Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

Novel Heliometers. At a recent meeting of the Royal Dublin Society, Howard Grubb de scribed some novel heliometers which are at present in process of construc tion in Dublin for the Belgian Gov ernment, to be used at the coming transit of Venus, the design of Pro fessor Houzean, the Belgian Astron omer-Royal. A heliometer is gener ally made from a single objective cut in two, with mechanical arrangements for traversing ore-half with respect to the other. In Professor Houzeau’s arrangement the two halt-objectives are of very different foci—one of about fourteen feet, the other six inches only 1 but so placed that both torm their imave on the same plane. As the apparent diameters of Venus and the sun are about as twenty-eight to one, it follows that the image of Venus, as formed by the large objec tive, will be about the same size as that of the sun formed by the small objective, and consequently coinci dences can be made, not by bringing the limb of Venus to touch that of the aun, or a micrometer line, but by su perposing the image of the sun as formed by the small objective on the very slightly larger image of Venus, as formed by the large objective, and thus it is hoped that all the inconve nient and perplexing phenomena of irridation, “black drop,” eta., will be completely eliminated. The Removal of Scars. The cicatrices, scars or marks left by various diseases, burns, or wounds of divers kinds, are often less obstinately permanent than is generally supposed, and from some facts which have lately come under our notice we are inclined to think that their prevention or re moval in many cases may be accom plished by some mild but effectual antiseptic. Among the exemplifications of the efficacy of the formula we are enabled to lay before our readers is the case of a gentleman of our acquaintance whose face was so severely burnt by the violent spurting of a quantity of melted lead, (owing to a workman having incautiously cropped a wet pipe into it) that his eyes were only saved by pebble spectacles from utter destruction. At first, of course, carron oil was the sole application, and as for weeks afterward particles of the granulated metal had literally to be dug out of the flesh,a deeply-scarred countenance was naturally predicted by all, except the patient himself, Oue mark of an almost imperceptible character alone -emained after the expiration of six months, owing, as our friend says, to the whole face being bathed twice or three times a day, as soon as the oil treatment could be discontinued, with a lotion of the simplest character, as is readily seen by glancing at its con stituents. Lint soaked iu the same solution and allowed to remain on some little time will frequently mitigate the visi ble results of smallpox, and we have known one case of ringworm treated in this way to leave no scar whatever, while a sister of the latter patient, who had had the same disease in a lesser degree, but had not employed this lotion, still retains the evidences ot the fact. The following is a conve nient formula: Borax, half an ounce; salicylic acid, twelve grains ; glycer- oine, three drachms ; rose water, six ounces. Make a lotion. A Genuine Swedish Dinner. Now, no one who has lived all his days beyond the borders of Sweden knows precisely what a peculiarly formal, and, at the same time, what a peculiarly free-and-easy feast, the genuine Swedish dinner is. Suigene ris as it is, the following description may do partly what only partieipa tion can wholly do: The company Is standing in little groups, and, as the preparations for lunch are completed, the buzz ot conversation gradually ceases. Far aa god (pleape) says the general hostess, bowing to the chief gue3t, and she walks up to the side table, spreads a piece of bread with butter, and walks away eating it, standing meanwhile, and entering again into conversation, while the there (ladies first, then gentlemen) How in turn. At the outset, too, e gentlemen feel the need of a wine glass of brandy as an appetiser, and me drink two or thi€e, but most of e ladies desist. On* or two pieoes or of the par- bread, with slices of cold meats or boiled eggs inlaid, follow; and the lunch ended, the company sits down to dinner. A roast and boiled pota toes are brought steaming from the porter’s lodge. The same rules of eti quette are observed as before. E ich helps himself and begins eating at once. If he wishes more bread it is not passed, but he leaves his place at the table for it. All eat heartily of the first course of the dinner, as, pro perly speaking, it is—wisely, the doc tors will say—the last. Then, pud ding for dessert is eaten ; and the busy hum of conversation—bright and re markably intelligent conversation, too, it is—continues for a half hour, when fruit is eaten, and a cup of coffee with toasted bread finishes our Swe dish dinner. Tornadoes and How to Avoid Them. The signal service bureau has in press a monograph, by Sergeant Finley, containing a review of the observations of six hundred tornadoes, with generalizations from the recor ded facts and suggestions as to the methods which ought to be followed in the investigation of such storms. The storm studies have occured du ring the past 87 years in all parts of the country. From these it would ap pear that tornadoes occur most fre quently in summer, and in the month of June. They have occured, how ever, more frequently in April than in July, and in May and September than in August. Kansas is tne State that has been rnqst afflicted, and that notwithstanding the fact that the p>eriod during which tornadoes have visited it has been comparatively short. The State has had 62 tornadoes from 1859 to 1881; Illinois has had 54 from 1854 to 1881; Missouri has had 14 from 1814 to 1881; New York has had 35 from 1831 to 1881; Georgia 33 from 1804 to 1881, Iowa 81 from 1854 to 1881; Ohio 28 from 1823 to 1881, and Indiana 27 from 1852 to 1880. The States aud Territories that have had only one each from 1794 to 1881 are: Colorado, California, Indinn Territory, Nevada, New Mexico, Montana, Rhode Island, West Virginia, aud Wyoming. The storms occur most frequently from five to six iu the afternoon, although there is no hour of the day that Las been entirely free from them. The average width of the path of destruction is 1,085 feet, and the storm cloud runs with a velocity pf from twelve to sixty miles. The wind within the vortex sometimes attains a velocity of 800 milts an hour, the aver age velocity beiug 392 miles. Among the most valuable sugges tions of the paper are those with refer ence to the peculiarity of the move ments of tornado clouds, containing rules for arriving at their violence. A tornado cloud always has a center, and it always moves forward from west to east. It may, however, sway from side to side in its progressive move ment. Changes in motion are some times very sudden. In the event of a sudden change the observer, who is east or south of east of the storm, should move quickly to the south. If he is northeast he should move to the north. If within a very short distance of the cloud the observer should run east bearing to the south. An Arab’s Trick. Flowers of the Conifers. Professor Eichler, of Berlin, has re cently published his latest views re specting the female or fertile flowers of the Conifers He takes it for granted that morphologists are agreed that the male flowers are the aggre gate of stamens which were formerly considered an ament or infl >resence, and now tries to prove that what is called the female ament is perfectly conformed and corresponding iu every respect to the male flower both in position and structure, and is thus also a single flower and not an inflo- resence. The simplicity of such an arrange ment,” says The American Journal of Science, “and tfie uniformity in the two kinds of flowers thus established are certainly seductive.” The princi pal difficulty in the way of accepting this view is found in the presence of two leaf-like bodies in the female flower, the carpellary scale and the bract. Professor Eichler insists that the scale, though often apparently separated from the bract, is really not a distinct organ, but a ligular appen dage of the upper face of the bract. He shows that in such appendages the vascular bundles are always arranged in a system opposite to that of the leaf, from which they originate; it they spring from the upper side of the leaf, this upper side is turned toward the upper side of the leaf, and if they come from the dorsal side, the dorsal side is turned toward the back of the leaf, and in either case the arrangement of the vascular elements is reversed. In every leaf the xylem (wood-cells) oc cupies the upper or ventral side of the vascular bundle, and the phloem (formerly bast or soft bast-cells) lies below it or toward the dorsal side of the leaf. This is so in the coniferous leaf as in all others, and in the bract, while the ligule or carpellary scale shows the arrangement reversed, a well-established fact. This carpellary scale, wherever it exists, (principally in Abietimee), bears on its back one or several ovules. Jn Araucaria it is a small process, of ligular form, from the middle of the leaf-bract, with one ovule; in Cun- ninghamia it is a narrow transverse i rest with three ovules ; in Cryptome- ria it is a jagged crest, at last much larger than the bract itself; but in Damara no trace of an appendage can be found. The same is the case with most Taxodineai, where only a certain thickening of the bract is noticeable. But in Abietineee there are apparently two distinct organs ; examining them, however, more closely, they are always cohering at base, and where they at maturity separate from the axis, as in Abies and Cedrus, they fall off together, as they should do, where one is only an appendage pf the other. In Cupressinece no carpel-bearing ap pendage at all is observed, aud the ovules are as nearly axillary as possi ble, or, where there are many, they seem to spring partly from the base of the bract and partly from the axis it self ; but the thickened upper side of the scale shows also a reversed arrange ment of the vessels, “ as it cannot be otherwise where the leaf is so thick ened on the inner side that at lfest it even becomes peltate. The other Coniferte follow the same iule, the ovules stand in the axil of the bract; but iu Taxlnete they are terminal pro ducts, surrounded by the uppermost leaves or bracts. wanted such a postponement; that his blanks were not ready aud he had not had an opportunity properly to familiarize himself with the Penal Code. A conference was had also with Recorder Smyth, who expressed the same feeling. Mr. Field told him that he was willing there should be such a postponement, proving it was to save time in this year; but that he did not want the Code to ru« the ordeal of another Legislature. It was therefore agreed that the time fixed should be December 1, and thus the Code would be in full operation a month before the next Legislature met. “And now,” Mr. Field said,“It would be as impossible to repeal the Penal Code as to stop Niagra. That is a determined matter. A iquestion now is as to the Civil Code.” The Excise Commissioners have been examining the Penal Code to as certain if it effects the present laws regulating the sale of liquors in this city. A statement was made in the Legislature recently that the Code would abolish the whole system of ex cise laws, although such a result was not intended by the compilers of the Cude. Commissioner Hart said that he had been unable to find anything in the code relating to excise matters which would bear such an interpre tation. All acts relating to the sale of liquors were left out of the Codt, but such omission could not destroy the force of those acts. The council to the Board or Excise had examined the code also and had failed to fihd any section which interfered with the present excise Jaws. As at present advised, Commissioner Hart said, the Excise Board would take no steps to influence the Legislature to amend the code. The Other Side ° f It r\| The Bedouin Arabs are noted for their sharp thefts practised upon one another as well as on travelers. A writer in Chambers's Journal tells of an Arab expedient that would be a credit to a trained detective: An Englishman traveling in the East, not being quite satisfied in the appearance of the mare 1^ rode, asked his Arab servant if he was sure she got her allowance. “Oh yes,” he replied, “my country men often steal from one another aud rob their friends’ horses ; but I can always find it out if your mare has been cheated, i put seven or eight pebbles in with the barley, he is sure to take two or three pebbles with it. If I find the pebbles short iu the morning, I have haid words, and they cannot tell how I know aud they give up cheating her.” A man who has duly considered the conditions of his being, will content edly yield to the course of things ; he will not pant for distinction where distinction would imply no merit; but though on great occasions he may wish to be greater than others, he will be satisfied in common occur- be leu.—Jo) Tne New Penal Code. David Dudley Field, in a conver sation with a Tribune reporter the other day with regard to the postpone ment of the time when the Penal Code should take effect, said that there was nothing in the statement of Mr. Sharpe in the Legislature last week to the effect that this code would practi cally repeal the excise laws. The code as originally drawn, Mr. Field said, contained a saving provision in regard to Municipal corporations in general, which would have prevented any such result. But to make doubly sure, amendments covering this very point had been introduced at his suggestion and with ills approval. These amend ments had been passed by the Assem bly, and if they had been passed by the Benate also last week, they would have become at once a part of the Penal Code. The Judiciary Commit- tee has understood this and approved it; but the “scare” arose in the Benate when they were absent, and there was no one present to explara. Mr. Field stated the cioumstanoe that brought about the postponement of the operation of the Penal Cod] Several weeks ago Diatriot-Attori m met«frlm and The Church Temporal. Mission Work and other Matters. Infidel books are extensively circu lated and read by the English-speak ing Hindoos in India. Sunday, May 21, has been appointed by seventeen bishops of the Episcopal Church as a day of intercession for the success of missions. The fiftieth anniversary of the estab lishment in Boston of the Order of the Sisters of Charity was commemorated in that city on May 14th. The Fifth Street Methodist Episco pal Church of Philadelphia celebrated the semi-centennial anniversary of its foundation on May 15th. The first Welsh church in Ohio was founded in 1803' At present there are in the State forty churches with 3,000 members. , The Baptists in the South number altogether 1,715,794, of whom 974,100 are white and 741,694 negroes. The town clock in the steeple of St. Paul’s Church in this city, was made in London in 1778. It has two weights of one thousand pounds each. The late Dr. Bacon, after becoming acquainted with Dr. Newman Smyth, hearing him preach and reading his books, recommended him in the warmest terms to the Centre Church of New Haven. The library of the Hartford Theo logical Seminary is growing in a very satisfactory manner. About 3.000 vol- nmes have been added the.past year, a considerable number being from the Sunderland Collection. Of the $51,728 73 received from the sale of Bibles during the month of March by the American Bible Society $11,378.04 came from New York, $3,800 from Massachusetts, $3,640.46 from Japan and $8,396.49 from Turkey. It is suggested that an itinerant ministry will use bycycles in the fu ture. A bicycle manufacturer writes to The Western Christian Advocate; “At this very moment I hear in the riding school above me, the rumbling of eight bicycles, each bearing a pupil lary propellant Methodist minister.” There are four American societies at work in the mission field, extending from the wesiern limits of Bulgaria to Teheran, in Persia, and from the Black Sea to Syria and Egypt. Iu this field there are about thirty central stations, with five colleges for impart ing liberal education o^ a Christian basis, besides several theological col leges ; about 400 out-stations, 121 chinches, and about 900 native pastors, sch<rol teachers and other native lielp- ,aged in Christian work. The t congregations number ,000, about ong^Kth of them mmunican So you think you would L marry a young woman who “domestic accomplishments,” _ broil a steak, wash, iron, cook, etc., do you young man? Let’si We presume you have the qualitf domesticity in abundance, youi You could preside at the table dignity, you could carve a tough tij key without swearing, you could wj on the guests in a manner that wo|^ not put yonr wife to the blush i your awkwardness? You have those little choring knacks abor! house that would lift the burden froj the partner of your joys ? For instan^ you would take most excellent care your own wardrobe. Never thr<j your boots, trousers, dirty collars ai shirts in nine different directions you would eagerly see that c mis wt always in readiness for the range, tl the furnace was kept at just that evej burning gait which makes all ocmfoi table ; you would never get mad and curse and howl because a potajf dropped down the sink spout; yc would always be “just so pleasani ?| And then, of course, In case your wij should be indisposed, we presume yc would have the grace to eat a a meal or two in the pantry instead dining down town and telling yf wife how much better things were< ed there than at home? And agaii case your wife had guests, you wi be cadable of entertaining them sensible conveisation on topics of ture and common sense, without once introducing “shop” talk, “hor talk, “street” talk, “percents,” ging,” “straddles,” “blinds,” “ hands’” "flushes,” and those mat which occupy so much of the valm] time of our best young men ? You fitted to all these requirements, you ? then you deserve a wife that broil a beefsteak, play the piano! bring to you a dowry of $10,060 a yl The ‘Smartness” of Won and Fish. ito a “I have made some of nay vac teresting studies of nature in^ morning,” said Seth Green “Thl the time to see the insects at their! — to see the mud wasp stinging spiders without killing thei packing them away where tjl kept alive for weeks to be usee needed. I have seen a small worm hanging down on a wet ant, stationed on the limb above up the web and, just as the comes within reach of his tiny] down drops Mr. Worm. The ar up again and again and the lets out another reef and goes This sort of thing continues] finally the ant grapples the wori both go down together in a scramble, in which the worm man] to shake off the ant. This leaves] worm on the ground. His we strong that the other eq^l is st ened to the limb above. Wl Mr. Ant do? Give it up? have seen him go up the tru! tree, crawl out on the same go to work again pulling up I web. Then after anoth 1 r battl known the ant to get the bett fight and lug the worm off to] three rods away. “Why, talk about reasoning^ The perseverance and instinct I little creatures is wonderful. go stan out iai t to fish. They spies) up in tne boat, drop; three feet away, and worn they don’t catch trout. Tl that trout can see. Fish lcarf tackle and fish are, as a rule, lc their habitation. There are many gypsies among fish as men. Any man who will tal pains to study fish—or who w| member a tithe of what he read^j them, can catch them, smart, but our brains will beaj I remember once of fishing forj trout for a long time and taki ing. Finally I concluded to get. aud look into the water, and so/J ing my coat over my head, I required shade and peered doi salmon would sail up and loot minnow. Then, with a, he would close his teet half the minnow snd oj like a flash. He did ffT u bA eat the minnow, and ha^e,/ ered body would drop to When it had fallen to tip /« lake the salmon wouk’ * t/}j urely and eat it. The]'’ I dropped my hook bite of the trout I to send the hook the result went dowi be