Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 September 1886 — POPULAR SCIEBCE. [ARTICLE]

POPULAR SCIEBCE.

In nine years oaken piles at Mierea, Spain, have take on the appearance of stone coal. j The flatness of Denmark is somtthing remarkable, a recent geographical discussion having shown that the loftiest mountain of the country is only 085 feet high. Two human vertebra found at Sarasota Bay are regarded by Prof. Heilprin as conclusively proving the existence of prehistoric man in Florida at a very remote period. A spring balance for measuring terrestrial gravity was exhibited at a late meeting of the Royal Society at Edinburgh by Sir W. Thomson. The apparatus is so sensitive that it will indicate a variation of a 40,000 th part in the force of gravity. The tensile strength of ice at fiftythree degrees F. is given by Herr Friehling, of Konigsberg, as between 145 and 233 pounds per square inch. Its compressive strength, found by cubes of over two inches at the same temperatare, varied between sixty-one and 204.8 pounds, a mean being 148 pounds per square inch. A recent photograph of the Pleiades shows 1,421 stars, while a carefullydrawn chart, prepared with about the same instrumental power, gives only 825. Many small objects seen in the photograph do not appear in direct-eye observations. The importance of the accurate photographic method of starmapping -is indicated by the fact that the hand-drawn chart gives ten stars which have no existence. It is a well-known fact thaWhe zero point on thermometers gradually alters, so that the instrument in time is liable to become inaccurate. Prof. R. Weber finds that the readily fusible alkalilime glasses are best suited for making thermometer tubes. Pure potash glass with a high content of silica gives the best results. It is a curious fact that when the glass contains nearly equal amounts of potash and soda, the zero point varies much more than when one of the alkalies is present in decided excess. Astronomical text books place the sun’s density at a little more than that of water, but in a recent lecture Mr. J. Norman Lockyer, the English astronomer, expressed the opinion that the sun really has not more than one-eighth the density of water. If this view be correct, the sun is simply an enormous globe of glowing gas, possibly liquid at the center in consequence of the enormous pressure existing at that part. Solar temperature is a matter at which men can only guess as yet, and scientific estimates range from 3,000 to 18,000,000 degrees. The ancient prejudice against eating just before going to bed is strongly and justly condemned by modern science, lexperience having shown it to be unfounded. There are exceptions to the rule, but few people are injured and many positively benefited by a slight repast before retiring. A glass of milk and a biscuit or cracker is better than any hypnotic drug to put one to sleep, and in most cases may be taken without fear of “nightmare” or any other form of distress. Going to bed “on an empty stomach” ia a good way to invite sleeplessness and ultimate derangement of the digestive organs and general health. Pretty Women and Serpents. An absolutely lovely woman is seldom seen, but this pleasure came to me the other day, and I regard it as a sort of reward for my loyalty to the King and the Faith. She looked like a flower—and she was beautifully dressed. She dazed me so that, like a man, her gown seemed to me to be green and white—the one the shade of the lily leaf, the other the pure white of the lily. Something on her head was of lilies of the valley; it is fair to suppose it was a bonnet, but to my delighted eyes it appeared a crown. It was rather commonplace to see my divinity drink claret cup, but when it is remembered that it might have been ale, there is a sigh of thankfulness. A beautiful woman ought to get down on her knees twice a day and give thanks for her loveliness, for, excepting a baby, she is the only thing in the world which can give pure, absolute pleasure merely by existing. Beauty in woman makes me remember the sensuous description of the beauty of Salammbo—that book has caused a revival of the serpent fever, and the direction to a modiste to fit a satin frock skin - tight and cover the body with jet scales forces conviction that numbers are innoculated with the remarkable desire to appear as one of the first families of the world. For it is probable that the serpent was a family man ; they generally are. The news- , papers say that Alma Tadema is going to paint Mary Anderson as Salammbo. Can an artist use a wax candle as a model for the sun? Mary Anderson as Salammbo! Who could be Salammbo ? Ten years ago Bernhardt could have been, for, even if she lacked the beauty, she was capable of the feeling. Our Mary is charming to point a moral, but as Salammbo she could scarcely be the ideal of Falubert. Read the book, if you are fond of fine descriptions, buj| the tragedy condensed in the chapter is so awful that you shiver horror nt the cruelties that plauded and practiced by inei), wliich even little delight in seeing an tortured. The room with