| Show scientific miscellany the bacteria known now number species ft tes according to a london institution tion lecture by prof W B bottomley and practically our entire knowledge of these theme has been worked out since 1830 through the influence of pasteur ot the harmful species there are only about forty bacteria are found every where in the air and in our homes they they are so BO minute that could be accommodated on a penny postage tamp stamp multiply with incredible rapidity it Is estimated that a human being takes in by respiration germs each day or millions a year not only are most of them barm harmless less but they give flavor to butter cheese game etc and they are the scavengers of nature they are ab sol necessary for the round or of life fags treated in various ways were kept by director Pi rector strauch of the agricultural school from tune june 2 to february the best then proved to be those those preserved in a solution of water glass those coated with vase une line and those kept in limewater lime water were also good but those that had been wrapped in paper rubbed with salt packed lacked in bran coated with varnish or par amne buried in wood ashes etc were in considerable part ev spoiled oiled cerasle Ce a new product extracted from the scum rising on sugar cane aulce to Is claimed by a french chemist to have the properties of ordinary beeswax w which it resembles in appearance Ue republican publican civIl civilization tion is tending to destroy itself in the view of M arsene dumont a clever french writer by the individual at the expense of the race it leads to greater and greater personal development and the increase of the race to la in inverse ratio to such development this explains the steadily decreasing birth rate of massachusetts and other parts of new england the sM salvation of the th americans as foreseen by this author depends upon the high intelligence that will govern itself by scientific teachings civilization is transforming nature in surprising ways the de horning of cattle is an example as this practice is gaining favor so rapidly that hornless cattle may be expected soon to become the rule rather than the exception cep tion the first objections were that it is cruel and unnatural the early method of de horning with a saw was undoubtedly slow and painful but specially constructed calipers are now used that often remove a horn in a second and with so little suffering that operation is really humane the frequent injuries in herds from goring being prevented the horns haye hare become utterly useless being no longer needed as protection against natural enemies in calves less than three weeks old the embryo horns can be removed with one stroke of a sharp knife or they can be treated with a caustic sufficiently powerful to destroy them for three years the maine experiment station has de horned homed calves by rubbing the horns four or five times with caustic causti C pot potash as h in every case but one the operation has been successful the calf in the exception having reached the age of thirty five days before treatment with the result that dwarfed horns an inch or an inch and a half long were subsequently developed spiral growth is one of the mysteries yet to be worked out bv naturalists natura lists in describing some of the puzzling things about it to an english medical society mr george wherry mentioned the shells of the whelk which in the fossil form are usually left handed but in the present generation are always right handed plant spirals offer like perplexities the hop and honey honeysuckle s take the form of a it left handed screw while the majority of twining vines follow the course of a right handed screw some spirals however are less mystifying the left horn of the kookoo for example Is a eighth right handed a spiral and the right horn EL a left handed spiral and it is easy to see that these twists give the horns a wedge like action in forcing back the bushes through which the animal runs tha th action of castor oil supposed by some experimenters to depend upon a body from the castor seeds suspended in the oil has been found by meyer to be due to the olete acid of the oil itself the pure acid and its salts ars as effective Durga tives as the oil and are practically tasteless while they operate in small doses some physiologists suppose that electric shocks produce death bv asphyxia others that the heart is suddenly paralyzed the subject has been expert experimentally mentally investigated by prof T oliver and dr R A bolam who using an alternating current have found that the heart appears to be affected before bi the respiratory center only with curre currents rits of much hie hierzer her voltage than was necessary to kill did both heart and respiration ration fall at the same moment stoppage of the heart being undoubtedly the usual primary effect resumption in apparent death from electric shock must be much more difficult I 1 than in that from drowning which ef facts first the respiration an artificial serum of common salt gait and cooking soda sodium chloride and sodium carbonate is used by an italian specialist dr Toma Tonia soll for the treatment of extensive burns ini sections of this serum dally for three weeks brought recovery ret overy to a young man who had been burned over the en 4 tire right side aide of his chest and i and the right arm and oai successful experiments have been on animals injections of serum scalded dog were found to kill a WL one while the artificial serum atts J vented this fatal result 1 l A valuable waterproof water proof and 1 parent cement for glass has been fouta by a german chemist prof H JL JB schwartz in a mixture of fine P of a moderately thick ge gelant lantine lne 80 aola I 1 W tion with one part of potassium anro alu 0 mate he fracture is mended with mixture which becomes hard and ift i solvable able on exposure to light not ev eleft hot water will effect the hardened 0 ment fabrics in which some stiff neo Is not objectionable can be wat proofed by painting with the bai A chrome galatine galat lne and afterward ing to light V an inexpensive process of product a alcohol from ethylene has been ered in germany the action of dafft sulphuric acid on calcium carbide 1 k the presence of small pieces of zim yields ethylene gas and when this ai t taken up by concentrated acid at degrees C the result is ethyl sulphin acid this on further beati heating breata up into sulphuric acid a and nd h pure alcohol |
