SCIENCE NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2105, 28 June 1894, Page 48

SCIENCE NOTES.

— A striking illustration cf the value of vaccination is afforded by the recent experience of the nurses at the Birmingham Workhouse and the Workhouse Infirmary. These two institutions are contiguous to the city smallpox hospital, and the guardians therefore deemed it prudent, on the recent outbreak of the smallpox epidemic, to, have the nurees vaccinated. Two of the nurses one in the workhouse and one in the workhouse infirmary, refused to submit to tbe operation. The one in the workhouse caught the disease and died about two months ago. The one in the workhouse infirmary was also seized, and her case ended fatally soon after. None of the nurses who were vaccinated have been affected. — Glass having unusual fire-resisting properties has recently been produced in Germany, and competitive tests have been hqld to ascertain the merits of samples from several factories. The glass wad put into the vertical windows and skylights of an old building which was then set on fire, and sudden changes of temperature, shock* from weights and jets of water and other means were employed to prove its toughness. Excellent results wore attained, especially by the glass from the Siemen works in Dresden, which withstood a temperature of 2140deg Fahrenheit for half an hour. — One of the interesting results of the recent experiments in England in photographing fljing-hullets has-been to show that the disturbance in the air travels faster than the bullet itself. The photographs exhibit, air waves in advance of tbe bullets, even' when the latter are moving taster than the velocity of sound. In one case, where the | bullet was moviDg considerably faster than sound travels in tbe air, it was preceded by an atmospheric disturbance which, at the moment the photograph was taken, was halt an inch in advance of tbe point of the oullefi. Even when the bullets were travelling four times as fast as sound the atmospheric disturbance kept ahead of them. — Professor N. S. Shaler, in a paper read before the Geological Society of America, explains tbe remarkable endurance of beach sands under tha repeated attacks of the waves by tbe fact that when mineral matter in a certain state of division becomes thoroughly wet, a film is formed between the grains, serving as a cushion and preventing attrition and consequent wearing away. Where beach pebbles wear away rapidly, therefore, under wave action, sand is but slightly affected. On the other hand, the sand of dunes is never thorough) y wet, a rain of half an it oh penetrating to a distance of only about three-quarters of an inch. Tbe water runs into the depressions, and only there penetrates to the interior of tbe dune. The result is that the sand ia soon dry and ready to yield to the wind's aotion, the large amount of fine dust present in each sands showing how rapidly the decomposition of the material advances. A ourlous feature of the growth of beaches is the extent to which it is accelerated by tbe aotion of seaweeds, I | which adhere to pebbles and sand and float them to the beach by the action of the waves. — American Journal of Science. — Recent experiments have verified Sachs's discovery of 10 years ago that plants which have certain rays of light excluded from them grow quite healthily, except that j they fail to produce flowers. These rays are called the ultra-violet rays, and though not I affecting the eye, are of special chemical aotivity, as shown by their vigorous action on photographic plates. Sachs came to the conclusion that these rays acting on the leaves must generate there a special nowerformicg substance, and he has since extended the idea of special substances produced on the leaf for the formation of eaoh

kind of organ in the plant, but so far there has beeif nVdemonstration of the existence of such substances.

—By a singular provision of naturevery obnoxious, no doult, to Sir Wilfrid Lawson, but dear to the souls of unregenerate humanity — whatever produces sugar for one's toddy produces also on the same stem the toddy to put it in. Thus the self-same cane supplied Mr Stiggins with his famous pineapple rum and with the four large lumps which he employed to sweeten it. Thus, too, John Barleycorn, when " for England's good he yields his blood" in the form of bitter beer, passes firat through the sweet stage of malt, in which condition he can easily be converted into the substance known as maltose or malt sugar. It is the same with palm juice. When simply boiled down it produces palm sugar, but when allowed to ferment it turns into an excellent substitute for Bass's pale ale, called palm wine or toddy. This is, indeed, the original and only genuine toddy, all others being spurious imitations. — Oornhill.

—Mr 3. S. Lemon, in the "American Journal of Psychology," notices the very great influence of weather on the health and temperament, and through them on the customs and habits of men in all ages. This ia reflected in the salutations of all nations, in their religious ideas, particularly in their conceptions of the future life, and a thou : sand petty details of everyday existence. It affects even crime. Suicibe is known to depend largely upon the weather, and it has been calculated that in India 48 per cent, of certain crimes disappear when hot weather gives place to cold. The health of idiotp, and those afflicted with acute mania, is especially dependent upon weather, and its effect on the nervous system is such that many persons can anticipate weather ohanges from their own feejioga. Accidents in factories are said to be much more frequent in bad weather than in good, and physiological phenomena, like knee-jerk, seem to be dependent on it in some measure. Its effect on the appetite is well known, and teatasters, who have cultivated the sense of taste till it has become almost abnormal, say that in good weather this sense is more delicate than in bad weather. No systematic study of all these facts and relations has yet been made, but such a study would doubtless well repay the investigator.

— Tn the last published British Foreign Office Report (No.~1300) on the trade, &c , of Bulgaria, it is stated that would-be sellers in England do sometimes go 90 far as to send out catalogues in French or aome other foreign language, but t hat even then they " persist in retaining the intricate English standards of weights and measures." It is addec* "Tbe metric sjstemisthe one now emplojea throughout Bulgaria, and it ie useless for English manufacturers— especially of machinery and hardware — to expect that their potential foreign customers will give themselves the trouble of learning our avoirdupois and dimension tables in order to be able to puzzle out quarters, pounds, and ounces, yar^s and inches gallons, pints, &c, into metric equivalent " Regarding Peru a correspondent writes complaining of the inconvenience he suffers when consigning machinery. Shipping specifications have to be sent out in metric weights and measures, and if there are any errors his customers are liable to a flue. Thi* means that he has to make out the specifications twice over, first in English and then in metric weights and measures. He therefore urges, and not unreasonably, that the metric system should be adopted officially In England. This would doubtless lead to its being adopted by all shipowners and carriers, and one more step in the direction of an international system of weights would be taken. Great Britain is almost the only civilised country of first rank which is blind to the interests at stake in this question, and it is high time that a public inquiry should be instituted. — M F. Walter has found that an alloy consisting of 95 parts of tin and five parts of copper adheres so tenaciously to glass that it may be employed as a solder to join the ends of glass tubes. It is obtained by adding the copper to the tin previously melted, agitating with a wooden stirrer, casting or granulating, and then re-melting. It melts at about 360deg. 0. By adding from £to 1 per cent, of lead or zinc, the alloy may be rendered either softer or harder, or more or less easily fusible. It may also be used for silvering metals or metallic thread. — Among the many fearful methods once invented to cure lunatics of their madness one of the most curious- was the circulating swing, mentioned favourably by physicians of the laet century. This horrible swing was a small box fixed upon a pivot, and worked by a windlass. The " inflexible " maniac, or the maniac expecting a paroxysm, was firmly strapped in a sitting or recumbent posture. The box was then whirled roncd at the average velocity of 100 revolutions a minuro, and its beneficial effect was supposed to bo heightened by reversing the motion every six or eight minutes, and by stopping it occasionally with a sudden jerk. The. results of this swiDg (which occasionally brought on concussion of the brain) were profound and protracted Bleep, intense perspiration,' mental exhaußtion, and a not unnatural horror of any recurrence to the same remedy, which leftr*"^ moral impression that acted as a temporary restraint.