| Show scientific miscellany carbon monoxide or carbonic oxide is the most dangerous of all the gases giyen yn 0 oft from coal fires as it is a true pasion and Jin stead of destroying life by aft cation or exclusion of oxygen it lias a direct action on the blood apparently altering the character of the red corpuscles corpus cles it and not carbon dioxide W or carbonic acid causes the headaches and sense tase of oppression some imes experienced perien ced in coal heated rooms so small a proportion as 0 5 per cent in toe alt at occasionally giving rise to alarming symptoms but a late paper to the P paris academy ot of sciences suggests that there may be risks from furnace beating yet unknown as in 0 only one tam case out of ten of mysterious accident af attributable to emanations from heated iron kon pipes was carbonic oxide found to ha jhb extent of per cent the at delicacy of the means of testing was shown by experiments with an iron kept at a dull red heat beat the presence oresti of o oi per cent of carbonic oxide in the air being demonstrated the increased cost of deep mining according to mr B N brouen is not serious where the output is considerable only two mines shafts in m the lake superior lor districts reaching and feet respectively have yet been sonic bullik below feet but four mines in germany two in belgium and one in austria hungary range between and beet in depth the deepest Britis ti mine the pendleton near manchester la feet deep the deepest m scotland me at porto bello steel cables hoist loads of af ix tons at the rate of a mile in a miniie ate and a half at the deep mines of calumet and in england the speed has i reached 57 miles an lejour s A late mysterious explosion in iq a cor 1 aery in south aa ales appears quite t tamly ato to have resulted from a spark mused caused by a heavy fall fail ot the gritty sand stone roof Alum limm in plates a quarter of an inch thick has proven a very durable roofing material aerial in berlin As lying as life itself is is the latent vitality of seeds M C de Can dolle 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 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 germit abing power of peas and beans was retained even after exposure for four days to a cold of below zero fahrenheit a temperature at which ordinary chemical reactions no longer take place this power is destroyed bv carbonic acid al though it is not lost in a vacuum prota in latent life seeming to resemble certain mixtures such as explosive mixtures in which certain substances it unchanged by surrounding substances may rest in contact until un til the conditions condit ioni favor their combination this state oi of chemical and vital inertia may mav continue for a very long time as while the growth of mummy wheat is undoubtedly a deception cep tion seeds known to have been years old have germinated various observations seem to prove that seeds may lie dormant in the ground for great periods one notable instance being that ot an unknown plant discovered at laurium laudium in 1875 in a position indicating that its seed was buried under scoria by ancient miners at least 1500 years ago while professor peters of gottingen rottingen Got has recently produced numerous plants from earth removed at different depths in foret forest soil such facts caused alphonse de Can dolle to suggest soundings beneath the snows of the alps his idea being that we might recover from the buried soil survia surviving ing germs of the legeta io ion that existed before the glacial period the geological fault of the jordan ahabah valley has a length of miles or more from the gulf of ababan to the base of hermon and is undoubtedly much longer another great line of cf fracture is now reported from southern afghanistan where captain A 14 mcmahon has traced a remarkable trench for miles in a north north east and south west direction finding it to be cleany a fault line A case of periodical hiccough cough lasting several months in a man of 42 has been traced by a norwegian physician to a tumor at the base of the tongue the oft repeated suggestion that music be employed as a curative agent in hospitals gives interest to a recent investigation vesti gation by A binet and I 1 courtier I 1 who have studied the effects oi musical sounds upon the resura ion heart and capillary circulation of a well known composer major chords and especially di discords quickened inspiration while minor minor chords tended to tet betard ardit it all AH melodies grave or gay quickened the respiration ration and increased the action of the heart lively cuties having most effect single sin 9 ae notes or chords entirely unassociated with emotional ideas quickened the hearts action in a less degree than melodies melodi esthe the greatest acceleration cele ration being produced by operatic or familiar pieces the camillary cao caD illary circulation was usually slightly diminished by musical sounds lively airs having greater influence than sad melodies the common belief that high barometer or conditions in winter are likely to be accompanied by unusual cold is refuted by mr W JH dines bines who always expects a frost in england to break up when the baro barometer metor gets much above ioco io co inches he has tested this theory by tabulating the height of the barometer for the cold periods of 1841 to 1890 out of 74 frosts in these so 50 years he found that 15 only had bad a pressure exceeding 30 20 inches and these were cold waves ot of short du duration ration in 33 or less than half the pressure exceeded 30 30 oo 00 inches in 21 the pressure was below 29 80 inches and these included nearly avery cold period remarkable lor for its length or severity A remarkable adulteration of saffron froll has been discovered by a german who has found barium sulphate within the cells celis and concludes that the drug was first soaked in a solution of a barium salt and then in a sulphate solution barium sulD sulphate hate was thus precipitated within the substance of the drug as well as on the surface re rendering detection difficult ot of meteors observed in in england daring the last ten years mr W F denning finds the greatest height to have been miles average height at first appearance miles and at disappearance 45 3 average length of path 62 11 miles and velocity ty per second 26 9 miles of zoo meteors whose paths are given by professor G von the average height when first seen was 91 miles while one which was observed from servia to france over a patch ot 1770 miles was seen from the extraordinary height of miles to that ot miles |
