SCIENCE SIFTINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 36, 11 February 1905, Page 10

SCIENCE SIFTINGS.

' CURIOUS WATER FACTS. A gallon of distilled water weighs 1C lb. of sea water 10|lb, of Dead Sea water'l2lb. There, are Silb of salt in every 1001b of Dead Sea water to 21b in ordinary sea water. BAKE -HAIRED PEOPLE MORE PRONE TO INSANITY. Investigations in various asylums, with a total of 16.-512 patients, has. j states Mr Hobiirr Langdon. shown that I there were only 703 insane persons with i light hair, and only GO with red or auburn hnir. That is to say. VMS per cent, of the insanes are brunettes. wi?U brown or black hair. Among the blonde insane, however, the percentage of incurables is much the greater —no explanation is forthcoming as to the reason of these two phenomena. TREMENDOUS STRIDES. The pace at which some animals can travel —for a short distance at least — is amazing, saj'S a writer in the "Kam-bk-r." aud we find that most of the fastest of them attain an amazing length of stride or jump. An ostrich at full speed covers 25ft at a stride, a kangaroo 20ft at a jump. The great American trotter Nancy Hanks can travel for a single mile at the rate of. thirty miles an hour. She, it is said, covers over loft at a stride, and both the r greyhound and tl\e hare can do the same. Even the tiny jerboa springs, when startled, 9ft at a bound, and almost jncredible stories are told of the tremendous jumps of springboks and other members of their family. WAR'S DEATH-ROLB FOR A CENTURY. The death-roll due to wars during the last century. Professor C. Kichet, of the Faculty of Medicine, in Paris, sums up in a grau'd total of 14,000.000. he divides thk- as follows: Napoleonic wars, 8,000,000; Crimean war?, 300,000; Italian wars, 300,000; American Civil war. 50ft,----000: Praneo-Gernian war. SOO.000: Russo-Turkish war. 400,000; civil wars in South America, 500.000; various colonial expeditions in India. Mexico, Tonquin, South Africa, etc., 3,000.000. JAPANESE MATTING. Among the mafff ideas which the Japanese have copied from Western customs and remodelled to suit themselves i= the covering of their floors with a spesial kind of matting. The standard size of a mat is three by six yards. The custom of using these mats is so general that, when building, the Japanese architect arranges the size of the rooms to lit the mats, and when renting a house the size of a room is stated as requiring one. two, or three mats, as the case may be. THE WORLD'S LARGEST TOY FACTORY. The largest toy factory in the world is in New York, where playthings in tin are manufactured literally by the million. It stands five storeys high, and turns out 1607 distinct varieties of tin toys. 2So. 1 is a tin horse: 1607 a tin raeaagcrie. The output of circular tin whistles is 2,000,000 per annum. Tp make a tin horse 12in long dies have to be cast, costing £ li>. The children of different countries have different tastes, but tin swords are wanted all over tho world, t3ie military instincts being as universal in the nurseries as in the Courts and Cabinets of the world. THE WITCH- TKEE. A very remarkable tree grows in Nevada. It is called by the superstitious Indians the witch tree. It grows to a ; height of six or seven feet, and its trunk jot the-base is about three times the size of an ordinary man's wrist. The wonderful characteristic of the tree is its luminosity, which is so great that on the darkest nijrht it can be seen plainly at least a mile away. A person standing near can read the smallest print by its light. A HARVEST OF STAR-FISH. hat is locally known as a "beach kermesse" has just taken place on the Belgian coast between Ostcnd and Bla.nlcenberghe, where it has caused much rejoicing among the local peasantry. Ii takes the form of a vast deposit of starfish, thrown up by the sea in sueb numbers that they cover the sands, it is said, for miles with a thick carpet. This seaharvest is of very rare occurrence, and is hailed as a gift from Providence, as it provides a supply of excellent manure for thr neighbouring fields. As soon as it takes place the whole countryside— men. women, and children —makes its may over the sandhills to the beach, and sets to work piling up the star-fish in great heaps among the dunes, out of reach of high tidfe. While some are thus making , sure of the prize, others are shovelling the heaps into waggons, wheelbarrows, sacks, aud every practicable receptacle in which to transport it to the farms. It is several years since the last "beach kermesse'"' took place. Its present, occurrence is ascribed to the high winds which have recently prevailed on the Belgian coast. THE REPORTED CURE FOR CANCER. The '"'British Medical Journal." dealing with the. report of the committee appointed to investigate M. Doyen's claims to have discovered tlie cause and the cure of cancer, says:—"'We are still, therefore, on M. MetchnikofTs own showing, a long way from the final elucidation of the nr.'stery of cancer. We are compelled to add that, with every wish to believe that a cure for this terrible scourge has besn discovered, the evidence, so far as it has been disclosed, appears to us inadequate to warrant any confident hope that M. Doyen's serum will prove to have any more thorough or lasting effect than the various serums, toxin, extracts, and other remedies having some kind of scientific liasis whiffi have in Teeent years been tried and found wanting."' AN AUTOMATIC COMPASS. An automatic compass for use on board ship is described in the "Bulletin de la Societe Industrielle de Marseilles." I The apparatus automatically registers; minute* by minute, the direction of the compass, so thai, by consulting the chart which ig the result, it is possible to'de- | termine what the route was that was folI lowed at a given moment cf the passapre. j The commander of a vessel indicates to the helmsman the route which the vessel should follow, but he does not know whether this route is followed unless he jis continually observing the compass. I The new apparatus gives the infonnaI tion, registering every change in the j position of the vessel, every move made by the helmsman, and the exact time at wliich such change occurred. Thus, in case of many different phases of .accident, the chart enables one to establish exactly the responsibility. The apparatus has been in use for several months past, and has given complete satisfaction.