The Weekly Tallahasseean., 1901-12-06
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.


tering-Rat Fighting by Infection.
POSSIBLE Unknown Senses-Near
Absolute zero-Told by the Ears.
A Moon Period in Climate.
Inc present state of photography has
Deen outlined by DR.. S. Henry Smith,
dh Engllsh expert. After making thou
SANDS OF electrOgraphs, or skiagraphs,
ne mas discarded all other apparatus in
1avor OF 14-inch spark Ruhmkoff coil,
llthanode accumulator, and home
made Wehnelt break, using the me-
chanlcal break worked from the accu-
mulatOr for soft tissues, the Wehnelt
dlrect from the mains through a re-
Slstance for the bones and thick parts.
he insists, contrary to a recent London
Hospital opinion, that all pictures
should be true photographs, timed to
show in detail the bone-ulcer or other
feature to be studied. 1t is now posi-
bic to locate all foreign bodies to
show fractures and diSlOcatiOnS, and to
prove in some cases stone in the blad-
der or Kidneys; but negative result
does not always prove the absence OF
stone. Aneurism of the heart and
diease of the lungs may be shown Oc-
casionally, though not infallibly. Cura
tive effects have been produced in sew
-eral cases of stiff joints, with expos
ures of thirty seconds at intervals of
three days, and in this promising field
of usefulness there seems to be much
10 learn. Burns and harm to patients
generally result from ignorance of the
operator.
The automatic train recorder of the
Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company con-
SiStS of a ruled record paper, divided in
to fiVe-minute spaces, and revOlVed by
clOckwOrk. In front of the paper is a
series of needles, each operated by an
electromagnet and connected with a
division of the road. AS train passes
a suitably arranged insulated rail in
any division, the corresponding cleo
tromagnet is energized, and a dot is
made on the paper.
Lisbon's plague of rats-which re-
sisted cats, traps and pOiSOn-SeemS to
have succumbed to an infectious dis
ease, harmless to man, which has
spread among the rodents with great
few of them. Inis plan of eXtermin-
alton is to be tried on ships.
What other creatures feel and know
still offers a wide field for inveStiga-
tion. Lord Avebury, unlike DescarteS
and other great authorities, is forced
to conclude that animals possess some
glimmers of reason, and that their
minds differ from ours more in degree
than in quality, while he has demon
strated that they may have senses
quite unknown to us. He has shown
by tests that they hear higher notes
than are audible to us and see ultra
violet rays that do not affect our eyes.
Our organs enable us to perceive vi
6ratiOns in the atmosphere from about
10000 to $4,000 per second, which
give us the impression of light. The
intermediate vibrations, to which we
are sensible, may give to responsive
organs several senses as different from
ours as sound is rom light. To our
animal friends they may transform
our familiar world into a very differ
ent place, full of music we cannot hear,
of cOlOrs we cannot see, and of sounds
we cannot conceive.
Summing up the epOch-making work
of the London Royal Institution in con-
nection with low temperatures, Miss
Agnes M. Clarke reminds us that the
researches, which in 1893 were being
devoted by PrOfS. Dewar and Fleming
to the reSiStances of materials in the
greatest attainable cold we're cOntin-
ued through a gift in 1895 of 100000
from an American, Mr.. Thomas G.
Hodgkins and two later donations from
the Goldsmiths' Company. The liQue-
faction of hydrogen in 1898 was the
eliminating point. Liquid hydrogen
proved to be colorleSS, only four
teenth as heavy as water, with boil
ing point of 1922 deg c., and it was
soon solidified and found tc have a
freezing point about Is deg. G above
absolute zero. Helium, the new gas
has taken the place Of hydrogen as the
last of the SO-called permanent gases
This has stood unchanged a temper
-ature of 262 deg. c., but it is hoped
soon to cool it to within deg. G. OF
absolute zero. An outcome of these
investigations has been the discovery
that the air contains 1 part of hydro
gen in 5000, together with four pre-
viOusly unsuspected gases.
A simple decOction of hemp was used
in China 1900 years ago as an anaes-
thetic in surgical operations, according
to a neWly-discOveTed Chinese manu-
script in a Paris library.
Just now the external ear is receiV-
ing the attention as an alleged index
of human capacity and tendencies that
has been given in turn to the bumps
of the head, the lines of the hands and
so on. DR.. Arthur Keith, who. mas
been investigating the subject from q
scientific standpoint, divides ears into
two strongly contrasted types, mark.
ing the opposite poles of Development
In one, which he calls the Orang type
the ear is small and shell-like, with
narrowed descending helix and in-roll
ed margin; in the other, or chimpan
zee type, the ear is large and broad
and the margin is not in-rolled
Though the orang type may seem tt
Justify the impression that the hur~ 3.
ear is decaying structure, the cen
4ral-or active-part is more highl!