SCIENCE GOSSIP.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1264, 21 May 1896, Page 12

SCIENCE GOSSIP.

THE seas and canals of mars. Observations made by the astronomers recently aro said to lead to the conclusion that tlie dark patches on the surface of Mars are not seas, as had been supposed, but level swamps covered with vegetatim. The dark threads which network the surface of tho planet, which have been called “ canals,” and are still believed to mark tho run of water-courses, aro seen to stretch into and traverse the dark patches, which seems to demonstrate that these latter cannot be bodies of deep water. TV lien tho polar snow melts ill tho Martial summer the water spreads over tlie adjacent plains, caus’ng a rapid and thick vegetable growth which appears dark to tho telescopic observer. the water is further drained off by tho system of geometrically arranged canals, as if to irrigate the continental prairies. The thin, dark lines seen are not the canals themselves, but the belt of vegetation which springs up along t heir banks. May this not account for the apparent duplicity of many of tho canals ? A CURIOUS'IIOTTLE WANTED. The browing, distilling, and other liquid manufacturing trades aro anxious to have a bottle which oneo filled and emptied cannot lio refilled without being broken. Some leading linns are annoyed by parties refilling their stamped bottles and selling them as containing the production of tho firms. To stimulate invention a prize is offered for such a bottle, and the features demanded as essential are:—(l) The bottle must bo made of a material that will in no way taint the liquid. (2) It must bo such that its operating parts cannot bo tampered with by wire or other expedient. (3) It must be impossible to refill the bottle, not only in tho usual way, but by submersion, by shaking it so as to disarrange the operating parts, or by passing tho liquid through the device by pressure, within any reasonable time. (-1) Tho exit of tho contents must not be seriously impeded. ORIGIN OF METEORITES. The origin of meteorites, or tiny bits of solid matter, which swarm through our system is still a matter of speculation. They are regarded by some as fragments left over at the formation of tho system, and not yet all absorbed by tho larger members of it. Others believe they havo been, and still are being, ejected from tho planets during volcanic explosions, and also from tho sun itself during periods of activity. It has also been suggested that they arc wanderers from beyond tho region of tho solar system. Jupiter is credited with tho parentage of many cometary swarms which still seem to own his sway. It is thought not improbable that those metooriies which reach the earth in a solid form have been ejected from terrestrial volcanoes with less than sufficient force to carry them permanently beyond terrestrial influence. Probably all of theso sources contribute to the production of the countless numbers scattered through tho interplanetary spaces, which do not soein to be much thinned by tho millions annually absorbed by the earth, and doubtless by the other planets and the sun. PHYSIOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY. Psychologists are often charged with occupying themselves in doing work which is purely physiological, and they retort by stating that most text-books of physiology include matter which belongs to psychology. The fundamental assumption of psychology is, to state Professor Fullerton’s argument, the assumption of an external physical world, and of minds which mirror it. It is tho task of the psychologist, with tho aid of introspection, observation and experiment, to obtain a knowledge of such minds, and to reduce their phenomena to laws. Though little is known about tlie changes in a nerve during the passage of a nervous impulse, tho methods employed in investigating physical and chemical problems may be expected to throw a line light upon them. On tho other hand, argues Professor Fullerton, physical facts —such as sensations, perceptions, volitions—havo also to be reckoned with, and one would hardly expect to study them just as the changes in a muscle during contraction are studied. Therefore he thinks that while tho task of tho physiologist is to investigate, by directly objective methods, the physical series of causes and effects, the psychologist studies facts of another order by tlie method of introspection, observation and experiment, and interpretation.— Nature.

LIGHTNING STROKE. Ball lightning, tho fulmen glolulare of the older meteorologists, is tho most dangerous and destructive of the forms which lightning is known to assume. Fortunately, however, it is tlie rarest. A narrow c»cape from death by its stroke occurred lately in tho person of a distinguished surgeon of tho Belgian school, Dr L. Dandois, Professor of Surgery in the University of Louvain, who had gone to tho neighbouring town of Linden to visit a patient, and on his return, having alighted from tho train to continue his homeward journey by road, was overtaken by a heavy thunderstorm. The sky became as dark as midnight, so as to make it difficult for him to avoid the telegraph poles standing at intervals along his path. In a few minutes a fire-ball, as he described it, descended on

him, its stroke hurling him off the roach across the ditch that ran parallel to it, and landing him in the adjacent field. He was holding a largo umbrella at the time, holding it with both hands by its wooden stick, which was of uncommon thickness. On coming to himself after the shock he found the umbrella cover completely burnt off its steel framework, the steel itself being twisted into every sort of shape. The wooden handle had no doubt saved his life —had it been of metal Dr Dandois is convinced that ho must have been killed instantaneously. As it was, fully ten minutes elapsed before ho recovered the use of his arms and legs, benumbed as they were with the shock. Ultimately he was able to resumo his walk homeward.— Lancet.