SCIENCE AND ART.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 6948, 23 February 1884, Page 4 (Supplement)

SCIENCE AND ART.

Mb, Millais is painting a head of Lord Lorae. A monument to the memory of Mozart is about to be erected at Vienna, a century after the maestro's death. The works in connection with the erection t>f the new bridge across the Forth, which is to replace the fatal one blown down some four years ago, are being lighted at night ■with electricity, eo that the work may proceed by night aa well as by day. Bus3ian engineers have completed a carelul survey of the ground over which it is proposed to turn the river Oxua, or Amco Diria, as it is now called. Their conclusion is that the diversioa can be made, and the old western bed to the Caspain re-estab-lished. The South Kensington Museum has lately been enriched by the addition to its treasures of a fine collection of Italian bronzes, as we'l as by a number of casts of great interest from the Alhambra, and a magnificent Persian carpet, which is well known to experts as having ooet the late owner £1200. All .English railways, even those which hive been using gas, are now going in collectively for electricity to light their trains by. The electricity is not generated by motive power, but by batteries. It is both cheaper and safer, and more thoroughly under control. In other words, the <loctricity will be generated by the combustion of zinc in the sulphuric acid of th 3 cells, instead of hy the combustion of carbon in the firebox of an engine. A remarkable paper by the Rev. Mr. Dunster, a country clergymar, appe rs iti the Nineteenth Centuty on "Oar orchards and Paraffin Oil," .in which the writer points out that the tvue cause of the decay of fruit trees is the unhealthy state of their bark. What is wanttd is the application of some subjtance to the bark powerful enough to cleanse it from all its enemies, while at the sauae time it leaves the tree with increased power of productiveness. Mr. Dunster holds that this valuable property is possessed by paraffin oil. He discovered it by accident, bat he thinks it so important that he felt it hie duty to make the matter publicly known. There is now a mammoth locomotive in process of construction at the Central Pacific Kailroad shops at Sacramento. Its name is "W Gobernador." The total length of the engine and tender is 65ft. sin.; driviDg•wheel baee, 19ft. 7in.; five pairs of driver*, 4ft. 9in. in diameter, with a four-wheel truck in front. There are two six-wheel trucks under the tender, making a total of 26 •wheels under engine and tender. The valve gearing is said to be something entirely new, there being nothing like it in the United States. The engine is for use on the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and, it is expected, will do more work than two of the engines now naed, with less consumption of fuel. The last contribution of modern chemistry to science is the production of quinine from gas tar. Professor Fischer, of Munich, has succeeded in obtaining from distilled coal a white crystalline powder, which, so far as regards its action on the human system, cannot be distinguished from quinine except that it assimilates even more readily with the stomach. Ita efficacy in reducing fever heat is said to be remarkable, even rendering the use of ice unnecessary. The importance of such a discovery as this consists not so much in the actual fact achieved as in the stimulus given to scientific research by the opening up of a new chaone 1 of investigation. The romance of gas tar is evidently far from being exhausted. In addition to the sweetest scents, the most brilliant dyes, the moot powerful disinfectants, and even p.ussic acid are some of the numerous and wonderful products of its decomposition. A dentist of Geneva has invented a new and ingenious process of tooth-drawing. A small square of india-rubber, pierced with a central hole, is pushed over the tooth till the upper part of the root is reached. The india-rubber gradually contracts, pulls on the root, and the offending tooth ie finally enucleated, without causing the patient any pain whatever. Four or five days are generally required to complete the operation. very slight bleeding and a slight swelling of the gum are the only inconveniences experienced. M. Paul Bert brought this ingenious method before the des Sciences in Paris, when M. Galippe remarked that the process was already known, and quoted a case in support of ita efficacy, in which a youDg girl had placed a ring of iudia-rubber round her two front incisors, and forgot she bad done 80, the result being that she lost the teeth, I