SCIENCE SIFTINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 177, 25 July 1908, Page 13

SCIENCE SIFTINGS.

A TRIUMPH OF SURGERY. Among recent wonderful surgical oporations is one of a most daring and unusual nature. An idiot child, six years old, the. daughter of a resident of Berlin, has been converted into an intelligent being by the process of grafting part of the mother's thyroid gland upon the child's pancreas. In more popular language, this means that part of the mother's throat has been transferred by the grafting process to a gland, or tissue, lying directly at the back of the stomach. The operation was carried out by Dr. Karl Garre. an eminent German surgeon, whose success in the transplanting of organs from one animal to another and even from the lower animals to human beings, has attracted the attention of the whole world. CLAPS THAT WILL NOT CRACK. A new kind of glass that resists great heat as well as sudden changes of temperature is made from Brazilian quartz pebbles. The pebbles are heated redliot and then thrown into distilled water. The purest pieces are next selected and welded with the oxyhydrogen blowpipii into long stems like knitting needles, from which glass vessels of any shape can be made. At present the quartz glass is chiefly employed for making laboratory apparatus. Into a test tube made in this way a white hot coal can be dropped without breaking it. Vessels of other forms can be heated white hot and then plunged into cold water without cracking. BOILING EGGS WITHOUT WATER. Boiling eggs without the use of water is the latest novelty exploited at one of London's leading hotels, and as the feat is accomplished directly before the customer the new way of cooking generally attracts attention and comment. The waiter places a box-like apparatus on the table and turns on a little electricity, and places the desired number of eggs in the heater. In about a minute and a half, or half the time consumed by the hot water process, the eggs arccooked to a turn. POISONING BY SOAP: WARNING TO MOTHERS. Soap is not regarded as dangerous, but a German physician records two cji.-es of fatal poisoning by it. says "Science Sif tings." and warning is given that the material should '»' kept out of reach of the nsane and children. Each of the .ietims—both insane persons—ate a cake >f ordinary soap, death following in one ■asc in an hour and in the other case ii two days. Analysis showed no distinctly poisonous ingredient, and the r atal efTects could be attributed only to he material as soap. Heart action was rapidly diminished before death. 'CEMENT BOATS. ( ement and iron—otherwise known as reinforced concrete—has been used as a material for boats by a firm in Rome. They have built a number of vessels having a displacement of 100 to 150 tons. The frames have been of reinforced concrete, and these have been covered on the outside with concrete reinforced with wire netting, and on the inside with a similar layer, thus forming a double hull, enclosing water-tight compartments. A final coating of pure cement gives the outside a highly finished appearance. Such vessels are claimed to have the advantages of rapidity and cheapness in building, low cost of maintenance, great resistance to waves and shock, and of being—unlike wooden vessels —quite fireproof. IF THE SUN WERE DEAD. Camille Flammarion writes interestingly under the title, "When the Sun is Head." "Suppose the sun would suddenly cease to give us light and heat,' : he says, "what would happen?"' "Soli-preservation being the strongest of instincts, all men, women, and chil drcii would set to work at once to sub stitute artificial heat for the lacking natural heat. "The world contains at present Io0( millions of human beings. All tlißsi would have to turn coal diggers, each fil ling twenty sacks of a hundred pounds pei day. This would mean a ton of coa per day for each inhabitant of the earth "Would that be enough? Xo. Po: the power of the heat lodging in the stu is equal to 600.000 milliards of tons o coal per second. '"This is more than the human brail can grasp. To simplify the quantit; ■each ton of coal is to be representei by a match. To carry the matches need ed 11.600.000 trains of ten cars cad would be required.' , THE SPREAD OF MALARIA. Mathematics is called an exact scienw presumably to distinguish it fror sciences that are inexact. At all event: science, which in the general accepts lion of the term is properly defined a an inquiry after truth, does undeniabl make mistakes now and then. Take fo example the case of the widespread hn man ailment called malaria. Not lon ago it was discovered that the germs o the malady were carried by a certai: species of mosquito called Anophelesa grey, night flying mosquito, with i remarka.bly deep singing voice. It wa proved that this insect, by the help o the little hypodermic syringe that i bears, inoculates people with the microb of malaria.-, and immediately it was ap sumed that all epidemics of the diseas were attributable to the maraudin; vocalist. Recently, however, it has be gun to dawn upon scientific investiga tors that pej-haps this idea, was no strictly correct: for, if it was so. ho\ would it be possible to amount for th frightful epidemics of malaria that hay broken -out from time to time in district where there were almost no mosqnitoet Investigation has shown that great epi demies invaxiai>ly have been preceded b; an upturning of virgin soil over wid areas for paxjiuscs of cultivation; a fac which leads to the conclusion that th previously undisturbed earth was full c the microscopic protozoa long ago ident lied as the germs of malaria. Unde such circumstances the dry microbes ar set afloat in the air, and, being take into the lungs, or swallowed with foo or drink, find their way into the bloo of the victims. The result is the sain whether they get into the blood in th manner or through the agency of th mosquito. Much digging incidental t building operations often starts sma epidemics of malaria in cities in varior parts of the United States, and it notoriously a fact that the workmc under such circumstances are frequent! attacked in squads by the malady. A cordingly, it would appear that, thouf! Anopheles is undeniably guilty, t hoi would still be plenty of chills and fevo even though the last mosquito was drive off the earth.