Evening star., 1925-12-31

/ BY Science Service.
! Marked progress iii science i'll all
! it's branches has been made during
! the year coming to a close.
| Among the outstanding events and
! discoveries, arranged by divisions of
! science, are:
Agriculture.
! Chemical analysis of the cotton
| plant and discovery that trime-
| thylamine is the odorous substance
| that attracts the boil weevil We're re
| ported by scientists of the United
| States Department of Agriculture.
AnthropolOgy.
A prehistoric skull which may be
another link i'll the chain of human
| evolution. was found at Taungs, in
South Africa. 1t Is said TO be older
than the ape man of Java. and half
way between the higher apes and
| man.
Excavations in Florida revealed
human remains closely associated
with the bones of mammoths under
circumstances thought TO indicate
that prehistoric elephants survived
in America longer than previously
supposed.
The Cobb Desert expedition of the
American Museum of Natural His
tory discovered in Mongolia abun-
dant traces of old stone age culture
Among other things, they learned
that ancient man made ornaments
| out of the still more ancient dinosa ur
eggs.
Human remains of prehistoric
| times We're found in cave in
Crimea. together with skeletons OF
mammoths, cave hyenas and cave
! boars. characteristic of the later
! days of the old stone age.
The skull OF a hitherto unknown
| race of the Neanderthal type OF
/ ancient cave men was discovered
near Capernaum. in Galilee.
\ French American expedition ex-
| plored northern Africa and found
evidences of prehistoric men similar
| to those of southern Europe.
| DR. Edward Sapir, Canadian
! anthropologist. announced that he
had discovered striking resemblances
| between American Indian dialects
! and the ancient Chinese language
Ten prehistoric stone tombs con-
tanning valuable relics were un.
! earthed from an ancient Indian
mound near Cartersville GA,
| A hoard Of valuable pearls was dis
! covered in prehistoric Indian
| nlOunu IN ONO
Archaeology.
! An expedition to excavate Arma-
! geddon, famous ancient battle-ground
/ in central Palestine. was organized
| by the Oriental Museum of the Uni
! versity of Chicago.
The Russian Geogra phical So
! ciety's expedition to Tibet returned
with an extensive collection of
| ancient relics, some of which indi-
| cate that 1000 years ago a Mongolian n
civilization flourished which had con.
| tact with Hellenic culture.
| The antiquity Of the PhoeniCian al
phabet was set back from $50 BIC. to
| the fifteenth century Be, by dis
! covery of old inscriptions.
Aviation and Aeronautfcs.
The United States dirigible Shenan.
| doah was wrecked by storm In Ohio
| with great loss of life.
An attempt was made by United
| States airplanes to fly to the Hawaiian
Islands, but It was not successful.
| A new type of airplane. the autogiro
! invented in Spain. was tested and
praised by the British air ministry
| 1t obtains its lift IN part by large
propeller-like rotating wings.
Biology.
! A chemical test, by which the sex
| Of plants or animals can be determined
| from a few drops of plant Juices or
| blood was worked out in Russia and
| applied by scientists Of the Carnegie
| Institution of Washington.
| Evidence that a severed optic nerve
| can reunite and at least partially re.
| cover its function was obtained by
study OF rats at the University of Chi
cago.
| The pituitary gland was completely
| removed from dogs by surgeons of
Johns Hopkins Hospital without kill
| ing the animals, an operation pre-.
viously considered as productive of
| certain death.
| Starf1sh and sea urchins were de
veloped from unfertilized eggs at the
University Of Chicago with only ultra.
violet light for a father.
| Silkworms were successfully vaccf
| mated against a bacterial disease by
DR.. r. w. Glaser Of the Rockefeller
Institute for Medical Research.
A new method Of killing protozoa
the minute animals that inhabit the
| digestive tracts and blood systems OF
man, animals and insects, by an over.
dose Of oxygen, has been discovered
! by DIR. L. r. Cleveland of Johns Hop.
L
these minute animals are often harm
less and sometimes helpful there are
some that are the cause of such dis
] eases as malaria, sleeping sickness and
| dyentery.
| Success in preserving the last herds
| of American bison from extinction was
| reported from Canada.
| For the first time. male sex glands
were successfully transplanted in ami
| mails and made to persist in normal
| condition.
A scientific survey Of America S
| fresh-water food resources was inaug
urated by the National Research Coun
| Gil.
| Chemistry.
| Mercury was transmitted into gold
=, according to Prof. A. Miethe of the
Berlin Technical High School, who
found that mercury vapor lamps be
came obscured after long usage by G
sooty substance, which on analysis
proved to be partly gold. Artificia
production of gold from mercury by
the application of strong electrica
| forces was also announced by Prof
Nagaoka of Toxic.
Dutch scientists claimed to have
transmitted lead into mercury ant
thallium.
Methods Of reclaiming old automo
bile oil were reported by several In
vAstigators.
sVitamin c, the preventive of scurvy
was obtained for the first time concen
trated into crystalline form.