of 1872. The seismographs

denoted .^u approaching, iaci ease in the eruption. " l i • l J! ' Another small planet.. was discovered obT thle 26 of June, by Professor Pete/s, at Hamilton College, Clinton, New. -york,This VaisestHe number of the goodly list to 1 88: Names. have recently been published 1 for "Nos. 177, 180|' 185| and 186, discoyerd on November: s; January 29, March 1, and April 6, which are severally to be called IroiH, Garumna, Euuike, Celuta. jTJie distribution of rain over the British Isles during 187?, a« observed at about 2000 stations in .Great Britain and Ireland, has been issued by Mr £f . J. Symonsi A more' iiiterestitg^ record than this .cannot be imagined. -The^-greatest recorded fall in a day of twen»y*fonr hours was 4.981 inches at Portree, in the Isle of Skye on October 14. j : .. Some interesting objects have recently been brpjigbtj tq^ighjb^ from the, lake.dwellings in the Lake of Neufchatel, and are new exhibited at the Neufchatel Museum. A ! mongst > thera^ jare ythree j particularly worth y|ofnotice : (1) A large and extreme^ ly well-preserved piece;, of amber ; (2) a golden earring of ma||erly workmanship, of a bronze age ; anqfjp) a canoe cut out from the trunk of a single oak tree in perfect preservation. Its length is 7' metres, its breadth 55 centimetres at the prow, and 65 centimetres at the stern ; its depth is 19 centimetres, its total height from 22 to 24, and the thickness of its sides .6 to 1£ centimetres There is running on a railway in the neighbourhood of Paris a locomotive without fire, similar to the locomotives employed on the tramways of New Orleans, U.S. It is provided with a cylindrical reservoir of great strength, which being filled from a fixed boiler with steam until the pressure reaches fifteen atmospheres, then distributes it under proper regulation fco the working machinery, and the firele"ss engine begins its journey. The pressure can be varied according to the exigences of the route, the ordinary speed being about eight miles an hour. The filling of the reservoir takes fifteen minutes, and must be repeated, if required, every time the engine returns to the boiler station ; out experience has proved that for short distances this locomotive has advantages over all others. It will turn a short curve and travel up-hill, with a load of ten tons ; makes but little noise, wastes a whiff of steam ouly, and is in no danger of explosion from overheatiog.

It waa found some time ago that sewage could be pui'ified by pouring into it a stnal" quantity of. muriatic acid ; the animalcu SB were all killed, and lay in a darkeDed mass at the bottom of the vessel, white " the supernatant water waa changed from a deep-green colour to be perfectly clear." Mr WatBOD, in a rommunicau'on to the Newcaetle-on Tyne Chemical S iciety, attributes the comparative abseuce of foulness in the Tjne to *be effect of the weik hydrochloric acid which flows ■nto the stream from the factories on the bankß. It U also worthy remark that "the Tyne fisheries have been increasing in value at an amaziug rate," aud that the salmon bred in the upper reaches of the river, go back thither in breeding season. These are facts wbich will have to be further verified ; but that they have an important bearing on the subjects of pollution of rivers and utilisation ofsevragfl cannot be doubted. The Tyne is not the only river in the kiugdotn which could be improved by a dose of she acid, Perhaps Mr Frank Buckland could teil us sometbiDg of this. — 'Chamber's Journal.'

It is proposed to apply to the preser vation of beer a method which has been employed in the case of wine with marked success. Experiments have shown that if wine be raised in bermetically-sealed vessels to a high temperature it will acquire to some extent the character of old wine : the wine must be maintained at this high temperature for some days, during which period it is presumed that ] certain compound ethera are furroed, which J otherwise at the ordinary temperature wouid not have been formed for years. Ib is true that beer differs from ordinary wine on account of beiDg charged with carbonic acid gaa, but it would be very easy to add this constituent after the beating process was terminated ; the beer would have to be maintained at a temprature approaching the boiling point, and contained in strong closed vessels so that noue of the constituents can possibly evaporate. The lesnlt of such a treatment would be to effectually destroy any germs likely to establish changes in the beer, and at the same time the high, temperature would accelerate the production of certain ethers which give a characteristic flavour to beer which has been kept for a considerable time.

Dr Campbell Morfit has discovered, by a long-con tioned experiment, that flesh, fish, and fruits, and other substances can be preserved for a long time by thoroughly impregnating them with gelantiue. There is apparently no mystery about his process, all that is required being to take care that the gelatine is completely diffused through the article intended for preseration. Thus, lean meat, aft^r stewing in its own juice, is dried, and reduced to a smooth pulp, and then triturated with gel »»n tine, ia proportions of one pound of the jelly to fifteen of the meat. Fruits in like manner are reduced to pulp, and then gelantinised. Milk may be condensed without the use of sugar, and thereby rendered more acceptable as an article of diet than the condensed milk at present in use. One pound of gelatine dissolved in a gallon of fresh milk converts the whole to jellyl This is dried, then dissolved in another gallon, and' so on until eight gallons of milk have been taken up by the original pound of gelantine. In a similar way the juice Of ,meat;may be consolidated, and limejuice, and other liquid substances, and the jelly thus produced' "'may be dried in flakes or incorporated with biscuits This preservative action of gelantme will

:p4rEaps be i a sm-prise to many persons. I rheresults of lJr Morfit's experiments are "so- far satisfactory, for articles preserved more than a- year ago retain their freshness notwithstanding that they have been kept in an ordinary store ro >m, exposed to the air and to changes of tempsrature.. ,j .-.-■. : - ■ , ■ <■ . : :: . . ...

| THE WEBDfiH.MA.NN ELECTRIC LIGHT

j"W"kile the world is waiting for the announcement of Mr Edison's melhod of splitting up the electric l Htfht, Mr Bicbard Werdermann, a gentleman well known in connection with electric lighting, seoma to have solved the problem, to some extent, atj least, and' he be'ieves that after further experiments; be w"ll be ablu to divide the cdrrent into 50, 100, or even 500 lights. .Experimental exhibitions of the light have beeld : given with satisfactory results at thewbrks of the British Telegraph Manufactory, Euston Road. j The chief bbjectof Mr Werderraannis to demonstrate that ,a number of lights be placed in one circuit, the current %eing s produced by' ati electroplating Gramme i ! machine, having an e'ectromotive force of 4 tr> 4J Daniel! cells. Theiprjnciple of Mr Werdermann's invention is that of keeping a small vertical pencil ..of carbon in connection with a large disk "of the same material. In some earlier experiments he {found that, when he increased the sectional area of the one carbon and reduced that of the other, he produced an electric light wish carbons in actual contact, a small arc appearing at the point of contact. The small carbon is a pencil 3 mm. in diametar ; the upper or negative carbon is a disk of 2 inches diameter and an inch thick. The upper carbon is not consumed, so that the waste takes place only in the lowc. In his lamp he places the disk uppermost with the pencil vertical!? benea h it, sliding up a metal tube which acts as a guide and contact. The pencil is kept in contact with the disk by means of chains attached to its lower extremity passing over pulleys^and down again to a counterweight of obout 1£ lb. About £ inch of the lower carbon appears above the tube, and is rendered incandescent by the passage of the current between it and the disk. This pencil is pointed, and retains this point, all the time burning. Tt is between this point and the disk thai th« small electric arc appears which, gives the greater part of the light. At the exhibitions which have been given only 10 lights were in circuit at once, Mr Werdermann having no more lights at hand. The lights were put in wliat is called the pm-allel circuit, that is, they all branched off from one wire of the machine and met again on the o her. The lamps were estimated to give a light of 40 candles each, and the results obtained were most satisfactory, all the lights burning equall well, giving a beautiful white light, which was perfectly steady. By this s stem of lighting a large number of lamps could be lighted simultaneously, could be put out, and again re-lit. If one lamp shonld be extinguished it does not affect the others except by making them burn slightly brighter ; but this affect wi.l be obviated by a switch arrangement for regulate ing the current of the extinguished lamp. The current produced by the machine being very low in tension, the insulation of the conduc int? cables could be cheaply and easily maintained We may state that two larger lamps were shown of 360 candles each. The effect of the light is not dazzling to the eyes, and it was shown naked; in actual practice a common glass globe, as in the ordinary gas lamps will be a sufficient protection.

THE SILKWORM.

A very cuiious discovery has just been made, which, if it should be found as practicable in application as it seems to promise, may create a very considerable chanpe in tbo production of silk Ie is nothing more or let>B than the possibility of obtaining two yields in tho year of the raw material, instead of one, as at present. The moth, which ia the last Btage of the caterpillar's existence, lays its eggs in May or June, and they remain in a dormant state until spring of the following year. But sometimes they are observed to hatch spontaneously ten or twelve days after they are laid. That circumstance having come to the knowledge of M. Duclaux, professor of the faculty of sciences at Lyons, he undertook a series of experiments on the subject, and has found that the new hatching, or forcing, .can be procured at will. The means for effecting that object are very simple; rubbing the eggs with a bard brush, subjecting them to the action of electricity, or more purely still by dipping them for half a minute in concentrating sulphuric acid. M. 80l c, who has also turned bis attention to the same subject, states that the pameeffectis produced by chlorohydric, nitric, or even acetic and tartaric acids. Finally, a subversion of a few seconds in water heated to 50 degrees Cent. (122 Fahr ) is equally efficacious. However, IM. Duclaux states that the operation must be performed while the eggs are quite young, the second or third day at ! the outside. "When this new hatching is accomplished, the mulberry tree is in its j full vigour, and the weather so favourable I that the rearing of the worm is liable to j much less risk than during the early days of spring, when the sudden atmospheric changes are very detrimental and frequeutly fatal to the growing M oreover, the eggs from the second batch are eaid to produce the following year a progeny much more hardy than that 'arising from those which iiava been' so to say, hibernating for so many months. — ' Galignani.'

EFFECT OF ELECTRICITY OK VEGETATION.

Probably every one who has entered a -wood or a forest has noticed the stunted or scraggy growth of the underwood, and the cause of that peculiar condition has

[ always been attributed to the fact that I tlte shrubs or smaller trees were Overshadowed by the foliage ;of the larger ones and;deprived;of the -light and air necessary toi their full development. M. Grandeau, Professor of the E^ole "Forestiere, stated that his researches ou the subject led him I to the conclusion that, although a certain effect waa to be attributed to that cause, it was not sufficient to account for the great depreciation in the vegetation. After long reflection he came to the conclusion that the large tree 3 acted as conductors of electricity, aud thus deprived the undergrowth of an element necessary . to their full development. -In order to test his vie^'B-he tii^d a series of experiments on various plants, but; we need only refer to one, which, although not the most strik* ing will fully elucidate the principle he advances/ the means he employed, and the results obtained. la apri*, 1877, he took two tobacco plant', each, weighing 3£ grammes and having four leaves. They were both planted in pots containing mould of identical quality, and placed side b/ side in a position favorable to their growth. But one cf them had placed over it a cage consisting of four iron rods 1 metre 50 centimes high, joined at the top and covered with wire gauze, which permitted the free circulation of air, light; and water, but com^lntely pro ! ected the plant from the ac ion of atmospheric electricity. They we c ]*ft uninterfered with until the middle of August, when the results obtained were as follows : The plant in the open air had atta ned a height of 3 feet 5 inches, while the other 2 feet 4 inches ; the former weighed 273 grammes and the latter 1 10 grammes ; when dried their respective weights were 30 grammes and 15^ grammes. Similar experiments made with m^ize and wheat gave precisely analogous iesul's, so that M. Grandeau has come to the conclu i.in that the electricity of the atmosphere is equally necessary to vegitation as sunlight, air, and water. — ' Oaligani's Messenger,' July 21.