Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 11.djvu/138

128 there died 596 within the year, and of the Mohammedans no less than 735. Thus, a native child born in Calcutta has a chance of life considerably less than that of a person attacked by cholera.

recommends the use of nitro-glycerine as a medicinal agent in epilepsy. One-tenth of a drop on the tongue at once produces cerebral hyperæmia. The face is flushed, the eyes become bright, and the temporal vessels throb, and there are marked sensations of fullness. Diluted in alcohol in the proportion of 1 to 100, nitro-glycerine can be kept safely.

years ago a large tract of peat-bog was drained at Grangemouth, Scotland, the loose mud and moss being carried down the drains to the estuary. The consequence was, that the oyster-beds in the estuary were covered over with mud, and the bivalves entirely destroyed. "Nothing," writes Frank Buckland, "is so fatal to oysters as a mud-storm, except it be a sandstorm. The mud and sand accumulate in the oyster's delicate breathing-organs and suffocate it."

telephone appears to be well adapted for transmitting signals in mines; indeed, according to the Mining Review, telephones are already employed with great advantage in many of the deep workings of this country.

soundings made by the U. S. sloop Gettysburg, the Challenger, and the German frigate Gazelle, a writer in Nature infers the probable existence of a submarine ridge or plateau connecting the island of Madeira with the coast of Portugal, and the possible subaërial connection, in prehistoric times, of that island with the southwestern extremity of Europe. A similar plateau connects the Canary Islands with the African Continent.

electric light has been under trial in English lighthouses nearly eighteen years. It was first tried at the South Foreland Lighthouse in 1858. An electric revolving light has been exhibited at the Souter Point Lighthouse, on the coast of Durham, for the last five years. The flash of this light has an intensity of about 392,000 candles. With the improved electric machines of Gramme or Siemens this enormous intensity of light could probably be increased five or six times.

is the name of a new iron-alloy, composed of 65 parts iron, 23 nickel, 4 tungsten, 5 aluminum, and 5 copper. It is said to resist sulphnreted hydrogen, is not attacked by vegetable acids, and only slightly by mineral acids. It is really more useful than standard silver, while it can be produced at a cost not exceeding that of german-silver. For alloys that have to be silver-plated to prevent oxidation, this material is a perfectly successful substitute.

two islands of New Britain and New Ireland, lying east of New Guinea, have been visited by a Wesleyan missionary. Rev. George Brown, who has explored 150 miles of the coast of the former, and 100 miles of the latter. Mr. Brown also crossed the latter island and made large natural-history collections. No white man had ever been seen inland before, but no opposition was offered to the explorers. Abundant evidences of cannibalism were found, but the natives live chiefly on bananas, cocoanuts, and pork, and have large plantations.

has been received of the death of two eminent German travelers in Africa: Dr. Edward Mohr, author of "The Victoria Falls of the Zambesi," and the Baron Dr. Hermann von Barth-Harmanting. The latter died by his own hand at São Paolo de Loanda, while suffering from an attack of fever, in the thirty-first year of his age; the former died at Malange, in the same Portuguese colony of Angola. Barth was, at the time of his death, engaged in making a botanical and geological survey of the Portuguese African possessions, under government auspices; Mohr had but recently returned to Africa, sent out by the German African Society to explore the country west of the great lakes.

Cyrus Thomas, and A. S. Packard, have been appointed United States Entomological Commissioners, with headquarters at Washington. It is understood that the main object of this commission is to thoroughly investigate the haunts and habits of the Rocky Mountain locust, and to devise means of exterminating that plague, or limiting its ravages. Prof. Riley will occupy himself especially with the whole country east of the mountains and south of latitude 48°, together with the west half of Iowa and the whole of the British possessions. Minnesota, Nebraska, Southern Dakota, and Eastern Wyoming, have been assigned to Prof. Thomas; and Montana, Idaho, Western Wyoming, and the Pacific slope, to Prof. Packard.

appearance on the planet Saturn was observed by Prof. Hall, of the Naval Observatory, Washington, on December 7th. A bright spot suddenly appeared near the equator of the planet, spreading gradually till it resembled a band extending over 90°. The phenomenon continued to be visible for a month, but then the approach of the planet to the sun made further accurate observation impossible.