Science.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, 17 September 1903, Page 2

Science.

. AIR AND WATER TEST. WfSFALL a glass with water and, without MrHP iemoTm ? it from the vessel in S£sy which you filled it, stand it upside down under the water until you ire ready to use it. Now take an empty glass and turn this directly mouth downward into the same vessel of water and ao matter how hard you press it downward no water will flow into it, for it is not really empty, as you at first supposed. It is filled with air, which takes up room, and this must flow out before water can enter it. Now, keeping the first glass, which is filled with water, mouth downward, raise it near the surface, though sot above the water. Now, carefully turn the glass of air under the water so that its mouth communicates with the mouth of the water-Ailed glass. Since air is lighter than water the air lrom the lower vessel will flow up into the water-filled glass and the water which was in the glass will flow down into the glass which had contained air. If the glasj which contained air had contained oil, which is lighter than water, the same experiment conld have been performed, and the upper glass would have received the oil. s I NEW GERMAN OBTHOGBAPHY. From Ist January a new German orthojfgrftphy is being used in all public effiees and schools throughout Germany, Austria and Switzerland. This is the result of congress held in 1901 between the representatives of the three countries concerned. The principal alterations introduced are the removal of ' th' and *'ph' from all words of German origin, the place of these double consonants being supplif dby* t' and ' f,' In the numerous words beginning with 'c' this letter will now be altered to 'k' or 'fcs/ and foreign words beginning with • cV will be altered to f sch.' Numbers are to be written in one word, no matter how long, whether units or millions. TO CURE CONSUMPTION. It is stated that an experiment is about to be tried in the North-Eastern Atlantic with a view to testing the value of the ocean in curing consumption. The scheme ia commended by some of the first experts in Vienna. It is proposed to build a large floating sanatorium, with complete equipment for scientifically testing tha tfleets of sea air on consumptives, with roomy cpen-air wards, and medical supervision. Should success attend the effort, further floating sanatoria will be,built, THE EIGHT HAND. Why are we right-handed ? It is usual nowadays to attempt to throw light on the development of the race by studying more closely the development of the individual. Now there is an interesting period in the childhood of the genus homo, ere baby has learned to blow his nose or handle his spoon, that feet and hands seem to have a common function,- namely, to administer cuffs and kicks to nurse, or to transport the creeping little fellow frcm one corner of the room to another. Gradually what Herbert Spencer calls differentiation sets in, and baby must no longer crawl but learn to lay upon its posterior limbs the whole heavy duties of the transport service, while the anterior pair are being taught work of a more delicate character. But the d vision of labour does not yet end. The limbs terminated by a wonderful pair of hands must now, to a certain extent, take upen them different functions. The right hand is required to be bold, forward, expert; the left to be shy, retiring, menial. The one is the gentleman, clerk, soldier, mechanic; the other is the apprentice, camp-follower, drudge. The "knuckles lay prostrate your schoolfellow, the hand that is held out for grandpapa to shake tie fingers that raise your hat, or at the, marriage altar take possessiGn of your bride, must all belong to the favoured paeinber. Shall we ever know how all this came about ? If the preference Bhown for the right hand be out of deference to fashion, then the fashion is universal and the oldest we know. Prehistoric profiles, scratched on mammoths' tusks, have the facts drawn locking towards the left, just as our right-handed street Arabs chalk them on doors and walls at the present day. These prehistoric etchings put the weapon in the right hand, and such tools of the period as mark special fitness are constructed for a right-handed race. It would be out of place here to discuss the physiological reasons for the preference given to the right hand, whether as founded on the position of the centre of gravity towards the right, from the fact that the internal organs on the right side-weigh heavier j or whether, as founded on observations of the brain which favour the notion of the muscles of tbe right side being controlled and directed by the larger lobe, which is situated on the left side of the brain, and transmits its influence crossways. , Buffice to say that all such observations, whsle accounting for right-handedness, have mads left-handednees more mysterious than ever.