Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 July 1885 — POPULAR SCIENCE. [ARTICLE]

POPULAR SCIENCE.

The Medical Journal states that a few handfuls of common salt thrown daily into closets, and an occasional handful into wash basins, goes far toward counteracting the noxious Effects of the omnipresent sewer gas. One of the most remarkable facts brought out by the oceanic researches made by the British ship Challenger is the probability that all oceanic islands are of volcanic origin; in all the researches made no indications were found of submerged land over these areas. In a paper by Dr. Yarick, read before a New Y'ork medical association, the use of simple hot water as a dressing for wounds is strongly recommended. During an experience n its use of six years in cases of acute surgery, such as railroad accidents, etc., he has had no death from septicaemia or primary or secondary shock. A new alimentary substance, the seeds of the Bolivian cotton tree, has attracted the attention of the Academic des Sciences. It is rich in nitrogenized Bubsbances, ahd contains twentythree per cent, of fibrine and six of casein. M. Sacc thought that flour from the seed would be very suitable for pastry and sweets. It is likely to be used in sugar making as a substitute for carbonic acid. « The question as to the habitability of the planets has been discussed with much ability by Professor McFarland. His conclusions are that the four large outer planets have not sufficiently cooled down to allow life on their surface such as is seen on the earth; that Mars gives all telescopic and spectroscopic probabilities of conditions compatible with life as we see it; that the earth, certainly for millions of years, has been covered with multifarious life; that in respect to Venus and Mercury no certain evidence or knowledge presents itself; and that the satellites are manifestly not fitted for such life as the earth exhibits—the moon, in particular, having no water and nhuatmosphere. , >r Experiments have lately been made with a diamond of 92 carats, which is one of the finest known outside of royal or national collections. It is wonderfully pure water, and is admirably cut with sixty-four perfectly geometrical faces. Its value its estimated at $60,000. Wbenexposedduring an hour to' the rays of the sun it preserved for more than twenty minutes, in a dark chamber, a light sufficient to show the white paper that reflected its rays. The same phenomenon was exhibited, but with somewhat less intensity, after having submitted the diamond to a powerful 1 electric light. A very apparent phosphorescence was also produced by rubbing the diamond a few moments with flannel.