86 



KNOWLEDGE c\: SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[April, 1905. 



The daily motion was determined to be 6c- of arc in a south- 

 easterly direction. 



Professor Campbell, in a later ccnErmalion of the above, 

 informs us that the discovery was made by Professor Perrine 

 with the Crossley reflector of 36 inches aperture, and that the 

 object had been under observation since January 2. The 

 apparent motion of the satellite is direct, and the provisional 

 elements indicate an orbit considerably inclined to the 

 ecliptic. 



CHEMICAL. 



By C. .A. MiTCHi I.I.. H.A. lOxon.i. K.I.C. 



The Electric Bleaching of Flour. 



A NEW electric process of producing an extremely white flour 

 has recently been adopted in Paris. Specimens of the flour 

 before and after the treaiment have been examined by 

 M. Balland, who finds that although the whiteness is 

 undoubtedlj- increased, yet the flavour and odour are not so 

 good as before. This is shown by the analyses to be due to a 

 partial decomposition of the wheat oil, to which flour owes its 

 aroma, and the flour increases greatly in acidity throuj^h this 

 decomposition. In fact the process is essentially an artificial 

 ageing accompanied by the usual whitening that occurs in old 

 flour. 



♦ » » 



Ra.dio-Active Substa.nces in Natural 

 Watters. 



The water and the gases of the hot springs in Wiesbaden 

 have been shown by Dr. Henrich to be strongly radio-active, 

 whilst the stalactites also exhibited the same phenomenon. 

 The water could be rendered nearly inactive by boiling it so 

 as to expel the dissolved gases, but the stalactites retained 

 their radio-activity on keeping. The element helium, which is 

 known to be formed from radio-active substances, has been 

 identified by M. C. Mouren in the gases from 12 French 

 mineral springs, some of which contained 50 times as much as 

 the others. Helium has also been detected by Sir James 

 I^cwar in the gases from a mineral spring in Bath. 



* » ♦ 



The Gum Disease of the Sugar Ca-ne. 



The Australian sugar cane suffers from a disease which is 

 characterised by the formation of a yellow gum within the 

 vascular fibres of the plant. It was first described in 1S93 by 

 Mr. Cobb, who attributed it to a species of bactcriimi which he 

 isolated from the gum, but his attempts to inoculate healthy 

 plants with the disease were inconclusive. Professor E. Smith, 

 however, has recently prepared pure cultivations of the micro- 

 organism which he terms pseinldmnniis vmcularum (Cobb), and 

 has successfully inoculated common green sugar canes with 

 them so as to produce all the symptoms of the Australian gum 

 disea.se. The acidity of the juice appears to have considerable 

 influence upon the susceptibility of the plant to infection, for 

 two other varieties of sugar cane, Louisiana .No. 74 and the 

 common purple cane, with a much more acid juice, offered 

 great resistance to the attack of the psciidnmoiias. The prac- 

 tical remedy of planting varieties of cane that are not readily 

 affected has already given good results in the sugar plantations. 



• ♦ » 



The Use of Specific Sera in Chemical 

 Analysis- 

 One of the most difficult problems in analytical chemistry is 

 to distinguish between the flesh or blood of different animals, 

 and until recently the tests employed left much to be desired. 

 In I NfjS, however, it was discovered by M. Borget that when 

 a rabbit was inoculated with the s<;nmi of cow's milk its own 

 blood serum became so modified as subsequently to give a 

 precipitate when added to the serum (whey) of any cow's 

 milk. This discovery was shown by Dr. von Kigler (1902) to 

 be capable of extension, and that when rabbits were inocu- 

 lated with extract or broth of a given animal the serum from 

 their blood would then give a precipitate with extracts of the 

 flesh of that particular animal, but not with those of any other 

 animal. Thus sera rendered specific to horseflesh would not 



react with extracts of beef venison, pork. Sec. A still more 

 important development of this idea seems likely to effect a com- 

 plete revolution in the methods of examination in criminal cases. 

 For when human serum is injected into a rabbit or guinea-pig 

 their sera become specific for human blood serum, and the test 

 can be applied even in the case of a blood stain several months 

 old. In a recent criminal trial in France the prisoner asserted 

 that certain stains were caused by rabbit's blood. Sera 

 specific for rabbit's and human blood were therefore prepared, 

 and when it was found that a saline extract of the stain gave 

 no pronounced reaction with the former, while it did so with 

 the latter, the chemical experts considered that they were 

 justified in reporting that the stain was certainly not rabbit's 

 blood, but in all probability consisted of human blood. The 

 nature of the specific substances in the sera is not known, but 

 they are probably albuminous derivatives formed by certain 

 constituents in the rabbit's cells in their attempt to expel the 

 intruding substance. They can be precipitated and dried 

 at a low temperature in a vacuum, and the pracipitiiics thus 

 obtained only require the addition of water to produce a solu- 

 tion acting almost as readily as the fresh specific serum, and 

 have also the great advantage that they can be kept in the 

 dark for months without undergoing any change. 



GEOLOGY. 



Conducted bv 1".ia\.\ki) A. Mai;tin. F.G.S. 



A Well -Boring att Holborn. 



\\'ater to the extent of 3000 gallons per hour is being 

 obtained from a new well at the Birkbick Bank, Holborn, 

 F.C. The strata passed through in the boring is as follows, 

 kindly supplied b\' Mr. Heywood, of the firm of Messrs.- 

 Robert Warner and Co. : — 



Alluvial 



12 Basement. 

 15 Ballast. 



London ( 85 London clay. 



Clay 15 Coloured clay. 



Oldhaven 7 Sand and water. 



Woolwich I 15 Coloured sandy clay and pebbles. 



and Reading - 2i Sand pebbles and oyster shells. 



Beds ( 4 Sand and small pebbles. 



Thanet sand 22^ Thanet sand and water. 



Chalk 284" Chalk. 



The well is sunk 5 feet into the chalk (5 feet diameter), 

 lined with brickwork and iron cylinders; then an open sinking 

 in the chalk for about 30 fcst, and a boring in the bottom of 

 the well to 462 feet. It will be seen that there is a total thick- 

 ness of 178 feet above the chalk. 



» # * 



A New British Tortoise. 



An interesting find is recorded from the lower Headon 

 Beds of Hordwell, Hants, in the shape of bones of the 

 carapace and plastron of a new species of tortoise. If has 

 been given the name of Xicoria Hcadoiicnsis by Mr. R. W. 

 Hooley, F.G.S. The bones were scattered over a space of 

 about four s(|uare feet, the broken edges of the entoplastral 

 and right hyoplastral being found sticking out of the face of 

 cliff. The specimen has been referred to the Tcstndiuidir, 

 genus Xicoria, this being the first record of the genus from 

 Kngland. To-day it is found in the East Indies and in South 

 America. 



MaLryla-nd Miocene Forma.tion. 



The two new volMints of the Maryland Geological Survey, 

 dealing with the Miocene deposits of that State, are models of 

 what Government publications should be. Comparisons of 

 these voluuies with those isNued \>y our own Survey are forced 

 upon our notice, and we can only hope that in the course of 

 time our own Government may be induced to make larger 

 grants towards our half-starved Geological Survey. Of the 

 two volumes now to band, one contains over 500 excellently- 

 printed pages of text, whilst the second volume contains 125 

 full-page engravings of fossils. The Miocene deposits of Mary- 

 and have long been known to geologists for the rich faunas 



