Scientific and Useful.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1523, 19 March 1886, Page 4

Scientific and Useful.

Pan (a witter d> strops the colonr of natural wine almost ir.sttully, producing a slight tumidity.

The Municipal y of Vienna has ordered the cremation of the dead to be immediately can i d into operation accord ng to the plnn pursued at Leips'c.

An Amorienn physician Ins proved that that the milk of envs which have been illtreated is injurious to lmman beinps. dispo<iM<j to colic, skin affections, and d' prcseion ' f the nervous svstnn.

NFW FISHING BOAT Mr John White, the boa:builder, of Cowes, ha« designed a fishing-vessel on lifeboat principles, which will not fink if overwhelmed and filled with the sea. He has already built two of theso vessels of 30 tons. STEEL O'DEU TIIE MICROSCOPE. Molted steel under the microscope shows a kind of cellular tissue, the iron forming the nurleus and the carbon the cnv» lfpe of the cellules Theso cellules form i-pglomerati-ns, known as romp >und c lis, •> ich are identified with what is known as ihe grain of the steel. Tboir ;ources are tlio region of least cohesion. FISII CULTritE. The hatching of fish ova has commenced a* the es'nblisnient of the National Fish-Culture Association, South Kensington, several agents having been employed lately to artificaily spawn fi-h, which in many parts are well forward. The species chiefly operated upon have been the Salmo fario and 5. levinensis. The American Government have promised to forward large consignments of ova from the various species of Salmonidiv abounding in their waters, particularly the whiteflsh, whose eggs will be incubated in very largo numbers by the association.

A NEW SrECTKOSCOPE

S. ft. Govi, the author, describes a direct vision spectroscope, without pri«ms and without screens. It is merely requisto toemplfV a very dii-persive medium (carbon dis'ilphide, oi! ol"en-sii. lvavy tlint-glas») enclosed between plane parallel This arangement uivo* a r?iy 11.le spectrum merely bv t"io internal dispersion. The coloured rays isnie by the scto-id surface of the medium, parallel to the incident rays. There is, therefore, no davi;iti )n, and Fraunhofer's rays, or the luminous spectial lines, are scmi quit.* as well as in ordinary spectra.

FAK SPEAKING

Te'ephonie cmimunicati n b tween Paris nn ! H'nei os W. 3 opened to the p-iblic very lately. The distance is Mi li'oinetres (ICW mile'), but tin* electric r< sistnn e to be ove-come between the two point* is estiinatid tit '217 kilometres. The ordinary telegraphic wire is utili.- d f ' r the purpose, but there is a special telephui.ic station in the Plain of v t Denis, at the Pont de Soi-sons. The tariff is one franc for five minutes conversation. At the iniuguralKir.ee, conversations were held with sundry public functionaries at Rheims, whose voices were heard with perfect distinctness.

THE CHANGE OF FOLIAGE

The immediate cause of the change in the foliage during the fall lies in the lessened action of the breathing organs of pores of tho leares, resulting from a los* of warmth and light due to the shorter days. The natural stimulants to vegetation aic withdrawn. Shortly before the fill of the leaf, a very delicate layer of cells starts from the Bide of the stun al.d grows downward, completely separating the leaf from any participation in the life iirculation of the plant. This explains the smooth surface exposed on separating a n.a'ure le if from us branch. With" the c station of the ciiculation of the sap, the loaves no lorg. r absorb carbonic acid gas and give off oxygen. Tho threat natural process deoxidation is arrested, and finally reversed—oxygen is absorbed. The chlorophi/l, or leaf\'reen, which gave colour to the leaves during the earlier pirt of the season, is now oxidised a: d changed to xanthophil, or leaf ye'lo*, tnd trethrophyl, cr liuf red.

BKrllT AMD LEFT HANDED. A right bande.l unn is a man who takes hold of a hoe, a rake, a spade, or a fork, with the right hand do»n and the left hand up, or near-st the body. A man who habitually puts bis left, hand down, or, for ins:at.co, the man who places his light hand o.i the top of a spa.le, and grasps the luud'e or shakos with nis l.ft ha:id, is a lift-bunded man. And so with an axe. A right-handed man and left handed man cm work together in chopping d iwn a tree. If th»y were both, right-handed or both left handed, they could not dot is uub9* one chopped on one side Rt d the other on the other si le. And 10 it is in load c-anh into a m n stai d f ce to face, ono should be l»-ft-handed and the other rijjht-handed. In hoeing a row of corn, the right-handed man will walk on the left ai le of the row, while the left-handed man will walk ou the right 6ide of it. TUE CAMERA As A DETECTIVE. Practu-al r. formers, who h'.ve been trying to abolish low concert saloons and other vicious resorts iu New Yur< city, have met wi h oppo-ition frcin the very people who are presumably J'h< ir helpers. About somo of these places there is suffio ent of llio war po i imn's it.fl'ieuca to niuko e;on the policeman a consenting party ; and cumequently he is sometimes quite oblivious to violations <>f tie law which are pla;n enough to everybody ebe. lb s sta'e of aiYuirs lias led the reformers to turn to the mure r«liable tistiuionv oil red bv a good photograph. The Bnlo 'ns are to il iuntly lighted by eleci ricity as a rule, and the reformer, armed wi-b a pocket c.ijnera and instantaneous photographic pistes! hns succeeded in taking over a bun* (1 r . d views of the saloons ai d stieets in front of th'-m after one ocl ck in the moming, when the law provides that they shad be closed A number of the photograhps cont in clock dials, which thus offer their tcstini ny as to the hour. Scientific American. WATEB IS FATTENING. It hns been observed that water is fattening —t hdt those who drink large quant it ies of water have a tendency to fulness and rotun di'y. That there is consider.ble truth in ihis obtcrvation tlie Medical and Surgical Reporter fully substantia'es. 'lliat excessive imbibition ol very cold (iced) water especially when one is very warm, is not to be commended, yet we have reason to believe thut the use < f pure spr ng water, at i's natural temperature, is iot on'y very conducive to hral'h, but bns an actual tendency to favour a fulness and Jroundnew of body. Whether this is the result of a better action on the part of the dieelite, assimilative, and depurnlive functions, owing to the internal cleanliness or flushing of the human seweis produced by large quantities of water, or whether water has some spe< ific action in producing this fulness, we do not know, neither does it eignify, sinca cbserv tion con* firms as a fact that the free uso of water doei have thiw fleet.