Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 April 1883 — CURIOUS AND SCIENTIFIC. [ARTICLE]

CURIOUS AND SCIENTIFIC.

A plan Is suggested for mechanically removing soars left from small-pox and ulcerations. It is by drily rubbing the part with fine sand. A small sponge filled with soap-lather and dipped in marble-dust offers a convenient way of doing this. ' Dr. Ellis, of the Canadian Association, has made analyses of the milk of cows feed with different kinds of food. He finds there is a greater amount of fatty matter in the milk of cows fed on distillery refuse, bathe saw no evidence that the milk was impaired by such feeding. Chairs and camp-stools as used by undertakers in funerals, who take these seats from place to place, are rightly viewed by the Scientific American as disseminators of disease, and it with nearly equal reason deprecates the carrying around of the ice-boxes from house to house. * \ J -f ' 1 Mr. Bouteledge held lately at a scientific meeting that the paper trade was probably the one which turned to immediate use more waste products than any other. In it was utilized cotton, flax, hemp, and jute waste, and old ropes and canvas rags. In fact, the paper manufacturer could turn to profitable purpose any vegetable fiber.

Krupp’s works at Essen, now employ some 439 steam boilers; 456 steam engines, with an aggregate horse power of 18,500; 89 steam hammers, varying in weight from 200 pounds to 50 tons; 21 rolling mills; machines for making tools, 1,622; furnaces, 1,556, of which 14 are high furnaces; 25 locomotives, and 5 propellers, with a tonnage of about 8,000. Annual production, 300,000 tons steel and 26,000 tons iron. The main wheel of a watch makes four revolutions in 24 hoars, or 1460 in a yea, the second' or center 24 revolutions in 24 hours, or 8760 in a year; the fourth wheel (which carries the second hand) 1,440 in 24 hours, or 525,600 in a year; the fifth or scrape-wheel, 12,964 in 24 hours, or 4,728,400 revolutions in a year; while the beats or vibrations made in 24 hours are 388,800, or 141,912,900 in a year. A mixture of 20 parts of hard soap, 40 parts of kerosene, and 1 part of fir balsam has been found very effective in destroying the insects which damage the orange tree. Prof. C. V. Kiley is the authority. Other valuable plants, notably the vine, might be similarly protected by a spray from an application of the same recipe. It can be diluted at will with water so as not to interfere with the constitution of the plant. •

The Japanese are almost a race of vegetarians, depending mainly for their nitrogenous food upon the leguminous plants—some forty varieties of peas and beans which they cultivate. These foods are quoted by Mr. Van Buren, a consul to Japan, who has also noticed “an expression of good humor upon the faces of men, the amiability and sometimes real beauty of the women,, and the comfortable, open-eyed serenity of the babies.”

Post mortems in Germany of amemio (bloodless) subjects have exhibted livers discolored with an excess of iron, which has probably resulted from the use of iron preparations as medicines to improve the blood. This observation simply proves that iron alone will not improve the condition of the blood, but is merely deposited in and obstructs the liver. Poor white blood is due to a /ault in the assimilative processes, and if the blood lacks iron this fault cannot be remedied by merely pouring iron solutions into the stomach. Remedies to be useful must improve the assimilation or nutrition and enable the system to make use of the iron which is sufficiently supplied in ordinary diet.—Hr. Foote's Health Monthly.