SCIENCE NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2735, 15 August 1906, Page 67

SCIENCE NOTES.

I —Experiments at Cornell "University are said to show that plants can be forced to grow with the aid of drugs. They are fed on ether or other potions for 24 or 36 hours until they are thoroughly permeated with the fumes. They then grow with the greatest rapidity. Easter lilies treated thus have put out magnificent blooms in a night, and narcissu3 flowers have doubled their size after a few hours' treatment. — The various diseases of the lungs which are susceptible of treatment by inhalation are provided for in a new medical institute which has recently been opened in New York, where are installed the vapourising appliances invented by Dr Bulling, of Munich. By means of these devices the liquids to be vaporised are blown by compressed! air into 'such infinitesimally fine particles that they are carried by the act of breathing into the finest ramifications of the lungs, and are thus able to reach directly diseases situated far beyond the range of the ordinary inhaling appliances. In the medical institute called the Inhalatorium special rooms are set apart for the use of patients, who sit for half an hour at a time breathing an atmosphere charged with the vapour suited to their special complaints. In another room are a number of desks, each fitted witli a small and restricted vaporiser adapted for direct application to the mouth or nostrils. The aircompressors are fitted in the basement, and are arranged to draw carefully cleansed and filtered air, which, after being warmed by a special appliance, is fed to the various vaporisers throughout the building. — Seeing that no boring pierces the earth's* crust for much more than a mile, the knowledge we have of the constitution of the interior of the earth is theoretical; and as a discussion now being conducted :n the pager, of Knowledge serves to recall, there are at least two theories extant as to the nature of the earth's core. The one which commands the greatest number of adherents is that which Lord Kelvin has defended since he *nd Professor Tait developed it in concert, and which is that the earth is solid to its core. The second theory i 3 that at a certain depth below the earth^s surface, perhaps from 2000] to 3000 miles, the solid matter yields place to some other form of matter, though, according to the Rev Osmond Fisher, the first protaeonist of the alternative theory, this (pdssibly) liquid sandwich would be completed by a eolid nucleus at the earth's centre. These hypotheses are now promised revision by the light of the new methods of observing earthquakes and earth tremcura. In a paper read by Mr R. 8. Olaham before the Geological Society he describes the three phases of a great earthquake as represented on the seismometers of observatories at great distances from the •hock. There are first two preliminary tremours, and it can be shown that they represent the emergence of two distinct forces of wave motion which have been propagated lh rough the earth. Mr Oldham thinks that th-3 wave paths emerging at very distant observatories (say, half tho world away) have first entered a central core of the earth. This central core has reduced the rate of transmission of the waves from that which they would have had if passing merely through the outer shell of the earth. In the first tremour waves the speed is nine-tenths what it should be; in the second tremour waves about one-half. The great reduction of rate in the second tremour waves mean that there has been great refraction of the waves at some point of"their journey. Mr Oldham is led thence to suppose that after the outermost crust of the earth has been passed there is no indication of any rapid change- in its material, or in its chemical composition, till a depth of about 4500 miles is reached, but that below this there is a rapid passage to matter which differs greatly both physically and chemically from that above it. — That long-desired secret, how to photograph in colours, appears to have been solved at last by * Paris firm, Messrs Lumiere. Experiments have given perfect results, and we are promised that very shortly prepared plates will be on the market for all interested in the art to seeuTe photographs in the natural colours. The prepared plates are almost as simple as those in everyday use now, the glass being simply covered with a layer of microscopic and transparent flour of infinitchimal size. These grains are coloured respectively red, orange, green, and violet, the primary colours being so arranged and spread that the sunlight passing through is reeonstiTuted white. This layer, while interstice* ara filled with the finest powdered charcoal, r is recovered with yet another layer of panchromatic, and sensitised. If such a plate is exposed to the rays which emanate from a coloured object—care being taken to expose tho, back so that the light transpierces the coloured layer before reaching the sensitised plate — complementary tonee to those of the original are obtained by development. —Mr E. F. Bennett writes to the Pall Mall Gazette apropos of the suggestion that spectacles are helpful to children to correct the ill-effects of carelessness in parents and teachers: — "As we may be sure that a very great amount of shortsightednees and obliquity of vision is directly caused by looking at printed matter too young, why can we not insist that teachers shall teach, and not set the wretched little oreatures under them down to learn lessons from books? The grownup savage is a most apt pupil, all his "faculties are ready for the teacher. Let ue try to get our children fit in body first, and teach them to use their minds afterwards. These miserable books are ruining us, and! malting these young people who have used them most hate the sight of all booke. Burn the books, or, at least, use them with discretion. I wonder so many children come out as well as they do as regards eight, after the blighting ordeal they have to go through in schools. It is quite amazing, too, how little they really learn. The time-table and examination room tell one etory, practical life tells another." — Among the many possible agencies suggested aa operating to bring about seismic and volcanio disturbances nay© been the attraction of the moon (which Mr Maunder, of Greenwich Observatory, believes potential in that direction under certain conditions) and the baneful effect of the more wickedly inclined planets. This latter explanation is utterly discredited by astronomers, but astrologers have been busy — after the event — in calling attention to "unfavourable conjunctions'' of the planets, which, according to all the teachings of astrology, could only result in the recent terrible catastrophes. It is probable, bow.

ever, that the planets have been in a measure factors in the disturbances, though not in the manner suggested by astrologers. During- tWe latter half of April all tho 1 major planets, with the exception of the distant Uranus and Neptune, were so placed as to be .attracting the earth in much the same straight line, one quadrant of the heavens containing Mercury, Mars, Jupiter Venus, and Saturn. In addition, the sun was .nearly in the middle of this quadrant, and on the day of the San Francisco earthquake the moon, which entered this pianetry region on that day, added* its powerful attraction to that of the sun and five planets. The racon occup.ed a week in passing through this, quadrant, and disturbances were reported during this period from various parts of the world. The possibility that the earthquake zone of the earth is very susceptible to such abnormal combined attraction is deserving of consideration, especially as similar pianetry conditions have existed at the times of previous disturbances, notably the eruption of Mont Pelee and the earthquake i in India lost year. j -- The mdustnal value of camphor ia so rapidly increasing, owing largely to its use in the making of celluloid that the possibility of its production in British colonies is worthy -of careful consideration, of the camphor at the present time comes from Japan and from the island of Formosa, which is the property of Japan, and the manufacture of refined camphor is a monopoly of the Japanese Government. Camphor is the product of the tree Cinnamomum camphora, and until the product was made a Government monopoly it was prepared by the natives by a very crude Erocess. A kind of kettle made from the ollow trunks of trees, protected by a coating of clay, was used to boil water, arid the steam escaping from the holes in tho cover passed through chips of the wcod of tho camphor tree. The camphor was extracts-^ by the steam and deposited in crystals on the insides of inverted earthenware pots. Now that the Government have taken over the production, more economical mfthods are in vogue, but owing 1 to the monopoly the P 1^ 0 ? °f camphor is. nevertheless, very much higher. The cultivation of the camphor tree has been successfully tried in Ceylon, India, and Australia, and in Ceylon especially it appears to thrive in a very satisfactory manner. It is probable that its cultivation will be undertaken in the island on a commercial scale as the demand for camphor, both for celluloid and for smokeless powder, ie constantly increasing. — Persona not hardy enough to risk the rigours of Alpine climbing are now enabled to mount to the summit of the HammetSchwatid Mountain, 3600 ft above sea-level, by means of the longest lift in the world, an elevator 600 ft high. The elevator is located not far from Lucerne, where is a grotto in which the elevator shaft is hidden. The elevator is operated by elec-n tricity. The cage is 12ft square, and only seven passengers are carried each trip. The ascent is made in 3min. — The Lancet enlarges on the dangers of the sponge. Enormous quantities of water pass through it, and it is obvious that the sponge must arrest the impurities of a water just as does a good filter, and sooner or later slimy matter accumulates, the quantity and quality of which depend upon the character of the water supply. The u«se of soap would, as a rule increase the sl-me owing to tho formation of insoluble curds of lime soap. The number of organisms and the amount of impurity in the water may be quite insignificant in relatively small volumes of the water, but when the accumulation caught in a sponge represents some hundreds of gallons of water tho sponge may obviously teem with potentialities for evil. — The authorities of Birmingham University have recently opened on the University grounds an experimental coal mine, occupying nearly an acre of ground. The purpose is to give practical instruction to students in all the problems and operations of coal mining. They are- exercised in underground surveying, the connection of surface with underground surveys, the teatinsr of ventilation, the measurement of air vonimes and velocities, the friction of air cuTrents, the various methods of breaking coal, and the management of different kinds of drills aud cutting machines. The completion of this artificial mine has been awaited with Interest, and it is expected to prove very valuable in teaching the science of mining. —An apparatus has iuet come into use . in France which records the human voice S upon a post-card. This is the "phonocard." The voice is recorded by an oidinary phonograph of simple construction by meane of a pencil with a sapphire point. By tho aid of the phonocord people may now send communications through the post that may be more easily understood than or'linary script. j — The fo&silisfd remains of a remarkable i pr«?histor'o reptile are occupying the attention of thtj antiquarians of Peterj borough. Tho roptile, which i 3 12ft long, and vac found buried 60ft deep in clay at YaxW, near Peterborough, resembles a crocodile, pxoept that it has flappers in j the place of feet. It is deeeribed by experts as an ichthyosaurus, or fish lizard, but of lan unusual typo. It has two rows of I spines on ite back, and its tail is 3ft in ' length. I — A small body as large as a pavingi Btone or not ac largo as a marble is moving 1 round the sun. Just as a mighty planet revolves in an ellipse, so this small object will move round and round in an ellipse, ■ with the sun in the- focus. There are, at the pre?ent moment, inconceivable myriads of such mcteore moving in this manner. Th-ey 4»r© too small and too distant for our telescopes, and we osun never see them, except under extraordinary- circumstances. j At the time we see tho meteor it traverses i a d : stanee of more than 20 miles a second. | Such a velocity is almost impossible near ) the earth's surface; the resistance of the > air would prevent it. Aloft, in the emptiness of space, there is no air to resiet it. , In the course of its wanderings the body ■ may come near the earth, and w'thin a ! few hundred miles of its surface of course j begins to encounter the upper surface of : tho atmosphere with which the earth is enclosed. To a body moving with the a appalling volooity of a meteor, a plunge I into the atmoephero is usually fatal. Even 1 though tho upper layers of air aro excesEivcly attenuated, yet they suddenly check the velocity, almost as a rifle bullet would be checked xrhtn fired into water. As a meteor rushes through the atmosphere the friction of the air warms ita surface; gradually it becomes red-hot, then whitehot, and is finally driven off into the vapour with' a brilliant light, while wo on the earth, one or two hundred miles below, exclajoL " Oli, look I the£e is a shooting etar.'i