SCIENCE SIFTINGS

New Zealand Tablet, 18 November 1920, Page 46

SCIENCE SIFTINGS

(By “Volt.”)

A Nun Scientist. Readers of Science Progress, that very admirable quarterly, will note with - some surprise the account of Sister Monica Taylor, “of Glasgow .University,” and wonder when that seat of learning gathered to itself a Sisterhood. As a matter of fact, the distinguished scientist in question is a Doctor of Science of Glasgow University, but primarily a Sister of the Convent of Notre Dame, Dowanhill, Glasgow. • A well-known writer of erudite papers on cytology, which have appeared in the' quarterly journal of microscopical science, she has recently achieved a triumph which has made her name and fame with all biological teachers, since she has discovered, what many have sought for, the method of breeding amoebae, those lowly living things which all biological students are set to study early in their career. Sister Monica’s exhibit was one of. the most popular at the recent conversazione of the Royal Society, where much interest was shown in the new method and many regrets expressed that the “shepherdess” of the amoebae could not be present personally to explain it. Poisonous Ivy. It is apparently known to few that certain varieties of ivy are poisonous (says the South Australian Register Many people cut and pull up ivy shoots and roots as if there was no danger. There is, however, considerable risk, and gardeners who may have the poison ivy (Rhus toxicodendron) in their grounds should be careful in handling it. It appears that only certain persons are liable to be affected by the poison, but unfortunately it is impossible to know who is immune, and several people have recently been affected by the poison and suffered considerably. The knowledge of these troubles has caused to be recalled a severe case which occurred at Mount Lofty a few years back, which at the time was fully described by the late Sir E. C. Stirling in the Australian Medical Gazette. The sufferer was a gardener who was digging up daffodil bulbs from a bed into which the roots of the poison ivy plant, growing on an adjacent bank, had penetrated. In lifting the bulbs he happened to handle the roots. From the damaged ends exuded a milky juice, which turns black on exposure to the air. On the following morning the gardener experienced itching pains in the hands. This was followed by swellings .in the arms and logs. The trouble increased, and in about ten days the affected parts were red, inflamed, and greatly swollen, almost the whole area being covered with eruptions. The patient became ill, and was under medical care for some time before a cure was completed. The effect of this poisoning has been to make the skin excessively susceptible to various irritants to which it was previously not sensitive. The gardener cannot, for instance, touch the leaves of ordinary ivy without bringing, on a slight attack of the old trouble. Recognising this special susceptibility, he has ever since avoided all the ivy family. Silk that is Something Else, Under the heading “Chemistry Gone Wrong,” a piece of silk that had an interesting history is described in Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering (New York). It says; ’ “As raw' material there were sixteen ounces to the pound, but after washing this was reduced to 12 ounces. In order to avoid confusion by the higher mathematics of the silk industry,. let us keep in mind this pound of raw silk that weighed, first 16 ounces, and then 12 ounces. The 12-ounce pound was passed through a bath of stannic chlorid and afterward through another bath of sodium phosphate. These baths were repeated alternately a considerable number of times, after which the silk received a bath of aluminum sulphate to swell the fibre. Then back it went to the tin and phosphate baths again, to charge the swollen fibres with more loading. Then it had treatment in another bath of silicate of sodium. After this it was dyed a fine rich black with logwood, which added more weight. The final treatment was with oil, to give it lustre. The result was 96 ounces of beautiful black ‘silk,’ of which 12 ounces were and 84 ounces were not. Just how long stockings that are made of this fabric will last is a subject for speculation, but the merchant that guarantees that the fibres are all silk and that the stockings contain no cotton is right as to the facts, although the truth may be, strained in the exposition.”