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Show MSurvey of the Field of Science W s- rk 'tis tfy Aof Gleanings from Science Publica- H JfThroughout the World .kj 1 II L L U IgC 3 t tions in This and Other Countries I COPYRIGHT ui j T: HUMAN ASOBNT. I Dtr often arises, owing lo Jf Fnderful progress made in 1! Airships, as to how high, dtjj ended above the earth's rib world's record is still hold lewerson and Stiriug, who on Hdvl, ascended from Charlot-"V Charlot-"V Berlin, in a balloon of JVpl) e.uj)ic feet, capacity, p.nr-Jivith p.nr-Jivith lij'drogen gns, to the 3il,4'jO foot. Mere observa-)2i,' observa-)2i,' sent up for experimental -ptaining uo passengers, but fcrcgisfering instruments for JHdbT have attained altitudes Ibis, Thus out. of four iptwhicli were lauuehed at .iMfess., one -was found ten '!a'nd proved to be of great i '-icrost. It had risen to tho ' jpcight of eleven miles. It . Rig other records oblaiued, tvthe. ground the tempera-11 tempera-11 flegrees below zero, a min-Jllraturo min-Jllraturo of minus fiO degrees .Jras reached at about eight increased agaiu, until at a V'fin miles 51.07 degrees bo- - Krecordod. W pniT IN .TArAN. J lA p startling, after all thai ?aud writteu regarding the nTsSHiet of the Japanese, lo vslpir goernment has cstab-' cstab-' Ayfarms. with a view of ob-lrbnt ob-lrbnt cattle for .slaughter, 1 1 k31' Fon1 rtosli food may l :to their foldiers. It has 'I'r- ;n' H'J wide that the or tho wonderful victories p!bo armies during the late bwia la,y iu the great stain- - Jflr'ance of the little yellow JKgj hereto fore, have lived 3 (up. fifth and rice. So that i ugf V of tho mikado's advis-Kmuch advis-Kmuch surprise, and also vU. !llRrpt nmuug the advocates Hq jjJpiaBurrt is pari, of a plan jjW.houed l3 I be authorities. o increasing tho height of theW? superior stature of the been the envy of the rtflteincc the invasion of the ; he islands, and much von-i von-i tbeen given Id moan uf J heir own .bodies. And fo ' Jie't is to be tried. A. nuiu- JLyatious give color to tho jft nny proe cffe.c.tiyo. Thus ii :1a 11 yf wrestlers, who aro V !6 Jmiiorlance. in Japan and -yl ce almosl apart from the tyleoplo and whose diet con- - WiT.mat, present individuals J stature. "iJanoif'iil regime, the eating ofroSogJirdc'tl with great horror ifw' Population. Tho nobles mtJ?fll times tho flesh of the indt'1 flUing ciul to an excit- ,;5jft within the last twenly-nojj5lc twenly-nojj5lc consumption of meat n' ptPfong the people, until now ' Vfaof I he. cities booths aro flggjy. plain view, whore for a Jrtrftjfliurous portions of boiling 7t)rsel1esh can be bought, lifllw.niul the Americans who plJ'ipnii J'or Ihirl.v years' nr fvfc'0 i'eiil. that land after iOlOiW?' testify that even now rodu.clion of a meat, diet S'jtJWe physical appearance- of .iJaBasses. The men are. lens LJTHinuscuIar. Tt appears also ?B!,ro mi5 been consider-'ffiJm- nt least among tho ij ' firy- u" contrary, '-iBaiis and olher workers S'jJftjbits, who continue to ' 'TtpP1" 'J?elabIc,s, we find, jSEmany individuals of yx-: yx-: 'fOBtatui-o. SEEDS GERMINATE? Sf faS?C'iideavor to prv into the jjlffli!iatiiri, ia now trying to ' 2fllu 05110 11 no ol- 1,10 v,!-MJJiomena v,!-MJJiomena of vegetable, life Sfflc.ycJe of morn or less vig-sMJWit vig-sMJWit fihowf, followed by a V:'"V''' duration. Uur-UC Uur-UC the -vital l'unctiuns aro 1 suspended or dormant, and tho condition condi-tion of tho organism is hardly distinguishable distin-guishable from death. This resting stage is most common in connection with the reproductive processes, and can bo sen both in the seeds of the highor orders of plants and in the spores of the lower vegetable forms. Tho more highly de-' velopod the structure of tho plant the moro prolonged, apparently, the period of rest. Wc are told that iu some instances in-stances this dormant stage has boon known to last for 3'oars; na3. hundreds of .years. But sooner or later, under the proper conditions .this rest gives 'place to a resumntion of growth and .vital activities. WI13'? A number of scientists have been t'ing to fathom this nn-slery. .Of late- there has been a tendency "to ascribe this germinating of seed to a purely chemical action j whereby tho bo-called cnzvines. always present it) the plant seed, are, under the stimulations of heat and moisture, known to act unon the, stai'ch and other stored-up foods, convert them into soluble compounds, aud thus cause the germ to start to grow. Followers of this school point out that, without these enzymes, the seed will not germinate. i They ulso point to the fact that seoda may be exposed to as low a temperature as from 10 to 7S degrees below zero, and to a. heat as high as 120 degrees Centigrade, Cen-tigrade, and still germinate, claiming that at such temperatures aio vital spark present in tho seed must, of necessity be dcstro.ycd. But, on. the other hand, it is not conceivable that without tho inherent life principle the sccfl would start it's now life. And so the idea that the enzymes initiate and maintain the process of germination without tho aid of the vital principle appears ap-pears lo be erroneous, and I he old idea of the faculty of the cell to take on new life under proper conditions still holds the field. i I I BLOOD TEMPERATURE OF THE I CAMEL. I I I Kvery sciontist, and nearby every criminal lawyer as well, knows that tho camel and the llama show a remarkable re-markable resemblance to the birds and reptiles, inasmuch as I heir blood corpuscles corpus-cles are oval in shape, and not round, as is the case in all othnr mainalia. Therefore there is considerable interest in certain observations rcceull.y made to the effect that camels display a decided de-cided diurnal variation in the tempera-, tare of their blood. This temperature falls during the cool nights and rises gradually during the day. The camels. therefore, in this change, display also a reptillian feature, for tho blood of lizards, frogs, elc, likewise changes, according ac-cording to the time of day. K is. to s.uy the least, a curious coincidence. The question arises whether there is aio connection between these two phonomen-ons; phonomen-ons; but the answer is probably in the negative. I WOOD LIGHTER THAN CORK i ! Capl. Tilbo, an African explorer, reports re-ports upon the wood of a vor' remarkable remark-able tree that, grows on the. shores of Lake Tehad. This lake is dotted with innumerable islands and ifdets. which are inhabited by various tribes, especially espe-cially bv the Boiidotunas and the Kou-r Kou-r ii-. Both of these people raise herds of cattle and are. genoralby peaceful iu their nature. They make great use of the wood mentioned, which though tough and fibrous, has been found to be lighter than cork. It. is called marea or fogan b3' the natives, and ambach Ivy the Arabs: and is obtained from a small tree, the botanical name of which is lierminiera elophroc.ylon, belonging to the Leguminosao or Pca.faniil3 This Iroo grows everywhere in that region aud. attains a height of from twelve to tifleen feet and a diameter of from three-quarters to one and a half feel at ils base. One of the chief uses to which the natives put this wood is iu the manufacture manufac-ture of floats or rafts, to be utilized for communicating between the man.v islands. Those floats present a curious method of navigation, 0110 of the most remarkable known among primitive peo-ple. peo-ple. To make Mich a float. which is 1 H in no sense a boat, the Kouris square up a log of the marea tree io about seven feet in length and half a foot in thickness, giving it a slightly curved form and pointing it at one end. Plac ing this log in Hk water, the islanders straddle it just as one would a hon-o and swim with their feet or thcir hands. Thus, the Kouris easily cross stretches of water from 4000 to" 5000 feet wide, without much fatigue. The. swimmer carries his arms and his clothing on his head. Tf they wish to ride, the natives fasten this float to their saddles, if be ing so light that it iu uo wav inter feres with progress. To pass oor tho canals, the horseman swims on his float, while holding to the mane or tail of his swimming horse. Tho Kouris also make of this wood of the marea their shields, called galakes. the fibrous and tough nature of which resists very well the penetnj tion of steel lances or spears. These sltiIds are made of boards of marea slightly curved, about an inch thick. They are nearly live feet long and u foot and a half broad. The boards arc held together with copper rivets and the whole shield is bound with copper 011 the edges. It- is also ornamented with designs in the form of squares and lozenges, made of raw ox hide. ! RECOVERING OLD METALS. I ! ; The celebrated chemist, August WH- Ham von Hoffman, once said: "Our H grandchildren will extract (be most valuable of materials from the waste H products throwu away by us.' And his prophecy has certainlv become a true one. The trade and utilisation of appareut waste products has expand- IH cd to an ever greater degree; and an H outsider has no conception of the money H values involved. Wc are apt to think B only of thc rag-man and the old iron mau, who go along the streets and by -ways and seek out every scrap thai may be of value; while in fact firms of great importance are. busy with the H haudling and utilisation of these sau)p H waste prnducls. There is hardly anv H branch of trade iu which they are not IH produced, be it the paper, textile, rub her or metal industries. H To take a brief glance of the melal 1 industries alone, we fiud that in e erv branch thereof byproducts are pro 1 duced. Two kinds of such products must 1 be distinguished, those which can be H used again directly without any ehem H ical products, and those which must h" H submitted to one or more re-working;. H Tho former, of which ordinary scran H iron is an exaui)do. have been re-used H since time immemorial. IH The trade in these scrap metals ha H reached ouormnus ptoporlious and thir H value amoiinls to many million dollars. H The other clas of waste metals w a H considered even twenty-live or fortv years ago. as so much rubbish, to be H thrown away. As a remarkable ex H ample of this we may mention liuplalo H in the form of cuttings, old tin cans. etc. This tin-plate is nothing more or loss than hhcel. iron coated with (in. H Formerly this waste tin-plate was not H ulilized; today lmtli the. tin and iron 1 are recovered in separate forms, as else H they an simply melted down together H and cast, into sash-weights. H Then wc have the drosses, kiniiuings and other waste products obtained dur- H ing the melting, refining and workmen IH of the metals. llouy metals are easilv IH oxidized when fused and a bn er of ovidc is produced by the action of the oxvgen of the air n the surface of the molten metals, which oxide must bo removed to get a good easting. Large amouut of impure oxides of copper. load, zinc and tin are thus obtained and sold to firms who make a specialty H of recovering from them the valuable metals. Owing to the impurities thev H contain, these drosses are often more ditTicult to reduce than the natural ores of Hie metals. For the same rea- H sou, onlv a portion of th" metals is B obtained 'and sold as Hie metals theiu- rH selves, most of them being turned out IH 11s allovs," .such us brass, bronze, bub- bitt and, tvpo metals and other iorins. H Some idea "or the viiluo of these me als H now tecovered may be obtained w lien H we learn I hat Oennany has of late H authored ..lati.stics regarding them and jH finds them to bo at least .ri.000,00 in value, while from the reports of I He IH I'uiied States ueological survey we iH gather that their value in this conn- try o.non.opo. |