THE MONTH OF DECEMBER. (From Chambers' Journal

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XII, Issue 827, 1 June 1855, Page 3

THE MONTH OF DECEMBER. (From Chambers' Journal

SCIENCE AND AUTS. Though war Jb the absorbing topic, our learned and scientfic societies reopened their sittings with something like the usual gentle excitement among the savans and philosophers who make up the weekly gatherings. In some few instances there is a little departure from the even tenor of the way of science, by eager endeavours to press experimental knowledg2 into the service of war— endeavours of which we are to hear more by and by ; but for the mo=;t part, our scientific men are pursuing their accustomed course. The anniversary meeting of the Royal Society on St. Andrew's Day was more than usually interesting, as the Earl of Rosso delivered his last annual address to the assembled fellows, and resigned his office of president greatly to their regret. Indeed, his lordship's withdrawal from the chair is regarded as a loss to the whole scientific community. He closed his presidency with a worthy distribution of the medals, which rank highest among scientific honours. The two Royal Medals wore adjudged to Doctors Hofmonn and Hooker— to the one, for his reserches in organic chemistry ; to the other for his botanical r«serches and discoveries. The award of the Rumford Medal has universal approval ■: it was given to Dr. Arnott, for his smokeless grate and his important improvements in heating and ventilation. We are the more gratified in recording this recognition of the doctor's sen ices, as he has always made a free gift to the public of his discoveries. They are being recognised in another way bv Lord Palmerston ; he has had the smokeless grate fixed in a number of the Government offices, where they are found to answer admirably. After this, we can but hope the Home tSecretary will continue his prosecution of the smoke-producers until the atmosphere of London shall be designated. But to conclude our remarks on the Royal Society : the Copley Medal is aw arded to Professor Johann Mu Her, of Berlin, for his researches in physiology and comparati /c anatomy ; Professor Stokes, of Cambridge, is elected one of the secretaries —a fact on which t e Fellows may congratulated themselves—and Lord "Worttesly takes the place of the Earl Rosse. We could wish to' stop here ; but the loss to the Society by the decease of such men as Wallich, Newport, Piofcssor Edward Forbes, to say nothing of many others, is too serious to be passed over without this mention. The calculating machine we noticed in a few words last month, turns out to be a more complete ard important instrument than was at first believed. The inventor, Mr. Scheutz, of Stockholm, has, in conjunction with his son, brought it lo perfection after twenty years' continuous labour, the younger of the two having first conceived the idea from reading an article on Mr. Babbage's invention in the ' Edinburgh Review.' The Swedish machine will calculate the powers of bi-quad-ratic equations, the logarithms for falling bodies from different heights, for projectile forces, tables of sines, &c.,— and all by the slow motion of a winch turned by the hand. And what is more, it stereotypes the columns of figures after having calculated them. In all previous machines the carryings have proved a hitch ; but in this of Mr. Scheutz, the movements receive no check, so beautifully are the several parts combined. It occupies lather more "pace than a cabinet pianoforte, and can be made for £200. Mr. Babbage's cost the public about £17,000, and was never finished. Admirably ingeniuos as this calculating machine is, we do not see that its manufacture for sale is likely to be profitable ; for who will buy it ? One or two in each of our largest cities would suffice to calculate all the tables that actual ies, public companies, or astronomers, are ever likely to want. But, in saying this, let us not be supposed to depreciate the invention, which is certainly a most remarkable piece of mechanism, and highly honourable to the constructors. Mr. Dobell has calltd the attention of the Royal Society to gelatine paper as a medium for colouring light, likely to be useful in many employments, and in cases of weak sight. This kind of paper, which was first invented at Rouen, in 1839, is now produced in great perfection ; it is highly transparent, and in sheets measuring sixteen inches by twenty-two, but can be made, if lequired, of the dimensions of the largest plate glass. These sheets, moistened with a solution of gelatine, may be stuck on the panes of a window, and thus change the light admitted to any colour required. A green light, falling on the white silk made up by dressmakers, deprh es it of all its painful glare ; in the same way, yellow silk >'s made to appear green by a blue light as has been proved by actual experiment, and is attended by the happiest effects. Jewellers who have tried the green paper, say that when once accustomed to working in a coloured light, they find it greatly relieves their eyes. In reading, too, a sheet of the green paper laid on the page preserves weak eyes from being injured by the strong contrast of black and white, and enables many to read with comfort who have been hitherto obliged by too susceptible vision to abstain from books. Other applications of gelatine paper naturally suggrst themselves ; it may be used for screens and shades for many purposes ; the glasses of spectacles may be coated with it ; gardeners may use it in their conservatories ; and the yellow will probably be taken into their service by photographers. By the addition of a smill quantity of acetate of alumina during the process of manufacture the gelatine paper becomes weather proof by the same chemical substance. Before passing from this subject, we may add that zinc white paper, a recent adaptation, is coming more and moie into use, being found particularly suitable for copper plate engravings and lithographs as also for memorandum-book*. Oxide of zinc seems likely to hare a wider application. We mentioned, some months ago, the offer by the Agricultural Society of a £100 prize for "a manure equal in fertilizing properties to Peruvian guano,' to sell at £5 a ton, and be forthcoming in any qu mtity : 143 competitors have answered the call, and from other countries as well as the United Kingcbm. However, before making the award, the Council of thp Agriculturalist intend to test the compounds sent in with scrupulous care, so as to protect the members from all chance of fraud or error. Professor Way rep >rts more adulterated manures in the market now than ever; some specimens of guano advertised as " genuine" which he has tested, contain rather less than one-tourth of real guano ; all the rest is rubbish in disguise. In their list of prizes for 1855, the society offer forty soverigns for the best essay " Ou the Causes of Fertility and Barrenness in Soils ; " twenty sovereigns for the best "On Artificial Manures, and the principles of their application ; " twenty " For the best Account of Artificial Food ; " and twenty for the best "On the prevention of Mildew in Corn Crops." These subjects which are in «<Wition to the series on farming in counties, indicate tho mode in which agriculture seeks to profit by science; and it is in this relation that we call attention to them. The present condition of political affairs is such as to make the supply-of-food question especially interesting. In this view, we may fitly say a few words here about the Chinese yams, on which for some few mouths past careful experiments have been made in the garden of the Horticultural Society at Chiswick. Some are grown under glass, others in the open air, and so fir with favourable results. These roots were sent over from the Jardin dcs Plantes at Paris, and as they have long been cultivated in China, it is believed they will more readily take to their new station than yams, and that they may thus become a valuable substitute for, or supplement to, the potato. M. Decaisne says, in reporting on the plant to the Academic, it has been •' domesticated from time immemorial ! is perfectly hardy in this climate (Paris) ; s root is bulky, rich in nutritive matter, eatable in the raw state, easily cooked, either by boiling or roasting, and has no flavour but that of fecula. It is as much a ready made bread as the potato, and is superior to tie batatas, or swest potato." The plants under cultivation at Chiswick are of the specis known as bioscorea batatas, or potato yam ; they grow with vigorous runners, which have some resemblance to our common black bryony. We have no wish to see people content themselves with yams instead of bread ; but as adding to the ordinary supplies of food, we do wish success to the Horticultural Society's experiments on yams. Irish Gailantst.— Three days ago our regiment was in the trenches ; we had one man knocked to pieces, and two more wounded by grape. The same day a very feeling circumstance took place. Two Russian soldieis

were coming down a street ; says one of our men, "By the powers, but they have a woman to protect them." " Bad luck to me," says another, •• if she goes a one side I'll have at them." They would not chance a shot for fear of hitting the woman. ' But she was not four paces from the Russians when whiz go the minie rifles and down tumbl d one of them ! the other started off at a good run. " Faith," said one of my comrades, •• if we shot the we man tho Ruo^hians would let Old Nick know it, and he would stick it in the papers that we wore shooting the women, and o'h"r countries would sly ' Sinope again.' ' ' Now, my d -ar wife, although we are at bloody work, this little incident will let you see that, while we have no reluctance in shooting or bayoneting a Russian, w e Ka\ c some respect for their women. — Letter from an Irish Foldier. The prospect of increased silk-culture, which we have mentioned more than once, becomes still more promising. Sir William Reid, Governor of Malta, states in a despatch to tho Colonial OlBce, that the silk-worm, Bombyx cynthia, introduced from ; Assam, is now acclimated and thriving, aud he sends specimens of its silk. Already the eggs have inultipiiad so a3 to allow ol distribution . the Agricultural Society of Grenada, West Indies, have ask id for a suppl}-, and are goi q to try them ; and in Pudmont the new worms have proved themselves as producthe and industrious as in their native country. Signor Griseri, and some of the nobility, have met with such sucee?>.s with the Assamese worn, that they are no.v experimenting on the native Itali m grubs which iecd on the leaves of the willow and lettuce. "Where is the limit to be placid," observes tho Turon Gazette, when "the object is nothing less tl an to convert the vegctubb matter of the most common leaves into the valuable substance of silk?" ~ The gr.'at fa"t in relation lo this new 13ombv\|is, that its food is the cantor-oil plant, Palina chrlsti, and n>t the mulberry, and the plant can be produced m warm countries in any quantity. Our allies on th^ other sd* of the Channel aie busying themselves with it ; t icy have naturalised the worm at Algiprs, and tind it to be one that keeps them fully employed, for the eggs are h itched very soon after they are lai 1, and the second generation of worms conies into work in about nine weeks, and so on all the year round. Owing to the coc/oiifa having a hole in the end by which the grub escapes, the silk cannot be reeled off in the usual way, Lut is stripped off and carded. A trial is to be made in Algiers as to whether an acre of mulberry or an acre of the castor-oil plant is the more profitable : the latter produces leaves in abundance. The Museum of Natural History at Paris is distributing eggs of the newsilk-woimto any sericulturists willing to give it a trial. Talking of cocoons, those recently depcribed by M. Guerin Menevilla throw all others into the shade. One or two specimens ha\e been sent to him from Madagascar, which aie nearly two feet in length, spun not by a si'igle individual, but by a whole colony of -worm . And this is not the only surprising gift to European naturalists from the great African island ; for tho shell of an egg laid by ont of its gigantic birds has been received : L holds nearly ten qra :s ! As if to prepare for the promised increase, exper - ments have been made on the preparation of silk at Manchester, from which the concision is corns to, that it would be better to import silk in cocoons, than in hunks and bales as at present. The saving in cost an-l labour would be considerable, for there is much to be undone in imported silk before it can be made ready for reeling ; while the new machinery reels off and pioduces a thiead ready for the weaver at one operation. i The Photographic Society are making arrangements for another exhibition, to be held in Jan., when they hope to show s tisfactovy advancement in the artibtia as well as the mechanical branch of their art— the one by copies from nature, the other by copi s from negative . That life-&ize portraits can now be taken, and that a legible copy of the Times can be produced on a plate but little more than two inches square, are certainly demonstrations of progress. The Paper versus Collodion question is not yet settled ; nor the discussion terminated on the possibility of producing coloured pictures. Becquerel still maintains his views, and pursues his researches. The Boston (Massachusetts) Society of Natural History have had photographs taken of an intc rersting impressed with the fossil footmarks of extinct birds, and are distributing them among' naturalists, to whom they vill be more valuable than any hand-drawing, as when examined by the microscope, every mark is as distinctly seen as in the original slab, so perfectly does the sun bring out even the minutest particulars. Then we see the gutta-percha has been successfully used as a mould in the electrotype process : an engra\ er at Paris having t» engrave a physical map of Spain in seven divis ons, prepared one plate, from which hs took moulds in gut-ta-percha, and on these the electrotype plates were deposited in ten days, and at one-third the ordinary expense. Gutta-percha, too, is much used now in tho manufacture of wh.it arc called bronzes d' art. Two more small planets have been discovered by the French astronomers, and added to the already numerous list by the names of Pomona and Polhymnia ; and tho Washington Observatory has made its first planetary discovery in Euphiosyne, another of the same group. This makes up the number to thirty-four ; and there is every reason to believe that more will yet be found, seeing that science is concnually availing herself of new aids and appliances. M. Bernard, of Bordeaux, has invented a nsw polaiim3ter, which, by a remarkably ingenious contrivance, enables the observer to note the polarisation of tho atmosphere with greater exactitude than by any other instrument used for the purpose, and to measure -nith ease and certainty the amount of polarised light contained in any given ray. He has also constructed a refraciometer and a photometer, which, as « ell as the other, have excited the admiration of the most distinguished physicists of Europe. Solar light, when examined by means of these instruments, is found to bs simple and not multiple, as some have belie\ed — the prismatic spectrum not bei ig composed of supnposed rays. Thus, the highest theories of optics are illustrated by contrivances beautiful] v simple. Many persons will remember th d .-.cussion fiat took place alter the burning of the noble steamship Amazon at sea, C(nn?rn'ns the use of steam in extinguishing fire: vapour of water was shown to be more effettu 1 in accomplishing the object than water itself. It q yes us pleasnre to be able to tell of a practical rosult : In France, the Prefet dv Nord has issued an ord.'r to all the distilleries within his depaiimenc, requiring them to be provided with flexible tubes and pipes communicating the boiler so that in ease of a fire a jet of steam may be at once directed on the flames in whatever part of tLe building they break out. We should bo giad to see the example followed in large manufacturing establishments in this country. Among the "subject for premiums," just publ'shed by the Institution ot Civil Enyinceis, we find— "An inquiry into the causes which have hitherto prevented the high speeds of steam navigation on the American rivets from being arrived at in England ;" "The best methods of reducing the temperature of the engine and boiler room of steam-vessels, and of preventing the danger arising from the ovei heating of the base of the funnel ; ' "Improvements in the manufacture of iron for rails at.d wheel tyres ;" "Improvements in the construction of railway carriages and waggons, with a \iew to the reduction of the gross weight of passenger-trains ;" "The drainage and sewerage of large towns ;" "Improvements in the system of Lighting by gas." The list, from which these instances are taken, comprises forty-nine subjects, all of the samt; practical and useful nature — all contributes to national welfare. Let those who are able try their best, for never was there a time when such services could be more acceptable. A method of discovering leaks in gas-pipes deserves to be noticed : the tap at the main being closely shut, air is torccd in at the other end by means of a small condensing-pump, until it is heard wheezing or whistling as it escapes from the faulty place in the pipe, and thus indicates where the repair is wanted. An indiudual at Rochester, state of New York, converts iron ore "directly into steel," by heating to a white heat in a rctorc, and then treating: it in the? usual i wa yAnother in Pennsylvania has invented what he calls a "self- waiting dining-table," which by means of an. endless band, kept in motion underneath the table by any power applied to the crank, moves a number of gmlded carriers on the table top, and keeps them con - stantly going up one side and down the other with all the dishes, castors, decanters, &c, that may be required. The great hotels, where some three or four hundred sit down to dinner, should try it. The Greek fire, or on equivalent is reviewed. M. Blanche, an industrious chemist of Pueteaux, near Paris, has discovered a liquid which, flung on water, blazes furiously, with intense heat, for five minutes. Being of a dense quality, it does not spread immediately, but confines its energy to one place. He has another liquid to fire straw and similar combustibles by a mere sprinkling, and which, if thrown on a floor mingled with water, instantly produces suffocat. ing vapours ; or when mixed up with a certain powder, explodes violently at the end of fifteen, minutes. The French. Government are considering whether these compounds can be employed in the ■war. Apropos to the war : as a good deal has been said about the climate of the Crimea, we may observe that, in Professor Dove's isothermal maps, the line of equal winter cold for January passes through Stockholm and the Crimean country a little to the north of Perekop. Our army, may, therefore, have to endure the temperature of the Swedish winter ; and that is quit§ cold enough,

"Southern Cross" Office, Saturday, Jijiie 2. We hasten to lay before our- readers the following important intelligence received this morning by the schooner 'Zillah," from Melbourne, for which we are indebted to private courtesy.