SCIENCE SIFTINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 240, 7 October 1916, Page 14

SCIENCE SIFTINGS.

DOITT KE3S THE CAT. Professor Fiooei, the Italian chemist, (has found by experiment that wJien a cat licks its lips, it epreade over them a ealiv*. in -which . there are awartns of iainute bacilli not free from danger to <hnman beings. When be inoculated rabbits and guinea-pigs with this noxious substance they died within twentyfour hours; and he has come to the conclusion that it is dangerous for ladies to indulge in the habit of kissing their cats. By the professor's experiments we learri? further, that there are ladies in Italy who ties their laip-doga, a habit even more dangerous than the other. Hie analysis of the saliva of these animals brought out facts that are too repulsive to be mentioned. FORTUNE IN TOBACCO AfBT, In the "Chemical News" Mr. B. A. Burrell points oat that tobateco akh contains 20 per cent of potash. A cigar, cigarette, and pipe of tobacco of ordinary sizes, weighing severally 106.5, 27, and 25.5 grains, will give ash containing respectively 6.5, 1.75, and 1.60 grams of potanti. As regards the possibility of recovering this waste potash, Mr. Bnrrell. found that from the smoke-room, of a club 9joz of aeh and unbarnt tobacco could be collected in eight daye; from the lounge of a large hotel 13oz in four days; from a la,rge restaurant 2Jlb in ten days, and from a music-hall (one-tenth part of the auditorium) 4oz after one performance. The tobacco consumed in the United Kingdom for the year ending March 31, 1914, would give approximately 13,359 tons of ash, containing 2,672 tons of potash, wbteh, at the pre-war price of kainit, would be worth nearly £51,000. MEAT-BATING AND APPEMHCTne. Appendicitis is chiefly a diaeue of youth. It is met with more frequently among males between the ages of 10 and 30 yean. The later in life the less liability one has of contracting appendicitis. It. commonly occurs in.those who are apparently in good health, and strikes them down very quickly. What was commonly called a few years ago "inflammation of the bowel" is now known to have been appendicitis. It often follows constipation and catarrh of the bowels or colitis. Investigation of late yean into the causes of appendicitis have led many surgeons to believe that one chief cause is the diet of the people. The comparative immunity from appendicitis of the races who subsist upon a purely vegetable diet is worthy of consideration. This fact alone implies that the frequency of the disease in some communities has to do no doubt with meat-eating.—C H. Haytoo, MJD., in "Oood.BtiWu''