Popular Science

A Venetian has succeedcd in making a violin, the box of which is porcelain, and the strings of metallic wire. Upon it are said to be produced tones of rare purity, richness, harmony and power. It is predioted in England that the close of the age of iron draws on apace, and that steel is destinod eventually to take its place. On this account energies are being directed toward devising a way to produce steel from the puddling furnace by a direct process. Piïof. Jagee, in a late number of the Kosmos, endeavors to maintain that the organs of hearing are but modifications of tho general organs of touch, by tracing the mechanism of hearing from the original simple form of an animal, where spiracles, diffused over the whole protoplasmic body, collect and conduct sound-waves. Oak wood which has remained a long time in water fuially acquiies the appearanee and hardness of ebony. Upon demolishing an old sluice dam in the Ehine, oak which had lain for 146 years was found to have become possessed of the characteristics of ebony. The modiöcation is due to the presence of peroxide of iron. A Feenohman has disoovered a procesa for making glass iridcsoent by tho application of aoids, uuder a pressure of two to five or more atmospheres. Water containing 15 per cent, of hydrochloric aeid is used to bring out rainbow tints liko mother-of -pearl, and artificial gems of various sorts have thus beeu ínade. The application of the aelds liaatens a result that the ordinary agencies of the atmosphere would take centurios to produoe. No thysiological antidote has yet been found for the poison of the cobra and oüier venomous reptiles of India, which caused thedeat.h of 17,000 persons and over 3,000 cattle in the year 1875. The chloride oí platinum is a chemical antidote neutraliziDg the virus almost entirely when mixed with it out of the body; but when the poison has once entered the system the eame drug is powerless to prevent or check its rapidlyfatal effect. Expeeiments in potato culture - conducted of late in Germany but described in a French agricultural paper - are said to have deraonstrated tbat the vigor of a potato plnnt is always in direct proportion to the weight of the tubera used for seed, and that not only do differei t tubers vary in productiveness but also different "eyes" in the same líotato. The "eyes" in the top of the potato produce much finer offsprings than those lower down or at the bottom, and in planting agriculturists are, therefore, advised to cut thom horizontally, instead of vertically, and use the lower parts for cattle feed. The best plan, however, is to set them whole, cutting out all eyes except those at the top. From careful statistics of the experiments conducted by Prof. Gautz, it appears that from tubcrs divided vertieally only five tons per acre were produced ; from whole potatoes seven and a half tons, and from those cut horizontally nine and threequarters tons. In the last point, however, other scientific observers do not agree with the results of Herr Gantz's experiments, as they insist that, other things being eqnal, whole potatoes will always produce more than halves, however cut.