Amador ledger., 1906-04-06


in Animal Climbing. .-Leaf1ess Trees.
The Secret of the Earth's Interior.
Metal Distlllation. -Tarred Roads.
More than sixty years ago, Moser
noticed that certain bright metals
emit rays capable of affecting photo
graphic plates and of passing through
thin screens of paper, etc. Continu-
ing the investigation, Prof. H. Pitch
ikoff, Of the University of Charkow,
has now found that some metals give
off rays that decompose the silver
bromide of the Photographic film and
others that restore the decomposed
bromide. He names these radiations
positive" and negative. Most
metals, including cadmium and zinc,
are positive; osmium and tantalum
are negative; copper and brass have a
neutral radiation, with no action;
and gold and mercury give off no
radiation at all. The radiation is de-
hected by air currents but is not
affected by electric or magnetic fields.
One suggestion is that it may be a
kind of heavy metallic ions penetrat-
ing thin metal and human skin.
Arctic science should be greatly
advanced by the permanent station
for its study to be established this
year on the south coast of Disco Is
land. This novel station, to be estab-
lished by gift from Mr. A. HoIck of
Copenhagen and to be aided by an
annual grant of $1,000 from the Dau-
ish government, will have a we'll
equipped biological laboratory, with
working places for visitors, and will
provide library of Arctic literature.
The only charge to visiting natural
lists will be a small fee for board.
The "dew pond" is curious
Stone Age relic yet to be traced in
Great Britain. In the absence of
springs, broad hollows we're scooped
out, and these we're covered with
straw or other non n-conducting mater
ial, with thick layer of clay and
stones on top. At night the cold sur
face of the clay condensed an abund-
ance of water for the cattle to drink.
The discoverer of "radiobes," Mr.
j.. Butler Burke, has published book
describing his researches, and his
reasons for believing that he has pro-
duced living organisms from materials
experiments, first shown late in 1904,
a little chloride or bromide of radium
was added to carefully sterillZed
bouillon, with the usual gelatin
thickening, when in few hours the
growth appeared on the surface and
spread out like colony of bacteria.
The microscope showed that the in
dividuals of the colony were unlike
any known bacteria, and they seemed
equally unlike any inorganic bodies,
although Sir William Ramsay has
expressed the opinion that they were
bubbles containing radium emanation
changing into helium. Mr. Burke finds
that radiobes possess all essentials of
life. They have definite structure,
with a nucleus and boundary or cell
wall, they continue to grow rapidly
for a time and then when growth
ceases, they segregate and multiply
the reproduction being in itself
common test of life. Yet the investi-
gator agrees with the view that life
can spring only from life. His theory
seems to be that radium is the seed
that grows in tho bouillon soil, and
may be taken as the "vital fiux" or
"vital force'' of the philosophers OF
the Middle Ages. While the explana
tion may not satisfy, able men appear
to think that life may have been
produced in these remarkable expert
ments
The little lizard called the gecko
has been supposed to cling to the
ceiling, like the house-hy, by means
of sucto1iaI discs at the ends of the
toes. This proves to be incorrect
and DIR. Schmidt has found that the
under side of the toe scales have
clusters of hair-like, erectile bodies
by which the animal seems to cling.
1t is now believed that the. holding
power is due to electricity.
The "Ieatiess acacia" is peculiar
tree that forms forests in Australia.
The tree has no leaves, but respires
through little stem, answering the
purpose of leaf.
The earth, whose interior still re-
mains one of the greatest of mysteries,
is believed by Mr. iBeresford Inagram,
an English physicist, to embrace three
concentrlc spheres. The solid nucleus
he supposes to be between 5000 and
1000 miles in diameter, and this IS
surrounded by liquid substratum,
outside of which is the crust, various
ly estimated at 10 to 1000 miles in
thickness. More than two centuries
ago, similar theory, including the
slow rotation of the inner solid sphere
on different axis from that of the
entire globe, was held by DR.. Edmund
HALEY to account for the changes in
the earth's magnetism. The axis of
the nucleus was thought to have been
originally that of the entire globe,
and to the change, of course, was
attributed the deluge. The earth s