Popular Science

The glacial and post-glacial fishes of Norway are found perfectly preserved in lumps of chalk occurring in clay deposite at a level of 300 feet abovc the sea. Tktistwohthy scientiflc experiment have proved the f act that an aero of com fodder, during the seaeon of growth, absorba from the ground and exhales through the leaves 786 tons of water. PiiOP. Leidy, of Philadelphia, has examined the subject of the alleged injurious effects of eating fish that have parasitic worms. He finds the worm liarmless, except to tlie fishes. At the same time he admitted his own antipathy to the parasites, and said thathe always took pains to scrape them off the roes of smoked herring that he ate. A man in New Orleans has invented a process of manufacturing mirrors which, it is claimed, is destined to take the place of the quicksilver process. In only ten or fifeen minutes the substance used in place of quicksilver is made to adhere to the glass, and tho cost of the substance is not more than OEe-tenth that of quicksilver. Anyone can convert an ordinary pieco of glass into a mirror after acquainting himself with the process. The manager of the Jardin d'Acclimatation at Paris has directed the attention of African explorers to the zebra as a beast of burden, better suited to the climato than any of our domesticated animáis, not even excepting the ass. eral zebras now under his charge have been successfuily broken in, and M. de Semelle, who is about to cross África from the mouth of the Niger to the east coast, may possibly make use of this novel beast of burden. Les Mondes submits the following as a puzzling phenomenon: At Vernon, about six years ago, lightning struck a plot of ground planted with cherry trees and gooseberry bushes, making a deep hole in the earth not more than ten centimetres in diameter. Afterward the trees died away in a circular área, which grows wider and wider, and is now not less than seven meters in diameter. A twofold question arises, first, why the morbific action is permanent, and second, why the sterility continúes bo spread, From observations made on specimens still in existence, longevity of various trees has been estimated to be, in round numbers, as follows : Deciduous cypress, 6,000 years; baobab trees, 5,000; dragon tree, 5,000; yew, 3,000: cedar of Lebanon, 3,000; " great trees" of California, 3,000; chestnut, 3,000; olive, 2,500; oak, 1,600; orange, 1,500; Oriental plañe, 1,200; cabbage palm, 700; lime, 600; ash, 400; coooa-nut palm, 300; pear, 300; apple, 200; Brazil wine palm, 150; Scotch fir, 100; and the balm of Gilead about 50 years. A commission has been appointed by the Governor of Pennsylvanii to examine and report on the merits of a system which undertakes to determine in advance the probable yield of milk of cows by certain marks upon the animáis. The marks are chiefly in respect to the disposition and mode of growth of the hair near the udder, and a prediction can be made with certainty, it is said, as to whether the future cow will be a large producer of milk if the observation is made on the young calf even shortly after birth. Kev. Pebcival J. Bbinb, one of the senior fellows of Cambridge Uniyersity, has issned a brochure, the object of which is to show that the earth, and in fact the entirej universe, obeys the laws and possesses the functions of organic life, and in working out this bold hypothesis Mr. Brine describes the movements of the earth as of life to be four in number, tíz. : Spiral rotation, circulation, expansión and contraction. He also calis in question the mathematieal deductions founded upon the upposed absolute identity bet ween the angles of incidence and reflexion, especially with their bearing upon the obervations of the transit of Venus and he position and distance of the sun.