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Show is transparent to the short, quick wavei of light, and opaque to the "lonsr, slow waves of heat, whilo hard rubber is iraparent to the 6low, Invisible heat waves, and opaque to the fast, visible light waves. Our eyes respond to ether waves occurring between 4C0 and 750 billion times per second. Tho eye of the cat is turned to somewhat lower range, and we cau imagine tbe animal whose eyes would respond to a frequency so low that the ether waves radiated by an alternate current circuit would excite ex-cite vision.' To such an eye a sheet of hard rubber would appear transparent, our lighting ci.cuits as lines of light and each stroke cf an enp-ine or thump of a d' namo belt would cause a flicker in the radiant beams shining from the wire. It is possible that in the future we shall produce a sufficient number of alternate currents per second to cause i-pecial apparatus to glow with waves of light generated without heat. Then light will be the cheapest force to coui-mtind. coui-mtind. We regard the various forms of energy beat, light, etc., aa conditions of ether, the ether something which em ba pushed or strained but not materally changed, and matter as something contained con-tained in tho ether whose sole duty seems to be to c tuse a change iu thefo ether motions, and consequently a loc 1 appearance of energy. TLe bacillus of diphtheria is believed to develop with special rapidity in the presence of warmth, moisture aud darkness dark-ness and several outbreaks of the disease dis-ease have been traced to cesspools or sewers into which steam and hot water were discharged. The artificial heat seems to have wakened into activity germs which, if undisturbed, would have remained dormant. An English zoologist urges the systematic sys-tematic domestication of the zebra. It wonld be a most useful transport animal, ani-mal, and it should be saved from extinction. ex-tinction. It is suggusted by Mr. A. C Ranyard, the editor of Knowledge, that magnetic storms, so marked during a maximum of aunspots, may be due to the passage of the earth through or near large rays of the solar corona. It is difficult to conceive of the intensely heated glass of the sun as being magnetic, but there is evidence that the particles composing the auroral streams caoled beyoud the solar scr'ate to a liquid or solid form-are form-are maguetic. These streamers are pio-iectart pio-iectart fajrrat hist unknown itiotorjea in space-some of them possibly to trrr-earth's trrr-earth's orbit or even as far byond as the zodiacal light extends. There is no evidence that large coronal rays exist ever large snnspots, but there is evidence evi-dence of an intimate connection between be-tween the general development and arrangement of the parts of tUe corona and the spottiness of the sun's surface. The sudden manner in which magnetic storms commence seems rather to indicate indi-cate that the earth plunges into a magnetic mag-netic or auroral region than that tbe magnetic equilibrum of tho whole solar system is suddenly distributed. French science has" to deal with a peculiar problem how to prevent the depopulation of the country, which is now going on so rapidly that the deaths exceed the births by nearly 40,000 in a single year. Increasing the birth-rate having proven impracticable, .tin present hope ia to diminish the death rate. At a recent meeting of the new society for the protection of children, Dr. Eochard referred to the fact that only eight years ago he was laughed at for predicting that the population would become utationary before the end of the century, and stated that 250.000 infants die yearly, of whom at Itast 100,000 could be saved by intelligent care. Stringent laws have been already passed to aid in preventing this great waste of life. It Is how illegae for any person to give children under one year of 8ge any solid food except on medi-Cil medi-Cil advice, and nurses are forbidden to use nursing bottles having rubber tubes. JJfforts are being made also to induce Parisian mothers to nurse their own infants. in-fants. An exhibition of acclimatizatioa will be opened in Moscow this summer, to contain specimens of all plants accli-j accli-j matized In Eussia. SCIENTIFIC LETTER. The effects of earthquakes upon vegetation vege-tation have been studied in northern I a y by fHgnor A. Goiran. He finds that tbe distributions of last June were generally followed by a more rapid germination of seeds, and a more rapid growth of the young plants, giving a more luxuriant vegetation in pastures, fields, vineyards and shrubberies, with an unusually deep green color of the leBves. He does not trace thepe results directly to' Ihe tremor, but to three secondary causes an increased production pro-duction of carbonic acid, a diffusion of fertilizing fluiSs through the soil, and an increased production of electricity. Some other earthquakes seem to have uLfivorably aff;c:ed vsgetatiou, but . . . these were ass ciated with long periods of drought. Experiments ia tbe artilcial production produc-tion of clouds were lately mada in the Jardea A' Acclimation, Paris, but on account of the wind, were only partially eu'cessful.- It contended, however, that under less favorable conditions thick and rermaneut clouds may be forme 1 by burning resinous fuel, for protecting protect-ing crops from late frosts or covering military operations. Experimenting . on mazv wheat, tobacco and beans. Profetsor Aloi ha shown that atmospheric electricty benefits bene-fits vegetation; that the electricity of the soil similarly Influences seed ger minatiD, and that the lestened luxuriance lux-uriance cf the smaller plants near trees is largely due to the diminution of t e temperature. For the first tii:e in c5 years the London zoological gardens are without a giraffe. During this period the gardens have hr.d thirty of these remarkable animals, rearing seventeen. A male bom In 1816 lived in this place nealy 21 years. At a point about fifty nautical miles southwest from cape Matapan, an Austrian Aus-trian vessel has found a depth of 2406 fathoms, which Is the greatest jet kuown in the Mediterranean. Lettuce has been cultivated in England Eng-land for 300 years, lis native home is unknown, but is supposed to be A3ia. We may consider a dynamo, explained llr. William Stanley, Jr., in an address to the Boston Electric club, to be a sort of hammer or shaker which tets up a very complicated ether motion. A car-.. car-.. bou filament used for lightning by lne&ndesence exerts a sort of damping of the ether waves, transferring the ether motions into motions of the molecules mole-cules of the filament, and producing heat, as ether motions always do when they set up molecular vibrations in any - substance. Some waves of sunlight are arrested by the wiudow pane, and the molecular motions thus set up warrj the glass. The glass and ail other substances exercises a sort of selective power, stopping some ether wave3-and wares passing on others. The glass |