76 



• KNOWLEDGE 



[July 25, 1884. 



iBisffUnnrn. 



The percentage of recruits in the Italian army who can neither 

 read nor write varies from 27 in Piedmont to 74 in Sicily. 



The Insurance Critic asserts that there are more than 10,000 

 steam boilers in Xew York city, attended by 7,000 men, of whom 

 not one-seventh are believed to be trustworthy and qualified for 

 their responsible work ; and yet dynamite cartridges are a terror 

 to many people. 



According to Mr. Chamberlain, 120 applications for provisional 

 orders have been made to the Board of Trade since the passing of 

 the Electric Lighting Act. Of these 73 have been granted by the 

 Board of Trade and confirmed by Parliament. There have been 

 ten applications for licences. One for Colchester was to be granted 

 in the course of a few days. The remainder have not been pro- 

 ceeded with by the applicants. The supply of electricity has not 

 been commenced under any of the orders. 



One of the most accomplished writers and artists of the day has 

 recently been spending a short period in HoUoway Gaol, as an im- 

 prisoned debtor, the object being to thoroughly show up and 

 expose the gross iniquities of our law under which debt is still by a 

 fiction treated as a crime. The series of ]>rison sketches and notes 

 will be commenced in <S7. Stephen's lieviciu of the current week, 

 under the title " Notes from a Debtor's Dungeon," and will rival 

 the famous work of the " Amateur Casual." 



Electric Coxdoctivity of Solctio.ns. — According to the recent 

 researches of M. Bouty, the neutral salts in very extended solutions 

 of water form a gi'oup apart as regard their electric conductivity. 

 For example, ethylic alcohol, gh'cerinc, ei-ythrite and phenol, 

 glucose and candied sugar, ordinary ether and dichlorhydrine, 

 ethylic aldehyde and acetone, as well as albumen, all conduct very 

 badly. M. Bouty has also come to the conclusion, from his experi- 

 ments, that an anhydrous alkali or acid is not a conductor, bat that 

 ahydrated acid or alkali conducts like a salt. — Engineering. 



We have received from Messrs. Eowney & Co., Oxford-street, a 

 specimen of " Wood's Adjustable Geometrical Eulcr," which com- 

 bines in a box of a very portable form, measuring 1-Ji inches by 

 2^ inches, an ordinary ruler, a T square, set square, protractor, &c., 

 and a new contrivance for drawing and dividing circles and geo- 

 metrical figures. After a little attention and practice the instru- 

 ment will prove very handy and useful to anyone who has frequent 

 occasion to construct figures, etc., which by the ordinary rales of 

 geometry take a considerable time in working. 



Almost all the Sicilian sulphur ore is carried to the surface on 

 boys' backs, consequently it does not pay to work below about 

 400 ft., as it then becomes necessary to employ hauling machinery. 

 Hence the deposits lying below that level are hardly touched, and 

 as many of the beds are nearly vertical, and do not diminish in 

 yield as they descend, the still untouched resources must be very 

 great. Various estimates have been made as to the period for 

 which the supply will last at the present rate of consumption ; 

 these range from 50 to 20O years. 'Tliere are said to be about 250 

 mines in the island, and no less than 4,367 calcaroni were reported 

 in operation fifteen years ago. The average yield is stated not to 

 exceed 14 per cent. 



At a recent Conference held at the Health Exhibition, ic appeared 

 from some statistics collected by Dr. Ord that gardeners had a 

 better chance of life than any other class out of some eighty speci- 

 fied classes of workers, with the exception of clergymen. If 1,000 

 be taken as the average standard number of deaths within a given 

 period among all classes taken togcthei', then the number of 

 gardeners who die during the period is barely more than half the 

 average — i.e., 559 ; that of clergymen, who have the best chance of 

 all, 556'; agricultural labourers, 033 ; farmers, 675 ; medical men, 

 1,125. The highest death-rate is among persons engaged in hotels, 

 2,205; inn-keepers, 1,521 ; brewers, 1,301 — significant figures these I 

 The proportion of medical men who die in a given time, though 

 above the general average, is less than might have been expected 

 from the harassing life they mostly lead, and the special risk they 

 run. 



The Physiological Actiox of Heloderm.\ Poison. — That this 

 lizard, the Gila monster (Heloderma suspectum) is venomous, has 

 been often asserted and as often denied. Weir Mitchell and 

 Reichert find that its mouth-liquids are highly poisonous, killing 

 frogs, pigeons, and rabbits in a few minutes. This establishes it as 

 the only venomous lizard known. What is of even more interest, 

 perhaps, is the fact that the physiological action of the poison is 

 quite different from that of snake-poison : the latter kills essentially 

 by paralysing the respiratory centre, the former by paralysing the 



heart. Heloderma venom causes no local injury when injected 

 sabcutaneoasly ; and arrests the heart in diastole, from which con- 

 dition the organ slowly passes into a contracted state. The heart- 

 muscle entirely loses its irritability when the organ ceases to beat, 

 and when other muscles and the nerves still readily respond to 

 stimulation. The spinal cord is paralysed. 



Electric Lights for Lighthouses.— General Daane has, since 

 August last, been carrying out a series of experiments as to the 

 applicability of electric lights for lighthouse work for the United 

 States Lighthouse Board. The experiments have been carried ont 

 at Tompkinsville, Staten Island, the electric portion being under 

 the charge of Lieut. John Millis. The present result of the experi- 

 ment is that the electric light is found to be ten times more power- 

 ful than the oil light, and that for a given amount of light it is th& 

 cheaper of the two. It is said that of the apparatus tried the most 

 useful has been found to be that at present in use in the French 

 lighthouses. Among the dynamos tried have been the Gramme,^ 

 Elphinstone- Vincent, Siemens, and Weston. The report on these 

 experiments is not expected to be ready for some months yet, but 

 when it does appear it will be of the greatest interest. If the 

 report of the committee now engaged in the same kind of experi- 

 ments for the Trinity House at the South Foreland should appear 

 contemporaneously with that of General Doane some interesting 

 comparisons might be made. — Electrician. 



Whatever degree of truth may attach to Lamartine's remark 

 that before the present century shall have run out Journalism will 

 be the whole press of the world — the whole of human thought — 

 there can be no doubt that the profession is becoming one of 

 increasing importance, and one that attracts an ever-growing 

 number of followers. Many an aspirant for journalistic fame ie, 

 however, at a loss how to set about the realisation of his ambition^ 

 and a good handbook or guide affording trustworthy information as 

 to the qualifications necessary for each branch of the journalistic 

 profession has not hitherto been available. With a view to supply 

 this want a scries of articles has been commenced in the Printing 

 Times and Lithographer for July, dealing with every phase of the 

 subject. The articles are from the pen of Mr. A. Arthur P>eade, 

 well known as the author of the " Literary Ladder," " Study and 

 Stimulants," "How to Write English," Ac. The popularity which 

 these several works have enjoyed entitles one to anticipate an 

 equally favourable reception for the present series of articles, 

 which have, moreover, had the benefit of revision by a number of 

 leading journalists. 



Australian Timber. — A Board appointed to inquire into and 

 experiment on the I'cst kind of timber grown in the Australian 

 colonies, and adapted for the construction of railway vehicles, has. 

 sent in its report. Among the woods which the Commissioners 

 mention as suitable are blackwood, mountain ash, bluegum, arui 

 Gippsland mahogany. Under test the blackwood presented results 

 which were superior to any other timber. The mountain ash was 

 second to the blackwood for railway purposes. It should be felled, 

 the Commissioners think, daring the winter months, when it has 

 attained maturity, and is between 4 ft. and 5 ft. in diameter, and ic 

 might remain felled for six months before being broKen down into 

 planks for seasoning. Bluegum should be treated in the same 

 manner. Going somewhat beyond its reference, the Board deals 

 with the question of timber licenses, and recommends that getters 

 be compelled to pay for the timber felled, and to confine their 

 operations to a given area, or otherwise that selected lots of trees 

 be sold by tender. It is also strongly recommended that a forest, 

 board should be called into existence. [The above, taken fromi 

 Engineering^ serves to show that the continually-increasing demand 

 for timber is causing considerable anxiety, not only in Europe and 

 America, but in every quarter of the civilised world.] 



A VALUABLE contribution to the literature of physical astronomy * 

 has recently been made in the issue by the Bureau of Navi- 

 gation at Washington of Parts I. and II. of Vol. II. and 

 Part I. of Vol. III. of " Astronomical Papers prepared 

 for the Use of the American ' Ephemeris and Nautical 

 Almanac' " In the first of these parts the formtJa> necessary 

 for expressing the corrections to the geocentric right ascen- 

 sion and declination of a planet are deduced in terms of cor- 

 rection to the elements ; the expressions thus obtained being 

 deduced to numbers for the planets Mercury and Venns, and tables 

 for those two planets respectively being appended. The second 

 part of Vol. II. contains investigations of corrections to the Green- 

 wich Planetary f)bservations, 1762-1830; and, to the general 

 reader, will probably be found the most interesting of the three, if 

 it be only for the succinct history of the instruments employed at 



* We use these words in the original and legitimate sense, and 

 by no means in the modem one of watching snnspots to predict 

 rain and periods of stock- jobbing insolvency. 



