SCIENCE MOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2515, 28 May 1902, Page 64

SCIENCE MOTES.

—In -a recent issue of the Pall Mall ilagazine appears a well-written and wellIllustrated article on the moon, by Mr E. VV. Maunder, F.R.A.-S.. who discusses the nature of the various signs of life which taoderrr observers have seen (or think they bave seen) on her face. M. Charbonneau, af Melun, declares that he has observed puffs of black smoke issuing from a small crater near Theaetetus, and, as was mentioned lome time ago, pliotographs taken by Mr W. H. Pickering show that certain white patches in the vast mountain-fenced plain Df Plato disappear as the sun ascends to his noon. But, as Mr Maunder points out, volcanic emoke illumined by the sun's rays tvould probably appear as bright spots; and, jls he might have pointed out, clouds of linoko are impossible where 110 atmosphere exists to sustain them. No doubt (says the London Post) M. Charbonneau mistook tiny patches of shadow for smoke. Astronomers ire agreed that the moon has no gaseous Bnvelope — even carbonic acid gas is out of the question — and that consideration disposes once for all of the idea that the patcliG6 in the photographs of Plato consist of snow, Df water, or frozen gases precipitated on the plain. Doubtlees these disappearing patches ■re due to alterations in the angle of JUlumination. The-, only change which is well Authenticated is /ne vi ambling of the walls of the crater Line — a sigu of decay rather than of life. And so we are inclined to believe that the moon is not moribund, but dead, and that <=he hangs in the earth's leaven as a cold memento mori.

- Tuberculosis kfls from 60,000 to 70,000 persons WSBL ?&& i& Great Britain* thi3_

number being equal to about 10 per cent, of the deaths from all causes. Tubarculosis is, indeed, the mo&t deadly malady with which we have to contend. Public and professional attention has been aroused, and efforts to mitigate the evil are being strenuously carried on. Much interest is being given to the erection of sanatoria, and it is well, but sufficient importance is not laid on tho measures which public bodies and private individuals aro capable of initiating to secure tho prevention of infection. There is little doubt that post offires as carried 011 in our crowded centres often offer facilities for tho propagation of consumption, and attention Las recently been directed to the frequency of phthisis among poat office officials. Mr Garland, from statistics based on returns from reports of an insurance tociety confined entirely to post office employees, and the official -returns of th«- Pogt-master-general, .shows that of every 100 deaths anjong sorting-clerks and telegraphists between the svgrs of 15 and 65 years 45.4 were due to phthisis. The loss front phthisis among workers in the post office is appreciably higher than that among the general populace, which stands at about 1.3 per 1000 living. And yet it must be remembered that the post office staff consists of selected lives, candidates being required to pass a medical examination before they are admitted to tho service-.

—Dr Desgrez, professor at the Faculty of Medicine, Paris and M. Balthazard, house surgeon of one of the hospitals there, have just presented to the Academy of Science an apparatus embodying a. remarkable and important discovery. It is claimed that by means of it it will be possible to maintain life in the most poisonous atmosphere, to enter rooms full of dense smoke, or pits full of noxious gases, without hurt or discomfoit. Some particulars of this discovery are given 1 by Dr Desgrez himself in an interview pub- ' lished in the Eclair. Ho says:— The re- | agent needed to regenerate the air vitiated by the confinement of an animal in an enclosed space had to be of such a kind that it would not only liberate the necessary oxygen and absorb the carbonic acid, but would also destroy the poisonous substances called by MM. Brown Sequard and d'Arsonval "pulmonary poison." Now. bi-oxide of 1 sodium decomposes in cold by the action j of water, producing oxygen on the one hand and on the other soda, a, powerful alkali, '.mis latter tabes up the- carbonic acid as soon as it is formed, and, moreover, as, in the process of decomposition, the chemical 1 employed 12 possessed of powerful oxidising 1 properties, poisonous products of respiration { are also destroyed. In the experiments iin- | dertaken the subjects were, in the first place, guinea pigs and dogs, though lattr the two investigators experimented on each other. Tho cunmals were each confined under a her-metically-f,3aled bell, near them bemg placed a quantity of bi-oxide of sodium, so ■ arranged that water might bo dropped upon it slowly and constantly. In f.ll <a-es it was found that by •■'mployiner the bi oxi<le

in which otherwise it would have been impossible. The apparatus consists of a kind of suit, suggesting a diver's dress, in which the principle thus demonstrated is embodied. Dr Desgrez says that 120 grammes of bi-oxicie of sodium suffice to regenerate the atmosphere breathed in the space of an hour. It is hoped (adds the Daily News) that the discovery will be of great service in mining disasters, fires, etc.

— The beautiful white iris, with its brightorange lip (Iris florentina), has always been valued in Italy, and especially at Florence and Leghorn, for the sake of its root, known to us in this country as orris-root, the foundation of fragrant tooth powder. It has many other uses abroad. In Germany and Austria ifc is sold in granular form and coloured, for the purpose of throwing upon fires for the sake of the emitted perfume. It is also largely used in the form of chips for chewing purposes, to remove the smoll of tobacco or garlic from the mouth. There is, however, a much older employment for the root. It was once widely used in surgery for the production of issues, or artiticial ulcers, an incision being made in the arm and a ball of rr^'s-root d!"' id in the wound so a 9 to set up inflammation. Only a few yeara ago 20 millions of these balls v.'ere annually exported from Leghorn. The most recent use for the root is found in the manufacture of artificial " corals " for babies.

— Some 20 years ago the late Sir William Siemens obtained some astonishing results I in a series of experiments in which artificial light was employed to force plants and to hasten the rip-ening of fruits. Why, asks the Gardeners' Chronicle, has no one in this country taken up the question? In Fiance more has been done, and sHll more in America, where the use of the electric light has been proved under certain circumstances commercially advantageous in the case of lettuce-growing. Professor Bailey sums up the results that have been obtained there by saying that " the application of the plectric light to the growing of plants is a special matter to be used when the climate is abnormally cloudy, or when it is desired to hasten the maturity of crops for a particluar date."' Now these are just the conditions which obtain in an ordinary British winter. Professor Bailey writes of the electric light only. In many places, however, gas would be cheaper and more efficient. Another means of facilitating forcing operarions is made known by a professor at a Dutch agricultural school. It consists in subjecting the plants to the fumes of ether. The plants so exposed shed their leaves as though they had been subjected to frost. The be3t results with lilacs are obtained in late summer. The ether then stops vegetable growth, and a moderate temperature 'being supplied, the flower-buds quickly expand, so that lilacs may be had in bloom in the first half of September. Besides lilacs, Herr Ledien also made successful experiments with "Viburnum plicatum, Azalea mollis, lily of the valley, etc. Lilies of the valley etherised and placed in heat on November 21 flowered in the proportion of 40 per cent, on the 21st day, while of those not etherised only 2 per cent, flowered, and these in a temperature of 23deg C. It should be remembered, in applying the treatment, that the vapour of ether is inflammable, and that no light must be brought into places where yS*Tits are etherised until the vapour has been thoroughly dispersed by ventilation.

— A portion of the work of a ship-build-ing yard, as well as of other industries, that will in my opinion be done in future years by electricity is the heating of the different portious of the ship— the plates, bar, etc., which have to be heatx»d before they can be bent to the required forms. The inelhod at present employed is clumsy compared with electric methods, and, though it will' probably be thought by practical shipbuilders the dream of a visionary, I have seen t-o many dreams come true during the last 28 years that I have been engaged in electric work, so many of tho prophecies for which I have been roundly laughed at have become accomplished facts (and in many cases in the hands of the very men who laughed), that I have no hesitation in again venturing into the dangerous field of prophecy. I believe also that the problem of protecting ships' bottoms from the artion of sea-water will be solved more effectually than it is now by depoeiting the protecting metal upon the iron by electricity. There are, as in. other cases, difficulties to bo overcome in this matter apart from the practical difficulty involved in arranging the enormous depositing bath roquired for the purpose. Deposited metal is porous, unless hammered afterward; but this will be overcome as so many other difficulties have been during the past 25 years. — Svdnc-y F. Walker, in the Engineering ilagszine.