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SCIENCE SITTINGS.

FANS AS FLY SCREENS. An enterprising business man has installed a ceilißg {an over the entrance to his store bo prevent flies from coming in. He has found (says tie "Scientific American ") that this form of fly screen is very effective, and does away with the bother of having a screen door for his patrom to open and shut. Heretofore flies -would eater when the door was opened, and would collect in the display windows, asking it necessary to clean the windows and the display objects fiiquently. Now he has no such trouble. Other business men are adopting this simple expedient, WEIAT IS GUM? The popular and, indeed, the scientific theory abont ginn has generally been that it is the natural product of certain trees and plants. But, in conformity with the germ theory of disease, it is also suggested (Ant gum is the result f>f disease in thfejproducing tree or plant. It has been found that, by making an incision in the limb of a peach, apricot, plum, cherry, or other tree bearing Btone fruit and inserting a bit of gum under the edge of the wound an immediate formation of gum in copious quantities takes place. These and other experiments would indicate that gums result from diseased action in trees, and that the disease can be set up by inoculation, just as smallpox is started in the human organism by similar means. Different diseases in different tree? give us dissimilar gums, as arable, tragaoanth, end probably many resins and gum resins. A flesh wound on any part of the body forms an inlet for atmospheric bacteria, which produces inflammation, suppuration, and the outflow of pus. Wounds on trees allow of the ingress of peculiar bacteria, which produce tree fever and the exudation of morbid matter called "gum." ILLNESS OF ELEPHANTS AND BEES. Elephants are known to suffer with rheumatism and fevers, boa constrictors have colic and toothache, and the little honeybee is subject to diseases caused by bacilli whteh at times reach the virulence of a plague. When an elephant is ill the keeper in charge mixes up a pail of medicated wateT or inserts the proper medicines in apples, and the mammoth eats his way to recovery or fails in the effort. Snakes are put on a low diet—water and air—for a month or two, and they likewise wriggle themselves back to health or curl np in preparation for transportation to the reptilian hereafter. But with the bee, pills, potions and plaster will not do. It cannot be fed with a spoon or undergo electrical massage. The British Beekeepers' Association is just now fighting the seourg-e among its untold millions of honey producers. The disease has made such rapid headway that the supply of honey will be greatly reduced- It is supposed to have been introduced intcGreat Britain from warmer and dryer Continental countries. To check it bees are being reared in the coldest and dampest parts of England. Those that survive possess a hardiness which makes them abler to resist the diseases which affect bees of less vigour. THE BUZZ THAT PUZZLED ANIMALS. When telegraph poles were first set np they had a most disquieting effect upon various species of animaJs. In Norway, for instance, at the time of the introduction of these useful articles, the bears were much perplexed to determine their purpose. The Norwegian bear, hearing the moaning of the wind in the wires, such a buzzing as he had heard somewhere before, proceeded in the ursine fashion to "put two and two together." Such a hozzing must mean the presence of a sweet morsel ; the poles must be gigantic hives; so the bear set to work to root the poles out of the ground. The strange humming also attracted the attention of the woodpeckers, which concluded that innumerable insects were concealed in these tall poles. Therefore the birds went to work to find the treasure, buxro'wing holes to attract the insects. In time, however, they all became wiser, and the telegraph poles or wire came to be used by more than one species of bird as a safe place for its nest. There is a small bird of Natal that used to build its cradle-shaped nest in the branches of trees, but as soon as the telejrraph wires were set up it changed the location of its housekeeping and built on the -wires so that snakes could not molest its treasures. The new position was found so secure that the bird added a second door to the nest, which had hitherto possessed only a small opening on the side farthest from the overhanging branch.

THE HOUSE FLY'S FECUNDITY. This is not a new story, but it is Important. The American Civic Association, with headquarters at Washington, has inaugurated the animal crusade against the housefly with a warning to everybody to begin early to get rid of the pests instead of waiting until summer is advanced- You save a great deal of time, hVbour, and money by doing this. The fly you don't kill in spring is represented by 2,«80,320 flies by autumn. Here are the figures:— A fly lays four times during the summer, each time 80 eggs, which makes 320 Half of them are supposed to be females, so that each of the four broods produces 40; the first eighth, or the 40 females of the first brood, also lay four times in the course of the Bummer, which makes 12,800 The first eighth of these, or 1600 females, lay three times during the summer, making a total of * 384,000 The second eighth, twice 256,000 The third and fourth eighth at at least once each 256.000 The second eighth, or the 40 females of the second brood, lay three times, the product of which is 9,600 One-sixth of these, or 1600 females, lay three times, or a number of eggs corresponding to 384,000 The second sixth lay twice, or eggs to the number of 256,000 The third sixth once, or 128,000 The third eighth, or the 40 females of the third brood, lay twice, and produce eggs to the number of ... /. 6,400 One-fourth of these, 1600 females, lay twice more, or eggs numbering 256,000 The fourth eighth, or 40 females, of the fourth brood lay once, and produce eggs nmnbering 3,200 Half of these, 1606 females, lay once more and hatch flies to the number of .. 128,000 Total progeny of a single fly in one tutunun , , u . -, 2JK0320-

Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19110902.2.88

Bibliographic details

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 209, 2 September 1911, Page 15

Word Count
1,078

SCIENCE SITTINGS. Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 209, 2 September 1911, Page 15

SCIENCE SITTINGS. Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 209, 2 September 1911, Page 15

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