OLLA PODRIDA.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 767, 12 November 1886, Page 5

OLLA PODRIDA.

CURIOUS EFFECT OF LIGHTNING

IN AMERICA. Although in this country, we have had very few thunderstorms during the present summer, the Continental and American journals are full of accounts of severe storms and strange freaks played by lightning. Of this latter variety one of the most curious we have met with is the following :—‘During a thunderstorm at Plainfield, New Aork, a young lady lifted a lacquered metal tray which was lying on a table in front of the window. At this moment a blinding flash of lightning caused her to throw it hastily down. The next morning, on examining the tray, it was seen to bear an excellent profile likeness of the young lady, apparently burned into the metal. The tray is to be placed in a public museum.’ We should like some more definite details as to this remarkable event, but if it lack veracity it is at least cleverly invented/

FREAKS OF A FLASH OF LIGHT*

NING.

During a’severe thunderstorm which'passed over Central Norway recently a remarkable example of the power of lightning was witnessed. In a field at Loten, a fir tree, 80 feet in height, was struck by lightning some 12 feet from the ground, with the effect that the tree was cut in halves, and the upper portion—about 60 feet in length—thrown a distance of several yards. The most curious part is, however, that the surface of the detached part is as smooth as if the tree had been sawn through, whilst that of the stump remaining in the ground is jagged, charred, and splintered to the root. The ground around the tree is furrowed in all directions, one furrow being several feet in width and depth, and extending for some ten yards. A spruce tree close by shows a furrow an inch in width; running from a height of 6 feet down to the root. —Electrical Review.

‘LIGHTNING HOLES ’ IN THE HIGH

ALPS.

Professor Brun has published in the Archives de Geneve an interesting study on the so called lighning holes to be found in the High Alps. He and other investigators have found them at heights of from 3348 to 4000 metres, or between 11,000 and 13,000 feet above the sea level. Usually they are found on summits. Sometimes the rocky mass, which has been vitrified in the passage of the electric fluid, presents the appearance of small scattered pearls, sometimes of a series of semi-sphera'cal cavities only a few millimetres in diameter. Sometimes there are vitrified rays going out from a central point to a distance of 4 or 5 inches. Sometimes a block detached from the mass appears as if bored through by a cannon ball, the hollow passage being quite vitrified. The thickness of this vitrified coating or stratum never exceeds a millimetre, and is sometimes not more than a quarter of that depth. The varying colors which it presents depends upon the qualities and composition of the rock. The same may be said of its transparency, On the Rungfischorn the glass thus formed by the lightning is black, owing to the quantity of actinolith which the rock contains. It is brown on La Ruinette, the rock consisting of feldspar, mixed with gneiss, containing chloride of iron. Under the microscope these' lightning boles display many interior cavities, which must be attributed to the presence of water in the rock at the moment of melting by the electric discharge. This vitrified material has no influence on polarised light. FATAL DISCHARGE OF GLOBULAR LIGHTNING. On a recent date, at Crawforth, Indiana, during the fall oi a slight shower of rain, but in the absence of any indication of a thunder-storm, a ball of fire was seen to enter the window of a house occupied by one of the most prominent citizens of the town. Shortly afterwards, Mr Riley was discovered lying upon the floor, his body, according to the American account from which we quote, burnt almost to a cinder, and unrecognisable. A black streak was traced upon the carpet from the window to the fireplace, in which line the body was found. The family, who were sitting outside the house, witnessed the ball of fire enter the window and apparently disappear up the chimney. This is the second instance which we have recently recorded of a discharge of globular lightning having ascended a chimney. The fact would'seem to indicate the possibility that its course may be determined in part by the direction of a current of air. But if, as we recently suggested, the phenomena is due to a small

quantity of vapor charged to an excessively high electric tension, it is difficult to understand how it could continue its course after having discharged sufficient electricity to carbonise a human body.—Elecfcriciau. ELECTRICITY APPLIED TO FARKIERY. General Boulanger has recently ordered the trial of a method inducing vicious and restive horses to stand quietly while being shod. The method is due to the knowledge and ingenuity of M. le Captain Place, and is said to have proved eminently successful. We confess that such is our ignorance of the electrical pathology of the noble quadruped that we should rather have expected the very opposite results to follow. The arrangement merely consists of an induction coil, a dry battery, and an arrangement for giving ‘a shock of graduated intensity’ to the animal under treatment. The most vicious horses which could be found in the cavalry school at Saumur subsided into quietness upon the application of this device.—Electrician. THE EAR OF WOMEN Y. THE EAR OF MEN. It has been found by Dr Tait that the ear in woman can perceive higher notes —that is, sounds with a greater number of vibrations per second—than the ear of men. The highest limit of human hearing is somewhere between forty one and forty-two vibrations per second. Few persons have equal sensibility to acute sounds in both ears, the right ear usually hearing a higher note than the left. The lowest continuous sounds have about sixteen vibrations per second. THE PROPOSED MESSINA STRAITS TUNNEL. There appears to be a great probability that the tunnel under the Straits of Messina, proposed as long ago as 1879, will be constructed, the Italian Minister of Public Works having instructed the engineer, Carlo Navone, to carry on investigations on the basis of the plans prepared by the engineer Gabella. The latter brought the subject before the Italian Parliament in 1879, and in 1882 he delivered a lecture at Rome, in which he pointed out how important it was to join the railways of Sicily and Southern Italy, both for commercial and military reasons, and demonstrated the practicability of the undertaking from an engineering point of view. According to Professor Seguenza, of Messina, a geologist, the formation of the strata under the straits is favorable to the construction of a tunnel. The cost of the latter is estimated by Gabella at L 2,840,000, and the time of construction at from four and a half to six and a half years. The tunnel would have to be made about 500 feet below the level of the sea, this'depth being reached by spiral approaches from the land ends. Its total length would be about eight and a half miles. There is an alternative proposal for joining the island of Sicily with the Italian mainland by means of a bridge tbrown across the Straits of Messina, which is about eight miles wide at its narrowest part. Whichever scheme is adopted, there seems to be no doubt that the closer connection of the island with Italy is much wanted. Sicily has made great economical progress since its union with the Italian kingdom, its railways' having now reached a length of over 500 miles, whilst the number of its population, according to the last census is about three millions. —lron.

CEREALS V. MEAT FOR FOOD England is a meat-eater, while France is a cerpal eater or an eater of bread and oil. I-had-a long talk with le Comte Ferdinand de Lesseps in regard to the value of the cereals for food. M. de Lesseps worked thousands of Italians, Turks and Frenchmen on the Suez Canal. •Do you really think the cereals are stronger food than meat?’ I asked. « Certainly ’ he replied. * One pound of dry wheat or flour is worth as much as three pounds of wet beef. Scald the pound of flour and see ! You have a gallon of mush! You could not eat it in three days. If you feed the cereals to cattle as they do in England, it takes eight pounds of grain to make a ponnd of meat. So, why feed the grain to animal tramps’ Why not eat it ourselves and do away with a surplus population of 50,000.000 cattle, hog 3 and sheep—animal tramps’ ? England is supporting perhaps 80.000,000 cattle, sheep and hogs, and 40,000,000 people, or rather she supports her cattle and buys bread from America to feed her people. France supports 45,000,000 people, and about 20,000,000 cattle, hogs and sheep.’ • Then you believe in raising more grain and less cattle and hog3?’ I asked. ‘ Certainly. One acre of cereals in France will support five men, while it would take two acres of grass to support one steer ; and in the end, one man would eat the steer. The advantage of cereals over meat is as five to one. So you see the steer is an unnecessary tramp. The Englishman,’ continued Mr Lesseps, ‘ insists on roast beef, every pound of which costs eight pounds of cereals. The Frenchman eats the cereals himself. He buys millions of gallons of cotton.seed oil in America at three cents per pound. This he eats in his salad, in his soup and in his bread and pie-crust. The Frenchman refines millions of gallons of American cotton-seed oil, sends it back to America and sells it for 2 dols. or 3 dols a gallon. Cotton-seed oil is superseding pea-nut-oil, and olive-oil is almost a thing of the past. For years the peanut crop of Tennessee and North Carolina has been sent to Marseilles and made into olive-oil. Cottonseed oil has been found by the French to be better and cheaper than peanut-oil. To-day all Spain, Southern France, Italy, Turkey and Austria are living on American cottonseed oil. All an Italian gentleman or laborer wants is oil, macaroni, bread, sugar, wine and coffee. Cotton-seed oil takes the place of meat. It is strange that your Southern States have been for years throwing away millions of barrels of beautiful cotton-seed oil and buying unhealthful pork and lard in its place ! Corn meal cooked like macaroni with oil and.cheese is delicious food, and so cheap !’ The Count is right, but he forgets that m France where nothing iswaisted, 15,000,000 steers go as far as 50,000,000 steers in

England or 75,000,000 in profligate America. There is never a mouthful of meat or grease thrown away in France. France can support a population of 100,000,000 better than England can support a population of 25,000,000. —Paris Letter to the Kansas City Journal.

THE LONGEST AND LARGEST RIVERS.

The explorations of recent years have considerably changed our notions of the comparative rank of the great rivers of the world. If we class rivers according to their length, both the Nile and the YangtseKiang must be named before the Amazon. The Nile’s 4000 miles of water way, from its headwaters south of Lake Victoria to the Mediterranean, make it the largest river in the world, nearlyaslongastheMississippiand Missouri together, end about 1000 miles longer than the Amazon. FOR AND AGAINST ALCOHOL. The total abstinence section of the British Medical Association never fail to testify at the annual meeting. About 160 members of the Association were present at the breakfast at Brighton given by the National Temperance League. We need not say that the speakers at this meeting were not of the opinion of a recent writer in the Revue Scientifique—M. Fournier de Flaix. M. de Flaix maintains that the outcry against alcohol is utterly unmerited, and that all vital statistics are more favorable in nations in proportion to the use of alcohol. In France, he says, the birth-rate is lower and the death-rate higher, where the consumption of alcohol is smaller. In England, again, more alcohol is consumed than in France, and yet in France the birth-rate, the death-rate, and the statistics of crime and suicide are less favorable than in England. Comparing other nations, he reaches the same conclusions, and maintains that alcohol is an alimentary element whose con. sumption should depend directly on climate. Very different were the teachings of the medical abstainers at Brighton—viz., Dr. Norman Kerr, Dr. Nathan S. Davis, Professor Geikie of Toronto Medical College, Dr. Simon Fitch of Nova Scotia, Dr. Bernard O’Connor, and Dr. Ridge, Secretary to the Medical Temperance Association. Dr. O’Connor said that during his fourteen years of practice he had never prescribed alcohol for any patient. Speaking as a physician to a consumption hospital, he maintained that phthisical patients did much better without alcohol. But the principal speaker, of course, wa3 Dr. Nathan S. Davis—the Pre-sident-elect of the approaching International Congress. Dr. Davis’s disparagement and denuniciation of alcohol were absolute and unconditional. It does not nourish, it does pot sustain heat, it does not assist convalescence. it does not improve the pulse in fever, and it is of no virtue in nursing. It is purely evil in its effects. So far from strengthening the heart’s action, it depresses it —it paralyses it. In saying so, he relied not only on his own observations, but on those of Anstie and Parkes. He maintains that alcohol is simply anaesthetic ; that it does not remove evils, but makes one insensible to them ; and that it arrests and retards all healthy action of the tissues, and tends to the retention and accumulation of effete materials. It is a pity that M. Fournier de Flaix and Mr Davis did not meet at the Brighton breakfast. There is perhaps a little extremeness on either side, but of the two sides we decidedly lean to that of Dr. Davis. We entirely agree with him and other speakers in thinking that the medical prescription of alcohol should be undertaken only on the strictest grounds. M. de Flaix must remember that France now is not far, if at all, behind England in the consumption of alcohol, and that, besides, she indulges in absinthe, and he will have to explain the undoubted fact that in the temperance section of life insurances offices the value of life is apparently much greater than in the ordinary section, so much so that in some offices teetotal lives are taken for less premiums or receive larger bonuses. When we read the indictment of Dr. Davis against alcohol, we are tempted to ask if it is the whole truth—if alcohol has no redeeming quality. Admitting that it does infinite harm, does it do no good ? does it prevent no evil ? Can the able physicians who recognise its virtues be all mistaken ? The question is one for scientific and thoughtful men to discuss gravely, and medicine will not be without much authority and, let ua repeat, responsibility, in its settlement.—Lancet.

The old three-deckers which have done duty so long as flagships at Portsmouth and Devonport are at last to be displaced. In place of the handsome old Duke of Wellington, at present the flag.ship of Admiral Siir George O. Willes, K.C.8., the naval com-mander-in-chief at Portsmouth—which has for many years shared the duties of flag-ship with the Victory, the old ‘ wooden wall,’ which Lord Nelson preferred to any other cf the ships of his day—the Achilles, now lying at Devonport, will he brought round to Portsmouth, and having undergone necessary alterations will take up the moorings now occupied by the Duke, and for the first time in history of the navy ah ironclad will be U3ed as a harbor flag-ship. R.M.S. Excellent, now used as a gunnery-ship, will be relegated to * rotten-row,’ and her place will be taken by H.M.S. Defence and H.M.S. Calcutta ; the tender to the Excellent will also be done away with. After all, the Resistance, which a short time since was towed round to Portsmouth from Devonport, to be used as a target, is not to suffer such an ignoble fate, as she will according to the latest arrangements, take the place of H.M.S. Cambridge, gunnery-ship at Devonport. Nothing is said about the ancient Victory, the timbers of which are still stout enough to allow of salutes being fired from her decks, notwithstanding the fact that she is cosiderably more than a century old ; and therefore it is to be presumed that the grand old vessel, which was always chosen as flagship by the veterans of the last century because she was the fastest man of war of her day, will continue to render service to her Queen and country. Court Journal.