The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-04-19
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY
VIEWS or TASTE AND SMELL.
 REPTILE SENSES.
Peat on Locomotives-Plant Settle msnt of New Land-Luminons Patches of ocean-A Modern 1alady-Chemical Action in Cold--Airship Evolu-
 tion-When Life Be- "
 gins - Glacier
 Variation. -

IaUu-W nen LlLe oe ssJ
 gins Glacier
 Variation. Two theories of taste and smell appear to be in favor. The vibration theory Of Sir w. Ramsay proposed about twenty years ago, Is similar to the popular the ory of light and sound, and assumes that substances of medium molecular weight vibrate at rate that affects the nerve cells. while the vibrations of substances having molecular weights below 30 are too rapid to give any impression and very heavy molecules move too slowly. The chemical theory Is based on the old ob- servation that odorous bodies are usually -oxidized readily. It is confirmed by the late discovery that the new gases crypton and xenon. with molecular weights near that of vanillin, are odorless. tasteless and inert; and further by the curious fact that the purificatior that makes cer- tain substances more stable also lessens their taste and odor. An English chem ist points out that both theories may be mainly correct, the nerves responding only to the agitations accompanying chemical change instead of being directly stimulated by the ordinary vibrations of the molecules.
 
 Reptiles and amphibians are attracted to water from such distances that Dr. F. Werner of Vienna, supposes they must be endowed with a special sense. Sight Is found to be the most acute of their or dinary senses but alligators and croco- diles see man not more than ten times their own length, frogs see about fifteen or twenty times their own length, fishes not more than half their own length. and snakes only one-fourth or one-eighth of their own length. Most reptiles and ann phibians are totally deaf. None are en- tirely without taste. and the snake's tongue. rapidly vibrating the air. seems to feel objects without actually touching them.
 Peat fuel in freight locomotives in Swe- den has hauled the maximum load, the cost being about the same as with Eng fish coal. To avoid the expense of an extra fireman, however the peat is now mixed with an equal weight of coal. and the mixture has proven so satisfactory that it is to be tried on passenger trains. The island of Krakatoa, on which ali plant life was destroyed by the great eruption of 1883, is isolated from Java and Sumatra by twenty miles of water, and
 
 tunity for studying the birth of a new vegetation. The first observations were made by Dr. Treub after about three years. Microscopic algal, which had cov- cred the surface with a slimy layer, were decomposing the pumice stone, lava and ash into a suitable substratum for other plants, and about dozen species of ferns were already abundant, while there were a few individuals of fifteen flower ing plants. The report of other German botanists who viisted the island in 1887 has just been published. Very strangely, no more species of ferns were noted; but in all sixty-two species of vascular plants were observed, including fifty towering plants representing twenty-one natural orders. There were eight compositae, six grasses and four orchids. A belt near the water was richest in species, while | beyond were dense thickets of reeds and l sugar-cane and the more thinly covered | interior contained chiefly ferns. It Is al most certain that 60 per cent of the flow | ering plants were introduced by the sea- | while 32 per cent were probably borne by the wind, the others having been pos sibly carried by birds.
 l Records are now being searched for no | tices of the rare white water. or phos phoreseent fog. of the Indian Ocean, ant l other seas This appears as a weird haze | but proves to be a luminosity withou l mist, and 1t has been encountered as al ocean river a mile wide and as broad | area through which a vessel sailed fifty miles without touching the limits. On' observer found the sea to the depth of { foot to be densely packed with luminous | fishes an inch long, while at another timt | microscopic animals were obtained il chains three inches long. The phenome non has been seen before violent storms | and 1t has been suggested that som, unusual atmospheric conditions may driv' the luminous ocean animals In shoals t. | the surface.
 | To eye-strain, usually unsuspected. pr | Geo. M. Gould attributes much of hu man misery. He finds evidence that i was indirectly responsible for the opium habit of De Quincy, caused the morbid condition and break-downs of Carlyle ana gave Browning his headaches and yer tigo. Printing books in white ink ol black paper is a suggested means fo lessening eye-strain.
 Fluorine, the most active elemen known. has been isolated by M. Moissai in a state of absolute purity, and whel free from moisture it is found to los | enI1Tely us extTdOTulndEy pO"Sl OL at taclang glass. Pure fluorine therefore may be sealed in a glass tube. In col Liberation with Professor Dewar tn tube of gas was immersed in liquid hy drogen, when the liquefaction and solid ihcation of the huorine were observed and the fusing point was found to b 233 degrees Centrigrade below zero. A most substances are known to become In ert at such cold. the question has arise whether all chemical action ceases nea absolute zero. To test this, the tube O fiuorine was broken in the liquid hydro gen, and the result was a violent e5plo sion. with much flame and q shatterin of apparatus employed. It has been thu proven that some chemical action is pos sible at about minus 252 degrees Centri grade. or only 20 degrees above the ah solute zero.
 The airship now being built by pr. A. Barton. Is to be combination of tn balloon with the aeroplane machine. this Is successful, the purpose is to con tinue building similar apparatus, gradu | ally increasing the size of the aeroplan and the motive power but diminishing tn proportions of the balloon. until the prac tical commercial airship is evolved. Tn perfected airship should have an inde pendent speed of sixty to eighty mile I an hour.