The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-03-01
Late Things
lL
in Science

Our senses, 1t appears, have develop
ed through gradual evolution. Ma
tives of remote Pacific islands are still
unable to distinguish between blue and
black, and DR.. f. w. Edridge Green,
whose Investigations have covered
many years, calculates that the color
sense-Which is distinct from the mere
perception of light and shades one
of mans recent requirements. PRINT
tive man could not distinguish colors
at all. Red and violet, the colors of
greatest difference in wave length, were
learned first, all others appearing gray,
then green was detected in the gray
field, followed by yellow, and finally
by blue and orange. In a form of tri-
chronic color blindness that now ex-
lists, only three colors-such as red,
green and violet-are distinguished,
yellow being mentioned as red green.
By the Hubon process, black pig
ment is made by pumping acetylene
into steel cylinders to a pressure of
about two atmos pheres,a and then pass
ing an electric spark through the YES
sells, the gas being thus ASSOCIATED
into its carbon and hydrogen. The
hydrogen is collected for any conven-
lent use; the carbon Is ready for the
market. Acetylene black is free from
the oily impurities of ordinary lamp
black, and the demand is already so
great that the first factory-now run
ming in Switzerland-is likely to be
followed by others in other countries.
High temperatures are now easily
measured with the electric incandes-
cent lamp. The lamp, in line with the
furnace backing or other hot object. is
viewed through small telescope, when
the filtment disappears on reaching
the temperature Of the back ground. An
ammeter shows the amount Of current
flaGinO tho Ia u-hi cnaniaJ Ia
indicates very accurately the corre-
spending temperature up to $500 de-
grees Fahrenheit. SAINT
The chief cause Of the hostility of
different colonies of ants is found to lie
difference Of odor and of ages. $50
One of the strange features of Cen
trail Asia, as shown by DR.. Sven Hedin,
is the travelling of the ancient lake of
Lop-nor, which seems to form an os-
cillating pendulum of the Karin river,
and to pass north and south across
the desert in period of 1000 years or
more. The old bed is now dry. The
lake of Kara-koshun, however, is grad
ually disappearing in the place where
Prjevalsky found il, and slowly creep
ing north ward, with the prospect that
1t Will occupy the ancient site at no
distant lime. As the lake becomes
filled with mud, sand and decaying
vegetation, the desert to the northward
is deepened by wind erosion. 1t is al
ready known that in the year 265 the
lake of Lop-nor occupied a place in the
northern part of the desert, and there
are reasons for believing that when
this point is again reached, the course
of travel will turn toward the south
The vegetation, the desert animals and
the native fishers, with their reed huts,
follow after the lake.
An attempt to fix the velocity Of
light with greater accuracy nSinO
toothed wheel method of Fizeau under
improved conditions, has been describ-
ed by M. Perrotin. In previous ex-
periments, the beam of light was made
to travel a distance of twelve kilo-
meters GASP miles) and back, but in
the recent trials it was reflected from
mirror placed at a distance of forty
six kilometers (28.566 miles) from it's
source. From 1,109 observations, the
velocity has been found to be 299,S80
k1lometers (about 186,225.5 miles, per
second, with probable error less than
fifty kilometers.
Roller bearings for marine engines
DR.. P. Nj. Tasker suggests, should in
crease the revolutions from to 10 per
cent or more. Ball bearings, while
even further lesSening friction, have
disadvantages for heavy work, and are
not to be considered for any but the
smaller engines Of launches.
1lC II NC LoIlcS are SIlIIdlGQ DIV l)rS
Jordan and Svermann to number II =
600 species, belonging to 200 families.
or these, $500 species have been dis-@
tlnguished in the waters of North and
South America.
Guesses at the worlds age differ.
widely. Sir Edward Fry points out
that the physicist, reasoning from tta
dissipation of the earth's heat. the con.
traction of the sun, and the action of
the tides, finds that the earth consoli-
dated at time nearer 10000 600 than
100000 years ago. while the geolo-
glst, from the present rate at which
sand, chalk, ETC., are being deposited
by river and sea, infers that 450 700 600
years must have elapsed since life he
gan on the globe. The biologist thinks
the time must be still more vast since
the beginning Of life, on the assump-
ton that species have multiplied by
very slow variation, the estimate he
ing 2,700,000,000 years. Sir Edward
contends that the single phenomenon
OF peiorlsm, sudden transmissible
variation among plants, sufficiently
shows that the biological estimate is
unnecessarily long. This abnormal de. Z
Velopment was first observed more
than $50 years ago in the yellow toad
flax of a Baltic island, and has since
peen traced by one observer in 10 va
rieties of plants.
In the process of Prof. Hofrath Nose.
lig, modification of the bones of tbe
leg is cured by removing the diseased
part and replacing it with a, filling of
1odoform, sesamoel and spermaceti
Roentgen ray pictures of cured lees
We're lately shown to the Vienna medi-
cal society.
curious theory is being inyesti-
gated by the Paris Academy of Sci
ences. Human stature is supposed to
De controlled by the gland in the throat
under the larynx and artificial SIM
lation of this gland is claimed to cause
any child to grow to maximum height.