SCIENCE SIFTINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 141, 13 June 1908, Page 14

SCIENCE SIFTINGS.

FROGS HATCHED IN THE MALE'S v MOUTH, Some email frogs of the specie,s known as Bhinoderma Darwini have just reached this country from Chili, and have received much attention from naturalists. The tadpoles are developed in a very curious manner. The female lays about a dozen eggs, and these are immediately swallowed by the male and deposited in a pouch in his throat, where they remain until hatched and sufficiently developed to emerge into the outer world. The lack of external gills is a remarkable characteristic of the tadpoles. DWELLERS IN MARS. M. Camille Flammarion, the eminent French astronomer, recently received from the Lowell Observatory, in the United States, a number of spectrograms giving positive evidence of the presence of watery vapours in the atmosphere of He confident ,thatj, whereas the earth is obliged to receive much of its necessary moisture in the form of rain, the inhabitants of Mars may possibly obtain all the moisture they require in the form of a white frost which falls during the night and evaporates after the rising of the sun. M. Flammarion is convinced of the existence of inhabitants on the planet. " Mars," he says, '' has evidently neither our climate, our temperature, nor our atmosphere. It is, besides, older than the earth by several million years. I am absolutely ignorant as to what its inhabitants are like, for that does not belong to the scientific knowledge of our time—it belongs to the science of to-morrow." THE PERIODIC COMETS EXPECTED IN 1908. Four periodic comets are expected t> make, their perihelion passages this year. One of them has already made its appearance, having been seen as a telescopic object of the twelfth magnitude in the constellation of Pisces, by Professor Wolf, of Koenigstuhl, on January 2. This ie the well-known JOncke's comet, the orbit of which lies entirely within the orbit of Jupiter. After its discovery by Pons in 1818, Encke calculated its period and successfully predicted its reappearance in 1822. " Since that date it has appeared regularly at intervals of about three and one-third years, and earlier appearances have traced in astronomical records back to 1786. Encke- found that, after allowance had been made for the considerable disturbing effect of the planets, particularly Jupiter, a progressive diminution of the periodic time, amounting to, two and two-thirds days in each revolution, remained. He attributed this regular acceleration, which Is' confirmed by all later observation, to the action of a resisting medium diffused through the interplanetary space.

Another comet expected this year was first observed by Temple in 18691 Its period (five and one-half years) was calculated by swift after its appearance in 1880. It reappeared in 1885 and 1891, but was not seen cither in 1897 or 1903.

Denning's comet was first observed in 1881. It has a period of about eight years, and should reach its perihelion in 1908.

The fourth expected visitor is the comet discovered by Giacobini in 1900. If its calculated period, of about seven years, is correct, it should make its appearance very soon. As it has been seen only once, it cannot strictly be called a periodic comet.

THE SNAIL'S WONDERFUL MOUTH. Late investigations, undertaken in a German laboratory,- have shown the snail's mouth to be a wonderful piece of mechanism. It is fortunate fo*> mankind that no large wild animal is similarly constructed. It is armed with a very formidable instrument in the shape of a remarkable Baw-like tongue, which resembles a long, narrow ribbon, coiled in such a manner that only a small portion of it is called into use at once. Thickly distributed over the entire surface of this ribbon are an immense number of excessively sharp little teeth. The quantity of these teeth is incredible—one species, for instance, has been indisputably proved to possess as many as 30,000 of them. As the teeth wear away, the ribbon is uncoiled, and the others, which before were wrapped up in it, at the back of the snail's mouth, come forward to take the place of those which have served their turn. The upper part of the mouth, consists of a horny surface against which the sharp-toothed tongue works. So effective an-instrument does this tongue prove that the tough leaves of the lily may often be found to be entirely rasped off by it.—"Science Sifttings."

MONKEY STORIES. Not even the most learned naturalist has yet Deen able to plumb the depths of the mind of the lower creation. Was it merely the instinct for imitation which made Frank Buckland's monkey clean the boots, blacklead the grate, and then, his daily bath once failing to appear,.take the lid off the family kettle, get into the vessel, and sit down until he was nearly boiled? And was it merely blind instinct which enabled the same man's ape to defeat a project for her capture after she had broken from her place in the deanery and was skating about on the roofs ? Her chain dragged as she ran, and Buckland, who was in pursuit, saw that as she passed a certain spot on the roof her dangling chain would swing in front of an open window at which a woman stood. He made no sign, but said quietly to the woman: "Please catch hold of the chain as it comes to you." That was all. But the ape understood. She stopped instantly, hauling up the chain hand over hand, sailor fashion, and continued her flight until she thought it time to return home of her own accord.

A somewhat similar experience came the way of the present writer. Throughout a summer, an Italian boy used to bring his monkey every week on to the lawn, where for a couple of hours it would feed and rest, and, if the spirit moved it, do a little climbing. It was at best a fiery little creature, but by and by became friendly with the occupants of the house. One day it shinned up a pillar by a window, and in doing so tore away a creeper. "You had better make it come down," said the writer to its owner in an undertone, and without raising a finger by way of sign. The boy gave a little tug at the chain. The monkey turned and leapt down, then bounded like a fury across a flower-bed, and attacked—not the one who had tugged the chain, but the person who had suggested the check. It would be absurd, perhaps, to suggest that the creature exactly understood the words spoken, but it did rapidly sum up cause and clfect, and introduced its teeth to the most accessible part of the cause.