SCIENCE SIFTINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 28, 1 February 1913, Page 15

SCIENCE SIFTINGS.

TUSH-ACHE. Elephant-, according to Sir John lland-Sutt >n. the surgeon, may have ■-.oihache in tbeir tusks owing to trie ormation of abscesses. "A case is on ecord." he said to a " Daily Mirror" eprt-si-nuuive. "where an elephant went nad :n the Strand. After its death an bs*.-e_s -Ai? iownd iv °ne c.f its tusks." A zoologist -.-ill that the throbbing! >_m "f t--r.th_.-ne which human beings I xperienee in ".heir teeth would be just j _.. viok'nt with an elephant with its u.-ks. (".LACIER QUARRIES. Quarrying glacier* and comraen ialising he product iti a wholesale manner are | :i:::;rr I" Switzerland's wealth, at the] i.-k of ruinina scenic effects. I Ph- French city of Lyons i? the most j mportam mnfiravT of this glacier ice, .vhirh. owinsr to its purity and transparency, commands a higher price than .hat >'it from hikes or rivers. The ice s blasted -mt of the glaciers by means *f black powder, which it has Iwri found i--.es not discolour the ire as giant] -M-.vdf-r does. Muoh ingenui'.v i> shown | n th" chute* which curry t-he j -look- of ioe down the mountain sides, j Vrv-f-. .*> re introduced to impede the] .--lociiv of the great ice blocks. T> THE CLIMATE OF ETUROPE i HANGING? Mr D. W. Homer. F_a.__et.Soe., asks -his. question in the "(.'ountryside" for December. The careful study of Greenwich records for the past 200 years •vould. he says, seem to give a reply n the negative, ami yet M. Camille KTammarion the (.rcvernmetrt Astrononer of Prance, some years since pointed iut that there had been a fall of about 1 degrees in tbe mean te-mperature of the re-hole of France during the last century. Sow a similar divergence in the rainfall of Paris has been discovered, and. ac?ord:ng to the same authority, there has been a persistent increase in the amount of rainfall in that city during the past .'entury. The scientific evidence seems, according to Mr Homer, to bear out the popular idea, and that is that the rfimate of France is not what it used to be, and Paris is at times as humid and foggy as London. MEASURING BY LIGHT. What is probably the most accurate measuring instrument in existence is now in constant use at the Standards Department of the British Board of Trade. The instrument was designed by Dr. A. E. H. Tutton. the eminent British scientist, and its ordinary unit of measurement i-s the eieht-nnHionth part of an inch, though in the hands of a capable observer it is susceptible of even greater accuracy. Measurements are made by it. in wave lengths of light. It may (be stated that the generally accepted theory is that light consists of vibrations in the *oralled aether which pervades the entire universe, these vibrations striking the eve ?ive rise to the sensation of light. Light vibrations, or waves, of different length give the sensation of different colours.- The length oi a light wave is extremely small. The unit of measurs--ment of the instrument is based on the length of the red light wave emitted by the glowing vapour of the metal cadmium. This lenarth, which is invariable. is approximately one-forty thousandth of an inch. The instrument, which is of a complicated nature, can be used to measure the minute difference between two official standards of the same unit of length— for example, the yard. Moreover, if by any accident the official standards were to be destroyed it would be possible to reeorrstrur-T them accurately with the aid of the instrument, for its unit of measurement is invariable. THE VALUE OF ICEBERGS. Tie number of lives which have been lost daring the present year through eol-H&ions. with icebergs from the frozen North has, says "Chambers' Journal," revealed in no uncertain manner the extent- of this foe upon the high seas. The bergs have been sighted in Southern latitudes which hitherto have been regarded as bey»nd their reach. The populaT mind has been riveted upon the subject by -be number of accidents: but as a matter of fact scientists have teen aware of their numbers and movements for years. So far as recent records go. this year icebergs have not been sighted *o far south as in former seasons. Pom* vearrs ago one huge berg contrived to weather the warm waters of the Guli Scream, and startled vessels abound the Azores: and on another occasion a wan derer -was espied off the Bermudas. The bergs of the North Atlantic have then origin off the western coast of Greenland, whose mighty ice-cap stretch e= down to the sea. As the frozen rivers come into contact with the water, they •break off in huge masses, some solid blocks measuring a quarter of a mile ir lens-h and representing a dead-weight oi several million tons. When the win-ten breaks, and the currents set fiercely ■southward, these bergs are marshalled in line, and sail steadily toward warm&i climes in long procession. Those in the centre of the current keep their course while others on the are whiskeri ounw-ard to grind against one another, tc become stranded on the Labrador coast or ground to pieces among the island: dotting that bleak e&retch of Canadiar coastline. The escaping bergs drift oi and on till. in. the succeeding winter their progress is checked around thi shores of Newfoundland, and they joii up with the icefield, which forms rap idly. The whole mass keeps forgin< ahead steadily under the force of ib< currents, colliding and breaking continu •ous'.y. the detached portions attaching themselves to larger drifting fields, un til at law they float over the Gran< Banks. Here their destruction com mences. Their sides become pounded and merit under the rays of the sun, wihili their bases, with which huge masses o detritus, gravel and rock, are associated fall away to build up the submerget plateau of tbe Atlantic. Those whicl survive this decomposing process wan der farther and farther south, foul thi I great steamship lanes, and there for th' | Truest part finish .their career. Traveller | may re-sard the icebergs with Terror, btr j t-o the fishermen of Newfoundland am , the North Atlantic States they are i I blessing. It will be an unlucky day fo I these fishermen when Nature change her tactics, and swings the bergs upo: I another course away from the Gram Banks, as then the fishing industry wil i disappear. It is the debris borne by th ! bergs from virgin Greenland to be depc i sited upon tSie bed of the Atlantic a i this point which makes it an excellen J breedirrg ground for the cod. herring an other m-xketa-ble fish. The detritus cor ' tains an essential nutriment for £hes 1 edsblc den-rzens of the deep.