SCIENTIFIC SCRAPS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 6003, 12 February 1881, Page 3

SCIENTIFIC SCRAPS.

experiments iu air engines are being made in Kngland. Underground telegraph wires in terra cotta pipes worked successfully in a recent trial at Camden, N. J. A smoke-consuming engiue. invented by Mr. Siutore a Cincinnati millionaire, is said to be a complete success. One at least o the new Cunard st-amships will be of steel. The weight of a steel hull is leis than iron l>v 150 or 200 tons to the 1000. Tiie Union Medieale recommends chlorate of potash as the most successful remedy for diptheria, its action being at once local and constitutional.. A mixture of pure limejuiec and lavender water, iu equal parts, is a nice preparation for whitening the hands, and uo irritating soap should be used. The amount of water in fine wheat flour is usually about ten per cent. Potato tlour usually contains from eight to twelve per cent., aud somewhat whiter. A successful novelty is cork and corrugated paper, worked up from scran- paper by a Bro kiyu firm, and largely used tor straw, in packing bottled merchandise. Professor Alonzo Clark, of New York, says that, as a matter'of fact, " two-thirds of the patients sick u*ith the typhod fever do better without thin with alcoholic stimulants." A science college, the gift of Sir Josiah Mason to the Midland district, has been opened at Birmingham. An inaugural address was delivered on the occasion by Professor Huxlev.

M. Cochery, the Minis!er of Posts and Telegraphs, contemplates another reform— namely, the reduction of the prieo of postage throughout France to one penn} . At present it is three halfpence. The origin of the epidemic of scarlet fever in Dundee has been traced to the milk supply. The disease w..s imported into a dairy > y a servant girl who had visited a house wlier: the fever was raging. The sanitary authorities -of Rio .Janerio contemplate removing all cemeteries to a distance of twenty miles from the capital and building a crematorium for such persons as prefer burning to burying. Professor Hitchcock, of Dartmouth College, who has been classifying and arranging the specimens of bird tracks at Mount Holveke Seminary, tinds GO specimens of tracks on about SOO specimens of slabs. It is srated that lard oil was found > y Trofessor Henry to be superior in illuminating pou er, when heated to -S0 J I'ahr., to spe m oil, and that about £20,000 a-vcar is saved by its use in the light-house and beacon service iu the United States. Professor 'Wells, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, lias invented a maehire for heating railroad ears without the use of tire, by friction between plates of iron on revolving shafts, which heat water in contact with them. The power comes from the car wheels. Water made slightly salt, and to which brail in the proportion of one quart to every gallon has been'added, is said to increase the yield of milk by 25 per cent., if it is given to the cows as their ordinary drink. After a short time the cows will refuse pure water, j unless they are very thirsty.