Show SCIENTIFIC 1 MISCELLANY IInnlII AvIldesirift lulU Uo Air 1I11holb slyar Dr H I Jim tile I rilk4 ernt1hysialealeat LIrrelsoothannitaVald WV No Indl boY Ills IhhIO Df nem Carbon monoxide or carbonic oxide is the moil dangerous of all the gases given oil front coal fire as It is a true oslon > and instead of destroying life by a do cat 0 or exclusion of oxygen it has a direct action on the blooJ apparently appar-ently altering the character ol the red corpuscles Itand not carbon dioxide or carbonic acid causes the headaches and sense of oppression some imes ex perlenced In coal hated rooms so small a proportion l is u 5 percentinthe r r alroccaslonallirKivIng rtss alarming symptoms But a late paper to the Paris Academy ot Sciences suggests that there may be risks from lurnace heating yet unknown as in only one case out of ten of mysterious accident attributable to emanation from heated iron pipes was carbonic oxide found to Ihe extent of 004 per cent The delicacy of the means ol testing was shown by experiments with an Iron stove kept at a dull red heat the presence of 0015 per cent of carbonic oxide in the air being demonstrated The increased cost of deep mining accord ng to Mr II I N Broach Is not serious where the output u considerable ke Only two minesshafts i in the Lake Super or districts reaching 4930 and 4450 leet respectively have jet been sunK below 4000 feet f but four mines in Germany two in Belgium and one in Austria Hungary range between 3500 and 4000 feet in depth The deepest British I an lnet the Pendleton near Manchester Man-chester is 3474 feet deep the deepest In bcothndtne Niddrie at Porto Hello is 3iio Steel cables hoist loads of six tons at the rate of a mile In a minute min-ute and a half at the deep mines of Calumet and in England the speed has reached 57 miles an nour A late mysterious explosion In a co lIeey In South Wales appears quite certainly cer-tainly to have resulted from a spark caused by a heavy fall ot the gritty sandstone sand-stone root Aluminum In plates a quarter of an Inch thick has proven a very durable Doling material Berlin As mystllylnjr as life In elf is the latent vitality of seeds M C de Cindolle describes experiments tending to show that the seeds lead a retarded life for a brief period after which their protoplasm becomes wholly inert though unchanged unchang-ed in composition and internal chemical structure and thus remains for years possibly for centuries ready to spring Into activity under suitable moisture temperature and aeration The germL itlng power of pas and beans was retained re-tained I even alter I exposure for four days to a cold of 328 ° below zero tahreiihelt all temperature at which ordinary chfmc al I reactions no longer take place This power is destroyed bv carbonic acid I although al-though it is not lost in a vacnum protoplasm proto-plasm I in latent life seeming to resemble certain mixtures such as explosive mix tursin which certain substances il unchanged by surrounding substances nay rest in contact until the condition i favor their combination This state ol chemical and vital inertia may continue for a very long time as while the growth of mummy wheat is undoubtedly a dt ccption seeds known to have been ISO years old have germinated Various observations seem to prove that seed may lie I dormant in the ground for great periods one notable Instance being that ol an unknown plant discovered at Laurium in 1875 In a position Indicating that its seed was buried under scoria by ancient miners at least 1500 years aRo i while Professor Peters of Gottingen has recently produced numerous plant from earth removed at different depths In planlless forest soil Such facts caused Alphonse de Candolle to suggest sound Ings beneath the snows of the Alps his I rnth Idea being that we might recover froii the buried soil surviving germs of the vegetation that existed before the glacial penod The geological fault of tho Jordan Arabah Valley has a length ol 270 miles or more from the Gulf of Akabali to the base of Hermon and Is undoubtedly much longer Another great line of fracture Is I now reported from southern Afghanistan where Captain A II McMahon has traced a remarkable trench for 120 miles in a northnorth east and southsouth west direction finding It to be clearly a lault line A case of periodical hiccough lasting several months in a man of 41 has been traced o by a Norwegian physician to a tumor at the base ofthe tongue t The oilrepealed suggestion that music be employed as a curative agent in hospitals gates Interest to a recent Investigation In-vestigation by A Billet and I Courtier tvho have stucled the effects ol musical sounds upon the retpraIon heft and capillary circulation of a well known composer Major chords and especially discords quickened inspiration while minor chords tended to retard It All melodiesgrave or gayquickened the repiration and Increased the action o1 the heart lively antics having most ef fect Single notes or chords entirely unassociatcd with emotional ideas quickened the hearts action In a less degree than melodies the greatest acceleration ac-celeration being produced by operatic or familiar pieces The cioillary circu lation was usually slightly diminished by musical sounds lively airs having greater great-er influence than sad melodies The common belief that high barometer barome-ter or anticyclonic conditions in ulnttr arc likely to be accompanied by unusual cold is refuted by Mr W II Dineswh always expects a frost in England lo trial up when the barometer gets much above jo oo Inches He has ten eil l tins theory by tabulatingthe I heigh I c the barometer for the cold periods Lt 1841 to 1800 Out ol 74 frosts in these Oild 114 01 rs 5o yea he found tint I 15 only had n iressure exceeding Bo 20 iichcs and he e were cod wave ol I short duration llneso or lets than hall the pressure exceeded ex-ceeded 30 co 1 Incles In it the pressure was below 1 29 60 Inches 1 and these included in-cluded nearly tvery cold period remarkable remark-able lor Its length or seventy A remarkable adulteration of saffron has been discovered by a German microscopM who has found barium sulphate sul-phate witlh the eels and concludes that the drug w > > first soaked In u sou Ile clao drag lon ol a bifID a silt and then in 1 largo jhate solution Barium sulphate was this prccipitited I within the substance of the drug as well as on the surface rendering ren-dering detection difficult Ol 1 107 meteors observed in England during Ihe last ten years Mr W T 1 craning finds the greitest height a t to have been 126 miles average height at first appearance 736 miles and Attila appearance 45 3 average length I nT path 62 I miles and velocity I per second aGo < j 9 miles Of 100 Meteors whose piths are given I by Professor r G von i tS Meml the average height when first tein was 91 Miles while oie wilcli was obierved from Servia to France over a patch 01 1770 miles vias reen from the extraordinary height of 483 miles tn that ot 115 miles |