Jan. 27, 1S88.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



79 



General 0ott0. 



The Utilisation of Food. — According to Professor 

 von Gohren different animals convert very unequal pro- 

 portions of the potential energy of their food into energy 

 available for mechanical work. A horse may thus 

 transform 32 per cent, an ox 43 per cent., and a man 53 

 per cent. 



Spectroscopy. — Prof. A. E. de Nordenskiold points 

 out, in the Comptes Renins, that at least in the spectra of 

 certain simple bodies, the differences between the loga- 

 rithms of the wave-lengths of each element are simple 

 multiples of one and the same number. 



Photography and Meteorology. — M. J. Janssen has 

 recently read a paper on the application of photography 

 to meteorology before the Academy of Sciences at Paris, 

 and he exhibited photographs of meteorological pheno- 

 mena taken on the summit of the Pic-du-Midi. 



The Internal Temperature of Glaciers. — MM. E. 

 Hagenbach and F. A. Forel, in a communication to the 

 French Academy of Sciences, show that the internal 

 temperature of the glacier Arolla is below freezing point, 

 a fact due to pressure, which reduces the melting-point 

 of ice. 



Electric Lighting of Buoys. — Successful experi- 

 ments in connection with the electric lighting of buoys 

 by means of glow lamps fed by cables laid from the 

 shore, have been carried out by Lieutenant Willis, of the 

 American Lighthouse Department. Each buoy is 

 illuminated by a 30 candle power glow lamp. 



The Re-bounding of a Meteorite. — In the Comptes 

 Rcndus we find an account of a meteorite which is said 

 to have struck the earth at Than-Duc, and to have re- 

 bounded so as to disappear. The track made in the soil, 

 and the fact of two sounds being heard, a loud crack 

 followed by rumbling which gradually died away, are 

 taken as confirmation that such was actually the case. 



chemical science. He further notices the supposed 

 mystical relations between the metals and the planets, 

 the spheres of the astrologist physicians and the alchemi- 

 cal symbols and notations. 



Hot Water from Underground. — At Buda-Pesth, a 

 well which has been bored to a depth not previously 

 reached, now yields daily 176,000 gallons of water 

 at 158° Fahrenheit. The attempt will be made 

 to bore until the temperature of the water reached is 

 176° Fahr. Whether it will be possible in this manner 

 to heat dwellings, churches, conservatories, and indeed 

 gardens, is still an open question. 



Proposed New Meteorological Station. — At a recent 

 meeting of the French Meteorological Society a proposal 

 was made for the establishment of a meteorological 

 station at Bagneres-le-Bigorre. This station is impor- 

 tant from its position at the foot of the Pic-du-Midi, 

 being about 7,540 feet below the mountain observatory. 

 — Nature. 



Naphtha Gas. — As an experiment, one of the main 

 thoroughfares of St. Petersburg is to be lighted with 

 this gas burnt in a large lamp of special construction. 

 This gas is said to give a more brilliant light than coal 

 gas, and as its cost is three times less than that of coal 

 gas and twenty-three times less than lighting with 

 candles, the economy to be effected should be very con- 

 siderable. 



The Greek Alchemists. — Professor Berthelot has 

 published the first portion of a work on the Greek 

 alchemists. It contains a translation of the alchemical 

 papyri of Leyden, the oldest known monument of 



A New Decomposition in Wines. — According to M. 

 Bardas (Comptes Rcndus), a new disease in wines has 

 broken out in the vineyards near Algiers. It is occa- 

 sioned by a special ferment which turns the wine into 

 acetic acid, mixed with lactic acid, and this with such 

 rapidity that in a very short time the wine is unfit for 

 drinking. The colour of the wines is not affected. 



Smoke Abatement. — A patent for a new smoke-abating 

 process has recently been taken out by Herr Fischer, an 

 Austrian engineer, who proposes, by means of electricity, 

 to condense the solid part of the smoke as it arises from 

 the coal, the carbon thus solidified falling back into the 

 furnace. We cannot but be somewhat sceptical as to 

 the possibility of so sanguine a proposal. 



Lead in Drinking Water. — The Sheffield Corpora- 

 tion, in taking over the water supply of the town, finds 

 that it has bought the task of daaling with an epidemic 

 of lead-poisoning, which is experienced in some of the 

 higher districts of the borough. One of the two sources of 

 the water supply, which, from its altitude, is available in 

 the more elevated districts, is found to contain vegetable 

 acids which act on lead. 



The Reading-room of the British Museum.— 

 During the year 1887 the number of new admission 

 tickets issued was 3,799, being an increase of 156 on the 

 previous year. The number of readers using the 

 room was 182,778, or 5,885 more than in 1886. The 

 daily average of readers has increased steadily from 445 

 in 1 88 1 to 603 in 1887. The average time taken to 

 supply a book asked for is now sixteen minutes. 



The Electric Treatment ok Sewage. — Mr. W. 

 Webster has devised a process for the purification of 

 sewage and waste waters by electiolytic action. Power- 

 ful electric currents are to be passed into the polluted 

 waters, when the impurities, whether existing in sus- 

 pension or solution, will, it is said, be precipitated by the 

 action of the current, aided by the chemical salts created 

 by the same action upon the electrodes. The full details 

 of the process are not yet before the public. 



Removing Rust from Iron. — Iron may be effec- 

 tively freed from rust by immersion in a nearly satu- 

 rated solution of chloride of tin. The duration of the 

 immersion will depend upon the thicker or thinner film 

 of rust ; in most cases, however, twelve to twenty-f<j-.r 



