SCIENCE SIFTINGS

Auckland Star, Issue XXXVI, 21 October 1905, Page 10

SCIENCE SIFTINGS

A FAMOUS INVENTOR'S DEATH. j The death is announced of Dr. Philip Henry Muler. of Gresford, DenbighI shire, tbe famous eye specialist, at the I age of 63. Dr. Miller was the inventor j lof an operation for the removal of the! j eyeball in such a way that a substituted J artificial eyeball could be" made to move in sympathy with the sound eye. ATJTOMOBILES ON CANALS. Basingstoke Canal, 47 miles in length' has been bought as a private speculation by Mr William Garter,, of Parksfcone. The. canal was constructed in 1794, at a cost of £163,000; but railway competition] affected the traffic, and as much of the property has deteriorated, the present j purchase price is said to be greatly be- j low the original cost. It is proposed to ! establish a service of motor-boats on the J canal. Why not on other canals, and so I I neutralise the bad effect on British trade lof high railway rates with favoured | tariffs to foreigners? | \ I GLASGOW COAL-FIELD. I It is estimated that the city of Glasgow covers a coal-field containing 350 million tons, the value of which if put Ito the uses of -mankind would exceed j45 millions sterling. There is not any I prospect of mining this coal thoroughly and completely, though a system may be employed to get at 20 per cent, or I thereabouts of the minetat and thus I tbe prospect is held out of tbe city eni terjng the lists as a producing "district." —"Science and Art of Mining." i I HOW A CORAL ISLAND BEGINS. The first sign a coral island makes is / a break or a ripple on the sartace; I something is then drifted and entangled on it—a log of wood, a dead tree, or a [mass of weeds. Then birds bring their 1 food of fishes, seeds, etc., and leave the J bones there; sand, gr%vel, and broken shells accumulate around it, and it bej gins to appear above water. Seeds I drifting on the ocean are next arrested lin their progress,; dead wood, decayed \ leaves, and fishbones form a sod. The j seed takes root, and rapidly, too, vrith the heat and rains of the tropics—generally the mangrove appears first. This j becomes a bush, then a tree, its roots 1 grasp the surrounding soil, and it forms j the beginning of a mangrove island, waiting for some passing discoverer to \ name it.

WEB-MAKING ANTS. Dr. F. Doflein gives a description oi the habits of a species of ants widely distributed in Oriental regions. He says: When the edges of a leaf are to be joined, or when a rift appears in the nest, a small company of the workers place themselves in a line across the fissuTe, holding on.to the one. edge with their mandibles and to the other with their legs, which are stretched backwards to their furthest extent, and then with a united pull drag 1 the two edges into contact. A second party then comes, and trims and fits the edges until they meet while finally comes a third party, each member of which carries a larva in its jaws. The larvae being put to work, inrmediatefy spin a "criss-cross" web by means of which the two edges ot the leaf are firmly, united.