Science Notes.

Freethought Review, Volume I, Issue 8, 1 May 1884, Page 7

Science Notes.

The Total Destruction of Human Bodies. —M. Aimee Girard having lately proposed at the Academie des Sciences the destruction of the bodies of animals dying of virulent diseases by means of sulphuric acid (as their interment does not always secure from the danger they may cause), M. Regnard resolved to try the effect of this substance on the human subject. His experiments with the bodies of new-born infants and fatuses have been completely successful, and would no doubt be equally so if tried on the adult. To the body of an infant he adds about double its weight of the sulphuric acid of commerce, and alter 24 or 30 hours of maceration, not a vestige of the body remained—the decomposition having taken place silently and without any smell. Neither the microscope nor the test-tube can detect the slightest trace of the body, beyond the presence of some fat, phosphoric acid and nitrogen. Dr. Angus Smith's recent researches have led to the discovery, that in all natural waters sugar ferments, and hydrogen gas is given off. The proportion of hydrogen given off varies with the organic impurity of the. water, from the mountain stream, to the worst sewage; so that the proportion of hydrogen evolved, appears likely to prove a quantitative test of the activity or virulence of the microbes present in the water.

The Boston and Albany Railroad is building a compound goods locomotive, with two large and two small cylinders, thus initiating an entirely new departure in the construction of railway engines. G. J. Romanes recently delivered a lecture on " Instinct " to the members of the Birmingham and Midland Institute, in which, after defining the difference between acts properly called instinctive, and those due to reflex, muscular, or nervous motions, and also those intelligently directed, he dwelt upon the two causes to which instinct is to be attributed— lapse of intelligence in actions originating intelligently and becoming by repetition automatic ; and natural selection, these two causes acting frequently in combination.

He also dwelt on the plasticity of instinct, and instanced the case of the dog—the spirit of fierceness and self-reliance of the wild dog has been changed by domestication to docility and faithfulness, and a sense of dependence upon his master ; and in addition new instincts have been developed, such as pointing, retrieving, sheep tending, and guarding property, all of which are strongly inherited. Herr Poetsch has invented a method of sinking shafts in watery running ground, by first freezing the water, and then working the frozen mass out by hand. The Wet ground is frozen by placing pipes in bore holes ; and then passing through them a solution of the Chlorides of Magnesium, and Calcuim, which reduces the temperature to about 35 0 c. The " Gesumdheit" discussing the resistance of disease germs to disinfectants, remarks that it is extremely probable, that the disease germ of small-pox is present in the form of bacilli in the fluid, which is the principal bearer of the infection—the lymph removed from the postules. The degree of vitality of the bacilli, varies in the different kinds of lymph ; the lymph from cow-pox losing its capability for infection much more readily than the so called human lymph. During the gales in England of the 26th and 27th of January, unprecedented wind pressures were experienced at the Forth Bridge Works. According to Mr. B. Baker, M.J.C.E., the strongest gusts gave a momentary pressure of 35J lbs. per square foot on the large board 300 square feet; and of not less than 65 lbs. per square foot on the small board containing i-| square feet.