SCIENTIFIC GOSSIP.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXI, Issue 7178, 1 March 1884, Page 6

SCIENTIFIC GOSSIP.

“ What cannot art and industry perform When science plans.” —Beattib. HOW THE DOTBBBL EXPLOSION WAS CAUSED. The report of the Committee appointed by the Lords of the Admiralty to enquire, in connection with the loss of Her Majesty’s ship Doterel, into the subject of explosions of gas in coal bunkers, and as to the explosive power of xerotine siccative, has been published in the form of a -Blue-book. The Committee report that the solvent which has been employed by the liquid driers known as xerotine siccative consists of the more volatile products of the distillation of petroleum, commonly known as petroleum spirit, or kerosene. This liquid product is composed of a mixture of light petroleum oils, the most volatile of wmch evaporate freely at temperatures varying between 50deg. and 80deg. Fahrenheit. If, therefore, this liquid be exposed to air at ordinary temperatures, inflammable vapour will escape readily and rapidly from its surface, and if it be thus exposed in a confined space, the air which the latter incloses will become impregnated by the inflammable vapour with a rapidity proportionate to the prevailing temperature, and to an extent sufficient to produce in a more or less brief period a rapidly inflammable mixture or an explosive mixture, if the quantity of liquid which evaporates Bears the necessary relation to the volume of oxygen contained in the inclosed atmospheric air. The explosive mixture produced is, in fact, quite analogous- in its nature and behaviour to a mixture of coal gas or of fire-damp and air, and is capable of producing similarly violent and destructive explosions. The experiments which the Committee made led them to the conclusion that the explosion which resulted in the loss of the Doterel, had been brought about by the production of such a large body of flame as had the powder in the magazine of the ship.

WATER DRINKING. So good an authority as The Lancet{London) thinks it is somewhat surprising that in a country in which rain falls almost every day in. large or small measures, the use of pure water as a drink is not better understood tlian it is. Even now that the sway of temperance is well established, and continues to extend, we shotdd be surprised to learn that a majority of Englishmen do not habitually discard the use °f the natural beverage for one or other in which it is compounded with foreign ingredients. Yet its very purity from all but a solitary trace of mineral matter is what renders it . capable of exactly satisfying, and neither more nor less than satisfying* needs of thirsty tissue, and of assisting by its mere, diluent and solvent action, without stimulation or other affection of function, the digestion and excretion of food. No other quaUflcfttions are necessary. Given digestible, solid food, and fair, that is normal, digestive power, water alone is all sumcient as liquid. During the feebleness consequent on disease 01! work everything is changed.. Ihere is blood, though impoverished m quality, to receive and convey nutritive material, and there are tissues to bo «■«, J* „ the via a tergo, the driving power the heart, resides in a languid niuscle, and the alimentary canal, itself but P°°Gy irrigated from that centre of supply, receives what food is taken only to prove its incapacity to utilise it. Nature is naggi g. and a stimulant olone will meet in th,e circle of pro'cassee. Asa general rule,howver,alMtinonce holds the first rank, both ®“&ory and practice., We do hot assort that tim man who regularly, and .in atrieff moderation, partakes of a light stimulant— o^®®' i0 * instance:—may • not, especially « no

equally regular In. regard to ont-door exercise, live comfortably to the full term of human life; but what we say is that the more simply the man fares, tho more he employs such adventitious measures for actual physical necessity, the more he will gain in health, In life, in working power, aud in aptitude to benefit by stimulation when strength is failing from disease or from decay. But if water be the drink, how shall it bo drunk ? Tho means must have regard to tho end required of them. To moisten food and prepare it for digestion it is hardly necessary to say that it should bo taken with a meal; a couple of tumblerfuls at dinner is not an excessive quantity for most persons, For thirst-quenching properties nothing can surpass this simplest of drinks, and all which approach it in efficacy owe their power almost entirely to it. As to temperature, there is no real f round for supposing that one should not rink a sufficiency of cold water when tho body is heated by exertion. Tho Inhabitants of hot climates have no such objection. Some tropica! wells are d|g bo deep that the water within them, even in hot seasons, is as cool as that of a European spring. In fevers, too, the use of ice in quantities sufficient to allay thirst is a part of rational and legitimate treatment. The shock which has to be avoided in all such statet is not that which cools the raucous membrane, but that of sharp chill applied to tho surface of the body. Some persons, however, find it convenient and beneficial to imbibe a certain amount of warm water daily, preferably at bedtime. They find that they thus obtain a bland diluent and laxative, without even the momentary reaction which follows the introduction of a colder fluid, and softened by abstraction of its calcareous matter in the previous process of boiling. This method,* which is an? accommodation to jaded stomachs, has its value for such, though it is not great even for them ; but it affords no noticeable advantage for those of greater tone. The use of water as an aid to excretion deserves some remark. In certain cases of renal disease it has been found to assist elimination of waste by flushing, without in any way, irritating the kidneys. Every one is probably aware of its similar action on the /contents/ of the bowel when taken on the old-fashioned but com-mon-sense plan of drinking a gloss of water regularly morning and evening, without any solid food. Whatever may be true of harmless luxuries, enough has been said to show that health, happiness, and work find stimulus enough in the unsophisticated well of nature.