SCIENCE NOTES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 150, 19 March 1908, Page 4

SCIENCE NOTES.

PUNCTURED HEART SEWN UP. ' HOW IT WAS DONE. General interest was aroused by tho publication of a cable recently announcing that Professor Sultan, of Berlin, had sown up a wound in the heart caused by a bullet, and that tho patient, had quickly recovered. Operations on the heart are not new, and tho .old idea that to touch the heart meant certain death was exploded some time ago. Not so very long sinco, a negro, named William Johnson, aged 35, was stabbed through the hoart in an hotel row in New York, and taken to tho Roosevelt Hospital. Strange as it may seem, after tho troullo Johnson left the hotel and walked'down tho street. Then feeling drowsy, he sat down on the korkstonc, whore ho was scon to bo suffering, and an ambulance took him off to tho hospital. Tho house surgeon, Dr. Dwight (says ; tho Now York "Sun"), sent for Dr. Joseph A. Blake, of COl Madison Avenuo. Johnson was placed on tho operating tablo. Dr. Blake performed tho operation, with tho assistance of Dr. Dwight. An incision was mado along tho upper border of tie third rib from the,sternum to tho nipple lino, then downward to the lower border of tho fifth rib, then to tho right to tho sternum again. When this cut had been deepened to tho ribs and tho third and fifth ribs severed tho result was a sort of trap dooi% This was raised and turned back on the sternum, .the costal cartilage acting as a hinge. When, the pleura was thus exposed the left lung collapsed—an occurrence which is largely responsible for tho pneumonia. A piiit of* blood was found in tho cavity, and a small wound in the pericardium, or casing of tho hoart, showed where the. blood had , come from.. Tho surgeons then opened the peri-, cardium and found a wound in the heart itself. It was a cut half-inch long ,in the right ventricle closo to the anterior coronary artery. At every beat of tho heart a little stream of blood spurtod from tho cut to a height of four inches. Tho wound extended to tho central cavity of tho heart. Grasping the heart in tho hand to steady it, four ■stitches with silk thread wero taken,' the sowing oxtending entirely through the wall of tho heart. Then the pericardium was sowed up, and the ''trap door'' closed and iowed in place. In eight days tho heart was entirely healod, and ■ there was sign of blood poisoning. Tho patient, however, developed pneumonia, and was still ill with it when tho mail left.

TEACHING OF SCIENCE. The Association of Public School Science Masters hold its animal - meeting recently at .Westminster School under the ' Presideuccy of Dr. H. A. Micrs, Waynflete Professor of Mineralogy at Oxford. The-chairman, in his address,, said the spirit of inquiry, shonld be tho real inspiration of all scientific training, and thore.was absolutely nothing: that could bo compared with experimental work as a means of promoting this spirit. But, laboratory training alone was not an.ade-' quate. training in observation for the ordinary boy.. If .only ordinary boy 3 could get into their heads tho notion that.science was but tho intelligent study of ordinary things, they would ceaso to regard it as a mere educational task. In; school teaching there iwas a great want of continuity, and when a boy. passed from Nature-study to practical' mechanics or chemistry or mensuration; he thought ho was passing to a now subject quito unconnected with what he had done before. Ho. supposed it was now-'becoming generally accepted that mensuration should bo tho beginning ,of I the school scientific courso, whether it bo called physics or chemistry. On the historical principlo this should in a general way lead, through experimental mechanics, to physics and tbonco to chemistry. It was unwise, if not 'impossible, to teach chemistry and .physics as two independent'subjects. At present mathe7 matics and science were too often taught quito independently/ 'Scientific, education at a "University should' bo designed for., students whoso minds, were formed," o.nd ,they should he put in the position of intelligent inquirers really_ approaching.'"scientific'' prohlems with tho desire for achievement. Half .tho jvaluo of science as a mental training. was | tho knowledge that it was always advancing ; and the spirit of restless, inquiry,, if stimulated, supplied' just the enthusiasm- which was so lacking. Professor H. '.Armstrong (City and Gnilds'\of'London ' Institute) ■ dcplored tho fact that science did not occupy in this country the pssition,it did somo years ■ago; Wo had been getting into tho-way of treating school science as a whole, but London had gone back oh that and was' splitting up scienco into little bits. Nothing ,could bo .worse from the school point pf view. Sir A. Geikic was not disposed to 'take' this pessimistic new. Tho school he knew most about ■ was . Harrow, . and the teaching of science in that , school had made great progress during the .past ten or twelve years. If ovory public. school in England was conducted as respccted its science teaching as well as Harrow he would not despair of the futuro. Mr. Ashford (Dartmouth) said his experience had been that it was possible to givo: the ordinary public'school boy.a very, satisfactory courso of scientific training whilo postponing to . tho very end the . study of mechanics and tho mathematical treatment of tho subject. Mr. Fitzpatrick (Cambridge), commented on the want, of knowledge of tho ordinary scientific . terminology among tho students who camo to tho Universities from tho public schools., '.

A FATAL DLT.L. The big swordfish had reached tho blue waters, of tho oecan when; .without warning, a blue-backed torpedo-liko body shot out of tho depths, coming at it liko an arrow.. The swordfish tipped intuitively, "and a sword grazed its head as a big, - thick-set member of its own family swept through.the waters above -.'it.'- The : two fish turned and came at each other like mad bulls; Again by some miracle they missed, just grazing 1 ond; another to whirl about and begin the circlingplay for time and opportunity. Thou,, like flashes'of light,. they turned and came on with a strange whistling sound and an impact that tossed the white churned spume high in tho air—camo together as only bodies weighing 200 or 300 pounds can wiion impelled by animate vibrant engines of unknown power—came: together and remained there, whirling, tossing tails in air, rolling over aind over. The long, slender fisli had pieredd the other,' and the terrific efforts on tho part, of tho fish were to'unsheath tho sword, which' was only accomplished" after a struggle for several minutes. Then both fishes shot away, then again, camo together, giving mighty side "blows, and then out of tho red-stained water one broke and; fled. The writer found- the. largest of -these- fishes n few days later, on tho sand, where? it had been washed or thrown by tho waves. Four or fivo deep ;.wounds . marked the . body.- In one rush tho sword had entered tho eve, coming out at tho gills; another cut a furrow along : the. top of tho head; another still had entered slightly from boloWj but tho real cau3o for defeat .was evident, in its sword, which was spliht-erod and 1 broken against its enemy.—"Recreation.'!

NEW. SOURCE OF ENERGY;. Volcanic steam-as a sourco of mechanical energy is .the novel scheme of Signor GinoriConti, an' Italian' engineer.;'- . Steam vents irv Tuscany hav'o been under observation for 15 years, and have ■sliown discharges of great regularity,, ensuring n constant., and considerable-;: supply ;■ of . highly-heated: 1 Water vapour to anybody enterprising enough to use it. A serious ;di/ficulty is tho corrosive acids with which natural steam is charged. THE BLACK PANTHER. •. . ' Of all tho big; dangerous cats, nono is inoro unapproachablo and more treacherous than tho black panther. Hailing l'rom.tho heart of . tho deepest African; jungle, lithe and supple or'body, nervous, this stealthy marauder, exceeds in ferocity even a Bongal 'tiger:' -' Ho is the only big'feline that the .lion -trainer d<jos ; not 'ventu.ro .to train, and ho is tho only cat so absolutely distrustful that ho shuns even.tho light of day. Often ho-, will lio all day long in a dusky corner of his Ilia yellow, slit oyqs shifting and gloaming 'restlessly. Even

tho feeding hour, when pandemonium, breaks looso among tlio big cages, when hungry roars and squeals minglo with impatient snarls and impacts of heavy , bodies against steel bars, is apt to have .'no effect on him. He may lie eyeing his chunk of raw beef suspiciously • and not venture .■ forth until night to tear meat from bones with his long, white fangs. In fact, so ugly and vicious is this beast that frequently he turns on his own kind, and in many instances it is impossible to cage him, even with a mate. HOW TO TELL A DIAMOND. - Even pawn-brokers have often been taken in by precious . stono fakers. A jeweller tolls us, however, that thero are a few simple tests which will considerably aid a buyer of diamonds. One test is to prick a needle holo'through a card and look !at tho • hole' through tho doubtful' stone. If tho latter is spurious, two holes will bo seen, but if it is a diamond only one hols- tfill bo visible. This is a delicate tost, our informant cautions us, because it., is difficult' to see even a sharp and defined object through a diamond. .Another test is this: If'the finger is placed behind and viewed through the stono with a watchmakers glass, the grain of tho skin will be plainly seen if tho stono is nota diamond; But if it is a diamond tho grain of tho skin, will not be distinguished at all.—"Scienco Sittings."-

ELECTRICITY THAT KILLS AND CURES,

_ The' , Electrical Magazino" publishes an :!lustrated. account of tho work of French scientists in tho use of the electric current as an-anaesthetic. "Not only is.it proved that a particular degree and 1 form of electric shock will - produco total insensibility to pain," says tho "Electrical Magazino," "and ensure certin recovery, without any deleterious after-effects; but tho remarkable fact was observed that 'electrocuted' animals can be restored to life by the rhythmical, application of electric currents.. It has been proved beyond doubt that. respiration- and hoart-beatings—lifo > itself—can. be;- definitely and permanently reinstituted in a body' from which, by accepted medical evidence, life had doparted." ]