Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 April 1892 — DCIENTIFLC MISCELLANY. [ARTICLE]

DCIENTIFLC MISCELLANY.

1 L Tousbant finds that the virus of tuberculosis retains its power under conlitions which completely destroy th« germs of other contagious maladies. In experiments with the electric light in night military operations, made at Chatham, England, bodies of fnen were discovered at a distance of more than 1,000 yards. The horn of a rhinoceros, when cut through the middle, is said to exhibit on each side ths Pads figure of a man, the outlines being marked by small white strokes. Various eases of poisoning from the use of perfumes have been reported. In one instanoe some heliotrope perfume applied to the faee of a little girl produced an erysipelas which lasted for a long time. It was found on investigation that the scent was not made with tht odoriferous principles of plants, but wifit some of the products of coal-tar. Thomas and Lugel recently exhibitef an apparatus for measuring the rapidity of growth of a plant. The plant itsew is connected with an index which ad vances visibly and constantly, exhibiting growth on a scale fifty times magnified When the index is connected with an electrio hammer, the current of whioh is interrupted as the index passes over the divisions of the circle, the growth of the plant becomes not only visible, but also audible to the ear. In this way it is now possible, literally, to “hear tho grass grow.” Mr. Muybridge, the eminent San Francisco photographer, has exhibited his photographic marvels of Prof. Marej in Paris. He is now able to take a photo graph in the hundreth part of a second During a clown’s leap he obtained sis photographs, showing different positions. By means of an improved zoetrope, hf projects such figures on a screen, thus exhibiting the motions of a down in his somersaults, t\ horse at gallop, a hare coursing and even birds at flight, etc.— the pictures of the various positions as they pass in rapid succession across the screen, uniting to form living figures. M. Plant* has succeeded in engraving on glass by means of electricity. Tbs process is as follows: The glass it laid in a horizontal position, and covered with a concentrated solution of nitrate of potash, the liquid being retained by a ■hallow vessel in whioh the glass is placed. A platinum wire is dipped in a horizontal position in the solution along tile edges of the glass. The wire is at ♦ached to one of the poles of a secondary battery of fifty to sixty elements. The lines are traced by hand with the point of an insolated platinum wire, connected with the other pole of the battery. The parts of the glass covered with the alkaline solution become engraved wheD touched with the end of the platinum wire, however rapidly this is moved, the thickness of the lines varying with the thickness of the wire. The current from either pole may be used in thwriting wire.. “It is a marvelous circumstanos,' says Dr. Brancroft, “ that the black mas oi Australia should have dropped ’ upon the same narcotic principle (nico tine) as the red man of America. ” Pitari is a yi.znt <jt Central Australia, not fai ;?mcved from the tobacco plant. Theleaves of the plant are chewed by tht aborigines, who trade with it extensively Chemical analysis show that the alkaloid in which th- peculiar poisonous properties depend is. nicotine, the same substance to whioh tobacco owes its effects. Priori is eagerly sought by the native Australians, nut for the purpose of ex citing their courage or combativenesv but to produce a dreamy, voluptuous een.'-.uion, each as is experienced by the opium ef.rir. It is often taken by the "latives on their long marches to deaden - craving of hunger and to > iappo*' t - under eicossive faUgua.

Thebe is one factory in the State of 'Connecticut which turns out daily 20,000 jiounds of oleomargarine.