June 22, 1893] 



NATURE 



181 



Pr.OF. Oberbeck, of Greifswald, has been studying the 

 spreading of oil on liquid surfaces on a larger scale than that of 

 ordinary laboratory work. The experiments, which are described 

 in the current number of Wiedemann' s Annalen, were carried out 

 in the Bayof Riigen, upon which the Prussian university town 

 is situated. The professor sailed out into the bay for a distance 

 of 2 km. or so, accompanied by an experienced mariner, and 

 armed with bottles holding from one-tenth to half a litre of 

 machine oil or rape-seed oil in measured quantities. Sitting in 

 ;he stern of the vessel, he poured the contents of the bottles at 

 intervals into the water in a thin continuous stream, the vessel 

 meanwhile moving at a uniform rate in the same direction. 

 After about an hour the oiled tracks were revisited. The 

 brilliant colouring had disappeared, and the oil had spread out 

 into well defined rectangular light-grey patches, easily distin- 

 :;ui4hed from the rest of the sea by the absence of ripples and 

 ;heir consequent superior reflecting power. Their area was 

 estimated, with the aid of the experienced mariner, by the time 

 ■ccupied in sailing past. In the case of the half-litre bottle the 

 ;)atch measured 300 by 30 metres, thus giving an area of 18,000 

 ■quare metres corresponding to one litre of oil. A more accurate 

 measurement was made subsequently by means of a line of buoys 

 marking the deep-water channel. This gave an area of 18,857 

 -quare metres. Hence the thickness of the film of oil was 53 

 niillionths of a mm. It is, of course, possible that the oil had 

 pread still further and had only ceased to influence the ripples 

 in the surface. In that case the film must have been even 

 thinner. 



The applications of electricity to every-day life seem to be 

 almost infinite ; the latest development being an electrical 

 horsewhip described in Electricite. This is said to be de- 

 signed for the use of a "sportsman," and consists of a 

 celluloid handle containing a small induction coil, together with 

 a battery, the circuit being closed by means of a spring push. 

 Two wires carry the current to the extremity of the whip, which 

 is furnished with two small copper plates having points fixed to 

 them of sufficient length to penetrate the coat of the horse, and 

 ^■yet not being sharp enough to inflict a wound. 



In a note contributed to the Accademia dei Lincei, Augusto 

 Righi gives a short description of a form of apparatus he has 

 used for producing Hertzian oscillations of short wave-length 

 and exhibiting their properties to an audience. The oscillator 

 consists of two rods furnished with balls at either end and 

 placed between the discharger of a Iloltz machine, leaving a gap 

 of about 4 centimetres at each end, and one of about 3 mm. at 

 the middle. The two rods pass through the sides of a glass 

 vessel containing oil, so that the middle pair of knobs are sur- 

 rounded by oil. The resonator consists of a nearly complete 

 circle of wire, the gap being filled by a Geissler tube. With 

 the above apparatus the author has carried on a series of ex- 

 periments on the reflection, refraction, and interference of these 

 electrical waves. 



An abstract ot a paper by C. H. Morse appears in the Elec- 

 trician, giving an account of the damage to the water pipes in 

 Cambridge (Mass.), caused by the electrolytic action of the 

 return current from the electric cars. Pipes composed of lead, 

 iron, galvanised iron, brass, and rustless iron were in turn tried 

 and found to deteriorate quickly. Such an amount ol current 

 was found to be flowing along the pipes that, upon attempting 

 to make a joint by putting oakum round the pipe, an electric 

 arc was formed and set the oakum on fire. The damage has to 

 a great extent been checked by connecting the gas and water- 

 pipes together, and also to the negative pole of the dynamos 

 which supply the power to the railway. 



At the beginning of this year (says the Revue Scientifique,]\xvie. 

 17) there were u68 submarine cables in existence, of which 880 

 NO. 1234. VOT.. 48] 



belonged to different dominions and 288 to private companies. 

 The former possessed a length of 16,652 miles, and the latter 

 had a length of 144, 743 miles, thus the total length was 161,395 

 miles. Fifty-four of these cables belong to the state in France, 

 the length being 3979 miles ; and Germany owns 46 cables, 

 having a total length of 2025 miles. There are 14 Anglo-French 

 cables, 10 Anglo-Belgian, 8 Anglo-Dutch, and 13 Anglo- 

 German. Of the cables possessed by private companies the 

 Eastern Extension, Australasia, and China Telegraph Co. 

 head the list with 25 cables and a mileage of 18,205 ! '^^^ Great 

 Northern Telegraph Co. follow with 24 cables, having a tot; 1 

 length of 6948 miles ; then come the West India and Panama 

 Telegraph Co. with 22 cables extending through 5240 miles : 

 and the Western and Brazilian Telegraph Co. with 15 cables 

 stretching over 5408 miles. The French Society of Submarine 

 Telegraphs possess 14 cables having a total length of 3754 

 miles. 



The "shell-beds," or shelly clays, in the north of Scotland^ 

 at Clavia near Inverness, and on the east coast of .Aberdeen- 

 shire, have been investigated by Mr. Dagald Bell, and the 

 results of his researches were communicated to the Glasgow 

 Geological Society on May 25, under the title "The alleged 

 proofs of submergence in Britain, during the Glacial Epoch." 

 Mr. Bell holds that it is doubtful if this clay were really in 

 place, as part of an ancient sea-bottom, during the glacial 

 epoch. He thinks also that the "red clay " of East Aberdeen- 

 shire, described by Mr. Jamieson, cannot be accepted as a satis- 

 factory proof of submergence, indeed, in some respects, its 

 characteristics seem to be inconsistent with that theory. 



From the Pioneer Mail we learn that Mrs. J. S. Mackay has 

 a superb snow leopard at Kalu, in the Punjab. Though the 

 animal is nearly full-grown, he is practically free and lies 

 about the house all day like a huge cat, or romps with his 

 mistress. His ultimate destination is the Zoological Gardens of 

 London. Should he be brought over alive he will be the only 

 animal of his kind in Europe. 



In a paper, " Sulla presenza di batteri patogeni nella saliva di 

 alcunianimalidomestici " (Fiocca : Annali deW htituto d' Igiene 

 Sperimentale della K. Universita di Roma), an examination of 

 the saliva of numerous horses, dogs, and cats is recorded. The 

 saliva of the horse was found to contain diverse bacilli, also 

 streptococci, staphylococci, and one spirillum. Amongst these 

 organisms three were discovered which possessed pathogenic 

 properties ; and one of these, a bacillus, was very frequently 

 found, for out of fifteen different samples of saliva inoculated 

 into guinea-pigs.it was only once absent. This organism is 

 distributed in soil, and it is very possibly also frequently present 

 on grass and hay, and hence its prevalence in the saliva Of 

 horses. The saliva of the cat presented a very different appear, 

 ance from that of the horse, being very rich in cocci and minute 

 bacilli. A new bacillus {Bacillus salivarius felis], extremely 

 characteristic of cats' saliva, was isolated and found to be specially 

 pathogenic to rabbits and guinea-pigs, these animals dying from 

 its effects in twenty-four hours. The dog's saliva was found to 

 contain the largest variety of bacteria, amongst the pathogenic 

 forms isolated being the B. pseudo-cedemalis maligni, and the 

 Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus. 



Some investigations on the antagonistic effect produced by 

 the Bacillus fiuorescens liquefaciens on other organisms have 

 been made by Olilzky {Ueber die aniagonislischen Wirkungen 

 des B. fiuorescens liquefaciens und seine hygienische Bedeu- 

 tung, Bern, 1891). Cultures of this bacillus were either 

 streaked on to nutritive agar-agar side by side with other or- 

 ganisms, or the latter were separately inoculated on to culture 

 material in which this bacillus had grown, but which before 



