Show scientific miscellany ms CELLANY french ers find tho the water of the mediterranean sea to be salter and denser than in the atlantic ifera kohlrausch laa has recently made experiments disproving a common notion that sunshine effects the draught ofa of ft chimney extended examinations have convinced prof Ilc insch that coal is largely formed of remains of a low order of marine life and not entirely from land plants ninety per cent of the yellow sand of the sahara desert is found to be quartz crains grains the angles of which are remarkably rounded evidently by attrition through lie the action of the wind the electrical piano of boudet is a recent novel application of electricity an ordinary instrument is yr provided ovidea with two sets of hammerstro hammers the tho upper or electrical series being brought brou glit into action az by pressing certain key an organ 11 like e effect is produced by the electrical hammers which continue striking the wires rapidly so long as pressure on the corresponding keys is given kaltenbach has described an astonishing number of insects as found on oil some kinds 0 of f for forest ea t t trees in n europe E rope only com comparatively amatively arat ively few of which which are particularly particularly destructive thus jecies species are injurious to the oak and 1 7 arc are obnoxious to the elm the poplars afford a livelihood to 2634 kinds the willows yield food to 3 species the birches harbor the alder the tile beech the hazelnut hazel nut 97 and and the horn hornbeam bearn 88 among the coniferous trees the junipers juni pers feed 33 species and species prey upon the pines ines barches larches lar ches clies spruces spruced and hrs firs collectively iivo t Y little is known of tho number b er of insects which attack the trees of the united states but it is undoubtedly large a tho the great earthquake record of mallet catalogues cataloguer catal beaw between cen and earthquakes between the year 1606 B C A D 1842 probably the most memorable of these is tho the terrible earthquake which destroyed lisbon in ill 1735 with scarcely a moment of warning rumble a violent shock came which overturned the city and in in six six minutes persons had perished and a portion of the town was permanently engulfed at a depth of GW feet below the surface of the bay the shock was felt with greater or less severity over 9 great area extending from the baltic to the west indies and from canada to algeria gerla humboldt estimates that a portion of the earths equal to four times the size of europe was affected the ilie coal required in london for lightly lieh tio would have mines from which it is procured the coals energy might then be transmitted to the metropolis is over a copper wi wiro ro in the form of electricity at a vast saving of expense lie ile estimates that 1000 8 borro power requiring an annual consumption of over a million tons of coal might in this way be conveyed to london over a single copper wire one ono inch in diameter an important advantage of the tile plan in addition to the saving in cost is that the combustion of so large an amount of coal at a distance instead of in the city limits would considerably reduce the quantity of smoke in the london atmosphere prof hofer states that the heat in ill deepest workings of the adalbert silver mines mines in bohemia about feet below th the e surface is far from being excessive the temperature of rack reek is but about 76 degrees fahrenheit heit while that of the atmosphere is a small fraction of a degree higher in some parts of the comstock lode I 1 in nevada the tile temperature is to degrees at a depth of 1800 1600 to 2000 feet it is generally known that geologists find the average increase in the tho earths internal heat irom the surface downward to bo be one ono degree for every sixty feet of descent in the case of tile adalbert mines tho the increase allowing the surface temperature to be 50 degrees would bo be one degree for each feet of descent and the highest average in the co comstock ill cannot bo be less lea than one degree to every 19 feet of the inconceivable minuteness of certain forms of life somo of which are of vital concern to mankind prof proctor says mys the minute organisms capable of inducing eban changes abala gous to the fermentation caused by yeast e t have received great attention of late a e years and several important diseases are distinctly traced to them estimated that of germs of one micro ferment only occupied one ono cubic twenty fifth of an inch not one of these minute bodies I 1 could develop except by carrying on complicated processes of of a chemical nature involving very active moye movements ments of its atoms and molecules the mathematicians have made calculations founded on the pressure exerted by the gases and other considerations which show that a particle of the sort of matter such as albumen and protoplasm chiefly concerned in life processes recesses roc esses contains in a space of one cutic cubic thousandth of an inch more molecules tha than a anyone could possibly fo form rm any cep conception tion of sorby taking a probable mean of such calculations supposes one cubic tho of an all inch of water to contain 3 molecules es A sheet of ordinary note paper is about one hundredth of an inch thick one tenth of this would of course be one thousandth of an inch and a little square box of that size each way would hold the amazing number of water mol molecules emles mentioned perhaps a few thousands of such molecules may suffice for some manifestations of life but even if many millions should bo be re requisite for the structure of the humblest estand and simplest simple st germ wo could never expect to see the actual beginnings beginning of life lire |