493 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Night 

 Number 



own nature and attributes. Anthropomor- 

 phism is the phrase employed to condemn 

 this method of conception an opprobrious 

 epithet, as it were, which is attached to 

 every endeavor to bring the higher attri- 

 butes of the human mind into any recog- 

 nizable relation with the supreme agencies 

 in Nature. ARGYLL Unity of Nature, ch. 5, 

 p. 99. (Burt.) 



2424. NITROGEN, LOSS OF, AS AF- 

 FECTED BY ALCOHOL Recent Experi- 

 ments in Germany. Miura justly drew the 

 conclusion that in his experiments alcohol 

 had not only proved itself as not albumin- 

 saving, but as a protoplasm poison. 



Finally, we have also the most recent 

 experiments by Schmidt and Schb'neseiffen, 

 performed with the greatest precautions un- 

 der Rosemann at Greifswald. Schmidt add- 

 ed alcohol to the food by which he had 

 obtained his nitrogenous equilibrium in such 

 quantity that if the number of calories had 

 been furnished by carbohydrates they cer- 

 tainly would have produced a considerable 

 storing up of nitrogen, whereas the addition 

 of alcohol produced a considerable loss of 

 body-albumin. [Schmidt, " Inaugural Dis- 

 sertation," Greifswald, 1898.] 



Schb'neseiffen adopted another method in 

 his experiments. At first an insufficient 

 amount of food was given, so that daily 

 there was a slight loss of nitrogen. After 

 this, alcohol was given in such a quantity 

 that the number of calories were not only 

 compensated, but supplied in more than 

 double the number required. This would 

 have led to a storing up of nitrogen if the 

 calories had been supplied by carbohydrates. 

 But the experiment showed that not even 

 the loss of nitrogen was stopped by alco- 

 hol. Hence, here again, alcohol has not 

 manifested any albumin-saving properties. 

 [Schoneseiffen, idem, 1899.] 



If we sum up the results of these experi- 

 ments we certainly must agree with Rose- 

 mann, when, in direct contradiction to the 

 previous statement by Binz, he regards as 

 demonstrated that alcohol has not the power 

 of preventing the waste of albumin in the 

 body. [Aside from these valuable investi- 

 gations, Rosemann has rendered important 

 service by an elaborate review of some re- 

 cent experiments upon the albumin-saving 

 action of alcohol. ... In this connec- 

 tion we would refer the reader to his 

 two articles in Pfliiger's " Archiv," vols. 

 Ixxvii and Ixxix.] KASSOWITZ Is Alcohol a 

 Food or a Poison ? (a Paper), p. 6. (Trans- 

 lation by Mrs. J. H. W. STUCKENBEBG. ) 



2425. NITROGEN OF ATMOSPHERE 

 UNLIMITED, BUT UNASSIMILABLE 



Must Be Fixed in Soil for Plants. The 

 store of nitrogen in the atmosphere is prac- 

 tically unlimited, but it is fixed and ren- 

 dered assimilable only by cosmic processes 

 of extreme slowness. . . . It is upon 

 these processes, plus a return to the soil 

 of sewage, that we must depend in the fu- 



ture for storing nitrogen as nitrates [in 

 which condition only it can be of service to 

 plants]. NEWMAN Bacteria, ch. 5, p. 161. 

 (G. P. P., 1899.) 



2426. NITROGEN SUPPLIED TO 

 PLANTS BY BACTERIA Nitrification and 

 Denazification. The chief results of decom- 

 position and denitrification are as follows: 

 Free nitrogen, carbonic-acid gas and water, 

 ammonia bodies, and sometimes nitrites. 

 The nitrogen passes into the atmosphere 

 and is " lost " ; the carbonic acid and water 

 return to Nature and are at once used by 

 vegetation. The ammonia and nitrites await 

 further changes. These further changes be- 

 come necessary on account of the fact, al- 

 ready discussed, that plants require their 

 nitrogen to be in the form of nitrates in 

 order to use it. Nitrates obviously contain 

 a considerable amount of oxygen, but am- 

 monia contains no oxygen, and nitrites very 

 much less than \nitrates. Hence a process 

 of oxidation is required to change the am- 

 monia into nitrites, and the nitrites into 

 nitrates. This oxidation is performed by the 

 nitrifying micro-organisms, and the process 

 is known as " nitrification." It should be 

 clearly understood that the process of nitri- 

 fication may, so to speak, dovetail with the 

 process of denitrification. NEWMAN Bac- 

 teria, ch. 5, p. 152. (G. P. P., 1899.) 



2427. NOTES OF SONG-BIRD Tuned 

 to Soaring and Falling Motion. He [the 

 South- American field-finch] sits perched on 

 a stalk above the grass, and at intervals 

 soars up forty or fifty yards high; rising, 

 he utters a series of long, melodious notes; 

 then he descends in a graceful spiral, the 

 set of the motionless wings giving him the ap- 

 pearance of a slowly falling parachute; the 

 voice then also falls, the notes coming lower, 

 sweeter, and more expressive until he reaches 

 the surface. After alighting, the song con- 

 tinues, the strains becoming longer, thinner, 

 and clearer, until they dwindle to the finest 

 threads of sound and faintest tinklings, as 

 from a cithern touched by fairy fingers. 

 The great charm of the song is in this slow 

 gradation from the somewhat throaty notes 

 emitted by the bird when ascending" to the 

 excessively attenuated sounds at the close. 

 HUDSON Naturalist in La Plata, ch. 19, p. 

 275. (C. & H., 1895.) 



2428. NUMBER OF OBJECTS POS- 

 SIBLE IN CONSCIOUSNESS Conscious- 

 ness will be at its maximum of intensity 

 when attention is concentrated on a single 

 object; and the question comes to be, how 

 many single objects can the mind simul* 

 taneously survey, not with vivacity, but 

 without absolute confusion ? I find the prob- 

 lem stated and differently answered by dif- 

 ferent philosophers, and apparently with- 

 out a knowledge of each other. By Charles 

 Bonnet the mind is allowed to have a dis- 

 tinct notion of six objects at once; by 

 Abraham Tucker the number is limited to 



