SCIENCE.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3134, 14 July 1881, Page 4

SCIENCE.

A writer in Chambers's Jonrnal states that he has himself observed two spider showers—the fall of gossamer spiders, in large numbers, from a considerable height in the atmosphere— one in September, 1875, and the other in September, 1880. The first occurred on a cloudy morning, after a single peal of thunder, but no rain. *' About ten, am.," says the writer, " I noticed small spiders running over my coatsleeves, and had to brush off several trails of gossamer web. Looking round, I found that brick walls, houses, branches of trees, etc., had these webs dangling from them, and that other gossamer webs were continually falling from above and adding to the accumulation. By mid-day a long fence from point to point of its triangular rail tops with a ribbon-like ladder of gossamer," and along this ran the little spiders. The shower of last year is stated to have occurred at a spot about a mile distant from this place, but the article gives no indication as to the locality, except that it was in England. We find the following statement in the London Academy, in a review of current scientific literature : " A few years ago we remember to have noticed tho large quantity of eucalyptus trees growing within the courts of the Monastery of the Tre Fontane, between Rome and Ostia ; and a monk told us that whereas the monastery, which stands in the heart of a malaria stricken district, had previously been quite uninhabitable in summer, it was perfectly habitable since the planting of the eucalyptus trees. The monk stated, moreover, that he prepared a sure specific for malaria fever from the leaves of the tree." A friend who recently visited Home, and went to this monastery, assures us of the correctness of this account of the marvellous influence of the Australian blue gum tree upon the health of the inmates.

An interesting and important application of electricity to surgical purposes was recently made in Berlin. A minute bit of steel had become imbedded in the eye of a workman. Great difficulty was experienced in extracting it. The condition of the eye become such that it must bo destroyed unless the metal could bo taken out. Thereupon the attending surgeon devised an expedient which proved successful. He inserted a probe of soft iron as near the object as possible, and then magnetized ifc. The Steele was seized hy the electro-magnet thus formed, and was carefully withdrawn ; and the eye was saved.

Professor Tidy, of the Chemical Society of London, regards the effect of sewage on river water as much less deleterious than it is generally supposed to be. He maintains that a stream with a fairly rapid current regains its purity so that water will be fit to drink at points a few miles below an inflow of sewage, pravided the proportion of sewage which it receives does not exceed one-twentieth of the river in volume. His conclusions on the subject, however, are

seriously questioned by Dr. Frankland and other water analysts.

One of the last natural history notes written by the kte Mr Frank Buckland related to Polar bears, two of which were received by the Zoological Society of London, afc Regent's Park, early in the winter. Ho says the Esquimaux think the fur of these bears exercises a peculiarly repellent effect upon snow, and hence they use a bit of the fur as a snow-brush for their clothing. He also contrasts the soles of the Polar bear's feet, which are covered with hair, with the naked pads of a lion's feefc. The results of Vogcl's studies of tho spectra of various stars, contained in a paper lately presented to tho Berlin Academy, are as follows; The yellow stars appear to be aboufc as hot as the sun ; the red stars are probably much cooler than the sup. ; and tho white stars must be regarded as much hotter. The same investigator finds that the light of the moon corresponds closely with that reflected by sandstone of a yellowish gray color. An ingenious contrivance of an oxygen jet opening upon the flame of an ordinary argand burner has been proposed in France by Mons. Mercadier for use as a night signal. By letting on and shutting off the nxygen, the light may be intensified and dimmed for long and short intervals at will; and in this way messages may readily be communicated by making long or short flashes of known intensity correspond to letters of the alphabet. The temperature of colliery shafts is discussed by Mr H. A. Woodward in a paper iad before tl' c Manchester Geological Society. He finds that shafts sunk through seams of coal are, on an average, one degree of Fahrenheit warmer with every fifty-four and a half feefc of vertical descent; while in sinking through rock and metallic ores a descent of sixty-nine feet is requisite to raise the temperature one degree. Mr Edward Wbyper's collection of natural history specimens, made during his recent mountaineering expedfcion among the Andes, contains insects and plants from the loftiest heights at which either have been obtained in America. Beetles were found fifteen thousand feet above the ocean ; butterflies at sixteen thousand feefc, and common flies even above this.

Herr Hoffman's experiments at Giessen upon the effect of frost on plants indicate that quick thawing, rather than extreme cold, is a potent factor in the destruction of vegetation through the action of temperature. The telephone is used in the Bay of Naples for communication between the scientific observatory station on the shore, under the direction of Professor A. Dohrn, and the divers engaged in collecting speciraeii'J' un(^er water. A rep-j-"*' comes from Denmai-k that a watch maker at Copenhagen has invented an electric watch of ordinary size which is operated by a miniature battery that requires replenishing only once in six months. The phonograph is to be employed in Pari. d for teaching the pronunciation ofdifficixlfc words in foreign languages.