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Show SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY. M. Grebaut has made a series of experiments which convince him that death is caused by alcohol when the proportion of absolute alcohol in the blood is equal to the hundredth part of the latter; that the condition known as "dead drunk" exists when the alcohol imbibed ceases to be absorbed and the blood presents the proportion of one part of alcohol to 183 of blood-more than one-half the fatal quantity. This observer thinks that if fewer deaths occur from drunkenness than might be expected it is because drunkards stop drinking before the fatal proportion of alcohol in the blood has been reached. The fat of the body is found by M. Lanquer to vary greatly with age. In infants it forms a firm tallow-like mass, melting at 113 degrees Fahrenheit. The fat of adults, however, separates into a fluid and a solid layer at the ordinary temperature of a room, the solid portion melting at 97 degrees-being completely fluid at blood heat. The variation in the composition of the fat is very considerable the oleic acid increasing and the palmitic and stearic acid decreasing with age. A newly proposed plan for the ventilation of tunnels is the use of chemicals for absorbing the impurities of the air. A "chemical lung," based upon this principle, has been put to a satisfactory test in London by a number of scientists. After a recent violent storm on the English coast a quantity of saline matter was observed on windows at a distance inland. The deposit is believed to have been made by ocean spray, which in this case must have been blown by the wind at least sixty miles. According to statistics recently worked our, one railway traveler is killed in France for each 1,600,000,000 kilometres (about 994,250,000 miles) run, which is a distance equal to 10,000 times the length of a voyage around the world. This excursion, the computer adds, would last during 3,014 years traveling day and night at the rate of 60 kilometres (27.28 miles) per hour. Allowing sixty years to be the average lifetime in store for a healthy man, it follows that before he could be killed by a railway accident according to the law of probabilities he would have died a natural death fifty times. An important fact noticed by Dr. Koch in the tubercle Bacillae, which he has found to exist in all tissues affected by tuberculosis or consumption, is that they are unaffected by neutral substances or strong mineral acids. This peculiarity teaches that alkaline solutions, which act upon and destroy the parasites, are to be used for disinfection and as remedies for consumption. A curious collection of books is contained in the library of Warstenstein, near Cassel in Germany. These books appear at first sight to be logs of wood, but each volume is really a complete history of the tree it represents. The [unreadable] place is cut to write the scientific and the common name as a title. One side shows the tree trunk in its natural state, and the other is polished and varnished. Inside are shown the leaves, fruit, fibre and insect parasites, to which is added a full description of the tree and its products. The sorrowful tree-so named because it flourishes only at night-grows upon the island of Goa, near Bombay. The flowers, which have a fragrant odor appear soon after sunset the year round, and close up or fall off as the sun rises. Prof. F. A. Abel considers it doubtful whether coal dust in mines can cause extensive explosions in the complete absence of fire damp, but only a very small proportion of fire damp is necessary to make the presence of the dust extremely dangerous. Fort Rae, in British American, has been chosen as a British government station in the chain of circumpolar scientific observatories. The Swedes have selected a site for their station at Wylde Bay, in West Spitzbergen. A Prussian manufacturer has found that treating the woods with ozone greatly adds to the durability of pianos used in warm climates. Mr. St. George Lane-Fax predicts that the incandescent electric lamps will soon altogether supersede the arc lights now so rapidly coming into general use for lighting streets and large areas. He thinks the danger to life from contact with the wires used for electric lighting purposes may be overcome by using low tension currents which are harmless, as to fire risks, he believes that they can only arise from gross carelessness. The attempt made by the Belgians to introduce the Indian elephant into Central Africa has not been successful. The three elephants taken by the expedition have died, but it is believed that this result has been caused by insufficient food and excessive work. This experiment is therefore not regarded as conclusive, and further efforts will doubtless be made to use the Indian elephant as a beast of burden in African colonization. |