172 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Oct. 1st, 1887. 



GENERAL NOTES. 



Anthracite in Eastern Ontario. — Samples of the anthra- 

 cite recentlj' discovered in Eastern Ontario have been tested, 

 and are reported to be of the best hard quality. The coal- 

 beds are near the large iron-mining district in the same 

 locality, and experienced miners from Pennsylvania are ex- 

 pected to examine the district. 



Apparatus for Seeing Objects under High Pressure. — 

 An apparatus made of iron and glass, in which a pressure 

 of 1,000 atmospheres can be developed, for the purpose of 

 studying the influence of great pressure on animal life, has 

 been exhibited to biologists in France. With it deep-sea 

 animals can be observed under their natural compression. 



The Cultivation of Roses.- — From the Western Bulletin 

 we learn that roses grown for perfume are the common 

 pink ones. They are cut low, and the ground between the 

 trees enriched with manure. The flowers are gathered as 

 soon as the dew has disappeared, and after the plant is 

 through bearing blossoms the stem is cut to within a few 

 inches of the ground in order to conserve the vigour of the 

 plant. 



Effect of Heat on Pianos. — The heat of a fire is very 

 likely to put a piano out of tune. This is not due to the 

 expanding and contracting of the strings, as generally sup- 

 posed, but to the variations produced in the sounding-boards 

 under the influence of the increased dryness of the air, 

 especially in furflace-heated houses. Sounding boards are 

 made of spruce, because of the superior resonance of that 

 timber ; but spruce, of all woods, is most affected by changes 

 in temperature. 



Blindness in the United States. — According to Prot. 

 Howe, the population of the United States has increased 

 30 per cent, during the decade 1870 to 1880, whereas 

 blindness has increased 140 per cent., and he says that the 

 support of the blind now costs the country over twenty-five 

 million dollars per annum. This is certainly a very startling 

 statement, and we are tempted to think that during the 

 previous years with which the decade is compared, the 

 records of blindness were not so accurately kept as at 

 present. 



Watch Glasses. — We learn from the Horological Journal 

 that the watch glasses which are now used are moulded 

 by a process which was invented in 1791, by Pierre Royer, 

 a Parisian manufacturer. C. Launier gives an interesting 

 description of one of the large factories, and of the different 

 processes of manufacture. Two and a half million watches 

 are now made annually, and more than seventy milhons 

 have been sold within the last half century. On account of 

 the large consumption, and the large stocks which every 

 watchmaker requires to keep on hand, the annual product 

 of watch glasses cannot be less than a hundred million. 



A New Milk Test. — According to the Lancet, a new test 

 for milk has been proposed. This test depends upon the fact 

 that a certain chemical — the sulphate of diphenylamine — is 

 coloured blue by the presence of an extremely dilute solution 

 of nitrate. As well water contains more or less nitrate its 

 presence in suspected milk can easily be ascertained by the 

 use of this chemical. To use this test a small quantity of 

 the sulphate is placed in a porcelain cup, and a few drops 

 of the suspected milk are added to it. The mixture will 

 speedily show a blue tinge if the milk contains even 5 per 

 cent, of average well water. 



A House-building Fish. — In Lake Nyassi, in the far 

 interior of Africa, is a kind of black fish which every year 

 builds what the natives call " a house." In the mud at the 

 bottom of the lake it makes a hole some two or three feet 



broad, allowing the earth removed from the hole to form a 

 little wall around it. The depth of the hole and the height 

 of the wall, measured together, make a small basin from 

 fifteen to eighteen inches deep. In this little lake within a 

 lake the fish feels secure from all enemies, and quietly 

 keeps house until the eggs are laid, when it becomes restless 

 and leaves the house as a nursery for successors, while it 

 roams about again at will. 



The Effect of Oil on Waves. — Some important ex- 

 periments are about to be made officially, in France, by 

 naval officers in charge of ten different ships of war on the 

 effect of oil on waves. Similar experiments are now being 

 carried on by the Central Salvage Company at Dunkirk, 

 Calais, Audierne, and other stations along the coast. It is 

 expected that the results obtained will be such as to render 

 the use of oil general in saving life from wrecks. The 

 trials which are being made are intended rather to prove 

 the efficiency of the apparatus employed to distribute the 

 oil than the efficacy of the oil in stilling the waves, which 

 has already been sufficiently demonstrated. 



A Priest-Soldier-Scientist. — A young Catholic priest and 

 scientist, of Charleston, Illinois, who was recently created 

 a lieutenant in the French army for valuable discoveries in 

 the art of making and using a powerful explosive for war 

 purposes, claims to have made a more valuable discovery, 

 or rather rediscovery. He says he has fathomed the art of 

 making Greek fire, which was lost in the Middle Ages, about 

 1250, when gunpowder came into use. The compound 

 consisted of naphtha and two other ingredients, and its 

 power of destruction is marvellous. It will so corrode iron 

 as to dissolve it, while water, instead of extinguishing it, 

 will only increase its power. The inventor will soon pub- 

 lish an article on the subject of his great discovery. — Chemist 

 arid Druggist. 



The Diet of Strong Men. — The Roman soldiers who 

 built such wonderful roads, and carried a weight of armour 

 and baggage that would crush the average farm labourer, 

 lived on coarse brown bread and sour wine. They v/ere tem- 

 perate in diet and regular and constant in exercise. The 

 Spanish peasant works every day, and dances half the night, 

 yet eats only his black bread, onion, and water-melon. The 

 Smyrna porter eats only a little fruit and some olives, yet 

 he walks off with his load of a hundred pounds. The 

 coolie, fed on rice, is more active and can endure more than 

 the negro fed on fat meat. The heavy work of the world 

 is not done by men who eat the greatest quantity. Moder- 

 ation in diet seems to be the pre-requisite of endurance. — 

 Scientific American. 



A Garden Barometer. — One of the simplest of barome- 

 ters is a spider's web. When there is a prospect of rain or 

 wind, the spider shortens the filaments from which its web 

 is suspended, and leaves things in this state as long as the 

 weather is variable. If the insect elongates its threads, it 

 is a sign of fine calm weather, the duration of which may 

 be judged of by the length to which the threads are let out. 

 If the spider remains inactive, it is a sign of rain ; but if, on 

 the contrary, it keeps at work during rain, the latter will 

 not last long, and will be followed by fine weather. Other 

 observations have taught us that the spider makes changes in 

 its web every twenty-four hours, and that if such changes 

 are made in the evening, just before sunset, the night will 

 be clear and fine. — La Nature. 



Inventions of Different Nations. — An American con- 

 temporary, commenting on the progress made by America, 

 says, the telescope and microscope we owe to Holland ; 

 printing and the spectroscope to Germany ; photography, 

 chemical analysis, and the electro-magnet to France ; the 



