Scientific and Useful

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 7, 16 February 1907, Page 26

Scientific and Useful

SLEEPING SICKNESS. In his oHiuia! report to the Minister of th< Interior with regard to the progress made by the German expedition Bent to East Africa to investigate the sleep: ng sickness. Professor Koch announces (according to Renter’s Berlin correspondent) that hr has discovered a specific against sleeping sickness similar to that which the doctors already possess against malaria, in quinine. The remedy, which is h preparation of arsenic, is called atoxyl, and destroys the trypanosomes, the germs of the disease. Professor Koch’s close inspection of the habits of the glossina palpalis insect, which British investigation had' already proved to be a disseminator of the disease, led him to the conclusion that the sleeping sickness can be spread , also by other insects, such as, for instance, the glossina fnsca. The glossina lives print ipally on the banks of lakes, among stones, dried branches and plants, and feeds ou ( the blood of the waterfowl and lish frequenting the surface of the water, and also of crocodiles. These animals, Professor Koch declares, form one of the chief conditions of the existence of the glossina in the Victoria Nyanza territory. German East Africa has hitherto been completely free from the Bleeping sickness; the few scattered cases reported have come with out. exception from British territory. In order to study the giossina and the sleeping sickness together, Professor Koch availed himself of the viler of an empty mission house, placed at his disposal by the British authorities at Bpgala, in the Sense (slant)?, to the north-west of the Victoria Sjyanxa. .... •. 4 . . u - EhiIITEEN THOUSAND VICTIMS IN FOUR YEARS.’ When, four years ago. the disease' tnuth*' its appearance in' the'islands, the population numbered 30.000; it has now Klink to 12.000 through the ravages of the sickness. The principal victims were men in the prime of life. Such terrible inroads have been made that there are villages inhabited only by women and children. The theory of the English investigators. Gray and Greig, that the swelling of the glands in the neck is a primary' . symptom of the disease, was confirmed by Professor Koch, who found that even the natives had made the name observation. On this presumption, the percentage of the sleeping sickness among the natives in the Sesse Islands amounts to from (X) to 70. and if those are reckoned who were already infected, Imt whose glands were not yet swollen, thi n. Professor Koch observes, there are not many inhabitants in the islands whoni preventive measures would benefit. The professor therefore came to the conclusion that the only remedy which would be etticacious would be one

that destroyed the trypanosomes in the infected persons as quinine annihilates malaria parasites. THE CURE. After various experiments. Professor Koch decided to employ atoxyl injections of half a gramme in solution, which proved most efficacious, and caused no harm. Six hours after the sub-cutaneous injections had been made the trypanosomes were unchanged, but eight hours after there was no sign of trypanosomes, while the general condition of the patient had improved. In three weeks patients who were seriously ill when the treatment began, and who, without atoxyl, would certainly have died, had improved to such an extent as to leave no doubt in the Pi’ofessor’s mind of the efficacy' of the remedy. Nine hundred patients are now being treated, and in two or three months Professor Koch thinks that the cure will be ended, but he adds that, the patients must he observed for a similar period. lest relapses occur. The Professor concludes: “Only when we have obtained a certainty that the cure is permanent after the atoxyl treatment has been stopped, can we regard our task as achieved."’ ♦ ♦ ♦ ELECTRICITY IN THE HOME. The many of the various uses io which electricity is being put in American homes are surveyed in a recent issue of the “Scientific American.” The servant question is a keen r problem in the United States than it is. even in Britain, and the new handmaiden electricity is more in evidence. ‘“’But. even there the labour saving devicis, are mostly in use iii . the various hotels, from, which, one may suppose, they will gradually be transplanted in slightly modified form- into the private houses. In one of the hotels a complete electric cooking-plant is installed in the centre of one of the restaurants, which it keeps well supplied with well-cooked viands without any of the usual accompaniments of smoke, heat, and smell. Here is one hint for the kitehen-dining-room of the future. But to take things in a more appropriate order, we find that there is an efficient potato-paring machine, which, under the influence of a small electric motor, delivers potatoes cleanly pared and ready for cooking, exeept that the eyes must be cut out by hand; while another little motor is engaged in chopping cabbage. Over the cooking apparatus already mentioned is an electrically-driven suction fan. which draws off all the odours creat'd by the stewing' foods. After dinner the plates and dishes are washed by an electric machine, which drives three changes of heated water all over

their surfaces, and afterwards dries them by a fan apparatus. The knives are cleaned by passing them -. between rapidly revolving buff .wheels and ‘the steel blades may la- ground sharp at the same time if desired. To obviate the storing and hauling of ice, a small electric refrigerating plant is a perfectly practicable apparatus. • In the smoke room almve is an electric cigar-lighter, while in my lady’s room may be found electrically heated* curling-irons and an ingenious hair-drying, machine, which blows a continuous blast of hot, dry air through my lady’s tresses so as to dry the most luxuriant hair in a few minutes. INFLUENZA. Devoted entirely to the study of influenza, the current issue of the "Practitioner,” if not the most cheerful, is one of the most valuable of the month’s publications. It is curious that a disease so widely fatal when in epidemic, and likely to be so serious in its after effects, should be so lightly regarded by the public. It is lightly regarded. It is probably the only one of the physical ills that flesh is heir to that has attained the popularity of a nickname—"the flu.” Perhaps this is' because it is associated—in _ the minds of those who have not had it —merely with a “cold in the head.” The peculiar potency of the disease lies in its aptitude for fastening on the centres of least resistance in the constitution attacked. A “multifaced” scourge, as our contemporary, borrowing the term which Southey applied to Satan, describes it. Remedies, in consequence, are dictated by individual eases; but Sir William Broadbent recommends quinine as the best specific from the very first invasion of the disease. This, with rest and the fresh air upon whieh Dr. Mackenzie so strongly insists, would seem to be the most efficacious “home treatment.” AN INSECT MECHANIC. Brunel, tlie famous engineer, was indebted to an insect for a great ai;d use-, fnl invention. He was in a shipyard one day watching the movements of an insect known in English as the naval wood-worm, when a brilliant thought suddenly occurred to him. He saw that this creature bored it’s way into a large piece of wood upon whieh it was operating by means of a very extraordinary meehanieal apparatus. Looking at the animal attentively through a microscope lie found that it was covered in front with a pair of valvular shells; that with its foot as a purchase it communicated rotary motion and a forward impulse to the valves, whieh, acting upon the wood like a gimlet, penetrated its substance, and that as the particles ot wood loosened they passed through the body of the borer to its mouth, where they were soon expelled. "Here,” said Brunel to himself, "is the sort of thing I want. Can I reproduce it in an artificial form.” He forthwith set to work, and the final result of his labours, .after many failures, was the famous boring-shield with which The Thames tunnel was excavated.