SCIENCE NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 4 July 1925, Page 1

SCIENCE NOTES.

tb'rom Science Service.)

ART .MEASURED BY SCIENCE. The elusive quality that makes a piece of music “ art ” when sung by one sciolist, and “just a song” when ordinarily well sung by another, can be made visible and can be measured, Dr C. E. Seashore and Milton Metfessel, of the State University of lowa, reported to the National Academy ol Sciences at its annual session, at Washington on May '27. Twelve singers of varying artistic abilities sang “ Annie Laurie ” in the laboratory of the two scientists, and records of their voices were made on paper in the form | of wavy marks by a photographic process. These wavy charts, some more irregular than others, were displayed before the academy meeting. The distinct personality of the sound waves of each voice could be seen in the record, and the amount of artistic emotion expressed by each singer could he measured. The emotional qualify in singing is not obtained by following the written score with strict precision but by minute deviation from toe notes. Dr Seashore says: A mediocre singer may sing more accurately than a great opera star, but the famous star has mastered the expression of emotion by subtle variations in pitch, time and intensity. And, as everything that the singer conveys to the listener is conveyed by sound waves, a study of the sound waves shows every detail of the singer’s technic ami artistry. The photographic method of recording music is advocated for scientific purposes, because it produces a permanent record with minute detail. CIRCULATION AND EXERCISE A quantiativc measurement of the (low of the blood, sought in vain since the discovery of the circulation by Harvey in the seventeenth century, has at last been made possible. Professor Yandell Henderson and Uv Howard AY. Haggard, of A’nle University, described the new process a few weeks ago before the meeting at Washington of the American National Academy of Sciences.

The method depends on the rate at which the blood absorbs ethyl iodide, a harmless gas, when the latter is supplied in a known proportion in the air breathed. Uy measuring the amount taken in by the subject of the experiment and the amount pi veil off—generally very little—the total volume of blood flowing through the lungs in a given time can be calculated. Drs Henderson and Haggard have tested a. large number of persons by their now method, ranging from athletes, to heart-disease patients. They find that in normal persons the volume of the circulation is about twice as large as had been estimated. During bodily rest its volume per minute is about equal to that of the air breathed. During exercise respiration may increase eight or ten fold, and the circulation four or five fold. Hot baths quicken the circulation without greatly increasing the oxygen consumption. On the other hand, during exorcise the rate of oxygen use increases with the increase in circulation, COCK I’OACH ES AND EPSOM SALTS. A new method of getting cockroaches to leave home has been put to test by Dr Paul Mitchell, quarantine officer at Townsville, Queensland. In fumigating the luggage of passengers Dr Mitchell noted that veteran travellers sometimes used magnesium sulphate, better known as Epsom salts to ward off vermin. As the linen clos-

ets of the quarantine station were populated with cockroaches, silverfish. moths, and a certain kind of ants, he cleaned out the shelves, and scattered crystals of the salt over the linen of certain closets. Observations at the end of three months and at the end of a year, showed that no vermin had returned to the salt-treated cupboards, and T)r Mitchell reports that magnesium sulphate in closed spaces should be an efficient pest-remover. WHEAT OKU MS lUOTI IX VITAMIN* The action of vitamin “ E,” the, re-cently-discovered fertility vitamin, whose presence in the diet is necessary for the production of offspring was described before the meeting of the American National Academy of Sciences in annual session at ’Washington, on April 2>L by Mrs Herbert M. Evans and (loorge 0. Burr, oi the University of California. Certain facts about the new vitamin not hitherto made public, were brought out in the discussion. The type of sterility caused by the lack of vitamin differs in male and female animals. In the male a true sterility occurs, with death of the sex cells, and even the disappearance of the tissues that normally give rise to them. In the female, however, the lirsl steps in the production of young can take place, hut the partlydeveloped embryos die and are re.sorbed. Ycl so powerful is the newlydiscovered dietary factor' that, after such a failure has taken place', the feeding of a single natural food contains it will cause the production ol healthy young at the next mating. Various natural foods were shown to contain the necessary vitamin in widely differing edneenartion. It is present, though not in great amount in various kinds of animal tissue, especially muscle, fat, and certain of the vital organs, though it is low in the heart, spleen, brain, kidney, and strangely enough, in the male reproductive glands themselves. There is little of vitamin “ E,” in milk fat, and in whole milk powder, and there is more of it in the milk of cows that have had access to fresh alfalfa pasturage than in that of other cattle. Cod liver oil. though high in vitamins “ A ” and “ 1) ” is notably lacking in “ E.” “We found it in outs, corn, and especially wheat, where it is low in the endosperm, but concentrated in the embryo,” said Dr Evans. “The richness of wheat genii in *E’ is extraordinary.” By a complicated chemical process, involving not less than eleven steps of extraction, distillation, precipitation, etc., a highly purified extract of wheat germ was obtained, which apparently contained as much, vitamin “E ” in a drop as existed in several ounces of ordinary foods. Fat solnable vitamin “E” was formerly known as factor X, but has now been promoted to a regular place in the alphabetical sequence.