256 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The Scientific Farmer states that a fac- 

 tory the first in this country for making 

 sugar from corn is now in operation at 

 Davenport, Iowa. The product is known as 

 grape or stare li sugar, or glucose, and dif- 

 fers from common or cane sugar in contain- 

 ing more oxygen and hydrogen, and in being 

 less sweet and less crystallizable. It is con- 

 sumed in large quantities by confectioners, 

 who have hitherto been supplied mainly 

 froui France and Germany, where it is man- 

 ufactured from potatoes. 



The low-lying coast country of the Afri- 

 can Continent bears an evil reputation for 

 unhealthiness, and this reputation is, no 

 doul)t, iii part well deserved. But the hab- 

 its of the European residents and tiaders 

 are to blame for no small portion of the ex- 

 cessive mortality. There is a great deal of 

 truth and good sense in the observation of 

 a recent traveler, that even in the deadly 

 atmosphere of the western coast the chances 

 of ill health might be materially reduced, if 

 Europeans would make only a judicious use 

 of stimulants, eat good, well-cooked food, 

 avoid undue exposure to the weather, and 

 shun idleness. 



Dr. Edward Rae, a veteran arctic ex- 

 plorer, complains that the pemmican pre- 

 pared for the sled-parties of the British 

 Polar Expedition was salted, and that their 

 stores included salt bacon ; while the stock 

 of preserved potatoes was insufficient, and 

 condensed milk, an excellent antiscorbutic, 

 was not even thought of. The experience 

 of this expedition goes to show that alcohol 

 furnishes no protection against the effects 

 of excessive cold, but, on the contrary, in- 

 creases the liability to frost-bite. 



From interesting statistics concerning 

 suicide in London and New York, given in 

 a late number of the Lancet, we learn that 

 self-murder is more frequent in winter than 

 in summer ; that, in proportion to popula- 

 tion, nearly twice as many kill themselves 

 in New York as in London, the excess being 

 mainly due to the large number of suicides 

 among the Germans; and that drowning, 

 hanging, and cut-throat, are the favorite 

 methods of taking off in London, while 

 poison and the pistol are preferred in New 

 York. 



The Fish Commissioners of Pennsylva- 

 nia state in their report that the Susque- 

 hanna River, from its mouth to the head- 

 waters of both the Juniatas, is now full of 

 black bass. The same may be said of both 

 the West and North Branches for consider- 

 able distances above their confluences. The 

 Delaware, too, along the entire State bor- 

 der, is equally supplied, while several of 

 its Pennsylvania branches are filling by de- 

 grees. 



The Commission appointed to inquire 

 into the workings of the English Meteoro- 

 logical Department have recommended an 

 increase of nearly one-third in the annual 

 grant for meteorological purposes, and the 

 appointment of a Meteorological Council, to 

 administer the grant in place of the com- 

 mittee of the Royal Society that has hereto- 

 fore had it in charge. 



The common article beeswax, according 

 to the American Journal of Pharmacy, is 

 frequently much adulterated ; pai-affine, res- 

 in, stearine, Japan wax, or mixtures of two 

 or more of these, being the substances usu- 

 ally employed. 



According to the " Seventh Annual Re- 

 port of the Fish Commissioners of New 

 Jersey," the yield of fish from the waters of 

 the State was last year much below the aver- 

 age of previous years. This was notably 

 the case with shad-fishing in the Delaware. 

 One of the causes given for this decrease is 

 the introduction of black bass into the river, 

 where they have multiplied immensely, and 

 are believed to devour large numbers of the 

 young shad. 



Dr. C. W. Siemens, President of the 

 Iron and Steel Institute of Great Britain, in 

 his recent inaugural address, strongly urged 

 the necessity for a more extended system 

 of technical education, as the only true 

 basis for national prosperity in the indus- 

 trial arts. The nations of the Continent of 

 Europe, he declared, were ahead of Eng- 

 land in this respect; what little the latter 

 had done having been more a measure of 

 self-defense made necessary by the increas- 

 ing competition from abroad, rather than 

 the growth of an enlightened public policy, 

 of which the country stands greatly in need. 



An interesting discovery of animal re- 

 mains was recently made in a cave near 

 Santandcr, in Northern Spain. The dis- 

 coverers, Messrs. O'Reilly and Sullivan, de- 

 scribe the cavern as an enlarged joint or 

 rock-fissure, into which the entiie carcasses, 

 or else the living animals, had been pre- 

 cipitated. Prof A. Leith Adams has identi- 

 fied among these remains numerous portions, 

 including teeth, of Elcphas primiffcnhts, 

 which is important as furnishing the first 

 instance of the occurrence of that animal 

 in Spain. 



If the mirror of a laryngoscope be 

 moistened with glycerine, the water-vapor 

 in the air expired by the subject under ex- 

 amination will not dim its surface, being 

 dissolved in the glycerine. The rolytechnic 

 Review points out the benefit to be derived 

 from a similar application of glycerine to 

 the lenses of astronomical telescopes, by 

 preventing the formation on them of dew, 

 which often disturbs observations. 



