Scientific and Useful

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXVII, Issue 25, 22 December 1906, Page 25

Scientific and Useful

AKE SAFES FIREPROOF? After the great San Francisco fire it was found that a large proportion of the so-called fireproof safes and vaults had failed to stand the test, that their n-oatents were destroyed, and in some cases their owners were ruined. Few safes could, of course, come through such an ordeal with their contents intact. In salving them care was taken to dig the safes out of the smouldering ruins at once, and cool them by covering with sand or swathing in wet blankets. In cases where the safes remained amongst hot ashes the contents were transformed into charcoal. An article in the '• Magazine of Commerce gives the comments of various British manufacturers on this state of matters, some of whom are of opinion that this result lias been largely owing to the use of cheap and unreliable safes. Few. if any of them, seem to have been of British manufacture. The American idea of tilling chandlers of safes with infusorial earth or asbestos is condemned as sure to cook the contents of the safe in the hour of severe trial. Not a tireproof but a steam-generating'and mois-ture-evolving ennipo-itiou keeps the inside cool, and would dry into a nonconducting material and keep heat from the contents for a longer period. Most of the large safe manufacturers in England understand this, and so are ahead of American makers. ■+• + ♦ EXTRAORDIN\RY VITALITY OF MICROBES. The festive microbe would depopulate tile earth in short order if There were no other microbes to eat him. Fortunately for mans sake these cannibal microbes keep pretty busy, and the mortality among the whole oiulit is something tremendous. Their longevity, however, when they do survive ail the battled to which existence subjects them, is one of their most unpleasant .mils, and it is hard to.have any feeling of confidence about tlie mutter even when thev seem to be most certainly dead. It has been shown that years after their supposed period of' activity they hare retained tlidir death dealing qualities. An instance is given of the devastating plague that broke out in the Dutch town of Haarlem about the time of the London plague. A whole family who died c.f this dis ease were interred in the churchyard, and it was found necessary a few years ago to repair the family tomb containing their bodies. 'The masons who were so employed proved the activity of these germs after two hundred years, by contracting, in a mild form, the original disease, from which, however, they ail recovered. Another case was a Scotch bank-note, discovered by a girl in rhe Bible that her grandfather had used at the time of his death from some malignant disease. On taking it out of the book she licked the corner of the note to prove* its genuineness, and contracted the disease which had been fatal to her ancestor seventy six years before. An epidemic broke out among the sharks in the Indian Ocean which proved to be cholera, ami the supposition is that they became infected by devouring tlie bodies of British sailors who had died of this disease and were buried in Bombay Harbour. The hardy microbe is believed to survive on land for over two centuries, and maintain its activity still longer in water. ♦ ♦ ♦ SLAVE ANTS. It has long been known to naturalists that several species of ants maintain and feed another sort of insects for the sake of the wax that they exude and which tlie ants use as food. These ants are said, therefore, “to keep cows.” But it has been discovered only within recent years that there arc ants that rise on tlie hacks of others and arc thus the cavaliers of the insect world. Within this period a scientist in the

employment of the Smithsonian Institution observed, while travelling in the Malay Peninsula, a species o? small grey ants that were new to him. These ants were much engaged in travelling: they lived in damp places and wont in troops. To the scientist’s great surprise, he noticed among them from time to time an occasional ant that was much larger than the others ami moved at a much swifter rate. Closer examination revealed the interesting fact that this larger ant invariably carried one of the gray ants on its back. The scientist noted down many interesting facts with regard to their movements. lie found that while the main body of gray ants were always on foot, they were accompanied by at least one of their own sort mounted on one of these larger ants. It mounted ami detached itself now’ ami then from the line, rode rapidly to the head, came swiftly back to the rear, and seemed to be the commander of the expedition. The scientist was soon satisfied that this species of ant employs a larger ant (possibly a drone of the same species), tin ugh lie had r.o- means of proving this) as we employ horses to ride upon: though as a rule only one ant in each colony seemed to he provided with a mount. Some ants maintain others in their service as servants or slaves. Certain warrior ants of South America con tin* their own physical efforts to raiding ami plundering, while all the ordinary offices of life are performed for them by si a vis. The little gray ants of the Malay Peninsula appear to be a more industrious race, though they appreciate the great convenience of ha\ ing one on ’* horseback ’’ among them. + + + BIRDS AS SURGEONS. Sportsmen tleclarc that garni* birds posses- the faculty of skilfully dressing wounds ami even setting bones, using their own feathers for ba ullages. Authentic instances are recorded of sportsmen having killed birds that were recovering from wounds previously received, and in every case the old wound was neatly dressed with down plucked from the stem feathers and skilfully arranged. no doubt by th • beaks of the birds, in some instances a solid plaster was formed, completely covering and protecting the wounded part, the feathers being netted together, passing alternately- under and above each other ami forming, so to speak, a textile fabric of considerable power. A PRi* HISTORIC SKI LL. BELONGED TO THE LOWEST TYPE Ob' MAN KNOWN ON THIS CONTINENT. A skull, or at least part of the skull, of the lowest type of prehistoric man that the North American continent has yet revealed has just been discovered several miles north of Omaha, buried in a so-called Indian nnound. Antedating, it is estimated. by thousands of years the famous “ Lansing skull of Kansas, which has been said by some scientists io be at least 150,000 years old. “ Gilder’s Nebraska skull ” has interested the scientific men of the entire country, and they are visiting the home of Robert S. Gilder, in Omaha, when* now are the skull and several other bones of this man. who lived before the glacial period covered North America with a vast field of ice. Professor Itenry Fairfield Osborn, of Columbia University. New York, says: “ ft is without doubt the skull of the lowest order of primitive man over found on this continent.” lie adds that the skull shows an extremely small brain, with almost negligible possibilities of a power of thought. When asked. “How does this skull compare with the Lansing skull, which lias boon estimated as being 150.000 years old?’* Professor Osborn said: “This <-ku;l antedates the lai using skull by probably thousands of years.”

Dr. Barber. profes<»r of operative dentistry in Creighton University. says: ” The jaw indicates tremendous <iit-h ing power. These teeth have be.*n worn down through the process of grinding roots, nuts and raw meat. The lower jaw protruded iawond the upper, and there is .in abnormal development of both of them.” As compared with a normal skull, the Gilder Nebraska skull shows receding chin and forehead, abnormally large cheek bones and a brain pan i.dic.ilously small. The dome of the head is only one inch above the top of the eve sockets. But tiie man was a giant nevertheless. From other bones found in the saiiM* mound the man who owncil that skull originally must have been nearly seven feet tall, despite his little head, with the strength of two ordinary me:i of to (hv.