Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 August 1895 — POPULAR SCIENCE. [ARTICLE]

POPULAR SCIENCE.

Double flowers are unnatural Petals are sometimes added at the expense of stamens. Completely doubled flowers become sterile and unable to perpetuate their kind. At a depth of (more than one hundred fathoms the Black Sea, it is said, contains so much sulphuretted hydrogen as to be unfit for the support of fishes, and the noxious gas has been traced by a recent observer to a microbe. It is said to be able to decompose mineral sulphates. The movements of air commonly called winds are due to the heat of the sun. The warm air, being lighter, rises, and the eoldef air flows in to take its place. This principle is beautifully Illustrated at the seashore in summer, where the daily sea breezes are due to the air over the heated land being displaced by a current of cooler air from the sea.

The floors of the hospital wards in Lyons, France, are covered with a solution of paraffine in petroleum, which makes them impervious to everything, and gives them a brown tint A single application lasts two years. Thus prepared, the floors can be wiped up daily with a damp cloth, moistened with some antiseptic solution. The floors in private houses, when uncarpeted, can be treated in the same manner, as well as those of school-rooms, barracks, etc. From military and other records a French inquirer has learned that in 1610 the average height of the European was 5 feet 9'inches, in 1820 It was 5 feet 5 Inches and a fraction, and at present it is 5 feet 3% inches. This suggests that a regular land gradual decline is taking place. Calculation from these figures shows that at this rate the average man will have become a dwarf of 15 Inches in height by the year 4000.