During the Inst throo years, Dr. H, Fol has been making excursions into a region little frequented by man—that lying beneath the surface of the Mediterranean and has gained a larger experience of a subaqueous existence than any other per-gon has enjoyed. After a short time, his diving dress became not at all disagreeable, though he found it advisable not to con: tinue a "dive" beyond about a quarter of hour. He found a charm in the un-familist sights in the sea, and was able to make unexpectedly good natural history collections, He declares that the notion of walking upright is a false one, as it is necessary to incline the body forward at Toast 45 degr After the first few yards down, all the light is so blue that even red objects cease to appear red. The limits of vision are greatly shortened, and at depth of 100 feet it is possible to see in " horizontal direction only from about 25 feet under a clouded sky to perhaps 80 feet under the most favourable conditions, This difficulty of secing through the water is mentioned as likely to prove @ serious obstacle in the way of submarine navigation.
An ingenious device for the proposed tunnel railway up the Jungfrau is suggested 'a8 2 means of preventing high speed during descents. The tunnel would be closed at short intervals by folding doors, to open only on the passage of a car; and' the cars would have movable wings, to be expanded until nearly touching the tunnel lining The car would thus be made a kind of piston working in the tunnel as a cylinder, causing the air to operate us an automatic brake. The other brakes of inclined railways would be provided in addition.
adding the special ferments obtained from certain wines, M. Jacquemin, from malt and from pure solutions, has obtained fermented liquors having the special bouquet of the wines in question. He has similarly produced cider from barley.
The history of meteorology has been made a subject of investigation by Dr. G. Hellmann. He finds that it is not exactly Known who first kept a regular meteorological journal; but Humboldt attributes it to Columbus, on his first voyage to America in 1492, while the Italians also appear to have made daily observations from the middle of the fifteenth century. The oldest of the meteorological instruments is the windvane. The qualities of the winds were correctly described in the ninth and eighth centuries, B.C., while the Grst arrangement for observing wind-direction is the Temple of Winds at Athens, built 100 B.C. Eginhard, in the reign of Charlemagna, denoted the winds by the four cardinal points. The first instrument for denoting wind-foree—essentially the same as the pendulum anemometer now used—is ascribed to Robert Hooker, in 1667. The absorption hygrometer was invented about the middle of the fifteenth century by de Cusa; and the first condensation hydro meter is credited to the Grand Duke Ferdiriand If, of Tuscany. The first continuous hygrometical observations appear to have been by R. Boyle, at Oxford, in 1666. The first thermometer is attributed to G. Galilei, toward the end of the sixteenth century, The first rain-gauge was used by B, Castelli in 1639, The frst barometer was made by Torricelli in 1643.
It is estimated by M. Adamety that 363 grammes (about three-fourths of a pound) of cheese may contain as many living organisms as there are inhabitants. the earth. Ina soft French chose, when fresh, he found from 90,000 to 140,000 microbes per gramme; and in a similar cheese 71 days old there were 800,000 bacteria per gramme. A denser soft cheese contained 1,200,000 microbes per gramme when 25 days old, and 2,000,000 when 45 days old. The centre is the lerist densely inhabited, as many as from 8,600,000 to 5,000,000 organisms per gramme havin; been found near the periphery of a soft cheese.
The annual death-rate from lightning in England, is considerably lees than 1 per 1
Some Danish chemists have been trying to prove that the flavour of butter—whether that of turnips, or oily, fishy, bitter, or tallowy—is due to the presence of bacteria, Prof. Storch has found a large number of a particular variety of bacteria in oily butters, though he has been unable to produce oily butters by introducing the bacteria into ile in other cases he obtained offering materially from the acid-making bacteria, which in large quantities gave a tallowy Bavour to the butter, Prof. Jensen reports similar results. Prof, Fjord found turnip-flavoured butter from cows not fed with turnips, and supposes the flavour to result from the presence of a certain kind of bacteria, 'These curious statements are from a lecture by Miss Willard on woman'
Catch Edison and constrict hin wasp waistcoat, and be sure you'll get no more inventions; bind a bustle upon Bismarck, and farewell to German unity put Parnell into petticoats, and home rule is a lost cause.
A paper of Finland mentions a curious stone that serves as a barometer in the northern part of that country. It is called "Timakiur," and turns black, or dark gray, when foul weather is approaching, becoming almost white in fine weather.
Byattaching an electric motor to gatling gun, it is claimed to be possible to discharge 1,000 shots per minute, the heating of the Varrels offering the only limit to the rapidity of firing.
Two French biologists have concluded that microbes are not killed directly by the electric currents ordinarily used in medical work, but that the observed destruction of bacteria has teen due to the disengagement of acids or of oxygen.
Some 200 photographs of lightning flashes are included in the collections of the Royal Meteorological Society.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.