Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 6.djvu/658

640 But in the next age, the age of polished stone, we find no indications of horse-flesh having been consumed as food. The question is, whether the horse disappeared from Europe just as it did from this continent, and was imported again from abroad.

mineral, Rivotite (so called in honor of the memory of M. Rivot, late of the Paris School of Mines) has been discovered by X. Ducloux. It occurs in small, irregular masses, dispersed in a yellowish-white chalk, upon the western slope of the Sierra del Cadi, in the Spanish province of Lerida.

, now almost one of the necessaries of life, was nearly unknown to Europe before the Crusades. At present, England consumes as much sugar as all the rest of Europe together—more than one pound per week for every man, woman, and child in the United Kingdom. In 1870, the refined cane-sugar, molasses, and syrup, manufactured in the United States was: Sugar, 754,000,000 pounds; molasses, 839,000 gallons; and syrup, 18,000,000 gallons.

effect of snake-poison is rapid decomposition of muscular tissue. From Dr. Weir Mitchell's experiments it appears that, after a few hours, the wounded muscle becomes almost diffluent, and assumes a dark color and somewhat jelly-like appearance; under the microscope it has the appearance of a mass of minute granules.

"Copley Medal" of the London Royal Society for the year 1874 has been awarded to M. Louis Pasteur for his researches on fermentation and on Pebrine (a disease of the silk-worm); the "Rumford Medal" to J. Norman Lockyer, for his spectroscopic researches on the sun and on the chemical elements; a "Royal Medal" to Prof. William C. Williamson, for his contributions to zoology and paleontology; and a "Royal Medal" to Henry Clifton Sorby, for his researches on slaty cleavage, and on the minute structure of minerals.

British Government has decided to send out next spring an expedition to explore the region of the north-pole. The chief command of this expedition is to be intrusted to Captain Nares, at present in command of the Challenger and already a distinguished arctic navigator. It is intended to make the expedition a purely naval one, no person being permitted to join it in any capacity save officers and men of the Royal Navy.

German physiologists, Weiske and Wildt, in a series of investigations on goats, have shown that, although the withdrawal of lime or of phosphoric acid from the food of adult animals leads to fatal consequences, yet it has little or no influence on the composition of the bones, and in particular does not make them friable. To determine the same point with regard to young animals, they selected Southdown lambs about ten weeks old. One of these was fed upon food poor in phosphoric acid, a second on food poor in lime, and a third on normal diet. After the lapse of 55 days various bones were analyzed, and the general result was that, just as in adults, so in young animals: no remarkable change was produced in the composition of the several bones by the difference of diet; or, in other words, that the composition of the bones is independent of the nature of the food. The bones were, however, stunted in their growth.

the researches of Schöne on the conduct of ozone and water toward each other, it appears that ozone does not oxidize water; that ozone is absorbed by water in considerable quantity, even at the ordinary temperature; that when ozonized oxygen is conducted through water, the amount of ozone contained in the mixture is diminished; and that ozone in contact with water is slowly changed to ordinary oxygen.

has been granted for an India-rubber shoe, or rather overshoe, for horses, as it is called by the Scientific American. The shoe is made and lined precisely in the same way as the "arctic overshoe," and in fact presents no difference, save in its shape and in its manufacture, from the bast quality of India-rubber. Horses suffering from cracked or contracted hoof are soon cured by the use of these elastic shoes. The cost of rubber shoes, as compared with those of iron, is about one-third more, and their weight is about 40 per cent. less.

of the Department of Agriculture, writing from Stanley County, North Carolina, notes a curious fact observed in growing turnips on land previously sown with the opium-poppy: the turnips came up, but never got beyond the seed-leaf. Repeated sowings on the same lot had the same result. On the other hand, turnips sowed in spots not far removed from the poppies, did very well, and were less annoyed by insect enemies than ever before. "Can it be," asks the correspondent, "that the opium-poppy leaves in the ground elements incompatible with the life of the turnip?"

the instance of the German Anthropological Society, statistical information is to be collected from schools and military depots throughout the German Empire, with a view to the solution of the vexed question, whether there are two distinct types of Germans, one tall and fair, the other short and dark.