OUR SCIENCE LETTER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XII, Issue 4123, 30 January 1875, Page 5 (Supplement)

OUR SCIENCE LETTER.

[FKOM OCR OWN conKEsrosDEXT.] P.* kis, November 2S. Mas can never be converted into a good combustible, lie will never be more than equal to green wood, ami until humanity bo dried it can never be the victim of spontaneous coil'.lmstio': -a subject which hiV" tropp-cd up again, as it g-ncrally doe> ; c certain epoens, ami whicl A'ould seem tc ' dicate that the error is 110 error for au, <1 few. It is alleged that the human body can spontaneously take tire under the influence of inflammatory diseases, or the repeated abuse of alc( liolic drinks. Coal, wood, &c , t:»ke fire without any apparent cause ; why then, not the human organism, especially when saturated \vith spirituous liquors ? No doctor, no puivo'i of reliability has ever witnessed a case of human spontaneous combustion, but t!ie legends are not the less numerous. If observation then be wanting, whit can be demanded of them ? How, then, can the body buru tranquilly from head to foot, like s c.»:"Vie for example ? Following I.' Jjenan'l, Duroy, &c., their experiments 'emr.i-st-ate that, after a certain uose Cil dcoh.il, the r-ist remains in a free state in the bh- ! fae ) rain, and the liver ■ t ial the ood V v J'■ ot * ' rn, even if it rcsemb?°3 ;■ sponge i-r '■ *• jk imbioed with spirits. It reqv ires r. very powerful heat, and du>' jg some time—the Dresden experiments for • r—to reduce human remains to as. . Our tissues, gorged with li<juid, and of u \emarkiWe ca;>icity for heat, are not the less incombustible. Liebey and Bischoff have steeped ; ortluns of humau remains in spirits for lengthened periods, and when set fire to the tissues never inflamed. Ihe latter surgeon ejected ether into the veins of a dog's leg, which mixing with the blood, was exhaled ; but when the expired air was set on lire, it inflamed, but never communicated with the interior of the animal. Dr. Chassional, of Brest, collected some notorions drunken women, plied them with brandy for a certain time; afterwards he set lire to som.' of it that they retained in their mouth, swallowing it in thit state, without feeling any ill effects, save a passing pain. However, wood, coal, straw, hay, &c., from their rapid absorption of oxygen, can take tire spontaneously, and why not the human body ? But, even supposing the body to generate inflammable gases, these latter, but not the tissues, will burn, just as did the flesh previously mentioned when saturated \\ itli spirits of wine, or as green wood does when impregnated with a volatile essence. The small quantity of gas generated by the decomposition of the tissue could never produce the beat necessary to effect cremation—that is, the high temperature sufficient to produce incineration ; Ui r is it to be imagined that our [ bodies, .fhich consist of four-sevenths of 1 liquid, can be exceptionally ignited spontaf r.aously. i The serriccs rendered by the pigeon-post | during tho siege at Paris are well known; so appreciated na7e they been that, since the peacc, European nations have bestowed as much attention on the establishment of military pigeon-cots as on the improvement of artillery. Prussia, of course, has since 1572 a correspondence daily maintained between Metz, Berlin, and Cologne and Jier many grand fortresses; and pigeons leave the Northern Railway tjrmmus in Paris, for Cologne, at 5 o'clock in the morning, reaching their destination at noon. But then the birds are of a beautiful race, and cost G5 francs each. The French Government is establishing a carrier-pigeon depot in the ! Jardin d'Acclimatation. It possesses 420 [ pigeons of the most superior race to be found in Belgium—the nursery ground of such ! pigeons. From this depot every .fortress in the country will be supplied with birds. Hitherto, it has been the custom to habituate the jngeons to take but a special route. The French are training them to fly in every direction. During the siege several of these winged'eouriers were lost; the operators in their ignorance not knowing the time and the season for sending the birds forth, paid no attention to frost and snow coveting the ground. Now M. Rodeubach shews that a pigeon loses entirely the faculty of finding its way when the earth is covered with snow. Perhaps the snow changes the aspect of places, or deranges the view of the bird, proverbially so piercing, or possibly it has fear of being covered by expected falling snow. The pigeon ordinarily tlies from the south, northwards; points northwards as instinctively as the needle of a compass. Now, when pigeons are set free in Paris to fly to . Belgium, they are imprtieiit to quit the basket; but if liberated i the east of France they betray no such inpAtirnce, and when they are set free they znouiit to an enormous height, gravely seek with their bills the points of the horizon, end finish by flying in the direction opposite to their cots. Heuce the labour of the military pigeon trainers in France is to accustom the birds to return from any point of the horizon within a circle of 400 miles.

Dr. Pietra Santra has drawn attention to the treatment of pulmonary complaints in general, and of phthisis in particular. He admits this disease, an affection of the blood, can be cured, not by any specific remedy, but by a more studious attention to the ordinary health precautious—pure and frequently changed air, fortifying diet, moderate exercise, milk, a.id t l '-: employment of sulphuretted and arse.:i- 1 waters; emigration to mild climate. ivinter, to mountain .districts in summer, and tliorecourse to hyposulphites, alkaline and eai thy .sulphites. £)r. de Mencourt, after an exhaustive examination*-of the subject of scurvy, does not deny tliat it is epidemic, but of a form resembling uo other epidemic ; that it is a great error to regard the afflicted as plague stricken, aud so sequestrating him, when for his recovery all the conditions of normal life s;.; necessary. Scurvy is purely a malady of nutrition, .an emaciation of the system, produced by y cry complex causes and varying circumstances, but capablc of b' ing prevented by the use of animal food "as living as possible," aud ofgreeu vegetables and a ration of lemon juice. Scurvy is uuknowu among the Trapjiiats, who live tolely on vegetables. The apparition of shooting stars beiween the 12tn and 14th of this month, at' was predicted, has been very poor, not more tkau an average of seventeen per hour—the mean ordinarily per hour during the year. The greatee' .number observed to fall was in 2SGG, sc jhat the jjfovembor showers may be .oojjgidered as tsTOMiiated till ?83 ; , the period

of theik' apparition '»;ing estimated at thirty- i threu years. Dr. /'cnLar, a German, brocehes the theory that comets lire comp-.sed of frozen water and petroleum, and it it t l '- repulsion between comets and the suu ii in no way connected witli electricity. Hetatcs that if the earth left behind it a mass of snow or of ice, deprived of velocity and rotatory motion, the mass would not fali into the sun with increasing rapidity as a consequence of gravitation, because when it would have com 1 ! within the circle of the sun's intense heat, one side of the mass receiving the rays would be converted into vapour, and then and thereby driven back by repulsion, just as rockets are made to ascend by the expansion of the gunpowder at their tails. M. Vioelle lias calculated that the true temperature of the suu is equal to that of steel in a state of fusion. Paris cannot complain of the want of a grand system of sewerage ; the difficulty is to get rid of the collected water. Ancient Home boasted of three wonders : her roads, her aqueducts, and her sewers. Along the latter a waggon laden with hay could pass without touching the walls. To cleanse or flush them the water of the seven aqueducts was turned into them. The sewers were considered so important that they were put under the protection of the goddess Cloacina, or Purifer, which was the surname of Venus. The sewers emptied into the Tiber, as do those of Paris to-day into the Seine, so that tho villages a few miles down the latter river have no other water to drink than that which receives the total pollution of the capital, for the Seine enters Paris at Cliarcnton nearly limpid, but Asniers, where the sewers discharge, it is of a reddish brown colour, and positively foetid. It is in this latter stage that it is pumped up by the famous machine of Marley to supply Versailles. It is now proposed to convey the sewage directly to the sea, forming along the route basins, where the water can be purchased for irrigating purposes, or operated •.■pon with sulphate of alumina. Mr, :l anxiety is felt for tea beautiful fr«. ooe paintings that adorn the walls of the new National Opera house, and the injuries they must sustain from the action of gas. The deleterious principle in gas is sulphuretted hydrogen. The latter decomposes the salts of lead which form the basis of the colours, producing the black sulphuret of lead, which covers the paintings with a yellowish tinge at lirst, then brown, and completely destroying the most brilliant colours. The cas on leaving the condensers is made to pass over screens of lime and other chemical preparations to be purified. It is proposed to erect a supplemental purifier in the Operahouse before laying on the gas throughout tliv. ouilding. The application of electric light for public 'ise may be considered as solved—that is,the 'h* produced by magneto-electric macl. jea, which will leave to their l. -uural colours, aud exercise no disastrous i iluei.ee on paintings. •I. Franck has patented a lamp Sr photoimpressions during the night for the aggrandisement or reproduce' in of photographic objects, aud for those connected with microscopic matters in relation with the natural sciences. The principle of the lamp is sulph'i.-. t u f e.:''• ■:!. i.nd the TUechanistn consists of saieguaru? against explosion. The late Baron Liebeg, though an operator of proverbial ability, could not prevent an explosion of this gas, and which wounded one of his then hearers, the present Crown Prince of Germany. Tobacco smoke can affect tlie colour of flowers; thus violet becomes green by a few puffs from a cigar; the petals of shepherd'spurse, for instance. This change is owing to the ammonia contained in the smoke. Professor Gabba, of Italy, acuug on this idea, covers a plate containing ammonia with a bell glass, introducing into a conununicatiug tube violet, blue, and purple flowers, which become green. Variegated flowers produce remarkable results, and, if plunged into pure ! water after being exposed to ammonia, they ' will retain their new colour for several hours, and then return to their original state. The ; violet star-wort, which has no smell, becomes ' red and fragrant when thus operated upon. ; The Japanese, by secret processes of in- ; jeetion, can colour or whiten flowers, and the Chinese are celebrated for dwarfing plants. There is in one of the public gardens of Paris an orange-tree, imported from China, 1 one hundred years old, no larger than a small rose-tree, ami bearing fruit no larger than a cherry. The new tea called "mate," grown in South America on the bauks of the Parana, lia? .-rived in Paris ; the-branches of the shr' !i arc fathered brtveen December and August, .vhen they are dri'd over a fire to allow the leaves to eas,.y jt.i; off; these are again dried and then pounded, i " Mate" contains 1 percent, of theine, the ; active agent of tea, 34 of tannic acid, and I 50 of mineral salts, besides a few other substances. Brazil has an increasing exportation ! of this tea. j Seed that has been preserved by hazard in the bottom of the Boa, or imbedded deeply in the soil, has nevertheless germinated, as also wheat and peas found in the padding of Egyptian mummies. Professor Heldreich, of Athens, in botanising among the returned scoria of the silver mines of Laurium, has found quite a crop of Jiorn-poppy. Now, this scoria has not been disturbed since 2000 years, when the ancient Greeks worked the mines, till a Franco-Italian Company has recently commenced extracting silver from the refuse. Some of the plants had double flowers as large as a ranunculus. But curious to note, the species accidentally re-found, is not known in the territory; it had therefore become extinct. Claud Bernard has just concluded his brilliant course of lectures on general physiology, and sums up, that each being is made for itself, and in both of the two kingdoms of nature, beings live in the same manner, but perform their functions in a different fashion. He denies that plants create in their organism the blood of all auimals, that is to say, that the fat of the ox and the horse is contained in their hay, or the niilk of the cow iu her grass. Despite difference in food, the composition of the blood remains uniform, so that the latter is not dissolved aliments. Besides, animals can form fat from their own organism. Theqiroeess of digestion in auimals and plants is the same, that is to say, the fermentations in both cases are identical; similar in the intestines of animals as in the spouting of a beet-root. M. Paguelin and Jolly have, by a series of intricate and patient experiments, demonstrated that while the globules of blood contain iron, the colouring matter of blood has none. Very important medical results must obviously spring from this fact. The success continues to be remarkably sustained in the treatment of consumptive patients in the hospitals of Paris, with " Koiimys," or fermented mare's milk, s» much in vogue among the Tartar tribes of Russia. However, it is generally prepared by mixing cow's and asses' milk. It resembles skim milk, has a slight acid and piquant flavour, aud foams like champagne. In small doses of three or four glasses a-day, it produces at first coldness in the stomach, then an agreeable heat, aud lastly, intellectual excitement. Five quarts of it will produce a gayish kind of intoxication, accompanied by headache, and followed by sleep. In the course of some weeks of treatment the body increases nearly threefold in weight; but this stoutness is transient. These effects are due.to the carbonic acid, alcohol, aud albumen contaiiied in the milk. Kouiuys restores to consumptive patients, for whom it is alono prescribed, sleep aud appetite; diminishes the cough, and destroys the fever. One to four bottles per day, over a period of six! weeks, commencing by four glasses, between the intervals of yieals, with m/eat either very undone or quite raw, and a little old wine, but never after, the ".koumys." Diadorus. died of despair from inability to, I soive the problem, of Stupo; Chits expired of: joy when his scuo ginned the prize for boxing;

at l'io tiiympic games; Patkul, when delivered up to Charles XII. of Sweden, fell dead at '.he spectacle of the instrument for his execution. An able veterinary surgeon, who has been in several battles, to submit to a painful operation. He silently resigned, but the moment the surgeon placed his Tiand on him to operate ho turned pale and expired. Recently a strong aud healthy man w i-. found dead in his bed ; after the minutest j>ot*C mortem examination, in which no cause of death could be discovered, it was concluded he had fallen a victim to a frightful dream. . According to Comte du Moncel, Engineer to the Telegraphic Department, black silk, generally supposed to be a non-conductor, is, on the contrary, a greater couductor than cotton stuffs, both depending, like our furniture, for their electric condition on tho atmosphere. Black is thus more affected than coloured silk, because it is more charged—often to 300 per cent, of its weight —with tannate of iron, its colouring ingredient. Silk, cotton, and wool disturb the needle of the galvanometer so proportionately as to enable M. du Monccl to estimate the mixture of these ingredients in a tissue, and so detect frauds.

The Suris lakes are nearly 1000 feet deep, light entering to a depth of 100 feet iii summer, and ISO in winten The bottom is dark as night, aud contains species of animals with and without eyes.