SCIENCE NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2358, 4 May 1899, Page 54

SCIENCE NOTES.

found that they did not present any traces of concentric coatings, the gold being always more or less crystalline, and in some cases with very large crystals. Though no evidence of concentric layers was found, Professor Liversidge thinks the crystalline structure is not incompatible with the nuggets having had an aqueous origin — that is, that the gold was slowly deposited from solution, either at ordinary or at high temperatures. — Tesla, -when he lectured at the Royal Institution, London caused a vibratory current of electricity of enormous power to pass through his body. An ordinary current of the same voltage would have killed him rnstantty. The experiment astonished his audience and the gentlemen of the press, at least those who were unacquainted -with the more harmless character of such currents. He himself recently told an interviewer that, although he was aware from experiment and calculation that such a current ought not to kill him, nevertheless he hesitated before actually trying it. Tesla's soliloquy, "To be or not to be? " ended differently from Hamlet's. The resolute Montenegrin decided to risk it, and after making his will, taking a silent farewell of his sister, and so forth, he put himself in circuit of the current, by way of rehearsal for his lectures. The powerful current traversed his body without causing him the least annoyance, and lit an electric lamp in one hand.

— How wonderful is the triumph of the antitoxin treatment over diphtheria. Ten years ago diphtheria was the most terrible and heartrending of diseases. The physician shuddered at it, for lie knew that if malignant there was little for it but the will of Heaven and the fighting powers of the victim. Up to the last decade its death rate ranged from 10 to 60 per cent. Today only from 3 to 8 per cent, of those attacked die if treated "with antitoxin ; atfd if the treatment be begun within 24 hours the mortality can be cut down to 1 or 2 per cent. And it is all due to the antitoxin. The class of the disease remains precisely the same, and no other changes have been made in the treatment. — Outlook.

— Sir Norman Lockyer, the first authority on spectroscopic work in England, recently gave at the Camera Club, London, a most interesting account of his 28 years of labour in this difficult field of scientific research, and explained in a popular manner the way in which it was possible, by means of the spectroscope, to ascertain the actual composition of the distant stars. He said that the advance in methods of observation had been co rapid that it was now possible to get spectra of the stars to the third magnitude as good in quality as those obtained of the sun itself 20 years ago. This advance has been mainly due to photography. " Stop photography," said he, " and do you stop astronomy as we now understand it." The lecturer also said, in speaking of the enormous importance of photographic records, that it was a waste of time for the astronomical student to use his eyes, save to see that the apparatus was all right. By means of photography, millions of facts are accumulated automatically which can be studied subsequently, and such facts are reliable in that they are not biassed by the personality of the observer. It seems curious that a great authority should gravely state that in making observations during a total eclipse "it is ridiculous to waste one moment in looking at anything." Truly photography may be called the astronomer's handmaid. — Home paper.

— Influenza still continues to strain the powers of medical men and to disable more o: less a large proportion of their patients without respect of persons. Statesmen, diplomatists, writers, masters, servants, nonagenai-ians, and infants are attacked with splendid impartiality. To do the present epidemic justice it does not generally deal so severely with its victims as in the past, and though the number of deaths is still considerable the mortality is much less than on several previous occasions. Most of the cases continue to be of the nature of a febricula, the rise of temperature being sharp and its duration short, with or without catarrh. The pains viiry much, but are often eloquently described as severe by patients who do not exaggerate their sufferings. One patient will say that " it feels as if his legs were broken in 20 places," another ".as if her back were broken in two." In some cases the pvrexia extends over a week, in others over many wepks, in many of the latter consolidation of the apex of the lung, '•which gradually abates, being present. Though the profession is sometimes bantered on the subject it continues to be much consulted, find there is no doubt that the loncter the attack is ignored the lonirer v. ill be the duration and the more severe the consequences. — Lancet.