HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



209 



One of Professor Boys' most recent experiments is 

 tbat of photographing flying bullets by the aid of an 

 electric spark. This new trick in photography will 

 make the next great European battle scientifically 

 interesting. The speed of a bullet, great as it is, is 

 nothing comparable to the short duration of Pro- 

 fessor Boys' spark, which is less than the one- 

 millionth part of a second. Consequently the flying 

 bullets appear almost to be standing still. Photo- 

 graphs of these interesting experiments thrown upon 

 the screen by the lantern and expanded into large 

 pictures could even show how the electric spark 

 photograph had caught a leaden bullet half-way 

 through a plate-glass window. The picture was 

 surrounded by a halo of lead vapour caused by the 

 impact against the surface of the glass. The glass 

 was also shown bulging out in front of another 

 picture, and hollowed behind, just before the bullet 

 passed through. 



An important paper has been read at the Royal 

 Society of Edinburgh by Dr. Hunter Stewart on the 

 ventilation of schools and public buildings. It gives 

 an account of his investigations concerning the origin 

 of organic nitrogenous matter in expired air, and his 

 conclusion is confirmatory of those of two eminent 

 German chemists, namely, that the organic matter 

 present in the air of badly ventilated rooms does not 

 come from the breath of people, but from their skin 

 and clothing. 



There was a very sensible letter in a recent number 

 of " Nature," in every respect except the political 

 asgis under which it would put the subject. Parlia- 

 ment will be less entrusted in the future than it has 

 been in the past, just in the proportion as the people 

 manage themselves and do not require a political 

 stepmother. The letter alluded to relates to a very 

 common-place matter, but it is these which make up 

 the incidents in human lives. It is estimated that 

 100,000,000 of parafin lamps are in use in this 

 country. People who are not yet fifty years of age 

 well remember the thin tallow candles (twenty to the 

 pound), by the light of which a poor man tried to 

 read a chapter in his Bible before he went to bed. 

 Parafin is the poor man's gas. It lights up and 

 cheers many a villager's home in places remote from 

 gas. But parafin takes its annual tale of victims. 

 Carelessness is responsible, of course, for most of 

 them, for the oil is but its agent. It is computed 

 that three hundred deaths a year are caused in this 

 country thereby. Ten per cent, of the fires (accord- 

 ing to Mr. Shean, of the Fire Brigade Association, 

 are caused by parafin lamps. Captain Shaw, the 

 gallant Ex - Superintendent of the London Fire 

 Brigade, reported 156 fires in London in one year 

 from the upsetting of parafin lamps. An automatic 

 extinguisher could and should be attached to these 

 lamps, and the letter-writer aforesaid thinks this 



ought to be done before a royal princess or a bishop 

 is burnt to death. 



In a lecture recently delivered at the Brooklyn 

 Institute, Professor Houston stated his belief that 

 people were now living who would see the steam- 

 engine relegated to the iron scrap-heap, and that the 

 motor engine of the future would be worked by 

 thermo-electricity. He thought that a method would 

 shortly be devised for converting the latent energy of 

 coal directly into potential electrical energy. Elec- 

 trical illumination is as yet but in the days of its 

 youth, and ere long we shall get 97 and 98 per cent. 

 of the energy converted into light, and only two or 

 three per cent, into heat, unless we wish otherwise. 

 Professor Houston further believes that, instead of 

 regarding the human body as a vehicle for electricity, 

 we should regard it as a generator. 



" I LIKE a couple of new-laid eggs for breakfast 

 better than anything else, but in winter I can't afford 

 more than one." Such was the remark made to us the 

 other day by a well-known agriculturist. The reply 

 naturally was, " Why don't you get a breed of hens 

 that will lay as well, or nearly so, in winter as in 

 summer ? " The fact is the natural history of our 

 farm-yard fowl has never been practically studied in 

 England on a sufficiently comprehensive scale. We 

 forget that these birds; came from India. The 

 originals are there represented by the jungle fowl, 

 which in England are most nearly approached by our 

 game bantams. Consequently, our barn-yard fowls 

 ought to be protected from as much cold, and 

 afforded as much warmth in winter, as possible. 

 Instead of this what do we see? The miserable 

 wretches with snow-sodden and rain-sodden plumage, 

 sheltering under the cold hedges, and trying to 

 manufacture eggs out of horse-droppings. Under 

 these circumstances is it any wonder that new-laid 

 eggs are dear in winter, or that people who eat one 

 for breakfast shortly afterwards wish they hadn't ? 

 We are contemplating fowls only as egg-layers, with- 

 out reference to them as delicious animal food. 

 Poultry-keeping ought to be, and in France and 

 Italy is, in village places, a most profitable industry 

 — so profitable that although fowls and eggs appear 

 on the dinner-tables in those countries more fre- 

 quently than in England, they have enough over to 

 supply this country with. Last year the United 

 Kingdom bought from foreigners 4,000,000/. of eggs 

 and poultry. Even poor old Ireland sent us nearly 

 2,000,000/. of the same articles. Mr. Edward 

 Brown, who was last winter elected by the North- 

 umberland County Council as Lecturer on poultry, 

 states that poultry can be reared as successfully in 

 Northumberland as in Normandy, and in Aberdeen- 

 shire as in Central France. In France, poultry- 

 fattening is chiefly entrusted to the women, who 

 naturally like to see young things feed. In England, 



