Science Sittings.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 7, 20 February 1908, Page 35

Science Sittings.

The First Meerschaum Pipe. • Kavol Kowates, a Pesth shoemaker, invented the. meerschaum pipe, says the 'Louisville Courier-Journal. He died in 1764, and there is talk among Pesth smokers of erecting a statue to his memory. A large piece of meerschaum was. brought to Pesth. by Count Andrassy in 1732. It had been given to the Count in Turkey. He fetched it home because as a piece of white clay of extraordinary light specific' gravity it pleased him. Kavol Kowates was noted ijn. • Pesbh for his skill- in carving and Count Andrassy toox his .chunk of light white olay to him and said : ' Maite, fellow ( , something pretty out. of this.' The ingenious Kavol, a great smoker, thought that the porousness of the white clay adapted it well for pipes, and accordingly-he made two. from it, one for himself and one for Count Andrassy. The pipes were charming and they smoked superbly. The fame of them spread. In course of time meerschaum mining and meerschaum pipemaking became two of the recognised industries of the world. The original Kavol Kowates pipe, the world's first meerschaum, is still preserved „ The Sleep of Plants. Plants sleep much the same as animals. Their; "sleep is quite real, and its reality can .be shown. Perhaps the best marked form of slumber in the vegetable world is that of the great winter rest. How does the ' Ion 2; winter rest of animals differ, after all, from the winter rest of the crocus or the hyacinth, which withdraw all the living material from their leaves in autumn and bury themselves inches deep in the soil in the shape of a bulb till February rains or April suns tempt leaves and flowers out again ? The whole vast class of bulbous and tuberous plants, indeedi— the lilies, orchids, daffodils, narcissi, tulips, squills, bluebells, and snowdrops—are they not just hibernating creatures, which retire underground in autumn with the slugs and ' the q.ueen wasps, to reappear in spring atout the same time with the return to upper air of the moles, the tortoise, and the butterflies ? The Age of a Fish. t It has been found by ichthyologists that the age of a fish may be r<_ad from its scales. These increase in size by annular growths, two rings being formed eacn year. The / Otokths,' or ear stones, wnich lie in two sacivs on either side oif the base of the cranial cavity, afiord another means of determination. Like the scales the ,otolivhs increase by two rings annually. Each spring, that is, from February to June, a white ring is formed, and each autumn, that is, fiom July to October, a black one. Thus the number of either white or black, rings in .an otolith gi>\es the age of the fish in years. In the case af flat fish, thte latter method has been found more reliable, whereas in the case of the cod. the scales give a better result. Although varying much yin size and shape in -diifferient species, the otolilhs show a remarkable constancy in the same species.' Hence they are of considerably value in the diagnosis of a species. The Supply of Sponges. There are a great many varieties of sponges, most of which are found in the warmer parts of the ocean. The bath sponges are' chiefly obtained) from the eastern half of the Mediterranean, where they occur at all depths down to 200 fathoms and are obtained by diving, dredging, or harpooning. Writing in ' Harper's IVJaga- ' zincs,' Mr. C. W. Furlong gives an interesting account of the work of .Greek sponge-divers off the coast 'of Tripoli, in North Africa. Attacks by sharks and dogfish have gradually frightened away the ' common • divers,, who dive naked with a piece of flat marble and a line, and .the fielS is left clear for the ' scaphanders, 1 ' as the men are called', who use air-pump, suit, End helmet. The greatest enemy, of the ' scaphander ' is paralysis, hardly a single diver escaping from it In son>e form or another. The .great cause of this disease is the sudden relief of pressure due to the rapid •ascent, 1 the dangerous symptoms appearing when the diver emerges into the fresh air. Strange as it may seem, a partially paralysed diver on descending into the water recovers the use of his limbs again, and his circulation -becomes normal. .To battle with' this scourge the Greek , Government has issued regulations as to the depths to which a diver shall go, and has also provided a hospital ship and su • sponge-divers' hospital on -shore. 1