SCIENTIFIC NOTES

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4467, 21 September 1901, Page 5 (Supplement)

SCIENTIFIC NOTES

A “WHEAT HOSPITAL." In the large wheat raising region* «l Manitoba and the North-West of Canada, great loss is annually sustained by the farmers from wet, dirty, or diseased wheat. In order to prevent this great loss, or, at least, to reduce it to a minimum, a w’heat hospital hag been established at the north-western end of Lake Superior, in Ontario, at a lake port, the little city of Port Arthur. In this hospital diseased and damaged wheats are restored to* health by an elaborate system of treatment. Indeed, so apt is the figure, the institution here the work is done hag come to bo known in current phrase as “the hospital,” and the name fits well. The wet grain is dried in hot rooms, and that dirty with ‘‘black smut,” and otherwise damaged, is scoured by machinery, and both sorts are said to be sent out of hospital in good health and in prime condition for milling. As no ■ grain is taken into hospital which is seen to_ b« incurable, the result# are alwayr satisfactory. HOW WE BECAME OMNIVOROUS. Professor F. Hueppe recently diseaseed the question of whether vegetarianism can be supported on scientific grounds. He considers that geological evidence proves that the cradle of primitive man was in a northern land, and • fixes his evolution in the tertiary period, when Asia was still partly separated from Europe,' but connected with Africa and united with America by a land bridge. The human' growing ape, owing to hard times,’left the forests and became a beast of prey, probably the most cunning and ferocious that has ever stalked on the face - of the earth. ■ln the interglacial period man was a,mammoth hunter. The Danish kitchen mid-, dens show that the Primitive European* were fish and flesh eaters. The Anatio stock, meanwhile, evolved into shepherds , x ' and began to cultivate cereals.jn the alluvial plains of the great rivers. The irruption of -Asiatics into Europe brought about the introduction-, of cereals, and domesticated animals, and a> mixed diet became usual. , , PENNY IN THE SLOT TELEPHONES. Public telephones are being introduced in the, United Stato*. . They .will be placed .i at frequented street corner*. They will somewhat resemble square letter boxes. On each of the four aides is the well-known blue. bell. :.The bo*. - is ordinarily docked, -but is opened by dropping a coin into a slot; When the dopr is open the process of obtaining v - telephonic connection, is tho samo •* at any public: pay station, ■ the telephone • i, list being hung against the door. Whm the receiver is hung up. the door nhnta automatically. . •' WHAT BABY SHOULD WEIGH. Tho baby of normal weight tip* the scales down at birth at the seven pound mark. If he or she is much heavier or much lighter, be or aha is at odds with the average. A peculiar feature of baby weight is that during the first days of its life -that is, the perfectly normal youngster-—loses one pound. Thus, examination made on the second and fourth day .will show a weight of six pounds only. But after the' first week, at the end of which time the lost pound should bo regained, there is a-steady ad.,, vamce. Ten- pounds should have been reached by the time the baby is eight weeks old, and when it is twenty weeks old tho weight should be 14 pounds. At seven month* the figure should be 16 pounds, and tha year old baby should have a mark of 21 pounds to its credit. And-so tho future citiaen or citizcness goes on building up. until at the age of two years it is-able to point with,, prido to a record of 27 pounds. ; NOVA PEEBBI.

, Mr A. Fowler sums up all the information as yet obtained of the phases of the new atar in the May number of "Knowledge.” He says:—“The observations which have Been made by various observers indicate : very remarkable fuctuatioas in the brightness of the new atar. The rise from invisibility <was ; : , rapid. It fortunately happened that the region of the new atar wan photographed by Mr Stanley Williams only twentyeight hours before the discovery of Dr Andergon, and at the aame time,the star was cartainy below .the 13th mag- .> mtude. The star thus probably rose - not less than 12} magnitudes within three days,, corresponding’ to-a multiplication of its, light by 100,000 times. From the. time of,, maximumbrilliancy, , on February 33rd the decline -was pretty 1 rapid 1 >uatil about. March 18th, when the star was not far from the 4th magnitude ; then until tho 17th there was a slow redaction to abent 4.3, -and the star remained near this '' until March Slst, eaeept that on the 13th, 23nd. Sfitb, and 88th it went down to nearly 5.5. Thus for a abort time tho star wae' a mere er l*u regular variable, with a well-marked period .of abent three, days. The expected recurrence of a minimum on March 31st, however,' wae. not observed. but .the oscillation ha# since boon , continued with . a . somewhat greeter - period aad larger range of light changes.” _ , TO IMPROVE THE POTATO. A method of improving tho potato' k credited to M. Michelet, as a mult of experiments made in the Department Vancluee.'France, He advisee that the Potato plant should bo stripped of ita lossom, and that the crop/of tubers will be improved, in. quantity' and be richer in starch. The fewer is wot at all necessary to the wellbeing of tho plant, which in the pracem of blossoming consume* starch and other vogstnUo substances. ELECTRIC POWER FROM HEAT. A scheme for the transmission of eleotrio power end its distribution on on enormous scale is to be triad in-North Germany. It is proposed to utilise the great peat beds there for the manufacture .of currents that shall be distributed to msnufacturing centres. It is estimated that an acre of turf 10 feet thick contains 10,000 tons of dry peat, and that is equivalent to 4800 .ten* of coke. Xu the peat valleys of North Germany there is an area of a thousand Equate miles, which should furnish-.the equivalent of 300,000,000 tens of pit ooal. It is proposed to bum this turf at central stations, each of which will have' engines with 10,000 horsepower capacity, consuming annually 200,000 tons of turf, the product el SO acres of the beds. These power < stations will generate eleo- * tricity that will be conveyed to a dia- " tence.• i/- tt ;. • v i:; - v' A TELESCOPE FOB THE POPE.. ■ It js stated that a citisen of America, a Roman Catholic, who is much interested in cslestial snd terrestrial physics, has made an offer to the Pope of_ a telescope which is to in sixe that ehown at ,the Paris Exhibition.'list year. It -is reported that bis Holiness ' 1 has accepted the, gift, aad the telescope will now find a prominent place in the Vatican Observatory. •• ,i Some insects are in a state of maturity half an hour after birth.