Jan. 13, 1888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



31 



GENERAL NOTES. 



Fall of a Meteorite. — A meteoric stone, said to be 

 of exceptional magnitude, is reported to have recently 

 fallen not far from Tayninh, a place situate about 125 

 kilometres from Saigou (Cambodia). 



African Indigo. — It is probable that the cultivation 

 of indigo will be undertaken on a large scale at Sierra 

 Leone. The plant grows there wild, and is said to 

 flourish more luxuriantly than in Bengal. 



New Theory of Odours. — M. P. Leclerc maintains 

 that odour is, like light and sound, a phenomenon of 

 undulation. He considers that he has obtained inter- 

 ference of odours, analogous to the interference pheno- 

 mena of light. 



The Fermentation of Glycerine. — M. E. C. Morin 

 has shown in the Comptes Rendus that when glycerine 

 ferments under the influence of Bacillus buty lints, the 

 products are ethj"lic, propylic, butylic, and amylic alcohols, 

 all of them normal. 



Absence of Microbia in Air expired by Animals. — 

 MM. J. Strauss and W. Dubreuilh (^Comptes Rendus) 

 prove that the respiration of men or other animals in a 

 limited space purifies the air, as far as " germs " or 

 microbia are concerned, though polluting it in other 

 respects. 



The Velocity of Tornadoes. — According to Prof. 

 Mees (American Association), bits of straw and hay are 

 driven into deal boards, and even into the dense bark of 

 the hickory tree. Experiment shows that to produce 

 such results velocities of from 150 to 175 miles per hour 

 are needed. 



Neosote. — This new preservative, similar in its pro- 

 perties to creosote, is prepared by boiling the tars con- 

 densed from blast furnaces with caustic soda. The 

 sodium phenols thus obtained are purified and then form 

 a liquid less caustic than carbolic acid, although it is 

 said to be equal to it in its antiseptic and disinfectant 

 qualities. 



Polydactylism in Man. — Dr. C. H. H. Spronck, in the 

 Archives Neerlandaises, gives an account of a man who 

 had on his left hand two thumbs and four normal fingers. 

 It is not generally known that in man, as in all the 

 mammalia, the typical number of digits is seven. Cases 

 where the number of fingers exceeds seven are not 

 diseases, but, as Darwin contends, reversion to a primi- 

 tive ancestral type. 



Strength of Heated Iron. — From experiments made 

 by Professor Wood, of the Stevens Institute, it appears 

 that if iron be stretched while hot there is a shght 

 diminution of its strength, but when the stress does not 

 exceed one quarter of the ultimate strength, the loss is 

 only about li per cent. He finds that unless there is a 

 perceptible elongation while the metal is hot, the iron is 

 not weakened by the treatment. 



read : — " The celebrated meteorite of Pallas cannot be 

 the product of reactions of the nature of fusion. Its 

 structure necessarily pre-supposes the anterior existence 

 of a voluminous and complicated total, of which it once 

 formed a part. It comprises, with a very regular 

 structure, minerals so unequally fusible that the applica- 

 tion of heat would disorganise it as surely as it would 

 disorganise an animal or a plant." 



Desmazure's Accumul.\tor. — In the new accumulator 

 which was used on the electric launch tried at Havre, 

 the electrodes consisted of plates of amalgamated zinc and 

 porous copper, the latter being produced by the consoli- 

 dation of powdered copper under very great hydraulic 

 pressure. The zinc plates formed the negative electrode, 

 and were in metallic connection with the box, which was 

 also of zinc, whilst the positive plates were placed in 

 vegetable parchment bags and suspended. Contact with 

 the negative plates was prevented by glass rods. The 

 electrolyte was a mixture of chlorate of sodium and a 

 caustic solution of zinc oxide. 



New Magnesium Lamp. — It is said M. F. Leclercq, of 

 Paris, is about to bring out a new magnesium lamp, 

 intended to replace the cumbersome and uncertain lamp 

 hitherto in use. In the old lamp there were two magne- 

 sium tapes fed by clockwork, which had to be rewound at 

 frequent intervals. In the new arrangement there is 

 only one tape, and it is claimed that the lamp 

 will burn without adjustment for twenty-seven hours. 

 Great improvements have also been made in the manu- 

 facture of magnesium, by which the cost of production 

 has been considerably reduced. 



Nickel Plating. — A new process of nickel plating 

 has recently come into use in Belgium, by which a thick 

 plating of nickel may be deposited on any metal by a 

 feeble electric current in a very short space of time. 

 The bath is composed of 10 parts sulphate of nickel, 

 l\ of neutral tartrate of ammonia, o'5 parts tannic acid, 

 and 20 parts of water. The sulphate of nickel is dis- 

 solved in 3 to 4 parts of water, carefully neutralised, the 

 other ingredients added, and the solution boiled for a 

 quarter of an hour ; the rest of the water is added, and 

 the liquid filtered or decanted. By adding the materials 

 in the same proportion the strength of the bath may be 

 kept constant. It is said that the deposit is brilliantly 

 white, soft, and homogeneous, and has, even when of 

 great thickness, no tendency to scale. 



Mr. Norman Lockyer's Theory of Meteorites. — In a 

 memoir communicated to the Academy of Sciences we 



Utilisation of Slate Waste. — Much has already 

 been accomplished in the utilisation of basic slags from 

 the steel and iron works, and we are very pleased to add 

 that experiments have shown that what has hitherto 

 been called "waste" in slate quarries, can be manufac- 

 tured into bricks and tiles. We learn that in Italy this 

 new departure has already met with considerable success. 

 There is, in fact, no such thing as " waste " in Nature 

 and the sooner we recognise this in all branches of manu- 

 facture the better. What is left as a by-product may not be 

 useful in a particular process, although it is still matter 

 susceptible of conversion into a useful product for other 

 purposes, if only the correct treatment can be discovered ; 

 the desideratum in all cases being to find the simplest 

 and cheapest form of conversion. 



