SCIENTIFIC NOTES.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1695, 7 February 1888, Page 2

SCIENTIFIC NOTES.

Decimal Units.—As the metric system of weights and measures grow* in universal favor, the need of a u uform decimal currency and of a ■ . d -cimal system of time measurement u becoming generally felt. Most countries already possess some form of decimal money, and even England is making up to the advantages of decimal units. A recent scheme for d icimalizing the pound sterling was v; all supported, the plan being to a (opt the mill, as the unit and divide the sovereign into 1000 mills. Thus making the half-sovereign equal 500 mills., the crown 250, the double florin 200, the half crown 125, the florin 100, the shilling 50, and the sixpence 25. In Wiesbaden a step in decimal timekeeping has been taken. A new clock divides the day into 10 hours, the hour into 10 decades, the decade into 10 minutes, the minute into 10 seconds, and the second into 10 rays. Similar units take the place of the usual degrees, minutes, and seconds in the division of the circle. Pneumonia Explained. —lt is generally supposed that pneumonia is due to the accidental penetration of specific microbes into the system, but the observations of M. Jaccoud, a French student of the subject, show that the disease really results from the development under favorable conditions, of microbic germs permanently present in the system. A chief condition of such development is a sudden chill, which explains the frequent coincidence of lung affections with abrupt changes of temperature. A Developing} Abt,—Probably, no application of science is advancing - more rapidly than photography. Among recent appliances is a detective camera, in the form of a watch, with a charm to hold a supply of miniature dry-plates, and a telescopic camera, in which distant objects are brought near by telescopic aid and photographed. Modern dry-plates have made the camera quite available at night, and exquisite pictures are now taken by moonlight and even by starlight. Dwellees in Daekness.—-The cave animals of North America, according to Professor A. IS. Packard, comprise a total of 172 species of blind creatures, nearly all of which are mostly white in color.

TBACisra the Oibcitlatioit.—-Start-ing with the idea that the hand varies sensibly in size with the amount of blood present in it at any moment, Professor Mosso, the Italian, physiologist, has made some most interesting investigations. In his first experiments the hand was placed in a closed vessel of water, when the change in the circulation produced by the slightest action of body or Ibrain, the smallest thought or movement waa shown by a rise or fall in the; liquid in the narrow neck of the vessel. Wjtk a large balance on which the horizontal human body may be poised,-he has found that one's thoughts \ may be literally weighed, and tbiat' even dreams, or the effect of a slight sound during slumber, turn. J the blood to the brain sufficiently to* sink the balance at the head. "When the brain of the balanced person is relaxing from thought the flow is toward the, feet, with a corresponding oscillation. The investigator has continued hia studies of the circulation until it seems that he may almost r»ead one's thoughts and sensations. A. tracing from a single pulse-beat shows him whether a person is fasting Jor not; two beats serve to determine whethef the subject is a thinking or a heedless one, whether asleep or awake, cold or warm, agitated or calm. The. changing pulse even told him whisn a professional friend was reading; Italian and when Greek, the greater effort for the latter duly affecting the bloodflow.

Work of JYve Teaes. Prof. J. A. Fleming, the English electrician, shows that in 1882 an electric dynamo for 1200 lights weighed 44,820 pounds, the. armature weighed 9800 pounds, the space occupied was 320 cubic feet, the horse-power required was 155, and the commercial efficiency was 67 per cent. The 1887 machine,' with an armature of 1568 pounds, weighs 11,760 pounds, occupies about 180 cubic feet, requires about 112 horse power, and has a commercial efficiency of over 90 per cent. A. given current costs one-fourth asmuch a 3 in 1882.

A Curious Dicovery,—ln'the tartar of teeth from skeletons of the stone age, Mr Oharterg White, o£ the Odontological Society of Great Britain, has found specimens of the food eaten by our prehistoric ancestors 3000 years or more ago. The fragments identified include portions of corn husks, spiral vessels from vegetables, starch husks, fruit cells, the point of a fish's tooth, and bits of wool, feathers and cartilage. SUBGIOAL PbOGHESS.—At tWO of the leading hospitals of Paris the death-rate from amputations of all kinds has fallen from 50 per cent in 1880 to about 15 per cent at present.