HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



105 



GOSSIP ON CURRENT TOPICS. 



By W. Mattieu Williams, F.R.A.S., F.C.S. 



Sugar Refining ey Electricity. — " Elec- 

 trician " tells us that this is to be carried out by a 

 company in New York, "The Electric Sugar Refining 

 Company," which expects to convert a ton of raw 

 sugar in two hours into perfectly hard white sugar at 

 a cost of 3s. 2d. per ton, and intends to turn out 

 three thousand barrels daily. This is very wonderful 

 indeed, when we consider the bulk of material in- 

 volved and the cost of obtaining chemical results by 

 electrolysis. The capital stock of the company is a 

 million of dollars. "Electrician" adds, that "the 

 results in this case will be awaited with a good deal 

 of interest ; " scientific interest, I presume, rather than 

 interest on the million of dollars. 



Maturing Wines by Electricity. — The same 

 magazine describes more definitely the work of 

 Sig. Mengarini, who is diligently following up the 

 investigations of Blaserna and Carpine in effecting, 

 by the agency of electricity, those delicate and some- 

 what mysterious changes which in old-fashioned 

 wines were obtained by years of storage, and at very 

 great cost, that of the compound interest of the 

 dormant capital, rental of cellarage, besides loss 

 by evaporation, &c. Wines are very volatile where 

 many tasting tickets are issued. 



We are told that in Mengarini's experiments a 

 current of about four amperes was passed through 

 the wine for periods of varying length ; that the 

 platinum electrodes become coated or crusted with a 

 deposit which consists chiefly of albuminous matter ; 

 that the proportion of alcohol is diminished ; that 

 some oxidation appears to occur ; that the bouquet of 

 the wine was developed almost exactly as by age, and 

 was sensibly increased by every application of the 

 current. The colour was also modified and Sig. 

 Mengarini suspects that the wine is sterilised, and 

 thus rendered incapable of further change. 



There is nothing marvellous in all this, especially 

 now we know that a moderate heat, skilfully applied 

 as in " Pasteuring," does the like; the amount of 

 energy demanded is very small in proportion to the 

 commercial value of the result ; the actions of oxida- 

 tion, &c, are similar to those which probably occur in 

 ordinary maturation, and, above all, neither Sig. 

 Mengarini, nor Blaserna, nor Carpine are asking for 

 a million of dollars, nor forming any kind of company 

 or syndicate. This removes a mountain of scepticism. 



Museum doings in New Zealand. — Our 

 Colonies are going ahead. The report of the 

 Colonial Museum and Laboratory of New Zealand, 

 tells us, that the attendance of visitors is so large 

 on Sundays that the passages are inconveniently 

 crowded; that 10,708 objects have been added to 

 the collection during the year, and 345 analyses 

 made. This is the 22nd annual report. No thunder- 



bolts have fallen on the Museum building, neither do 

 the statistics of crime indicate any serious demorali- 

 sation of the community since the Sunday opening 

 and Sunday crowding has been in operation. 



Muzzling Oysters.— We are told that the late 

 Duke of Wellington despised all pills and potions, 

 that when troubled with small ailments he treated 

 himself by simply " putting on the muzzle," abstain- 

 ing from food until recovery. This recipe has been 

 successfully applied to oysters which grow sick when 

 packed for exportation by opening their shells, and 

 losing the liquid contained therein, after which the 

 air enters and decomposition commences. American 

 observers have discovered that oysters feed only at 

 about the turn of high tide, and that the habit of 

 opening periodically, persists even when they are 

 out of water. Therefore to keep their shells closed 

 they are now muzzled by means of binding wire 

 passed through a hole near the lip of the shell, then 

 twisted with pliers. This, with practice, is done very 

 rapidly, and the muzzled bivalves survive very long 

 journeys. 



This muzzling is but a reinvention, original, doubt- 

 less, but not new. It has long been practised by our 

 London fishmongers in the barrelling of oysters for 

 transmission to country places, especially in the old 

 coaching days, when barrels of oysters were 

 customary presents to country cousins. The native 

 oysters were carefully laid in the barrels, and each 

 barrel filled above the level of the top. Then the 

 cover was laid on the oysters and the whole thumped 

 down until all were wedged together so closely that 

 opening was impossible. After this the cover was 

 firmly nailed. Experience proved that the oysters 

 thus tightly packed remained fresh for long periods. 



The Philosophy of Hanging.— Dr. Gross, of 

 Geneva, has made some curious experiments which 

 threatened to add his name to the list of martyrs to 

 Science. He constructed a noose which firmly com- 

 pressed both sides of his neck without pressing on 

 the larynx sufficiently to interfere with his breathing. 

 In two minutes he lost consciousness by congestion 

 of the brain, this congestion being due to the com- 

 pression of the veins which return the blood from the 

 brain. In another experiment he used isolated com- 

 pression applied simply to these vessels with like 

 result. He tells us that the loss of consciousness was 

 not preceded by either painful or agreeable sensations 

 (the latter have been affirmed to precede death by 

 hanging) ; the only feeling he experienced was a sense 

 of warmth or burning in the head. He concludes 

 that the drop of the hangman is unnecessary, and 

 that suicide by hanging may be effectual even when 

 the feet of the victim touch the ground. 



Within my recollection London sightseers have 

 witnessed two fatal exhibitions of the wretched trick 

 of imitating the work of the hangman. One was at 

 Cremorne Gardens, the victim, if I remember rightly, 



