SCIENCE NOTES.

Evening Star, Issue 12990, 8 December 1906, Page 10

SCIENCE NOTES.

By tiro construction of three short tunnels (says * Civil Engineering ’), one from Gibraltar to tbo Morocco coast, another beneath the Behring Strait, also tho Channel tunnel which is at • present, being pro-, jectod, and by linking up these tunnels witli existing railway systems, _ London' would bo in direct communication with; the four continents —Europe, Asia, Africa,-' and America.

It is announced in Berlin from Now York that tho North German Lloyd’s steamer Bremen received from tho station of Naven, near Berlin, clearly transmitted news - telegrams by wireless telegraphy every day for four days after her departure from Bremen, the messages successfully reaching her even at a distance of about 1,550 miles.

In tho ‘Annalen dcr Physik ’ Dr E. Marx gives an account of an experimental investigation relative to tho velocity of Bontgen rays. It is estimated that the method and apparatus employed permit tho velocity to bo determined with an accuracy represented by a probable error of 1 per cent. Within this limit tho velocity of propagation of Rontgen radiation is equal to that of light. This result furnishes strong evidence in favor of the view that Bontgen radiation consists in electromagnetic pulse transmission through tho ether.

The Paris ‘ Matin ’ announces that Professor Behring has discovered a now method of sterilising milk without boiling it or destroying any of its essential principles. The method is based on the powerful qualities of German perphydrol simply oxygenated. One gramme per litre of this substance is sufficient to destroy all noxious germs. Milk thus sterilised can bo kept a long time, and is not injured by travelling, but it cannot bo drunk until it has been gently warmed and a drop of a catalytic substance added extracted from the milk itself. Dr Behring sent two bottles of this sterilised milk to tho central laboratory of the Ministry of Agriculture in Berlin, where it was found that tho milk was perfectly pure. The , ‘ Matin ’ adds : Dr Behring proved that light has a very harmful effect on the milk, whether sterilised. hot. or cold, and he recommends that it should bo kept in a dark place or in red or green bottles

Zeal in scientific research, led Dr Henry Head, a physician of the London Hospital, to uncover the nerves in his own arm for the purposes of study. Of course it hurt. But Dr Head kept at it, divided the nerves, then united them by stitching, and ail the time kept careful record of his sensations. Tho result was that ho discovered two sets of sensory nerves —ono that carries sensations of touch, and the other sensations of pain, heat, and cold nerves. The skin's healing power is found to depend on the pain, neat, and cold nerves. Dr Head is now honored by tho Royal Medical Society with tho. Marshall Hail prize.

One of tho most interesting features of the new municipal buildings opened by Mr W. .1. Mulvey, Mayor of Chelsea, was a patent grate, the design of which was suggested by the Prince of Wales when he opened the Sir Thomas .More Buildings at Beaufort street, Chelsea, two years ago. By an ingenious contrivance of sliding panels tho kitchen grate and fire can be transferred to tho sitting room, for the bread-winner's home-coming in the evening. Tho formal opening of Pond House, as the new building is called, completes the local Borough Connell’s bousing scheme, which was inaugurated in 1901. No fewer than 1,300 people have been housed. ■ —Remarkable Experiments with Live . Irish.— Tho United States Consul at Frankfort has (says the ‘ Scotsman ’) been supplying his Government with details of some remarkable experiments made in Germany with reference to cheap transportation of livo fish, which show' that a.ll kinds of fish can live for days outside of their natural clement under certain conditions. German scientists, it appears, have been examining the breathing apparatus of fish, and have discovered that tho gills form an organ similar to the. human lungs, the blood in them coming up close to tho surface. The lungs exchange for tho outside nir rich in owerpn. carbonic acid which

has been formed in the longs. On the other hand, the gills o7 fish are constantly washed by water containing oxygen. Toe thin membrane of the gills separates the blood in them, vitiated with carbonic acid, from tbo water containing oxygen, and the practical result is the same as with the human lungs. Carbonic acid is exchanged f6r oxygen. ' The German experimentalists had noticed that many kinds of fish could live out of water for some time, provided tire gills remained wet. They made an effort “to keep the gills wet, and to see that this moisture was well charged: with oxygen.” In order to achieve this end, tlio evaporation of the moisture of the gills had to be prevented; and for this purpose the fish wore placed in an atmosphere thoroughly saturated with water vapor. A hermetically closed wooden box was filled with water to the depth of about a third of an inch, or the bottom was covered with wet rags, which through evaporation kept the air in the box always saturated with water vapor. The fish were placed in a box, which was then shut hermetically by the lid. Through a tube reaching to the bottom oxygen was introduced and allowed to escape through a tube in the lid. This oxygen, before entering the box, passed through several water bottles, which thoroughly saturated it with water vapor. In this way tho fish are stated to be always in “ a pure oxygen atmosphere,” and a drying up of the gills is not to be feared. The result of tho experiments is said to have been surprising. Carp, tench, bleak, and other fish remained in the box from throe to four days perfectly well. When they were then placed in water to bo fed they swam about in a lively manner, and were as fresh as when placed in the box. The process is said to be much more economical than shipping live fish in water tanks, in which the weight of every shipment is from 93 t0.96 per cent, water.