132 



POPULAR SCIEISrOE NEWS. 



[September, 1889. 



leaving the ninth satellite as its dcBcendant. But it 

 must be admitted that all this is highly speculative, 

 and we can only hope that further investigations 

 will give us firmer grounds for a forecast. — Prof. 

 George Howard Darwin, in Harper's Magazine. 



THE CONSTITUTION OF CELESTIAL 

 SPACE. 



M. G. A. HiRN has recently published an able and 

 interesting work, entitled Constitution de I'Espace 

 Celeste, in which, savs Nature, he inquires into the 

 nature of the medium or agent which establishes 

 and CtirHes on the relationships of the celestial 

 bodies. For all of these, from the most enormous 

 sun to the most infinitesimal meteorite, are in con- 

 stant relationship to each other, continually attract- 

 ing each other, continually radiating and receiving 

 light and heat. Newton long ago regarded it as the 

 greatest of absurdities to imagine that "one body 

 might act upon another at a distance, through a 

 vacuum, without the mediation of anything else, by 

 and through which their action and force may 

 be conveyed from one to another. Gravity," he 

 added, "must be caused by an agent acting con- 

 stantly according to certain laws ; but whether this 

 agent be material or immaterial, I have left to the 

 consideration of my readers." 



This question, left unsolved by Newton, Hirn an- 

 swers as follows: "The thorough analysis of the 

 most diverse facts revealed to us by science today- 

 allows us to reply to the first question by the most 

 absolute negation. That which fills space and which 

 establishes relations between the celestial bodies is 

 not diffuse matter." 



That "ponderable matter in the state of a diffuse 

 gas" does not fill interplanetary and interstellar 

 space M. Hirn seeks to prove by inquiring what 

 effect such a medium would have on the various 

 members of the solar system, and particularly upon 

 their movements. Many of hie conclusions are 

 exceedingly striking, and, if accepted, certainly 

 prove his main proposition given above. Perhaps 

 the most remarkable is that relating to the secular 

 acceleration of the moon. To explain a secular 

 acceleration of o 5" in the mean motion of the 

 moon it would be sufficient if one kilogramme of 

 gas wera distributed over 975,000 cubic kilometres of 

 space; a rarefaction one million times greater than 

 that of a Crookes vacuum of the millionth of an at- 

 mosphere. But the effect of the shock of the parti- 

 cles of this rarefied gas against a body like the 

 moon as it moved forward in its orbit would be to 

 raise the gas to a temperature of 38,000° C, and in- 

 conceivably attenuated as this interplanetary atmos- 

 phere would be, the moon would yet come into 

 contact with 600 kilogrammes of it in each minute of 

 time. On a body like the earth, surrounded by an 

 atmosphere, the Inevitable result of this unceasing 

 collision with the interplanetary atmosphere would 

 be the stripping away of the terrestrial atmosphere 

 layer by layer. Arriving at results of a similar 

 unacceptable character from the consideration of 

 the action of a diffuse interplanetary gas on the 

 other members of the solar system, M. Hirn decides 

 that matter exists only in a sporadic state in space; 

 only in the state of distinct bodies — stars, satellites, 

 meteorites, and the like. It exists in a state of 

 extreme diffusion only in nebulse,. but elsewhere 

 space is perfectly empty, or, at least, whatever re- 

 mains cannot suflice to explain the relations of stars 

 to stars. 



The Proportion of Gluten in Wheat. — Inves- 

 tigations by Gatelierand L'Hote seem to prove that 

 the proportion of gluten in wheat may be increased 

 by cultivation, and that it depends on the proportion 

 of nitrogen to phosphoric acid used in the manure. 



f Original in The Popular Science Nelos,\ 

 THE POLARITY OF CERTAIN DIKE ROCKS. 



BY GEORGE F. PERRY. 



The observations which I have made have been 

 confined to the dikes in the eastern part of Middlesex 

 Fells. My first tests were made in a dike which 

 runs nearly east and west, and starts at a point 

 nearly west of the Rubber Works at the Middlesex 

 Fells station. 



The dike rock is a kind of "greenstone," and is an 

 alteration of diorite ; it is quite tough, and contains 

 considerable pyrite in thin scales. Some of the 

 stone contains fragments of a stone like the wall 

 rock. I examined one mass of this "greenstone" 

 with a pocket compass, by slowly passing the 

 instrument along one side, starting at the south 

 end of the stone. In moving the compass about 

 nine inches, the needle makes a complete revolution. 

 The next revolution was made in a journey of six 

 inches; the next turn was made in fifteen inches. 

 In holding the compass a short distance from the 

 •outh end of the stone, the north end of the needle 

 points west. A short distance from the north end 

 of the mass the position of the needle is reversed. 



In one other dike, which runs at right angles to 

 the one I have just mentioned, I found projections 

 of diorite, which attracted my attention. I have 

 found no single projection yet which shows a north 

 and south pole, but the several outcrops may be 

 connected below the soil. In one spot there are 

 two stones, fifteen inches apart, and they both 

 attract the south end of the needle. In another 

 locality there are two projections, three feet apart, 

 one of which draws one end of the needle, while the 

 opposite end of the needle is attracted by the second 

 stone. One stone appears to have more force than 

 the others, as It affects the compass at a greater dis- 

 tance and the needle moves quicker. 



There are many stones which look like those I 

 have mentioned, but they have no visible effect on 

 the needle. Some of my cabinet specimens show a 

 positive and negative pole. Some of the dikes are 

 nearly obliterated, probably by erosion, as I find 

 erratic bowlders at or near the top of some of the 

 hills. The material of the bowlders is foreign to 

 that immediate locality. 



Melrose, Mass., August i. 



«♦♦ 



CONFLICT BETWEEN A ROTIFER AND 

 INFUSORIAN. 



R. P. Grace describes in Science Oossip an inter- 

 esting encounter between a rotifer {Brachionus 

 rubens) and an infusorian, which he was so fortunate 

 as to witness. The infusorian began the attack by 

 turning slowly and gently around the rotifer's foot 

 for some time, and then more rapidly. This ap- 

 peared to cement the rotifer's foot to the glass. The 

 rotifer lashed about with great vigor in his efforts 

 to escape, but was unable to get away. The enemy 

 was repulsed many times, but returned to the attack, 

 until in about half an hour the rotifer became ex- 

 hausted. The infusorian then attempted to enter 

 the lorica, but, being much larger than the opening, 

 it resorted to the following device to accomplish its 

 purpose : The front part of the infusorian was 

 drawn out into a mere ribband, while the contents 

 of the animal were pressed backward, thus forming 

 a globe. The ribband was then inserted through 

 the lorica, and when in, the contents of the globular 

 portion flowed into the ribband, leaving a thin pro- 

 jection behind. Once within its host, the infusorian 

 assumed a globular form and rotated itself. The 

 rotifer's intestines first disappeared, the brain and 

 eye last. The rotifer's cilia moved rapidly for quite 

 half an hour after the entrance of the enemy. Hav- 

 ing devoured its host the infusorian divided into 



two or four new animals, which were exactly like 

 the parent, and swam swiftly away to seek fresh 

 victims. — The Microscope. 



ALGEBRAIC PUZZLES. 

 Editor of The Popular Science News: 



Many years ago I amused myself one day by set- 

 ting down, hap-hazard, several simple equations, of 

 three or more unknown quantities, solving them. 

 At last I struck a set that, while apparently inde- 

 pendent, refused to be solved. I send you a few as 

 samples. I have never seen any explanation. 

 Live teachers often make up equations for their 

 pupils. They may get caught on one like these. 

 They won't "come out." What is the matter.' Of 

 course they are not independent, but wherein does 

 their lack of independence consist? I offer them for 

 your "Puzzle Column," and will send my own solu- 

 tions later. C. B. Warring. 



No. 1. X — 4y-j- 9Z= 29 x=:i 



3x-8y-fl52;= 47 y=2 



2X — 2y =, — 2 z— 4 



No. 2. Sx— 3y— 42= 14 x=3 



4x-f4z = 16 y=2 



4x-{- y-f- Sz= 22 z=i 



No. 3. y— 2Z =— 3 x=l 



4"+ y =5 y=i 



4X-f-2Z = S Z=:2 



No. 4. x+4y-t- 3Z= 9 ^=i 



2x-|-6y-)- 41= 14 y=i 



Si-|-6y-|- z= 17 z=i 



WEATHER PREDICTIONS. 

 The predictions of the Massachusetts Blue Hill 

 Meteorological Observatory are published in the 

 newspapers of that state side by side with those from 

 the Washington Weather Bureau. Strange to say, 

 the two, though made for the same region, are often 

 squarely opposed to each other, and in such cases 

 the astute inhabitants of Massachusetts grin at the 

 probabilities from Washington, and leave their 

 umbrellas at home or take them abroad, according 

 to the orders from Blue Hill. The latter observatory 

 has been in existence only four years, but has man- 

 aged to accumulate in that time an amount of steady 

 wisdom which age does not seem to have brought 

 to the institution at Washington. — Nev! York Sun. 



SCIENTIFIC BREVITIES. 



American Ozokerite, or natural mineral wax, 

 has at last found its way to our market from Salt 

 Lake City. This will not melt under a temperature 

 of 185°, and hence will become of great use in the 

 arts. It presents great resistance to electrical cur- 

 rents, and is acid-proof The makers of blacking 

 and sealing wax are beginning to use it in its crude 

 form. The refined product, called ceresin, can be 

 sold for one-third the price of beeswax, and is a 

 complete substitute. The dollmakers and candle 

 manufacturers have already begun to use it, and it 

 will soon find its way into the laboratory of the 

 pharmacist. 



American Pile Dwellings. — Mr. H. B. Cresson, 

 of Philadelphia, has been studying certain stakes or 

 piles, which were first pointed out to him nearly 

 twenty years ago, by a fisherman, in the mud at the 

 mouth of Naaman's Creek, a small tributary of the 

 Delaware River. These piles are the first indica- 

 tion of anything in North America resembling the 

 remains of lake dwellings in Europe. Mr. Cres- 

 son's investigations led to the discovery of three 

 distinct localities, near each other. Around these 

 stations were found a very important and instructive 

 collection of stone implements, a few points and 

 fragments of bone, and a human tooth. At one 

 station a number of fragments of rude pottery were 

 found, and at this were obtained several pile-ends, 

 which are now in the Peabody Museum. 



