Science Siftings

New Zealand Tablet, 14 December 1916, Page 49

Science Siftings

By ‘Volt.’

Body Transparent. A new method of giving medical students instruction which, it is said, will largely obviate the necessity of dissection, will be put into practice at the Hahnemann Medical College, Philadelphia, at the beginning of the next term. Physicians and surgeons connected with the department of anatomy are now perfecting the process, which originates through the recent discovery by a French scientist of a. fluid by he use of which the human body can be rendered transparent. The fluid, which is composed of several oils, turns the flesh into a sort of transparent jelly when injected, enabling the students to study the veins, muscles, and bones far better, it is asserted, than if they resorted to the dissecting knife. ft is said to be one of the most valuable discoveries in medical science of late years.

Flies in Calcutta

One of the evils of Calcutta is the plague of green flies, from which the whole city suffers at certain times in the year. The happy hunting-tune of these minute insects is during late autumn and eatly winter. They are a serious nuisance both in ami out of doors. They wing their way through all the open doors, into the houses, and into every room, making life unbearable. Like most insects, the little green (lies have a great affection for the flame. On occasions the inhabitants have found it necessary to put out all the gaslights — even at a public dinner —and to take their meals practically in deep gloom, illuminated only by flickering candles. Naturally, it is not at all pleasant to go on eating with dense clouds of insects swarming overhead, or, roasted to death, falling about one in pattering showers. They seem to spring into existence from nowhere perhaps it is almost dusk, when the lights of the street lamps are becoming visible. Then, suddenly, the air, which a moment before was quite clear, is full of myriads of green flies, drifting in misty patches, and obscuring the street lamps. Often the number of insects which have been scorched to -death is so great that little heaps of them colled inside the lamps, while bucket-loads have to be swept up from the roads next morning.

A Wonderful Geniu

The discoverer of the law of universal gravitation among other things, Sir Isaac Newton, was born in Lincolnshire. At the age of 19, he went up to Cambridge, to Trinity, and at once plunged into mathematics. , His first important discovery after graduation was fluxions, followed one year later by .his discovery of gravitation; then came his well-known investigations into the nature of light, .and the construction of telescopes. He found that rays of light which differ in color differ also in refrangibility. •* Each of his various discoveries took years to perfect. His theories respecting gravitation did not, for instance, fit in .with available data bearing upon mainly the then known radius of the earth, which has been since proved to have been wrong, a factor which in the earlier day considerably perplexed the Lucasian Professor at Cambridge, and compelled him for the time being to drop his investigations. It was some years later when he took it up again, and then it became known to Halley that Newton was in possession of the whole theory and its demonstration. Halley begged of him to make public that which he had been able to prove at last, and in a short time there came from the printing press De, Moty, Gorporum, followed later, on a more extended scale, by Fhilosophos Natural is Princi'pia Mathematica. Newton was a principal in two famous disputeswith Leibnitz and with Flamsteed. Sir Isaac discovered the differential calculus; Leibnitz seized it and improved upon it, claiming full honors. With Flamsteed the discussion, which was upon another matter, ended in mutual recrimination.