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SCIENCE NOTES. A BACTERIOLOGICAL institute has recently been established at Vladivostok, and a similar institute is shortly to he opened at Meiv. in Central Asia. Y. uu if—• THE sunflof 25,000 dollars has been promised ts Vassar Cofiege towards a biological laboratory, on condition that an equal amount be raised for the same purpose bytother means. 1 £ I ,¡I MICROSCOPISTS require two sets of eyes-pieces for their achromatic and apobhfomatic objectives, but the new hbloseopic eye-piece serves for both/and gives very beautiful images. 1; ACCORDING to a recently issued Consular report, a new process for the production of ammonia has re- cently been discovered in Germany. The process is said to be at present an expensive one, but this difficulty will, it is though, be overcome. ACCORDING to the experiments of Mr. W. J. S. Lockyer with electric sparks as described in Nature, dark lightning flashes do not exist, but they appear on photographs owing to some chemical actions in the gelatine film. A SCIENTIFIC and commercial mission, under the direction of M. Ernest Milliau, director of the Laboratory of Technical Experiments in connection with the Ministry of Agriculture, Paris, has been sent to Russia and Roumania with the object of taking measures for facilitating and extending busi- ness relations with those countries, especially with regard to the exportation of olive oils. MAGNALIUM is a new alloy of magnesium and aluminium (10 to 30 per cent. by weight of the former metal), which has been introduced by Dr. L. Mach; and is a bright, silvery metal, hard and good for turning. AT the Academie de Medicine, France. M. Laborde reports 14 fresh cases of resuscitation from apparent death by the method of rhythmic traction of the tongue. Half were cases of drowning, and took from 20 to 60 minutes of treatment to revive them. Another case was brought back to life after three hours of traction. IN the American \zchinist, Mr. Frank Richards gives his experience of liquid air as .applied to propel motor-cars. Liquid air is a safe means of carrying compressed air, and can be employed to work a com- pressed air-engine. A tricycle could be worked by it at less than the expense of a horse. M. DE LAPPABENT has tried the wireless telegraph successfullv between Chamounix and the Observa- tory of M. Vallot, Mont Blanc, a distance of eight miles, with a difference of altitude of 10,000 feet. An important new observation was made by him, namely, that, while the electric state of the atmos- phere did not prevent the working of the apparatus, the electric lighting of Chamounix made communica- cation impossible. MR. C. E. KELwAT has (the Globe says) invented a method of locating sounds by means of wireless tele- graphy. It was recently shown to the Canadian Minister of Marine and Fisheries, and is under con- sideration by the Lights Committee of Trinity House. The inventor hopes that it will obviate the use of the lead in thick weather, and prevent the stranding of ships, except through criminal negligence. IT is known that chloroform and ether have an action on moist seeds, and forbid germination, but, according to M. Coupin, in a note to the Academic des Sciences, they have no action on dry seeds, and consequently might be used to kill insects among the seeds. M. VIOI.LE, the well-known French chemist, recently announced to the Academie des Sciences, Paris, that a new radiant metal had been extracted from pitch blende. It seems to approach titanium in its properties, and is a far more powerful radiator than uranium. WE are told by Mr. W. Wagstaffe, in Knowledge, that we lose 31b. 6oz. between night and morning we gain lib. 12oz. by breakfast. That we again lose about 14oz. before lunch; that lunch puts on an average of lib; that we again lose during the after- noon an average of lOoz.; but that an ordinary dinner to healthy persons adds 21b. 2oz; to their weight. ACCORDING to M. Grellet, in a paper to the Academie de Medicine, Paris, the dressing of soil with lime for farming purposes on the plateau of Chatillon-sur-Loing (Loiret) has expelled the malaria from the district. The soil there is clayey, and rests on hard, impermeable pudding stone. The anti- malarial influence of lime is not well understood, but it may account for the absence of malaria in many parts which are marshy or humid—for example, Egypt after the Nile floods. MR. COWPER-COLES has (says the Globe) invented an apparatus for locating sounds. It consists of a sound reflector, which can be turned in all directions, and when it is in line with the source of the sound the operator hears it most distinctly. A hearing tube is adjusted at the focus of the reflector. Con- versation can be carried on between ships or over long distances, without raising the voice, by having two of these locators. One correspondent speaks through the tube into the reflector of one, and the other hears through the tube of his reflector. Experi- ments at St. Margaret's Bay showed that the ticking of a watch in the focus of one reflector could be heard in another at a distance at 20ft. when a strong wind blew across the line of sound. ACCORDING to Mr. Salomon Reinach, a Well-known French anthropologist (see L'Anthrcpolojjie, Vol. X. 1899, p. 397), there was in 1000 B.C. an overland trade in tin between the British Islands and Thrace or Macedonia. The relation of Britain, Northern Europe, and Western Asia are proved by the diffu- sion of tin, amber, spiral ornaments, and bronze implements. Homeric Greece (800 B.C.) knew the Ceitic name of the Cassiterides or tin islandsand the phenomenon of the short nights of North Britain. The tin was brought to the Agean by Greeks or Barbarians, who sought an oversea route in order to keep the trade in their-own hands. The invention of the anchor by Midas of Phrygia ren- dered this feasible. Reinach considers that he first brought lead and tin to Greece by the north-west sea route, and that the Phoenicians got the trade into their hands later. Leak, Hamilton, and Ramsay re-discovered Phrygia, but 27 centuries ago the Phrygians discovered Britain. EVERY shrewd chemist and manufacturer is alive to the importance of utilising by-products wherever practicable. In this connection a new and interest- ing development is announced in the chemical in- dustry of the United States in the utilisation of the sulphuretted hydrogen gas developed as a by-product in the refining of asphaltum at the Californian Asphaltum Company's Works at Ventura, Cal. The gas is burned to sulphurous anhydride in the usual well-known manner, and the product of the com- bustion is conveyed to the lead chambers. Owing to the method of its production the gas is of a high degree of purity, and the acid produced is also of high grade. At present the output amounts to 10 tons per day, when the works are run at their fnll capacity. The Pacific Coast is beginning to have an important chemical industry. Sulphuric is made on a rather large scale elsewhere in California. A RUSSIAN engineer, M. Olschewsky, after long re- searches based on the method of Michaelis, has made a good artificial stone. Michaelis showed that hot steam acting on slaked lime and ground quartz produced a hard silicate of lime, resembling the natural stone. Olschewsky employs two to 10 parts by weight of lime, and 98 to 90 parts of sand. Artificial bricks and slates are made in this way, and as they do not absorb moisture like natural stone they are better for some building purposes. The blocks are whitish, but can be coloured artificially, Their form depends on the mould, and can be highly ornamental. In Germany, Denmark, Holland, and Russia, this new industry is flourishing so well that already 150 works are making the stone. It promises to be active in parts of England, where sand and lime are common—for example, Surrey and Kent. IN Engineering there is an interesting contribution by Professor Barr, of Glasgow University who deals with meteorological phenomena. It used, he said, to be commonly supposed that the particles forming a fog or a cloud consisted of small vesicles or bubbles of water, filled with some very light gas. This extraordinary conception arose from the supposed necessity of finding some explanation of the suspen- sion of these particles in the a'r* The pro- cess of formation of such vesicles, and the presence in them of gas which was lighter than air, though subject to a very considerable pressure on account of the capillary contractility of the envelope, were mysteries never explained. But the principle just given will suffice to indicate that very small particles of water will fall very slowly in still air, while a very slight upward current will suffice to keep them from descending at all in the case of very small particles. Aitken has shown that the globules forming a fog or cloud consist each of I' a film of water condensed upon a particle of dust. The core is therefore solid, not gaseous. <,

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