SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY

Otago Witness, Issue 3755, 2 March 1926, Page 79

SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY

(Fob tub Witness.) FOSSILS SEEN THROUGH THE ROCK. Fossils are being hunted in rocks by means of X-rays. Two Russian paleontologists have been very successful m finding bones in sandstone up to twelve or fifteen inches in thickness, and have had fair success in 9hale. To be seen, however, the fossil must be considerably different in composition from the rock—bones in limestone, for instance, not being detected. DUST AS A GASOLINE SUBSTITUTE. Tlie dust motor fuel prepared by the process of F. W. Brandes may be made up of particles of bog moss and other vegetable material as fine as l-25,000th of an inch. Low ignition period and high calorific value are among the advantages claimed, and it is urged that this dust fuel is suitable for both stationary engines and automobiles. HEAT RETAINING OF TEXTILES. The arrangement of the fibres has been found to have a marked influence on the heat retaining quality of textile materials. The United States Bureau of Standards has sought to determine the effect of placing a more closely woven material over a blanket, and has shown an apparent increase of heat resistance of about ten per cent, from a covering of one layer of cotton bed sheeting. Ln moving air the effect should bfe greater. TIME SIGNALS FOR SEAMEN. High-power incandescent lamps are now used for time signals at shipping ports. In a recently described European installation a searchlamp of 4000 eandlepower is mounted in a properly directed reflector, and in another, twelve 1000-watt lamps are arranged around the top of a tall Accurate clocks operate batteryfed relays that close and open the lighting circuits. The lamps are lighted five, minutes before the signal, and are extinguished on the sixtieth second of the signal minute. The signal is given every four hours, being plainly seen many miles even in blight sunshine. ATHLETIC ABILITY AND CLIMATE. In Hie results of the Olympic Games at Antwerp in 1920 and Paris in 1924, Dr G. Hoxmark, of the Buenos Aires Weather Bureau, has traced the expected relation of human energy and civilisation to climate. In making the anaylsis the number of inhabitants of each of the 26 countries represented was divided by the number of poi. gained by that ountry, thus giving the number of people per point, and the figures were compared with those expressing the mean annual temperature. It was shown that high average ability and low average temperature go together. Norway, Finland, and Sweden, in the order named, ranked highest. Great Britain was twelfth, and Spain, Czechoslovakia, Japan, and Egypt were among those taking lowest places. AGE AND SEX IN SUICIDE. Among the white wage-earners of the United States and Canada there are about two and one-half times as many male suicides as female, as shown by the experience of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company with sixteen million policy holders. In only one age period—fifteen to nineteen years—is suicide more common among female, the number at this time of life being nearly two and one-half times as great as among males. Between fiwen-ty and twenty-four the suicide rate is about one and a-half times as great among males as among females; between twenty-five and thirty-four the ratio is a little more than tw T o to one; between thirty-five and forty-four and forty-five and sixty-four, about five to one; and after sixty-five about seven times as many men as women reeort to self destruction. CUTTINGS FOR APPLE TREES. The propagat’ i of apple trees from cuttings seems to depend—as least in some varieties —upon the presence of root rudiments on the stems planted. Attention was lately called to the occurrence on the stems of certai” varieties of burrknots containing root rudiments, and to the fact that these root rudiments can be readily forced into growth by keeping damp moss around the stems. Acting on the suggestion th"* such stems could pro-, bably be used as cuttings. Dr Charles F. Swingle, of the Bureau of Plant Industry at Washington, reports in Science that he lias obtained satisfactory rooting in eighty per cent, of the cuttings tried from tho varieties Buckskin, Springdale, Northern Spy, and Buckingham, the only kinds with which experiments have so far been made. Pencil size stems of the fruit-spur type, from three to five ye - old, were cut July 15 from bearing trees in tho orchard of the Arlington Experiment Farm, near Washington, and were placed in sand, without bottom heat, in a Washington greenhouse. On August nearly overy cutting showed roots from a quarter-inch to four inches in length. COLDS OF BABIES. Respiratory catarrh seems to be the most mm affection of babio», Dr R. C. Clarke, an English physician, having reported t«iafc at least half of the ir" * from three to six weeks old seen by him in routine examinations had this trouble. The development of the catarrh depends chiefly on the number and virulence of flbe infecting organism- of the air breathed, on the local resistance o 4 the

mucous membrance, and on the general inununity of the body. The resisting agent secreted by tho mucous membrane is likely to be deficient in the very young. The chief sources of infection are the mother and the germ-laden atmosphere, and if mother or nurse shows signs of acute oatarrh she should wear a folded handkerchief over her mouth and nose while caring for the baby. The germladen atmosphere may be avoided by keeping the infant out of doors or in a draught. Old prejudice is not easily vercome, but a room with all windows open is declared to be perfectly safe, even while the infant is being bathed, if carefully done before an open fire. Kissing visitors and especially children’s parties are condemned. A VOLCANO’S WARPINGS. An interesting result of the observations at the Volcano Observatory on Kilauea, Hawaii, is the measurement of the movement of the mountain as an eruption develops. In a preliminary report, R. H. Finch notes that a tilting of the ground occurs with daily and seasonal! variations of temperature, but is also evident to a greater degree as an effect of the rise and fa 1 ’ of the lava in the crater. Between 1913 and 1920 the level of the lava gradually rose 600 feet. The gradual expansion of the mountain, top was indicated by a tilting of the reismographs to the south-east, and a new survey from sea-level showed that the observatory Lad increased more than a foot in heighth in nine or ten years. The lava gradually sank from about 1920 to 1924. with a rapid development during thre** years of a tilt toward the southwest of more than a minute and a-half. New levels were recently token, and have revealed the fact that one point near HaJemaumau had sunk five feet, and that another point had dropped as much as nine feet as compared with the altitude of the observatory. It is assumed that the observatory itself had sunk at least several inches.