The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-12-14
SCIENCE.
TIE TREATMENT 40 SMOKE

ment OF smoke In cities before the Sanitary
Congress In Manchester from which a few
para era phs are taken. The lecture Is printed
In full In Noivrs. No i722 The avity OF
the smoke nuisance In England is beyond
question. though We In America can scarcely
realize II at present, our turn Is to come.
the BIOLOGISTS say. and that soon, when the
anthracite coal beds Of ills country Are eN-
hausted. Every London q imncy uses and
defiles about io.ooo cubic feet OF mir per hour.
and delivers four and t~o-tenth tons OF smoky
thus deliver about eight and one-half tons.
More than 5.0OO.ooD tons are thus daily de-
s bs e, Tno. OF OF losos py h9us or
together. million tons of water are daily
employed TO carry away sewage; seven times
iris weight OF mir must employed to carry
AWAY smoke. The cost OF dealing It'll sewn Sc
Is. IN London. about $50" per, day. Five
spending work for the air. at cost Of about
e2i 900 daily. and tbs would mean al income
tax OF ten pence ~ the pound bad log
day for addition gas The loss to business
may ba from $im ~ to s2jO,'Oo in day, and
tue annuai cost OF L2ndon logs IRON sl5-
be pract ical advantage TO impose even the
high tax referred to.
CHEMISTRY AND LrrE
DR. Sacharoy has written treatise on iron
a. the active principle Of engines and Of
living substance This has been translated
into German and i published at Jena The
duluOI NOUS lllil lH' D'HdN l'i VI ll''pIld-Il
'annot be attributed either to it, orga nilation,
its chemical composition. or it, tructur"
and suggests that all III" vital processes ari-"
from deCompo-Uion> Of the living -ub~ianc"
in consequence of the acce~- of oxygen fol-
lowed By series OF r"Iomlonhl3hN study
ing animal and vegetable cells h" >"rK~ Tor
something universally present therein that
Is capable of early oxidation and OF welding
compounds which can be- again reduced
and this substance h" conclude to be- iron
Vital phenomena, are, he -ay-, sci up nv IN"
oxidation or iron III the living >nb-iahre
with subsequent or concurrent h"droly-i~
His experiments lead to the conclusion that
there exist In all sn2rmc~ iron in uinut"
quantities containing uuclcin and he calls
this hyIot hctical substance bio-nuclein Now
the chemistry Of all vital Phenomena must b"
Fundamentally n" Ian" and "a" ptoc".,,"s.
must also b" the foundation OF all vital pho
nomena. and all must depend on the oxidation
throughout all the varirty Of cell modinca-
ton Competent sprcil-' regard hi. work
as worthy o. careful consideration. though
It i vet too soon to pronounc" upon ~ lasting
value.
VITAL STATISTICS OF ITALY
Prof Sormnni has recently discussed
Italian vital statistics Of the list forty wears.
His principal conclusions mr." that the birth
rate fuCtuatcd between 80 ~ per loo us7sl
and a3 ~ usasJ. while ia" CORE spondi"E
death rates wer" - 80 us69 ard Il - us1n
The birth has exec, dod th. death rate every
year III 1867 the excess WAS {? ~ and IN lsHi
IL was IL 50 During the years iSd2-m IL"
population increased by lo"",pon Com
parirg the periods lNG!-7i and ls97-9n %"
concludes that. OWING to improved sanit1t"
conditions. th"r" j. an annual saving ~ light
nSS bo Sy"rY shon:4ta .ay,d - Tf"
death. and more than ipn00p from Hines.
during M" period "N. mined
CATALOGUE OF SCIENTIFIC PAPERS PUBLISHED
SINCE 1909
The ROYAL society Of London has for forty
years past been engaged IN catalogue. TIA"
scientific papers published in Journals since
1900 Twelve large quarto volumes have
appeared that bring the author-indeX to the
year lss3 and II j. proposed 10 carry ON this
work to 1900 II has recently been decided
to print q subject indies to IN" periodical
scientific literature Of ia" world a very uuCu
greater uni"rt aking- whl"h i TO u" carried
on under the ausnicr- Of an International
commit.. II will deal only with rapnr~
printed after 1900 IN" ROYAL Soci"ty i, now
con~id' ring IN" question oi printing IA" sub
Jrct-udrN for the nineteenth century and
expects To have tn" copy ready for tL' rr"--
cost will h" about $500 This sum must b.
raised by IN" Ro";l Soci'tN. a. ia" inter
national undrrtnkins l. confined TO "a" IRE,
$50 go has been received from Dr ludwiS
MoHd : Rs for tn rurn0.,,; and Mr. 81
viii be sur" 10 follow and II il r"a-onhhlF
certain that We shall soon ro~s"-> both au-
thor and sub oct ind"Ves To All the ucriodicnl
scientific literature Of tho world -ncc $500
This l. not the 'lac" to speak Of tn merits Of
the scheme, especially a. it ha- been ra,-"d
due consideration ~ m" great u''Nv Of
tho author-iniexos there can b" no possible"
doubt II Seems to H.. eom. WhIt quest ion
able whether subiect-indcNe> mad" 10y clerks
are likely to advanc" science 20 much "a l.
expected
iSrEENATIoSu cATALoGUE op SCIENTIFIC
LIIEEATUEt
conference Of delegates from various
countries sittiae in London IN $500 unnui-
mously resolved That IL was dnsl r. blr to
conn lie and. publish b. means Of an Internal
tioral orcari1ation, "A 'omplot" oatGlocu"
Of scientific literature. arranged according
bot to sub cc; -nytt r and TO aut .or1' names.
30 that irve.tigator-, with minimum Of
rouhl" mix o., h" enabled 20 ind out what
Ind bee n published on ANY particular subject
Of Inquiry Tn. schome adopted In $50 and
IN subsequent conferences l'id ia 1873 and
1910 contemplatcs the publication, ai,ruIlly,
OF seventeen lrg" qtlHr'o volumes. let rcd
\ to u. eacn one devoted 20 a sp"ci IL bran ch
Of science. A. matlemati.s; b. m"chaii, =.
mcteoroloey. q. min.r,lory, IT,, geology
bloios"' II, bot tai s. : :, 20 oFy .. fama"
physioiogy: Il. b,ct.riooey' : )" TrlSc per @
annnm for the e,t OF seventeen volumes i to
s soi ST. Tns fin'Tg % for @ rl,G cr
rather. part one Of It's Volume, has lust been
issued II relates 10 botany aud contaius
e
TO the aut hors' talogu" " IL contains 1872?
lilies Two hundred ard forty rar's ~"
given to tie subject CiiH loguo diNiicd into
suh-heHds "a morproopy. CyiogCnv. taN-
onomy. Up ology. dC. Reviewers I've re-
marked tat III" second pnrt Of the book con-
tains many titles that do not appear In tive
first and her defects not glaring. but
81 III noteworthy. II l. perhaps too soon to
pronounce on tn" bash -chcrl" until several
wears ssres Ia We been published and tested
In tie opinion Of TN" writer II l. doc med TO
failure
RELATIVE WEIGHTS or COINS AND MILLS
What is tho relative weight Of n one-dollar
Rreenback and dollar gold piece How
many ons-dollar bills must YOU take to oh
tain the weight Of the coin? II happened
that this question has lately been put in a
systematic fashion to the students Of various
colleges Ninety-sovcn Students of Column
his University gave answers Of which the
average was 2a0i more than two thousand
bills to weigh M much "a tn" coin \ class
OF students in the University OF Kansas gave
answers that averaged ?7ia' The ayera 80
Of the replies Of id2 women students of Smith
College was las. Let the reader stop her.
to make guess tn" correct N N"r j. !,
The astounding lack Of the coinuonest oh
scrvation on the Inrt Of thcs" students is
the amazing fact, what kind Of universe
do they live in What KIND of attention do
they nav to il, What IS their capacity 10
change II 80 that It Ia Al to live in?
oRiolN AMI CAUSE OF RADio-ACTIvITY,