Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 November 1886 — SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY. [ARTICLE]

SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

It has been demonstrated by Mr. J. W. Slater that caterpillars are affecMb' by magnetic currents, which hindei their development and even kill them. A study of 650 Italian thunder-storms has shown Signor Terrari that every thunder-storm is behind a depression oJ barometer and hygrometer, and before one of the thermometer. Glass plates have been substituted for copper in the sheathing of an Italian ship, the advantage claimed being exemption from oxidation, and incrusta- j tion. The glass was cast, like iron, iD j plates to tit the hull. An interesting field for scientific re-1 search has been opened by Prof. S. P. | Langley, by the discovery that the heal j radiated from the soil is of an almost totally different quality from that which comes from the sun. A German chemist concludes that, on account of its great digestibility, cheese is the most nourishing of all foods, meal and eggs excepted. Of eighteen varieties of cheese tried, Cheuder is mosl readily digested.

In the mining centers of England and Scotland are to be established danger signals in connection with the weather service, for the purpose of making known such atmospheric changes as may affect the working of the mines. The larger animals are being rapidly exterminated in Algeria, and the lionol the desert -is fast becoming a myth. During the eleven years from 1876 to 1884 bounty was paid on 202 lions, 1,214 panthers, 1,882 hyenas, and 27,000 jackals. In a paper on harbors Prof. L. M. Haupt mentions that from New York to the Gulf of Mexico there are only four natural entrances where the depth at mean low water is over sixteen feet, while the largest ships draw from twentysix to twenty-eight and a half feet. An unusual number of white varieties of animals have been noticed in Germany this winter. A white chamois was .shot in the Totengcbirge, a white fish-otter w t hs caught near Luxemburg, white partridges were shot near Brunswick, and a white fox was killed in Hessen. Late investigations indicate that the chlorophyll, or green coloring substance of the leaves, is most liable to pick up metallic matter absorbed by the roots of plants. When vines have been manured with sulphate of copper, most of the metal is deposited in the leaves, merely a trace appearing in the juice of the grapes. Tea-leaves contain much iron, doubtless due to the ochreous soil on which they best grow. In the construction of a tunnel at Stockton cold air has been applied in a novel manner. In passing under a hill of light, wet gravel it was found practically impossible to underpin the houses overhead. It was therefore decided to freeze the gravel by means of cold air, and put in the lining while the material was solid, the undertaking having now been successfully carried out. None of ihe houses passed under have been injured. Vivisection experiments upon cats and dogs lead Mr. A. Herzen, a German author, to the following conclusions: L The so-called sense of heat and cold is composed in reality of two senses quite independent, both anatomically and physically. 2. Observations on healthy and diseased subjects show that the sensations of heat and cold are transmitted through different nerves, by different routes, and to different brain-centres. 2. The gyrus sigmoideus contains the center (or centripetal branches leading thereto) of touch and cold perceptions. 4. These sense-perceptions are transmitted through the posterior columns of the spinal cord, while those of the senses of pain and warmth are conveyed through the gray substance.