SCIENCE GOSSIP.

New Zealand Times, Volume LVII, Issue 2411, 17 January 1895, Page 4

SCIENCE GOSSIP.

MINES OF WOOD. , A curious source of wealth is reported by the French consul at Mongtze, in upper Tonquin. It lies in wood mines. The wood originally was a pine forest, which the earth swallowed iu some cataclysm. Soma of the trees are a yard in diameter. They , lie in a slanting direction, and in sandy soils which cover them to a depth of about eight yards. As the top branches are well preserved, it is thought that the geological convulsion which buried them cannot be of great antiquity. The wood furnished by these timber' mines is imperishable, and the Chinese gladly buy it for coffins. THE PHONOGRAPH AND LEARNING TO TALK FRENCH. It is suggested that the principle of the phonograph might he used to provide teachers of pronunciation for private students, or even schools, where.. good samples by the living voice are not procurable. When learning French,- for example, the student could now and again set Ilia phonograph working, and it would supply him with tho real Parisian mode of uttering common phrases, and tho proper sound of numerous typical words and combination* of words. The phonograph would, of course, haao been charged by being spoken into by some excellent French speaker. CYCLONES AND ANTICYCLONES. In meteorology a “cyclone" is an atmospheric system in which tho air circulates round a central point at which the barometric reading is low, getting higher as the central point is receded from. In an “ anticyclonio ” system the air circulates round q central point at Which the barometer is high, getting lower as the centre is receded from.’ In this case the wind blows round the centie in the same direction as tho hands of a watch move, and the weather ia generally what is called “ good-”, or settled. In the case of a cyclone the wind blows round the centre in the contrary direction, and the weather is generally,wh.t ia called “ bad,” unsettled, often stormy. . LONG DISTANCE HOUSE MOVING. A curious.case of house moving was recently witnessed in Oregon. A man who owned a residence at Seattle, which coat him 5000 dollars to erect, removed to Olympia and did not have sufficient funds to build another bouse. So bought-a lof, and concluded to remove the building he owned at Seattle. Everyone laughed at him, but he persisted. Rolling the house down to tho river, he loaded it upon a scow, and it was soon at Olmpia, a distance of about,6o miles. Then he had it rolled upon his lot, and, strange to say, not a timber was strained nor even a piece of furniture broken, although he had not removed the contents before starting the house upon jts ■; unusual journey.' SUBMARINE DETECTOR. The submarine detector of Captain McEvny has been tried in the effort to discover the. position of a Russian man-of-war which foundered some mouths ago in the Gulf of Finland. The detector has; it appears, found the-vessel, thirty* fathoms deep. The apparatus is based bn the principle of Professor Hughes’ induction balance, and consists of an electrical arrangement and a. sinker, which is trailed along the bottom. In the searching vessel there is a telephone, which is Included in-the secondary circuit. The“ searcher,’’ after being adjusted so that little or no sound is heard in the telephone, is sent on its mission, and when it approaches or comes in contact with a mass of metal the indicator sounds :

loudly,-and tho trials being repeated with similar results, diving operations are then commenced. The detector is very useful for finding torpedoes and submarine mines. DANGER OP ELECTRIC LEAKAGES. The serious nature of the leakages from electric leads is shown by the death of a young man who grasped a handrail in front of a dwelling-house in Kew York, Accidents of a similar though not identical character have occurred in several cities of the States whore the current is used for lighting and fur the propulsion of tramoars. HIGH SPEED PROJECTILES. In the course of the experiments this season with the Maxim gun at Lydd camp, bamboo screens were set up as targets. The g< eater the velocity obtained with the gun the less was the effect on the screens, it being sometimes almost impossible to see where tho l bullets had passed through. The inference is that, provided a bullet struck a human being in a fleshy but not vital part, the injury would be much less serious than if he were struck with a projectile of less velocity. INSTINCTIVE ATTITUDES Dr Livingstone makes this interesting observation :—“ Manyuema children do not creep, as European children do, on their knees, but begin by putting forward one foot and using one knee. Generally a Manyuema child uses both feet and both hands, but never both knees. One Arab child did the same ; he never crept, but got up on both feet, holding on till he could walk." (“Last Journals," p. 381) The last instance suggests arboreal survival, the Manyuema style being pure plantigrade, but rarely seen in civilised life. C eeping of infants as instinctive activity certainly throws light on human evolution, and it may' be racial differences will be revealed by investigation. It would also be interesting to inquire how far idiosyncrasy in walking is connected with peculiarity in creeping. Swinging. the arms seems quadrupedal survival. Looking down from a high building on people walking below, their movements thus projected oh a plane are strikingly suggestive of a quadruped, and the professional pedestrian who makes the utmost 1 use of arm swinging to accelerate gait suggests the rapid shuffle of a bear. Aga ; ri, tho various attitudes instinctively assumed by person! for sleep are significant for tho evolutionist. I know those who naturally dispose themselves flaten the stomach, with the limbs placed much like a dog asleep. So far as ’ habits of creeping, walking, and sleeping have not been taught, but are purely instinctive, they throw light on the history of man. It is very desirable that travellers and residents in all countries secuie photographs of these attitudes, apd deposit them with anthropological societies, whore’ they would’ be of great use to the investigator.—Hiram M. Stanley, in Nature, .. ■■ ■■ .■ ■■ :■ * • :