Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 November 1875 — MECHANICAL AND SCIENTIFIC. [ARTICLE]

MECHANICAL AND SCIENTIFIC.

—Hoppe-Seyler believes that the statements made from time to time as to the existence of live fish in the water of hot springs are probably based upon errors of observation. He has observed that the fish invariably confine their gambols to certain cooler currents, abruptly conterminous with the hotter ones, instant death being the penalty for overstepping the boundary between them. —Two nests of “ bumble-bees” have recently been sent from England to Canterbury, New Zealand, to assist in the propagation of the common clover plant. Experiment has proved that the honey-bee, owing to lack of strength and shortness of proboscis, is unable ,to penetrate the clover-blossom far enough to deposit the pollen-grains of one flower upon the stigma of another. —The presence of phosphorus, or some one of its compounds, has been observed to be one necessary condition for the development of putrefaction—the more phosphorus the more rapid the process of putrefaction. The bad odor is supposed by those who have investigated the matter to be owing to the escape of phosphoretted hydrogen, and to the same compound is attributed the luminosity of putrescent matter under some circumstances. On passing the gases evolved from putrefying matter through argentic nitrate no phosphorus compound of silver is formed, notwithstanding the complete deodorization of the gases by passage through the silver solution. —Samuel Haughton, author of a work on “Animal Mechanics,” writes to Nature respecting the relative strength of the lion and the tiger r “I have proved that the strength of the lion in the fore limbs is only 69.9 per cent, of that of the tiger, and that the strength of hind limbs is only 65.9 per cent, of that of the tiger!;I may add that live men can easily hold down a lion, while it requires nine men to control a tiger. Martial also states that the tigers always killed the lions in the amphitheater. The lion is, in truth, a pretentious humbug, and owes his reputation to his imposing mane, and he will run away like a whipped cur under circumstances in which the tiger will boldly attack and kill."

[From the Philadelphia Presbyterian.! From the World’s Dispensary Printing-Of-uce and Bindery, Buffalo,. JL x., we have received “ The People’s Common Sense Medical Adviser, in Plain English; or,' Medicine Simplified,” by E. V. Pierce, M. D., Coun-•elor-in-Chief of the Board of Physicians and Surgeons at the World’s Dispensary. Whoever helps humanity in its struggle with its' inherent weaknesses and diseases, to bear or cure, is its benefactor. Ignorance is not only of itself a cause,, of disease and mortality, but it is the enemy of every effort to cure or mitigate. Nothing will so speedi•ly remove this cause as knowledge (an elementary one, at least) of the diseases to which we are heir, as well us those superinduced by our own imprudence. Dr. Pierce has rendered, in our judgment, a benefactor's service, both to the afflicted and to the profession, in his diagnosis of the diseases treated of, and in the presentation of the philosphic principles involved in their cause and removal. He is sparing of remedies, and usually prescribes such as are safe in unskilled hands. As a book merely of.- abstract knowledge, it is exceedingly readable and interesting, especially the following sub, jects: Cerebral Physiology, HumanTempcraments, Pseudo-Hygiene, the Nursing of the Sick, Sleep, Food, Ventilati.on, etc. In ope chapter on another subject, so delicate in its nature that it is shut up beyond the domain of warning to all but physicians, so accursed in its results in modern society, he is most explicit, and, alike true to God,’to virtue, to life and to society, shows the truth as presented in the teachings of Scripture that life begins with conception—with great force, to which is added faithful warnings. Price of the Medical Adviser $1.50, sent postpaid. Address the author at Buffalo. New York.