SCIENCE SIFTINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 231, 26 September 1908, Page 16

SCIENCE SIFTINGS.

THE WHITENED NEGRO. For some time Parisians (says'a correspondent) have had the opportunity of studying a negro who, if not altogether white, is partly so. Sam .1— comes from Philadelphia, and his story shows that it is not the Ethiopian alone who is unable to change his skin. He came over to Paris a few years ago to study art. By some fault or other he soon had the idea fixed in his mind that there was no finelooking, aesthetically beautiful man or woman who had not a white skin. When he next visitexi America his chief thought was to have his colour changed, and he made a bargain with some student of radiography to pay so much on condition that Iris skin should be made perfectly white. The. man was able to show that the application of a certain radiographic lantern bleached the skin, and so the operation was continued to the end. He has not been long hack in Paris, but already the effect of the treatment is wearing off. His skin has become grey in patches, and grey is darkening to black. A TERRIBLE SPIDER. Far up in the mountains of Ceylon there is a spider that spins a web like bright yellowish silk, the central net of which is five feet in diameter, while the supporting lines or guys, as they are called, measure sometimes tern feet or twelve feet. The spider seldom bites or stings, but should anyone try to catch hhn he will bite, and,' though" not venomous, his jaws are as powerful as a bird's beak. The bodies of these spiders arc very ha_<—orrnHy decorated, being bright gold or scarlet underneath, while tlie upper part is covered with the most delicate slate coloured fur. So strong are the webs that birds the size of larks are frequently caught therein, and even the small but powerful scalp lizard falls a victim. An authority who has just written enn the subject save; that he ha.s often sat and watched the yellow monstermeasuring, when wating for his prey, with his legs stretched out. fully six inches—striding across tho middle of the net, and noted the rapid manner in which he winds his stout threads round the unforti—tato captive. Ho usually throws the coils about the head until the wretched victim is first blinded and then choked, ln many unfrequented dark nooks of the jungle you come across skeletons of small birds caught in those terrible snares. WINE'S VARIED BOUQUET. Certain vines in certain localities, it has long been known, produce famous , wines in certain years, and in other years wines of most ordinary character. The exceptionally fine wines are the product of exceptional years, and mo one so far has been able to explain why (hey are so much superior to the product of other years. Sometimes a cutting from an ordinary vine will, when planted in other surroundings, heair grapes that give a wine far superior in quality to that of the parent stock. Oeca— onally the grapes grown on one side of a hill produce a finer quality of wine 'than those on the other sides, but slips from these exceptionally line vines give only ordinary grapes when trainsptanted. M. Rosenstiehl, a great French vitieulturist, who has been conducting experiments to ascertain what it is that gives the bouquet to wine, knew that these differences were due to differences in the soil, either its texture, its richness, the amount of moisture if received, or the amount of stiins-hine that warmed it. He believed that the vines drew from tho earth variable elements which had some bearing upon their fermentation. So he took the must of very ordinary wines, sterilised it, and started its fermentation with yeasts taken from wine of the samo i growth, but of choice vintage. The result ; was wine of an extremely fine bouquet. ! But here he di.-*-ovcred an cxtraordi- ) nary fact; the yeast did not transmit ! to the wine the distinctive lMiiiquct of j the vintage from which it had been taken, | but that, of the vineyard which was com- j mon .to it, and them the wine upon which i rt worked. He believes, then, that each j vineyard may have ibs own bouquet, | and thii can be broupbt out by adeliug! the yeast of the finest vintages to the must of ordinary years. The bouquet of wine is really the perfume of ethers, more or less volatile, | which are formed in the process of fer- I mentation, and the wine that has the fine 1 bouquet generally has a fine flavour also. ; ' I HOW CONDENSED MILK IS MADE. The manufacture of condensed milk (say 3 Mr W. H. Simmonds in the "Grocers' Handbook ") is carried on upon a large scales in Switzerland, Ireland, and else- j where. For Bweeteued condensed whole ] milk fresh milk is first warmed with about ! one-eighth of its weight of powdered cane ' sugar, and the mixture is then evaporated in large vacuum pans until reduced to ; about one-third or one-fourth of its original volume. It is then ready lo bo filled j into cans and soldered up. The unsweetI ened- milk is manufactured in a similar ' way, with one or two further processes. , The fresh milk is in some- cases first puri- | lied by whirling it in a centrifugal machine, in other cases by simply straining, j It is then boiled, in order to coagulate the albumen, which would otherwise co- | agulate during the subsequent sterilisation anel make the milk lumpy. After I this it is concentrated in the vacuum pans down to about one-third of its orig- | inal volume, filled into the cans, soldered I up, and then sterilised hy heating the closed cans for a few minutes to a high temperature — about 280 deg. Y. Properly prepared, such milk will keep an indefinite length of time, if the cans I are not opened. A GREAT ANT MYSTERY. Probably more has been written about ants than any other order of animals in existence, men and birds excluded. And yet, after 3000 years of dose observation on the part of naturalists, there are still several " ant mysteries," and one of tho I greatest is associated with their internecine warfare anel warfare against other < insects. They do not only keep slaves for a specific object, but organise bodies lof specially-bred aud specially-trained I warriors, and they can, for aggressive or I defensive purposes, communicate with j each other by the exercise of a sense of which w e know nothing. That was experimentally proved by the late Dr. Riley, for many years Chief of the Entomological Division of the U.S.A. Agricultural Department. The fa.cts are not in dispute, and the only explanation Dr. Rile}' could offer was that these ants are possessed of an additional sense, which he could only compare to " what is now 1 called telepathy." The ancients believed [in the " language of bircK" and more than one great man thought he could interpret such language. We now acknowledge that birds, and many orders of animals, have a " language "' of their j own. They have, warning cries, notes of love, of anger, of hate, and of paternal solicitude. The animals themselves can understand them, and man can partially do so also.