Science.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 367, 21 May 1903, Page 2

Science.

-•-I [■ YQ$ TENDER.FEET. , ) I f W r h" you are troubled; with tender if & ti* , i|p , always. we,ar woollen stockings waeh « your feet twice a dayj aridwhen dry rub a-littleinethylatei spirit ini dust a little-boracic powder over tHe*ksi sides of ybuif'stockiiigß.' eyeryv morning before putting thempn,, , 1 When, cuetardß have cuidled from a too long contact with-tbe fire, to each:pint of milk used in the custard ailrtw two teaFpoorifulsf ofi cornflour j, mix ■with "ay little cold- miik,><«nd,6,trajii the curdled custard into it. > over the firo and let rt boil; then; add a beaten egg, sugar and flavouring to taste, aEd take (.ffthe fire at once. Serve as originally intended."'- V ' : "'V ■"'■ ';/,;. ,;'e^t..brushes; .. . The backaand handles of ebony brushes Bhi uld be rubbed over with a very little boiled linseed-oil after washing, and then

rubbed wgth a soft dultfer till «|§|i AbS'--tige'.ot .oiJriß removed. Speci&l&J&re'.is needed in aleaneing initials oq*£fceae, and Btt'ould be med, or a p oiatj white mark online ssss, which is -phe' , w£itiDgroff i: af Uibt \> sora&oh the f6r tffitm ' scratched it is spoiled.' •*'' \ NOVEL TEST OF DE&TH. '"% Various devices have from time to time i been tried with the object of ascertaining whether persons, who rare supposed to be H&eid/ aif e rsafiy|af not, and much interest is now being "manifested in the latest of these devices, to which public attention was first attracted by Dr. Icard, of Marseilles. l ' -'-« \ : "~ Fluorescin, the well-known colouring Icard uses for this purpose, and yet his experiments have proved so successful feha'-. they have won f. r him the approval , fr^e*B*6OT!^* r^' Fluorescin injected into the human body prcdaces absolutely no effect if the body is dead, whereas it produces most surprising effects if the body is alive. Dr. Icard uses a solution of it which is so strong that a single gramme is able to colour 40,000 quarts cf water. If a little of this solution is injected under the skin of a living person in two minutes the skin and especially the mucous membranes, will become much' discoloured, and the person will presort; the appearance of one suffering from an acnte attack of jaundice. Moreover, the 'eyes willbecome 6? a greenish"' colour aEd the pupils will almost become; invisible;' These symptoms , will remain for one or possib'y two hours and then will gradually disappear. Since iuoresem produces this effect on a living body it naturally follows, according to Dr. Icard, that any body on which it produces no eff.ct.must be dead. .« Many persons have a horror of being buried alive, and chat is why these experiments are now attracting! much attention in Europe. Some physicians,; maintain thatsatisfactory tests can also f .be made by the use of the Roentgen rays, 'Jb&i at ■• is not'evetyojie;TyiioThas the facilities- for making: such.: tests,; whereas anyone can make, a test with fluorescin.

OUT OF CLOUDS. New. York's recent shower of muddy rain is one of those phenomena which, though not common, occur at long intervals is all parts of the world. Not long ago at Flume, in Austria, there was a heavy fall of half-fr- z n, brownish snow, and in Italy, and same parts of Germany, there was a downpour of red rain. It was found upon investigation that the brown sb ow of Flue was caused by the admixture of sand which had been blown from the desert of Sahara hundreds; of miles away across the- Mediterranean, and the red rain was hot a deluge of blood, as the peasants the ugh t, but wag due to the presence of quantities of minute infusora, which somehow had been drawn up into the heavens and let down again when the clouds fell as rain, t" «*,*-*" Cf j ; s X singular, phenomenon 1 " of, this| sort 'cconrred in Venezuela %6me 'time ago when coloured hailstones -felMnuthe State of .'Zamora. There, was thunder,&torm, with much.rain,, and then, after a while, the bai|"came "ddwh in such abundance that hundreds of Bushels of hailstones might have been gathered. Some of the hailstones weighed as-much-as two,ounces. ; It is, well known that in the tropics' hailstorms ' are exceedingly rare in places situated in the lowlands. 'Bhr thiuf hailstorm was particiulairly re•markable onaccount of the colour of the hailstones, some of whioh were whitish, .while others were blue, green, rose colour, Schwedtff, whp ? in his memoir on the origin of hailstorms, describes a fall o£: similarly coloured hailstones which fell at Prussia, in tbe month of June, thinks'that we colours ■• are due tothe'presence of nickel and salts of cobalt, and that : the: phenomenon confirms; his j hypothesis of the cosmic origin ;»f hail. -There have been many, well authenticated cases where, after aVbeivy 'rain, the ground haß been found small fish which have dropped from the clouds, and even young frogs, scarcely out of their; tadpole staje,,. have; j been, ..known to descend upon the wingsi of the storm. One theory is that all these foreign substances are carried up into the clouds by whirlwinds, 1 aid another that tbe least bulky of them, such, as minute infusora; 1 are caught up in the process of evaporation, f