SCIENCE SIFTINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 67, 18 March 1916, Page 17

SCIENCE SIFTINGS.

A NEW TEST.OF DEATH. A. drop of ether injected into the eye:ba!l is recommended by, an Italian physician a3 the most reliable test of death. If life is. still present the ether will 'cause a: reddening of the eye, but if death has taken place there will be no change. FLOUR SUBSTITUTES IN BREAD. Flour substitutes are much-in the air jnst now. About thirty such substitutes just-tested by the.United States Bureau of Chemistry have proved useful ,for bread when mixed with at least three times as much wheat flour. The substitutes include floure of chestnuts, bananas, soy beans, peanuts, peas, corn, barley, oats and rye. Bread of twelve parts of boiled potato to wheat llour proved satisfactory. TEETH AND OATMEAL. He must be a brave man who attacks oatmeal porridge in Scotland, but D% Harry Campbell did it at the annual Congress of the British Medical Association held at Aberdeen. He was tnking part in a debate on the duty pf the State' towards the early environment of the child, and spoke vigorously about teeth. He said that the condition of the teeth of the people in Britain was absolutely appalling and disgraceful. If a young woman came to hie consulting room with unhealthy teeth he always gave her a sermon, and eaid that she ought to go to her room, pull down the blind, and' read the Burial Service. He doubted if there was a normally developed jaw in Great Britain. He had very little sympathy with Scotch porridge, because it did not necessitate mastication. Dr. Hamilton Harwick said that Dr. Campbell had spoken not of porridge but of bad porridge. He, spoke of porridge as he got it in London, taken not with salt, as should be, but-with sugar, which was dieletically* wrong.

> WHY DRINKERS GROW FAT. Not all hard drinkers are fat, but the > tendency of most alcoholics to obesity is V too marked to escape notice. Science • now saya this is because the alcohol ■ usurps the function of the fat, which is • thus permitted to accumulate in various 1 parts of tfie body. It is noticeabje, says an English physician. that those addicted to the use of r j alcoholic beverages often reveal a teni dency to corpulence which is proportion--1 ate to their useof the drug. The fatness 1 is not a sign of health. It is not even 1 an indication that alcohol is harmless. ', It is Tiierely the result of the complete 1 oxidisation of the substance of alcohol ■* by the human-liody. I The body will oxidize a two-ounce ' quantity of alcohol in twenty-four hours, , and will do it so completely that no trace - of alcohol can be found in any excretory •• substance. This simply means that the J unnatural heat produced in the body by 2 the presence of'the stimulant answers. ! for the time being at least, for what - would otherwise be produced by the ex--5 penditure of fats and carbohydrates. 1 The hitler are the fuel stored up by • the body and normally burned up in the • production of necessary bodily heat, t When alcohol is consumed it furnishes 5 heat—though not a natural heat —and ' this x avoided. The fat is a therefore stored up in tlie body unused, t and corpulence is the necessary result. This, of course, is not a normal conI dition nor a proper process. It becomes i more unnatural with increasing eon- ! sumption of alcohol.

BRITISH SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS. Hitherto Germany-ha^-led the world in the manufacture of Ifcientific , instruments and apparatus. ViAu analysis of the trade returns up tofthe outbreak of war indicates that if the volume, of British exports of this class of goods wae not small, that of Germany was on a far larger scale, attaining its greatest value in telescopes, field-glasses, microscopes, and other optical, apparatus, and in recording and measuring instruments. There are signs that this supremacy k not |ike]y to be retained by Germany after the -war. British manufacturers, even if it needed the dislocation of trade caused'by the war to enable them to demonstrate the fact, arc able to supply the present needs for scientific instruments in workshops and manufacturing laboratories, and have abo lately given evidence of their capacity to design . new types of instruments for research . work. It would be easy to-multiply mii stances of-the important part which such apparatus plays in modern manufacture; one example will, however, suffice, cays a Home paper. It is recognised that in the . manufacture of' steel' for armoflY ' plate, guns, and projectiles the • physical properties of the steel are absolutely, dependent upon accurate measurements of temperature, owing to the important changes which take ,l place within ' ar comparatively small range. Sir Robert Hadfield, .whose vjews on such a subject carry weight, recently stated before the Society of Arts that there is no longer any need to rely on foreign manufacturers for pyrometers or similar apparatus, the best types of which are now produced in British workshops.; It is hoped that , in the near future it may bepossible to make-a eimilar statement in - connection with all the scientific instruments which are 6uch important weapons in the hands of the modern manufacturer. STILL A MYSTERY. What is electricity? The question was put directly to Dr C. P. Steinmitz, the ■ famous expert of the General tol-ectric Company, in the 'hop y e that 'he —than whom no one knows more about it— might be able if not to tell what it is, at least'to give a definite idea'of what !it may be. Dr Steinmitz replied:— i "Elec-trieity is a looss term, used ! misceUaiieoMsly in referring to all matI ters electrical. To give it definite > meaning one must know whether rc- > fereiuc is made to electrical energy, electrical pressure, electrical intensity ia - the voltage per unit length. ' f "Magnetism is a similar term, which ■ does not mean anything to the scientist. - Two pieces of steel may have exactly the i same structure,' as far.as science .can dei termine. andt/ret one may contain mag- . netic quantity and Jiave different mag- ! netic intensity. Quantity times in--1 ensity equals energy. '"There may be the same quantity of ! ■ water in two pipes and different pres- , sure. Or there may be the same pre - -; euro and different quantity. If water, ■ the liquid, water pressure, and water > power were all |loosely called water, we ■ should have the eaine confusion that . the words electricity and magnetism sug- ; gest to the scientist."

"Js there such a thing as electricity? he was aeked.

"1 cannot state positively that electrical quantity is a subetaricc," Dr. Steinmitz replied, '"or. that there is such an atom as an electron. 1 cay simply that it is the most commonly accepted theory."

Which leaves us ju>st where we were at tlio beginning. In other words, no one can say that there is sucli a thing as electricity. And all that lias been written and said about electrons is based upon nothing but hypothesis.