48 



• KNOWLEDGE • 



[Jax. 26, 1883. 



nourishing' and developing the germs of bacteria, bacilli, 

 &c., which abound in the air, and are ready to increasi^ and 

 multiply wherever their unsavoury food abounds. By simply 

 mopping the floor with a solution of these green crystals, 

 and allowing it to soak well into the pores of the wood, tlioy 

 (the pores) cease to become a habitat for such microscopic 

 abominations. The copper salt poisons the poisoners. It oc- 

 curs to me that this would be a useful and interesting subject 

 of inquiry for young microscopists. Mr. Slack is now 

 showing in the pages of Knowledge how the microscope 

 may be directed to inquiries respecting the germs of life. 

 Chemistry might usefully be combined with such micro- 

 scopical inquiry, and after the experiments he suggests have 

 been made, so far as the bacteria, bacilli, Ac, are concerned, 

 the solutions containing these objectionable beings may be 

 dosed more or less liberally with solutions of blue vitriol, 

 and of other reputed disinfectants, until their capacity for 

 " poisoning the poisoners '' has been thoroughly tested. 

 The solution of sulphate sliould not be put into iron or 

 zinc vessels, as it rapidly corrodes them, and deposits a 

 non-adherent film of copper. " It will even," says Mr. 

 Williams, "disintegrate common earthenware, by pene- 

 trating the glaze, and crystallising within the pores of the 

 ware." Stone- ware resists them, and they may be safely 

 kept in wooden buckets. 



The directors of the Brush Midland Electric Light 

 Company have agreed to ask the Court for liberty to 

 strike out from the share register the names of those 

 shareholders who desire the return of their capital, and to 

 refund them the amount paid on their shares. 



The American Eailroad Gazette says : — "The two most 

 gorgeous sections of railroad in the world will be on the 

 ilarretta and North Georgia and the Western North 

 Carolina at Red Marble Gap, N.C. Both roads will run 

 for a mile on road beds composed of variegated marble of 

 the finest quality." 



A TOTAL of about 800 millions — an amount exceeding 

 the whole of the National Debt — is invested in railways in 

 the United Kingdom. Of this sum about 190 millions 

 represents debenture stocks of dividend-paying railways, 

 ■ aftbrding an industrial security as good as National Consols. 

 Nearly 300 millions of the capital consists of Guaranteed 

 and Preference Stocks, and 330 millions — including 40 

 millions expended upon uncompleted lines, or others which 

 pay no dividend — pays less than 3 per cent. The railways 

 paying no dividend decrease every year, the improvement 

 in the poor lines being much more marked than in those 

 paying good dividends. 



At the recent American Forestry Congress, held at 

 Montreal, Professor Hough read a paper on "Tree 

 Planting by Piailway Companies." In introducing his 

 paper he said that there being in the United States about 

 100,000 miles of railway, the advisability of tree planting 

 by railway companies for construction and maintenance 

 was an important question, 2,000 to 3,000, and even 3,500, 

 ties (sleepers) being used per mile. The average duration 

 of ties is from five to eight years, consequently from 

 30,000,000 to .50,000,000 a year will be required for 

 100,000 miles of railway. Putting 500 tics as the product 

 of an acre of woodland, from 60,000 to 100,000 acres will 

 have to bo cut every year, and as it takes thirty years for 

 a tree to grow to the right size, the railway, will require from 

 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 acres— or 3,126 to 4,687 square miles 

 of forest to keep up the supply. At this rate, the RaUnHiy 



Rivktr says, there should be twenty-five acres for each mile 

 of road, involving an investment of £100 in land per mile — 

 a wise investment, giving the railways an independent 

 supply of ties. He stated that wood fuel is Vjeing super 

 seded by coal, and wooden bridges by stone or iron. In 

 Eui ope, wood in railway structures is very rare, and for 

 ties, mineral substances will be much dearer than wood for 

 some time. The professor concluded his paper with some 

 references to the necessity of planting trees to hold em- 

 bankments together by their roots, and alder and willow 

 to prevent erosion of streams, and the various kinds 

 proper to plant for different purposes and in difterent 

 localities ; also the prevention of snow-blocks by having 

 trees along the railway tracks. 



An earthslip which occurred near Fort de I'Ecluse nearly 

 caused (says the Engineer) one of the most calamitous 

 inundations on record. On Tuesday night, the 2nd inst., 

 an old railway watchman, who lives in a cabin between the- 

 station of Collonges and the long Credo tunnel which 

 runs under the pass to Bellegarde, felt his house shake and 

 heard a noise like thunder. Feeling sure that something 

 was wrong, and knowing that the train which leaves 

 Geneva at midnight was due, he ran along the line, 

 placing detonators on the rails as he went. By this 

 device he succeeded in stopping the train, and not 

 a minute too soon, for the noise he had heard 

 came from an earthslip, which carried 200 metres 

 of the permanent way bodily into the Rhone, whither, 

 the Geneva correspondent of the Times says, but for 

 the old man's presence of mind, the train must inevi- 

 tably have followed it. The line from Geneva before 

 entering the great Credo tunnel passes through a short one 

 immediately below the fort. On Wednesda)- a great mass 

 of earth fell from the mountain directly above the smaller 

 tunnel, and completely blocked the course of the Rhone. 

 At noon the tunnel itself fell with a report that was heard 

 for miles. The water accumulated behind the barrier with 

 frightful rapidity, and if it had gone on gathering, even 

 for a day or two, the consequences would have been fright- 

 ful — the valley of the Rhone as far as Lyons would have 

 been swept as by an avalanche. As it was, the dam burst 

 a few hours after the second earthslip. 



A TERRIBLE storm, the like of which has never yet been 

 seen, is predicted for March 11 next. Dr. E. Stone 

 Wiggins, of Ottowa, Canada, the prophet in the case, 

 ■vi-rites to the President of the United States : — " No 

 vessel, whatever her dimensions, will be safe out ol 

 harbour, and none of small tonnage can hope to survive 

 the tidal wave and fury of this tempest." The prediction 

 has been so seriously received by the City Surveyor of 

 New York, that he has written to Dr. Wiggins asking 

 whether that alarmist gentleman would recommend the 

 stoppage of some extensive marine works on which he is 

 engaged until . after the dreadful hurricane has passed. 

 Other people besides the City Surveyor of New York have 

 been stricken with panic. Such, indeed, are the appre- 

 hensions prevailing, tliat General W. H. Hazen, the chief of 

 the Weather Bureau at Washington, has taken the trouble 

 to expose the fallacies on which Dr. Wiggins bases his pre 

 diction. On the other hand, an American journal gets some 

 fun out of the affair. "President Arthur," it remarks, 

 " having received timely warning, has instructed the 

 Secretary of the Navy to employ a few horses and have 

 our war vessels hauled up into a field, and have a shed 

 built over them. This precaution may entail an expense 

 of eight or nine hundred dollars, but the American Navy 

 must and shall be preserved." 



