144 



RECREATIVE SCIENCE. 



JVlTjsTolewortliy'sCr^ 



orner. 



New Pj:,anet. — We have the pleasure to announce 

 that Dr. E. Luther, of Bilk, discovered another new 

 planet (one of the asteroid gi-oup) on the 22nd of Sep- 

 tember. This is No. 67 of the asteroids, and the 8th 

 which Dr. Luther has had the good fortune to dis- 

 cover. Our solar system now numbers 65. The new 

 planet appears as a star of the tenth magnitude. It is 

 not yet named. 



Undergeound Tempehature. — Professor W. 

 Thompson has reduced Professor Forbes's observa- 

 tion of the temperature of thermometers sunk to 

 diflferent depths in the ground, from which we learn 

 that at three feet deep the greatest cold of winter does 

 not occur till February, at six feet not till March, at 

 twelve feet in April, and at tWenty-four feet in July. 

 So that at the latter depth summer becomes winter. Let 

 us take a practical hint from this, and make ourselves 

 some cool places, into which we may retire in hot 

 vreather. 



Flint Implements in the Drift. — Sir Charles 

 Lyell's version of this subject, before the British Asso- 

 ciation, points to the conclusion that there is no neces- 

 sary chronological connection between the works of 

 man, and even the remains of man, and the strata in 

 which both may be found. Dr. Anderson, in his paper, 

 more decisively stated that flint weapons, skulls, and 

 elephant remains were sometimes quickly petrified, 

 buried in ancient strata by subsidence, or by tlie fall- 

 ing in of the roofs of caverns, in which men had taken 

 up their abode. " He saw no evidence, deducible from 

 the superficial drifts, to waiTant a departure from the 

 usually accepted data of man's very recent introduction 

 upon the earth." 



Purification of Water. — Professor Faraday has 

 been making inquiries, at the instance of the Trinity 

 House, into the character of the water obtained for 

 domestic purposes by the residents in lighthouses. It 

 is, he says, invariably impregnated with lead, and 

 hence injurious to health. But the purification of 

 Buch poisonous water is most easily accomplished. " I 

 ascertained that if a little whiting or pulverized chalk 

 were added to such water, and the whole stirred toge- 

 ther, the lead immediately assumed the insoluble form, 

 80 that when the water was either filtered, or left to 

 settle, the clear fluid was obtained in a perfectly pure 

 and salubrious condition." Mr. D. J. Heath, in a letter 

 to the Times, advises the use of Perkins's small con- 

 denser, applied to the waste-pipe of an ordinaiy kitchen 

 boiler, as an inexpensive mode of obtaining distilled 

 water where it is impregnated with lead or chalk. 

 The return is from six to eight gallons per day. 



Bio Ships. — A very instructive diagram of the 

 relative dimensions of big ships may be drawn with 

 the help of a scale rule, and would be of value in 

 schools, and a subject of interesting reference to all 

 who give attention to such matters. The following 



figures furnish the details for a diagram of fifteen of 

 the largest vessels ever built, and it will be seen that 

 their united lengths amount to a mile : — Great Eastern, 

 580 feet, 19,000 tons; Adriatic, 390 feet, about 3600 

 tons ; Niagara, 375 feet, 4580 tons ; Himalaya, 360 

 feet, 5000 tons ; Duke" of Wellington, 240 feet, 2400 

 tons; General Admii-al, 325 feet, 6000 tons; Orlando 

 (recently launohed for the British Navy), 337 feet, 

 3727 tons ; Atrato, 336 feet, 3476 tons ; Royal Charter 

 (running " inside 60 days" from Liverpool to Mel- 

 bourne), 306 feet, 2720 tons ; Great Republic, 302 feet, 

 3356 tons; Pennsylvania, 300 feet, 3241 tons; Arabia, 

 300 feet, 2402 tons ; Great Britain, 274 feet, 3500 tons ; 

 Asia, 280 feet, 2226 tons; total, 5181 feet, 68,428 tons. 



Toads in the Heart of Trees, etc. — The won- 

 derful stories about toads being discovered in the 

 hearts of trees, in the centre of large massive stones, 

 and in solid rocks, wherein it is said they have been 

 embedded for many years, are now nearly silenced. 

 The late Dr. Buckland considered, from observation, 

 that toads catmot live a year, if totally excluded from 

 atmospheric air ; and even if an occasional supply of 

 air were given them, he regarded it as impossible 

 that they could exist two years if kept entii-ely with- 

 out food. A supply of oxygen is necessary for the 

 performance of the functions of cold-blooded animals, 

 although the demand for it is much less than in waim- 

 blooded ones. The quantity necessary for the pur- 

 pose increases with an increase of muscular exertion, 

 and the oxygen which is consumed is replaced by car- 

 bonic acid gas which must be removed. It causes 

 the death of animals which inhale it even in small 

 quantities. Reptiles, and most invertebrata that inhabit 

 the land, became apparently inanimate when the tem- 

 perature is lowered beyond a certain point. In this 

 state their circulation and respiration appear to cease 

 entirely, and the animals may be prevented from re- 

 viving for a while, without their vitality being per- 

 manently destroyed, if they be surrounded by an 

 atmosphere sufiiciently cold. Frogs and serpents have 

 been kept in an ice-house for three years, and at the 

 end of that period have been completely revived. 



The Moon's Motion. — It is shown that Mr. Adams 

 and M. Delaunay have an-ived at the same result by 

 two different methods of reasoning, and they prove 

 that the acceleration is not nearly as much as before 

 anticipated, and this value is far too small to satisfy 

 the ancient eclipses ; and, therefore, some other causes 

 (such as a resisting medium), totally diiferent from 

 the disturbing influences of the sun and planets, must 

 be resorted to, or, as Mr. Main remarks, "we must 

 hope, from a hint dropped by M. Delaunay, that he 

 has some means, at present kept out of sight, for 

 laying the ghost which he has helped to raise." 



The Banana at Kew is the most extraordinary 

 plant in the whole of that extensive collection. It 

 was introduced to Europe by Mr. Plowden, and has 

 attained, during five years' occupancy of the palm-stove, 

 a height of more than 30 feet, and the stem is 7^ feet 

 in circumference. 



