Science Siftings

New Zealand Tablet, 5 June 1913, Page 49

Science Siftings

By * Volt.’

The Age of Animals and Trees.

It has been computed that the day fly lives 24 hours, the May fly 6 weeks, the butterfly two months, the ant, the cricket and the bee a year each, the hare and sheep 6 to 10 years, ‘the wolf 12 to 15 years, the canary bird 15 to 20 years, and the nightingale 12 years. The dog lives 15 to 25 years, cattle 25 years, the horse 25 to 30 years, the eagle 30 years, the stag 35 to 40 years, heron, lion, and bear 50 years each, the raven 80 years, elephant, turtle, parrot, pike and carp 100 years each. The ivy outlives 200 years, the elm 300 to 350 years, the linden 500 to 1000 years, the locust tree and the oak 400 years' and the fir 700 to 1200 years.

The Highest Mountains.

Since the discovery of Mount McKinley, in Alaska, North America has ranked third among the continents in the matter of height of mountains. Asia has Mount Everest, of the Himalayas, 29,022 feet above the sea level, and South America has Mount Aconcagua, of the Andean system, 23,080 feet in height. North America comes next with Mount McKinley, 20,300 feet, and Africa is fourth, with Kibo peak, 19,320 feet in height. Mont Blanc, Europe’s highest mountain, is 15,782 feet in height, which is higher by more than a thousand feet than any mountain in the United States, exclusive of Alaska.

The World’s Debt to Italy in Science. In his last lecture of the Lenten series for the Ladies of Charity in Philadelphia, Dr. James J. Walsh spoke of ‘ The Debt the World Owes to Italy in Science.’ Ordinarily this is assumed to be very small. : The debt to Italy in science is almost as great as that in art. The greatest philosopher in modern times, the greatest mind since Aristotle is Thomas Aquinas, and the roll of physical scientists has names equally commanding. The greatest name in modern astronomy is that of Copernicus-, a Pole, who was educated in Italy and published the first draft of his theory in that country. Galileo is the greatest of observational astronomers, and in our own time Father Piazzi and Father Secchi have been recognised as workers whose results had a world influence. Much of our modern mathematics comes to us through Italians. Anatomy, botany, geology, received their greatest contributions from Italy. Versalius, the great father of anatomy, was not an Italian, but a Belgian, but he did all his work in Italy. His greatest rivals in the field of anatomy, was not an Italian, but a Belgian, but he did all his work in Italy _ His greatest rivals in the field of anatomy, Varolius, Eustachius, Columbus, Caesalpinus, Fallopius, are all Italians. Malpighi, whose name is attached to more structures in the human body than any other, was an Italian. Morgagni, the father of modern pathology, so called by Virchow, and Lancisi, the father of modern clinical medicine, are both Italians. Steno, whose contributions to anatomy are so important, is a Dane who did his work in Italy and whose tomb was decorated some twenty-five years ago at the end of the International Congress of Geology by the assembled geologists of the world, who greeted him as the father of modern geology. In electricity the Italians have done more than almost any other nation. Galvani, Volta, Melloni, who did so much for thermo-electricity, and, in later years, Marconi must be recognised as important in this field. In scientific inventions Italy has the telescope, the improved microscope, the thermometer, the vernier, and all of Leonardo da Vinci’s inventions, locks for canals, the movable derrick with self-dumping apparatus, the wheelbarrow and all the various modes of erecting statues, casting them and lifting huge monoliths into place so well done in the Renaissance time. Venice has made colors and lace what they are; spectacles were invented down there. Volta’s invention of the Voltaic pile was as revolutionary as the steam engine.