Show scientific miscellany blague ue bacilli it appears from the elaborate report of the german government comm commission assion to bombay in most cases enter the system through email wounds or scratches and the disease is mostly confined to dwellers unsanitary localities the in poor annor and bacilli are very quickly killed by ordinary antiseptics and heating serum inoculations gave little protection in the bombay epidemic but Hatt kines method proved very successful this consists 1 in inoculation with the products of bacilli culture to a virulent growth of plague bacilli was added carbolic acid solution or essence of mustard inu destroying the microbes mic robes but leaving products having remarkable protective pow power er an even better vac calne resulted from heating the plague vultures to degrees F for an hour acetylene aa gas s has proven to be violently explosive under a pressure of less than two atmospheres but reasonably free from liability to explode unless mixed with air or oxygen at less than an atmosphere and a half the british home office has decided to consider it safe under a p pressure es of twenty inches of water abo above ve that of the atmosphere or about an atmosphere and a twentieth while xe regarding garding it as subject to the act regulating explosives if greater pressure is used the french authorities have fixed the danger line at an atmosphere here and a half and the german authorities at an atmosphere and a tenth and restrict the keeping or making of the gas at higher pressure nervous folk may be relieved to learn that dr paths prediction of a of ft the earth with tempels Tem ahmet on nov 13 1899 resulted from an war dr r T Bid of the vienna observatory calculates that the nearest approach of the comet in 1899 will be miles the total foreign patents issued from earliest times to 1870 are estimated by the LT S patent commissioner at since 1870 to the close of 1896 at the united states patents for the same periods numbered and respectively the hermits mounds of australia are quite as wonderful examples of insect architecture as the more familiar nests of the african white ants mr W sav ille kent desa describes ribes three distinct types of the large mounds the largest ant nests known are doubtless the buttressed columnar tarla occurring in the northern territory of south australia some forty miles inland from port darwin these often exceeding eighteen feet in height and being also remarkable for an almost equal diameter from top to bottom mounds nearly as large towering above the head of a horseback rider are to be seen in york peninsula north queens land this form tapering slightly to one or sometimes several sharp points in the kimberly district of west australia a mound is very common this type often exceeding fourteen feet and being usually conical or hemispherical in general form but always having a appearance as of being built from hod loads of half solidified mortar that in succession had partly overflowed each underlying layer A vertical half of one of these mounds about eight feet high having been destro deet roved ed the ants commenced rebuilding at a rate that would restore the structure in three to four years the most singular though not among the largest of all the australian ant structures are the meridian mounds which are elong gated resembling huge slabs of sandstone stood on edge and alwaes point exactly north and south the most moat striking examples seldom more than six or eight feet high occur in the laura valley north queensland here the mounds are built in several series of pinnacles one above another giving a highly ornate appearance as of some grand cathedral in miniature the reason for thle thie uniform orientation is a mystery one possible explanation being that it offers the least exposure to the heat of the midday mid day sun improved methods of signalling sign alling will be an important feature of polar explorations pl the apparatus of mr E S bruce as described at the london imperial institute includes a small captive balloon lighted inside by incandescent lamps and this is to be fixed to the ship or taken away by an exploring party in either case serving as a beacon that under favorable circumstances could be seen eighty miles or more such balloons can be inflated with compressed hydrogen carried in steel cylinders the magnetization magnetisation limit of iron has been found by mr henry wilde F R S to be pounds per square inch with no gain in the power of magnets by the double pole or horseshoe horse shoe form while valuable scientific facts have been brought to light by untaught men such discoveries have seldom been a direct result of ignorance A patient who had just left an algerian hospital however has been cured of sciatica of many years standing through his blundering idea that spirit of salt hydrochloric acid was a saline preparation of greater strength than the salt solution the doctors had been administering hypodermically with little relief reasoning that the strong preparation should have greater effect he painted his skin with it with the most astonishing success on learning of the experiment the physicians at the hospital adopted the remedy and dr C Gen of montpelier has prepared a thesis based on a dozen cases of sciatica all of which have been com plemely relieved through this means ana the application to is simple three or four coats of strong hydrochloric acid are brushed over the painful parts of the nerve and the limb is covered with a cotton wool dressing the heat and smarting are severe but quite bearable the application can be repeated in 24 or 48 hours but not again for several days lest sloughs should appear the twelve patients were reported cured in three to five sittings extend ing over a week to 25 days no serious inconvenience or sloughing Is produced by the strong acid carefully used the watery blisters sometimes s formed disappearing in two or thres three days an artificial black marble is being made at catania italy and is said to much cheaper than genuine marble from which it is not easily distinguished it is made by impregnating white sandstone with a mixture of equal parts of volcanic asphalt and coal tar pitch the sandstone blocks cut into the desired shapes are supported on gratings in a large square iron tank into which the malten mixture is admitted from an adjoining boiler the J liquid being kept boiling in the tank for 36 hours after cooling the stones are polished like other marble it Is claimed that the new material wilt will resist acids atmospheric action heat and cold and does not favor the de of germs A new electric propeller tor for pleasure boats sails ahead of the boat but to la rigidly connected to it the bulau ij lator cells and switchgear switch gear being on the boat itself the vibration to is less than in ordinary stern propelled launches but there to is probably much less of efficiency |