Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 August 1898 — POPULAR SCIENCE. [ARTICLE]

POPULAR SCIENCE.

Double flowers are unnataral. 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 ae*recent observer to a microbe. It is said tube 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 colder air flows in to take its place. This principle is beautifully illustrated St 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 ln Lyons, France, are covered with a solution of paraffine ln 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 clotty moistened with some antiseptic solution. The floors in private houses, when uneftrpeted, can be treated ln the same manner, as well as those of scbool-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, ln 1820 It was 5 feet 5 Inches and a fraction, and at present it Is 5 feet 8% inches. This suggests that a regular (and 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 ln height by the year 400®,