SCIENCE AND ART.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7341, 30 May 1885, Page 4 (Supplement)

SCIENCE AND ART.

Soapsuds may be need for nearly everything in the kitchen garden. It ie also good for a lawn, and it may be used along with any manure. Mr. Holman Hnnt'e new picture Vine Triumph of the Innocents," will shortly be exhibited in the Gallery of the Fine Art Society. The prioe fixed upon it by the artist, if rumour be true, amount to no leas than £20,000. Herr J. Brautleoht has been experimenting on the transfer of bacteria from the eoil to the atmosphere. Sand, gravelly soil, and a moderately clayey garden-eoil were moistened with liquid containing bacteria, and covered with glass bells. In a few hours miorobia of the same kind as those contained in the liquid were found in great numbers in the moisture condensed on the sides of the bell. During the last fifteen years the English Parliament hae sanctioned the expenditure of a sum of £160,000 in the purchase of pictures for the National Gallery. In 1871 £75,900 was paid for seventy-seven pictures and eighteen drawings from the private collection of the late Sir Robert Peel, and thiee years ago £21,000 was the price given for ten pictures belonging to the Duke of Hamilton. Artificial cheese, made of one part oleomargarine and two parts skimmed milk, mixed to the consistency of cream, and subjected to the usual processes of manufacturing the genuine article, is the latest edible commodity contributed by Germany to the world. The cheese of the Fatherland, however, is generally of too high a flavour for the uncultivated taste of foreigners, and the probability is that the new variety, by reason of its constituents, will attain the most exalted rank in both taste and smell. Exoavations conducted at Sunium by the German Archaeological Institute have been handsomely recompensed. All of the ground plan of the Temple of Athene has been diiiclosed, and it is now put beyond all doubt that the longer side of the building had thirteen columns, and not twelve. The remaining portion of the frieze has been unearthed, but, unfortunately, time has told disastrously with its sculptures. To the age of Pericles must be ascribed the marble tempi", of the tame general plan as the older tnd smaller structure of calcareous tufa over which it waa built. The substitution of glass flooring for boards continues to increase in Paris, this being especially thecaee in those business structures in which the cellars are need as offices. The large central hall at the offices of the Comptoir d'Escompte has been provided with this kind of flooring, and it is said that, although its prime cost is considerably greater than that of boards, glass is, in the long run, fair cheaper, owing to its almost nnlimited durability. The scientists indulge a hope that spider webs may be put to economic uses. When we find as a matter of fact that a Ceylon spider spins a web so strong that a walkingstick when thrown into it is held and entangled in the meshes, it becomes quite a reasonable supposition that spinning mulee will one day be superseded. We may even cultivate a community of epiders with bettor result than afield of cotton. Electricity is being advantageously applied to Calais tor removing the incrustations from boilers. The two poles of a battery of ten to twelve Bunsen elements are applied to the end* of the boilers, and after thirty to forty hours the deposits fall from the sides to the bottom. When a boiler has been thus cleared, tbe formation of new deposits may be prevented by applying a much less energetio current under the same conditions. An important experiment in water purification haa recently been carried out at Philadelphia, under tho superintendence of the ehief enginneer to the water supply departmen* of that city. It baa been known for some time that the purifying action of ajr upon water is much inoreased if the two be mipgled under pressure, but tbe fact existed simply as the result of a laboratory experiment. To try the practicability of the principle on a big scale, a large turbine was converted into an air-pump, »nd was made to deliver a measured volume of »ir to a water main. On analysis of the water before and after the experiment, it waa found that the quantity of free oxygen in the water had increased by 17 per cent. The amount of oxygen indicated represents the excess of what was required to purify the organic matter contained in the watar previous to its aeration. The result of the experiment la considered highly satisfactory.