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paper or two between the "bed-clothes. You 
will soon see the good result. To stop a 
crevice in a door or window, paper is better 
than cloth.—W m, Harris, Rochester, N. Y. 
Liebig, they have given utterance to ten. 
At a recent meeting of the Bavarian 
Academy of Sciences, Liebig, as President 
of the meeting, delivered an address “ On 
two pairs of wings or blades, which revolve 
in such manner as to compress and exhaust 
an immense quantity of air at each revolu¬ 
tion. By means of it a strong current of air 
cimtific tilth fiscful 
e> 
CANKER WORMS. 
BROADWAY PNEUMATIC TUNNEL. 
We y’ustrate, herewith, the Pneumatic 
Tunnel unu«. Broadway, New York City, 
which has, of lau, attracted no little atten¬ 
tion, and which is a work of general inter¬ 
est. That the great, metropolitan thorough¬ 
fare should have been undermined and 
arched, by a corps of sappers and minors, 
without the knowledge or thousands daily 
passing up and down it, is perhaps surpris¬ 
ing ; yet such is the fact, and to-day a sec¬ 
tion of the new subterranean passage-way 
is open to the public, not for practical pur¬ 
poses, but that the modus operand* of tunnel¬ 
ing may be seen, and that the enterprise in¬ 
itiated may bo properly understood by 
people generally. 
In 1868 the Beach Pneumatic Transit 
Company was chartered, with authority to 
convey letters, parcels, etc., through tubes 
not to exceed fifty-four inches mean diame¬ 
ter. To lay two such tubes would cost little 
more than to lay one; and the readiest man¬ 
ner of laying them was to construct a shell 
of masonry large enough to inclose both. 
That shell is now completed from the corner 
of Warren street, to a point just below the 
center of Murray street, about three hun¬ 
dred feet, in distance, and in order to test 
the feasibility of carrying passengers by 
pneumatic propulsion a car lias been intro¬ 
duced as shown. The intention is to secure 
legislative permission for passenger traffic, 
and a reception room has been handsomely 
fitted up at the tunnel’s entrance under the 
large marblo building whence operations 
have been carried on. 
The tunneling process is less difficult 
than would bo imagined. The machine 
employed consists of a largo cylinder, open 
at both ends, with shelves arranged within 
the front end to reeoivc the earth and pre¬ 
vent it from falling too rapidly into the 
shield, at tli« rear of which, placed around 
its periphery, is a scries of powerful hy¬ 
draulic rains, eighteen in number, all con- 
connected with a single water-pump. From 
the rear of the shield, and passing entirely 
around it, extends a hoop or band of sheet 
steel, two feet wide, and one-eiglitli of an 
inch thick, termed the hood. The brick 
tunnel is erected within this hood, which at 
all times covers the end of the masonry, and 
prevents the earth falling upon the work¬ 
men. After a section of the tunnel sixteen 
inches long has been erected in the hood, 
the pump is operated, which causes the rams 
to slide out from the shield; and push with 
great force against the front end of the tun¬ 
nel, driving the shield forward into the soil. 
As the shield advances the earth presses 
through between the shelves, and falls down 
upon tha bottom of the shield, whence it is 
removed in barrows and cars. The hydraulic 
rams have an aggregate force of one hundred 
and twenty-six tons, yet the pump operating 
them is worked easily by two men. The 
shield was steered around the curve from 
Warren Street under Broadway by regu¬ 
lating the pressure of the rams, so that their 
power should be distributed on the two sides 
unequally. _ 
I see somebody asks “ How to prevent 
the ravages of the canker worm.” The 
Ruraj. answers, “Go through the orchard 
now and destroy the eggs.” Have you not 
reference to another pest of our orchards, 
the tent caterpillar, whose eggs may be found 
in a scroll, or thimble, around a small twig. 
I make but little pretension to knowledge of 
Entomology, but my own observation has 
taught, me that the inotlx—which produces 
the egg of the canker worm — is now in the 
earth, where it, has wintered, and will come 
forth some sunny day in March, and partly 
crawling, and when thoroughly dry, by aid 
of their wings, rising to the branches of the 
tree and depositing their eggs, one in a place, 
on or near the buds, where they burst from 
the shell about the time the buds begin to 
open, and commence their ravages. The 
only remedy l know for young trees is to jar 
the trees with a sharp stroke of the hand, 
when you will find them dropping toward 
the ground suspended by a wet), and then, 
by breaking the web, but few of them will 
find the way back to the tree. For large 
trees, Nature, in about three years, will pro¬ 
vide a remedy in the shape of an antagonistic 
insect, which preys upon the chrysalis of the 
worm whilst in the ground.—I. P. Soil EN OK, 
Franklin, O. 
Our correspondent is right; in our hastily 
penned comment to the inquiry referred to 
we had in mind the tent-caterpillar. I Ic is 
also correct as to the habits of the moth of 
the canker worm, except that in open, warm 
winters like the present, they appear almost 
every winter mouth and deposit their eggs— 
so that our advice was not so far wrong as 
it might have been had the winter been more 
severe. The eggs form clusters of from sixty 
to one hundred, are glued to each other and 
to the bark by a grayish varnish, and these 
clusters arc fasted in the forks of the small 
branches, or close to the young twigs and 
buds. 
ADVANCING THE SIIIET.D—INTERIOR OK THE TUNNEI. 
A Curious Slone. —G. F. C., Potsdam, N. 
Y., writes us:—“ 1 have a curious stone that 
was found in the swamp just below my farm. 
It looks like a small elephant, lying on the 
right side. It is too perfect to he an acci¬ 
dental formation. I am not sure that it is a 
petrifaction, but I can guess as near as our 
savans (lid on the Stone Giant. I keep all 
such curiosities for my own amusement; 
shan’t sell it to any one to show round the 
country. I wish you could see it, and give 
me your opinion. 1 believe petrifaction is 
from the Greek petros , and Latin petra, a 
stone. This Is a stone, and no mistake.” 
Glycerine for Burns .—Glycerine as an ap¬ 
plication to burns is recommended by .T. 
Fuchs. Through the explosion of a spirit 
lamp the greater portion of ins lace had been 
covered with rather deep burns, which 
healed in a week by the immediate and oft- 
repeated application of glycerine, without 
producing blisters or festering, or leaving 
any scar. 
Baths vs. Soothing Sirups .—A physician, in 
a very sensible article upon bathing, says: 
“ For the ‘ wind in the stomach ’ children 
are thought to have, for their tiresome cry¬ 
ing, and for the restlessness and worrying at 
night with which they are afflicted, if the 
warm bath was resorted to oftencr, and the 
dosing of soothing sirups and worse nostrums 
less, it would he better for the children.” 
India,* Bobber Nursing Tubes a Cause of 
is forced into the tunnel, and the ear is pro¬ 
pelled thereby as a sail-boat is wafted before 
the wind. A very little atmospheric pres¬ 
sure to the square inch will insure a high 
rate of speed. 
If pneumatic passenger transit prove prac¬ 
tical, New York will soon have a perfect 
network of subterranean thoroughfares, and 
the problem of city locomotion will be solved. 
Ventilation In pneumatic tunnels is neces¬ 
sarily perfect; they are easily lighted by 
gas; way stations can be readily constructed; 
and they certainly seem to promise much. 
What their fulfillment may be in our metro¬ 
polis will in time appear. If a revolution in 
city travel shall result, city people will be 
heartily grateful. 
CATS IN CHINA 
Prof. Schele De Verb lias a most in¬ 
teresting article in Harper’s Magazine for 
March on “ Pussy,” in which he tells how 
cats are regarded in China, as follows: 
TJ 10 clever French missionary Hue, who, 
with his companion Cabkt, first gave us an 
intelligent account of life in the interior of 
the Flowery Kingdom, was not a little sur¬ 
prised, and quite incredulous at first, when 
his Chinese friends told him that cats were 
their watches, and enabled them to tell, with 
unerring accuracy, the hour of the day. 
lie learned, however, by cureful observa¬ 
tion, that this was really so; for be noticed 
that the pupil of every cat lie saw, though 
wide open in the early morning, would grad¬ 
ually contract as the sun rose; at noon a 
perpendicular line of extreme delicacy would 
he all that was left to bn seen, and UlQH the 
pupil would dilate again, to return to its 
natural size by sunset. 
And when poor Pussy has served her time 
as a dial, she is served up herself—not in dis¬ 
guise, as in French restaurants, but boldly 
and boastingly, Tn many a lowly house in 
town, and in almost every farm-house in the 
country, a number of cats are seen fastened 
to chains for the purpose of fattening them ; 
and in the market-houses they hang in long 
rows, exhibiting their snowy whiteness, and 
that boo accomplishes iu iTr- flight of many 
hours, carrying the weight of its own body 
several miles. The muscle in the living 
body acts like the apparatus in a watch, 
which gradually expends the power stored 
up in it. A freshly severed frog’s leg repre¬ 
sents an apparatus of tins kind with an es¬ 
capement, while the newly removed heart 
of the same animal corresponds to one with¬ 
out the escapement; the frog’s heart heating 
for hours together, just as in the living body, 
while the frog's leg moves as soon as an irri¬ 
tant sets it for a moment free from the es¬ 
capement.-, and if small weights arc hung on 
them it is possible to obtain work from a 
pair of severed frogs’ legs; that is the weight 
will again and again be alternately raised to 
a certain height, without blood or the supply 
of any kind of nourishment. 
That there is a co-relation between wiiat 
are known as the physical and vital forces— 
nay, that even our thoughts are influenced 
and measured by our food — is true beyond 
all doubt. “He that drinks beer thinks 
beer” is a saying which may he fully ac¬ 
cepted. But although we are ready to grant, 
this in general terms, we are hardly prepared 
to allow that our modern chemists have at¬ 
tained to the ability to determine precisely 
the amount of work which may be evolved 
from a certain amount of (bod. And yet, to 
hear some of their followers talk, we would 
^ suppose that they could estimate to a grain 
the amount of phosphorus consumed in 
W/. the production of Paradise Lost, and the 
|Z/, value in foot-pounds of the mental energy 
wm required to evolve the Principia of New- 
K TON. j. p. 
SOURCE OF MUSCULAR POWER, 
Tins is a subject which has, of late, at¬ 
tracted a great deal of attention. At one 
time the conclusions arrived at by the cele¬ 
brated Liebig were accepted with almost 
unquestioning faith, but latterly bis deduc¬ 
tions have been fiercely attacked, and some 
of his most cherished principles have been 
denied by those who claim to be authorities 
on the subject. For our own part, we have 
not fully sympathized with these attacks. 
That much error lias crept, into Liebig’s 
statements, there is probably no doubt, 
\ USEFUL AND SCIENTIFIC NOTES. 
rs. —F. H. B becker, Akron 
Wf .Vending Rubber 
[|j Ohio, gives a recipe in the Rural of Jan. t, |i 
W for mending rubbers. Will lie, or some other 
Vl correspondent, please inform me what kind 
W of rubber is to be dissolved in beuzinc ? 1 -ft 
i procured some benzine at the store, and took cl 
K a piece of a rubber shoe, cut it fine, and put. M 
it into the beuzine some four weeks ago, and 
it seems to be no nearer cement to-day than 
it was at that time.—C. B. Ford, Mendo/t, 
iV. Y. 
Paper for Warmth .—Few know the warmth 
there is in paper, or rather the amount of cold 
it will keep out. But very little cold will 
ever pass through a common newspaper. I 
use it for my feet. Place a piece over the 
sock before putting on the boot. Try it, if 
you choose, with one foot, and not with the 
other, and notice U 10 difference. Place a 
piece inside your mittens or in the top of a 
cold hat, or use it for a coat-lining, by plac¬ 
ing a piece over Die shoulders, or put a news* 
ENTRANCE TO TUNNEL, WITH PASSENGER-CAR COMING IN. 
The opening of the tunnel, as shown in though this is no discredit toll 
our engraving, is of circular form, nine feet of those who remember Ills a: 
in diameter, its bed being nearly twenty-two me a man who makes no mistf 
feet below the surface of Lhe street. The car show you a man who does 11 c 
shown is similar in outline, and will seat in regard to the two most bit 
eighteen persons. Its motive power is fur- 0 f Liebig in this country, it 
nished by a monster blowing engine, having said that for one error prt 
INTERIOR OP THE PASSENGER-CAR 
Sore Mouth .—A correspondent of the Scien¬ 
tific American says the India-rubber t ube, so 
generally used upon nursing bottles, is a 
cause of sore mouth in children, and de¬ 
scribes a ease where rapid recovery from a 
long and severe attack of sore month and 
tln-oat in a nursing child resulted from the 
removal of the rubber tubes. 
with 1 icads and tails carefully left untouched, 
to testify to their genuineness. Hence the 
fondness of the Chinese to introduce them in 
their illustrations of happy iucloor life; while 
their strange neighbors, the Japanese, show 
here also their superiority, being fond of 
caricaturing the poor creatures, and making 
fitu of them after their own manner. 
