SCIENCE NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2812, 5 February 1908, Page 76

SCIENCE NOTES.

— "Flight as a personal matter can never be attempted by man, for the plain reason that he is not provided with a flying body," writes Dr Andr«w Wilson. "A near neighs hour quadruped of his, the bat, has evolved flying powers, but it has developed a frame which, like that of the bird, is made for flight as its true means of locomotion. Its bones are filled with air and otherwise it has points which render its aerial trips, not so extensive as those of the bird, easily performed. In the bird, it is simply the whole arm or forelimb which is modified in the wing, and it is the actual movement of this feathered arm which propels its possessor through' the air. But the bat's flight is of a different kind. It calls to its aid of skinfold which 6tretches between the four enormously elongated fingers, and runs between forelimbs and hindlimbs and between hindlimbs and tail. In the bat, therefore, we have something of the boat's sail order of things added to the wing, as opposed to the movements of the wing, pure and simple, in the bird." ' — One of the strangest as well as most costly articles of commerce is snake venom, for which there is a growing demand in medicine and other branches of science. The supply comes from Australia, and a recent Sydney quotation placed the market price at 20s to 25s per grain, or about 30,0C0d0l per lb troy, no attempt seeming to have been made hitherto to distinguish between the poison of snakes whose bite is usually fatal and 1 that from reptiles that seldom kill. Dr Tidswell, of the New South Wales Health Department, states that the venoms are now being classified. ' Laboratory experiments place the tiger snake venom first, as it is 16 times as deadly as that of the black snake, and four times as powerful as that from the brown snake or .the death adder. In average yield at a bite the death adder supplies three times as much as the tiger snake and 17 times as much as the brown snake. So far the snakes have been mostly captured /by hand, to avoid loss of poison, and, at even greater personal risk, have been held in the hand while being enraged and _ made to bite through a rubber band, ejecting upon a glass plate the venom from the two poison fangs in tn% upper jaw. Each _ snake lias supplied the material from one bite, averaging about a grain. — "It may be trite, but it is none the less true," says William A. Baldwin, the celebrated aeronaut, in Recreation for TSbvember, "to say that the airship, as we have so often said of the Bicycle and the automobile, 'It has come to stay.' What has been done in the United States in the last year alone is enough to convince me that pv&ctical navigation of the air has arrived. Some idea of "how important a position aeronauts occupy in the world today may be gained by following the press of the world. Hardly a day passes * that does not record a flight in some part of the world, government experiments <to perfect the airship- for purposes of war, -the organisation and prac*'cal exposition by clubs of amateur aeronauts of the feasibility of this subject "for sport, ..and so on indefinitely. Walter Wellmea's ill-timed and ' consequently 'unsuccessful .attempt to -accomplish .the long sought discovery of the North Pole through the naedjum of an airship is but another evidence of the importance of the •object. His airship worked splendidly, but gales and driving snowstorms rendered the expedition impossible. The papers of this country, as -well as our own magazines and the papers of all Europe, are filled with accounts of the progress already attained or that may reasonably be anticipated. What effect the use of the airship as an engine of destruction will have on modern warfare is already made the subject of international discussion. The Hague Conference, made up of profound scholars and leading statesmen from nearly all civilised nations, has taken up the question of warfare in space, and alive to its illimitable possibilities, has drafted rules governing the uses to which military balloons, areoplaaes, and like navigators of the air shall be" put, as follows: That only dirigible balloons, manned by -trained military aeronauts, be used, and that the dropping of explosives from the skies on to defenceless cities and the discharge of death-dealing gasej. except over ports and military camps, be prohibited." — Sir Ray Ijankester, speaking at the first anuiversaTy o£ -what lie called "tixe National Academy of Medicine, Said: "Today all medical men were men of science. The medical art, even the bedside manner, was strictly guided by scientific knowledge. Rapidly within the past 30 years 'medicine had availed itself of the progress in every branch of science, and had shown in the discoveries as to malaria, yellow fever, plague, and sleeping sickness the immense importance to human life of natural history studies as well' as of chemistry and physics. A difficulty had necessarily both as to the education of medical men in all this vast area of science who" wet** already fully occupied in attending fo the sick. He advocated the training of the medical student in the scientific habit of mind, rather than the attempt to fit him out with the detailed knowledge of all the sciences; and, secondly, the definite establishment of a large -and important branch of the medical profession, supported by the State, and devoted to discovery and investigation ia the causes and treatment of disease, rather than to ordinary medical practice. The effort to combine both was often made, - but it was too great a strain and dangerous io the life of those who made it. The legal profession had long ago established itself as a part of the State machinery. Why should there not be a lord protector of the national health as well as a Lord Keener of the Great Seal or a Lord Chancellor?" — Though celluloid is a convenient chemical preparation for the"- manufacture of a wide variety of ephemeral articles, both i utilitarian and ornamental, its high inflammability ia a constant danger. In view of these circumstances ' particular interest is "being cpntred in "pralalitn," a remarkable j German. invention which is now cominp ex- \ tensivoly into.-vogue, sines it is non-innam mab!e, of strength, and of wide value in its possible applications. Th^" matertal is a. perfectly odourless bom-like prod'act, prepared from casein, the cheese constituent of skimrted milk. At first sight it m.iy seem somewhat ' incredible that such an apparently waste product' as this" can be turned to valuable commercial advantage ; but when it ia remembered that vulcanite, which it resembles closely in texture" and external appearance, is made from veget*Ha milK tM probability of it being pos-

eible to produce a plastic substance out of anjraal milk is apparent. Owing to the low price of the raw material and the inexpensive nature of the secret process by which galalith is prepared, it is now becoming a formidable rival to the more generally adopted celluloid. In fact, it is being applied to all those varied purposes to which the last-named compound is generally adapted, such as ladies' combs, brush-backs, cigar and cigarette holders, rings, tobaccoboxes, etc., and, owing to its greater strength, to a large number of additional objects, such as umbrella handles, piano keys, chess figures, and dominoes. It can be produced in any desired colour, marbling, or veming in imitation of some more expensive material, since, owing to its character, it is peculiarly adapted to the artifices of the imitator. This is especially borne cut by the fact that galalith tortoise shell can scarcely be distinguished from the genuine substance even by the most stringent test of chemicals, while similarly amber and coral are being so skilfully reproduced as to defy detection. The material is also being widely used for inlay work, instead of the more expensive naturally coloured woods; for this it is eminently suited, as the colours are beautifully dear and bright, while a polish can be imparted which is more durable than that given tQ wood.