Scientific and Useful.

Western Star, Issue 987, 3 October 1885, Page 1 (Supplement)

Scientific and Useful.

Bells on sheep are said to have the effect not only of keeping off dogs, but oven wild animals.

A few drops of sulphuric acid will prevent any decay in solutions of gnm avabio. Herschberg says that by this acid the lime is precipitated as a sulphate. Three colouring bodies are used to falsify wines—mauve,. cochineal, and leaves of Phytolacca decandra. Under the influence of oxygen mauve becomes more soluble in water, while the reverse is the case with true wine pigment. Cochineal is beat delected by the spectroscope. The tincture of Phytolacca decandra is discharged by nascent hydrogen almost instantaneously. The following is a new method for rendering ships insubmersible : —At the water-line the hull should be divided by a bridge, preventing penetration of the air from the lower to the upper division. If a hole be made in the bottom the air will rush in, but will not entirely fill the compartment, for the air, finding no outlet, will be compressed, and will equilibrate the exterior force. From this point the ship will cease to sink—it will be in the position of a diving-bell. The “ Planotype” method of obtaining printing surfaces is described in Dingler’s Journal. The design to be engraved is transferred to a block of lime-tree wood, which is then placed in a machine having somewhat the appearance of a sewing machine ; but instead of the needle, we find a steel pin (the shape of which varies according to the nature of the work), kept red-hot by a jet of gas. The design is thus gradually burnt into the wood. When the design has'been completely executed, a stereotype iar taken direct from the block, and is at once ready for printing. It is stated that the wood does not suffer from the heat of the molten metal, and that the finest detail may be reproduced. A BEMBDY EOB HAY BEVEE. Professor Helmholtz, aware of the poisonous action of quinine upon infusoria, determined recently to make an experiment with that substance on the vibrionic bodies he had discovered in the nasal secretion of persons suffering from hay-fever, and for that purpose he employed a neutral and weak solution of quinine, which he poured into both nostrilswith a pipette whilst the patient was in a recumbent position, with the head low. The result was most satisfactory. Doctor Frickhofer, of Schwalbach, and Professor Busch, of Bonn, have also succeeded in curing the affection by the same method. Professor Binz suggests that a tepid solution of quinine should be used, and that, instead of a pipette, Weber’s simple put effective nose-douche should be employed for applying, the quinine solution, care being taken that the quinine is free from adulterati on. WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE EABTH’S INTEEIOE. Of the various hypotheses that have been put forward about the constitution of the earth, the following seems to meet beat the requirements of the case. Let ( hare be an outside solid-shell of moderate thickness, from thirty to thirty-six miles perhaps, and a very, large internal solid ball, and let ball and shell be connected by numerous solid ribs. The ribs will aid iu supporting the crust, and we shall have a structure rigid enough to satisfy the demands of the physicist. At the same time, when forces of sufficient magnitude are brought to bear upon the shell —and we know that enormous pressures are constantly called into action upon it in a way we cannot explain here—the shell will undergo the crumpling which we see has been - produced in it, while the globe, as a whole, still retains its stiffness. The space between the shell and the solid core will bo divided by the ribs,into compartments, and these may bo supposed to be filled with ■stuff which is reduced to a semifused or pasty state by the joint action of heat and heated water aided by the great pressure that exists at that depth. In all cases, whether fused, or pasty, or solid, the material that fills up the space between tne outer shell and inner nucleus will be just about the temperature which would keep it fluid under the -pressure to which it is subjected. Its state would depend upon a very nicely balanced adjustment between pressure and temperature. The pressure $t one spot may just suffice to keep the material solid, and then, if the pressure be a little relaxed, it will become fused; elsewhere the pressure may fall a little short of the amount required to keep the matter solid, and in that case a slight increase in pressure would have the effect of solidifying matter which had been previously in a state effusion. From this region of matter, either fused or verging upon fusion, we may suppose that the lava- poured out from volcanoes is derived, and the state of things we have imagined to exist there enables us to explain, in a fairly satisfactory way, many geological facta and physical phenomena which cannot be enumerated here.—Good Words, ■ TITISECTICW. A lady who evidently feels very strongly on the subject of vivisection has recently gone to the expense and trouble of sending from abroad a circular addressed to “ her” colleagues and fellow-workers “ for the benefit of the human race and animal emancipation.” She did not confine her kind attention, however, to those and those alone, or else she has been gravely misinformed as to our sentiments, and it may be to this that we are indebted for our copy. This lady makes a startling though possibly not a novel proposition ; she proposes the total abolition of vivisection on animals, and would substitute condemned criminals, whom she would solicit as free agents to offer their degraded bodies while still living for the advancement of science as some slight compensation to society for the wrong , they have done her. Should they survive the experiments, (a point the lady entertains some very serious doubts upon) a free pardon would be their reward. Anesthetics would be allowed,, but nob encouraged. The author of the circular touches upon a vexed question when she advances that animals are at least as worthy of protection as men, because, having no soul, their lives are doubly precious to them. This is more novel than the first suggestion, and takes some answering—we will not attempt it here. She harrows unnecessarily the feelings of the scientific student by depicting in glowing colours the disgust that would be felt and shown by the “ fair pure girl,” to whose hand -he has dared to aspire, if only his revolting practices were brought to light. This is her aryumentum ad hominem , and is calculated to act seriously as a deterrent to all but determined bachelors. She holds up to merited opprobrium those operators whose names are published in the “book of infamy,” which would seem to bo a directory containing their names and addressee, and is anxious under the lex talionis to provide for their future unhappiness. The author, in her anxiety to wipe out v'hat she characterizes as a “ hideous blot” on our fair humanity, occasionally Oversteps, like many of her iellowa in England, the limits of both courtesy and justice. Looking upon suffering as a means of regeneration, she anathemwes those whose profession and pride is to alleviate it, and condemns its professors to'’unhappiness in this world and acute suffering in the next,— Medical Press and Circular,