Show scientific miscellany tho vineyards of russian stan are being destroyed by bv a parasitic fungus known aa as crysille cry sixty per cent of the mechanical energy converted into electricity and applied a p plied to a faure storage battery has been re converted into work on discharging the battery essays assays A ays of several hundred million dollars worth of tho the native gold of california have bave shown a an n average proportion of thousandths of pure metal tho the gold of australia gives an average of thousandths the desirability of connecting lightning conductors with ga gas and water mains has been recognized by the saxon government which has issued instructions as to the best methods of making the connections tho the librarian of the Ales library at rome prof do macs claims to have evidence that a great g reat egyptian is buried in the tb vicinity of the piazzi di san luigi difran cesi casi near the side entrance to the senate prof dufour has bas presented a new and interesting proof that the earth is round the I images of distant objects reflected I in the lake of geneva in calm calin weather lier show just the degree of distortion which a careful mathematical calculation would predict on account of the shape of the earth tho the clement element calcium has been secured in an isolated condition by a german chemist herr it is found to be a silver white whito metal resembling sodium and potassium in in general behavior calcium had hitherto resisted all efforts to separate it from its combination with oxygen according homr to sir P L slater F IL S the term which is comparatively ively new to science is employed to indicate anim animals als which wo we should naturally I expect to meet but do not find in certain parts of the earth for instance australian linotypes lino liyo types are monkeys vultures and woodpeckers mr IV ir F R S states that the cepl explosion oslo n of a cannon can bo be heard at a distance of twenty to awen ty five miles mile sand and instances are sare known where the bombardment of a town has been heard at a distance of miles it is very well known he lie thinks that the roar of the guns at waterloo was heard on the em english lish coast more than miles from the battlefield the sand of the S sahara ahara desert is sometimes heated to a temperature of degrees fahrenheit by the vertical rays of the sun this gives rise to a scorching wind the dreaded simoom which whiz is rendered still more terrible by the burning particles of sand it carries along I in 1813 burkhart recorded degrees in tho the shade during the prevalence of this pestilential blast the sales of telescopes in France during the two years andin ending last october is cited by 31 camille flam marion ario n as showing shoving g to some extent the remarkable groothof grow astronomical taste in that country the demand for INI Flam marions books is however a more striking proof two of them h em ba having ng quickly y reached an a ag ar gregath circulation ir u tio of copies while wh a third th rd has lately it ely appeared in its thirtieth edition the storys story is told odthe of the famous german scientist alexander von humboldt that being engaged in experiments peri ments with gay lussac in paris and needing a larga number of glass tubes on which a very heavy duty was imposed he instructed the manufacturers to seal the ends of the tu tubes besand and label them german air the air of germany was not on the list of duty paying articles and the tubes duly passed the customs officers without any demand the ground in the jura mountains is in a state of movement as is shown by some curious observations pointed out by 31 girardot villages that were invisible to each other at the beginning of the century or oven thirty or forty years ago are now visible first the roofs appeared and then the upper part of the walls such is the case with the villages of boucier doucier and Ala marigny rigny near lake chalaine Ch alain important changes chantes have been noted even within ten years the ventilation of the great alpine tunnels under launder the cenis and st goth ard so as to free them quickly from the smoke of trains has been a work of much m uch difficulty di me alty it has been proposed to create a current of air by the keeping of largo fires at one end but the expense has been found excessive A french engineer U pressel suggests that the same object may be attained by cooling the air at some points inthe tunnel by water which would give the difference in density odthe of the atmosphere necessary y to cause a draught in the alps and could be readily applied to the purpose |