SCIENTIFIC NOTES.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 9022, 7 February 1895, Page 3

SCIENTIFIC NOTES.

Dr. Martin, a colleague of Dr. Boux, describes the anti-croup vaccine and when and how to use it. He said that whenever a child suffers from sore throat a doctor should be sent for, and a tube of the horse serum obtained. He cannot tell, perhaps, whether be has to deal with real or false diphtheria, but if he take from the patient's throat a bit of the false membrane, and drops it into the tube, he will see at once. In the case of croup the serum will turn milky round the piece of false membrane. This effect is produced by diphtheritic baccili. The child should then be inoculated. A fever, the sign of a strong reaction, will follow, and in twentyfour hours there will be no more danger. If the sickness is not combated at an early stage the serum is of no use, the blood being'too much poisoned.

Engineers have often announced that submarine vessels would some day acquire a speed much greater than that of ordinary ships. The diving bird 9 furnish a powerful argument in support of this opinion, for they move with surprisiog rapidity under water. The penguin, for example, can neither fly nor walk, but hops along as if its leg* were tied together. Nor does it swim, for it literally flies under water. . When, at the Zoological Gardens of London, the keeper brings food to these birds, a sudden transformation is witnessed. The bird, which is heavy and awkward, suddenly becomes a superb and rapid creature, covered with globules of silver formed by the air imprisoned in its plumage, and flying in the depths of the placid water with a rapidity of evolution that is unknown in aeiial flight. The motion of its wiogs is identical with that of ordinary flight, and its feet, extended in a line with its body, serve neither as motors nor as rudders. Steering is effected through the acceleration of the motion of one of the wings at the expense of the other. The Ash thus chased is captured and swallowed without any retardation of the speed",, of the bird being visible. The cormorant, on the contrary, swims with his feet, which act like the paddle boards of the wheel of a steamboat. Yet the conditions of the submarine medium are so exceptionally favourable that the speed obtained therein by the cormorant is three or four times greater than that which it makes upon the surface.

As a pioneer in developing hidden mineral resources the diamond drill has done useful work. Especially is this the case in regard to deep all .via), leads and coal measures. The iuvcnlicn ha 3 saved miny thousands of pounds to mining companies seeking to pick up the extensions of leads by indicating the trend of the wash, and of the deep ground in which costly shafts have to be sunk in order to get under the lead. Equally valuable has the drill been iv proving the extent of tho Gippsland coal measures. Hence anything that tends to cheapen the co»t ot boring—aud it is a costly item, notwithstanding the excellent work done—must be of the utmost importance to the mining industry. Presently perhaps some inventive genius will present a. handy boring plant aufficieutly portable to form part cf a miner's ordinary equipment, and then the mining industry will indeed enter upon.a new era of prosperi!y. Mean tine wo are making very good pro gress in cheapeuing tho cost of boring operations. For some months past an invention known as the Calyx drill, invented by Mr F. 11. Davis, has been under test by the Victorian Mining department. The conditions have been made as severo as possible in order.- that the merits of the invention should be fully tested. Its leading feature i_ a steel bib, which may be removed when the cutting edge is blunted, 6Q.as. .tcf-aJIow; otiHfresh oneT being sub. slltutioci*'Che other:. being res bar pened 'for future use. The'inachine wassettoworkon atestboreatNyora. The result was most successful., Mr Roualdson, superintendent of diamond drills, reported that, haviug compared the rate of boring and working expenses as against the diamond drills working in similar strata, he was convinced that the Calyx drill would reduce the cost of boring in carboniferous strata by fully one' half, and at the same time would produce cores equal, and perhaps superior, to those of the diamond drill,-"'. He.accordingly recommended that the Davis steel bits be supplied to the diamond drills engaged in coal boring. Not only has this recommendation been adopted, but the Minister of Mines, acting on the authority of an Order iv Council, has ordered five drills to be supplied at a contract price of £2500.—Leader.