WHAT SCIENCE IS SAYING

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 262, 11 December 1909, Page 4

WHAT SCIENCE IS SAYING

,1 ■ I ABOUT LIFE AND ITS PROBLEMS. Here are some points made by scientists and others about lite and its problems:— AFiER, J«'ORTY. 'Dr. Osier's deduction that life alter 'forty is valueless should read that life i before forty may Decome immortalised in the life of humanity, and that to live a tame century is hardly worth the' while," says the Independent . 'THE WHEELS Of Lit' K." Under the symbolic title, ''The wheels of Life," Professor Stirling, at the -Winchester University, dealt with Uie •problem of life—the greatest mysterv in the world.

"One of the most remarkable phenomena connected with Hie is what is . called dormant or latent life, such as is shown by seeds and germs, and b.y wheel animalcules or by the heart itself under certain conditions, some living urga.iisms have been subjected to intense cold, and still survived. "Mr. Shackleton," added Professor Stirling, "in the Antarctic regions found rotifers', pr wheel animalcules, in a temperature of 50dog. to GOdeg. below zero. They were brought home and subjected I to a temperature of 230deg. Fahr., and are still alive and producing families. MEN AS SUN-DRIVEN MOluivS. "The ihuman machine is a complex chemical thermo dynamic mechanism, in which the cylinder and carburetter are not separate meciianisms, as in a motorcar. Each living cell is a thermodynamic entity complete in itself, but related to all the other cells—colloidal in its nature, and possessing tne remarkable properties of automatically developing, preserving, and reproducing ' itself.

"The human wheels) are driven by ' myriads of internal combustion engines —the energy ultimately coming Irom the sun —so that man and animals arc 1 really sun-driven motors. Most of the 1 breakdowns in a man's own life are due to the driver himself, either because ot Ignorance or recklessness, or both. Eternal change, or apparent unchangefulness in the midst of change, is the order of nature." SIR LAUDER BRUN TON AND BRAIN , WORK. Some experiments made by Sir Lauder Brunton with a view to discovering the best position of the body to promote mental activity may be responsible in the future for a new attitude in offices, reading-rooms, and schools. Sir Lauder claims that the efficient working of the brain is largely dependent upon the supply of blood to that organ. Prolonged physical exertion enfeebles the circulation, and the task of tlie heart to pump blooa up to the urain becomes more dilttcult. In such circumstances, if it is desired to get the brain to wore better it is necessary to render the heart some assistance in its uphill task. Sir Lauder tells an experience of iii.-. own many years ago which illustrates I this point. He relates how he was called , upon one night after a long day's work to write an article immediately. He sat down with pen, ink, and paper, but was unable to get a single idea or to write a word.

It occurred to him that the day before he was not so tired, and probably the circulation was a little more brisk, and he concluded that he must give the heart some help in the work of pumping the blood.

He laid his head flat upon the table, and at once ideas began to tlow, and pen began to run across the'paper. Having made a good start, he thought he could resume the ordinary sitting posture. Immediately, however, tlie mind again became a blank,- and he was obliged to lay his head on the table anil

finish the article in that position. In conversation with a representative of the London Evening News Sir Lauder said this was by no means an isolated instance. Since the original experiment

he had, he said, frequently adopted the same posture, with satisfactory results, fljhen he wished to stimulate the brain after physical fatigue. THE BIRTH-RATE PROBLEM. A student of sociology, writing to the Medical Press, says:— "If the birth-rate throughout all the' classes were controlled by prudence ana | directed by science all would be well,

but when due entirely to motives 01 ! narrow egoism, a falling birth-rate connotes moral decay, ana indicates tne 'decline of the race, xne question has been fully illustrated in the history of France during the past fifty years. She lias lost, and can never " regain, nor dominant position in Europe, her numbers being now only half those of licr mighty German neighbor. ''At present Germany has at home upwards of 68,000,000, besides some millions who, although in foreign countries, have not severed their connection with the fatherland, and she is increasing at the rate of nearly a million a year. France, on the other hand, remains stationary at 39,000,000, and lias none i abroad save a lew thousands, mostly officials, in her vast oversea ■possessions. 1 lie birth-rate m Germany is tailing, but, if it continue, it will take more than fifty years before she is in the same stationary position as France. "In all the manufacturing towns of Yorkshire," he adds, ''vast numbers ot mill hands deliberately limit the number of tlieir offspring, or have none at all, merely because children are no longer 'pecuniary asstets,' being forbid:den by the Factory Acts to work and earn wages. These mill 'hands, man and wife, earn together two or three times the wages of a gardener, and yet rickets prevails to an enormous extent among their children.

JIORAL DETERIORATION IN ENGLAND, "The mothers decline to suckle them; it prevents tlieni irom earning money, and the babies are bred up as rickety wastrels, entirely irom lack 01 proper food and.feeding. In our own country, as in .France it is among the classes from above downwards, those best able to support and put out in the world the normal number of children, who are shirking the obligations ot parenthood tand ignoring their duties as citizens of the Empire. It is this unequivocal symptom of moral deterioration which is so disquieting; it is impossible for the most extreme optijnist to ignore its t sinister significance."

SMOKE NUISANCE IN SHEFFIELD. In Sheffield this week the Lord .Mayor, at a meeting called to consider the smoke nuisance, said:—

,! H(S was assured that afternoon that it was because Sheffield lnanuiactuiers were allowed to emit so much smoke from their furnaces that they were able to compete wilij uierpiany in certain specialised forms of steel. His own belief was that where there was a will mere was a way. It seemed to him that it was almost a misfortune that tuel was so clieap in Shclheid that it cost less to waste a considerable portion of it m the loi'm of sniOKe tuan to adopt preventive measures lor less smoke apd the tnore economical consumption of coal. Sheffield was troubled with the pestilent fallacy that plenty of smoke meant plenty of money, because it denoted plenty of employment. ■'Tile result of that feeling was, in the first place, that smoke was tolerated by the public, and, in the second 'place, that dirt was excused because peopie asked what was the use ot washing when in such a smoke-laden atmosphere they could not remain obviously [ins lordship emphasised the word obviously] clean for more tliau a few minutes. So it was that colonial visitors held up the dwellers in the poorer streets to shame and derision as examples ot uncleanliliess. It seemed to him that this was a reproach which, if they could not remove it by local public spirit, ought i" be dealt with on national lines, because Khefliphl was not alone. Magistrates, he thought, ought to have .lie power pot only of ordering the smone nuisance to bp abated, but of instructing some expert tft advisp as to the remedy. |t ]iad ijpvor been matlo worth the while. of manufacturers to tackle the question fairly." A national movement against the smoke fiend was started. THE COST OF TIIE SMOKE KlUtOlt. Mr. Jolin Krause, the Smoke Inspector of Cleveland, U.S.A.. gives some remarkable figures as to the eost to the pity of its unnecessary consumption ol coal:— ' ' 'Let us say that there are awout 3,000,000 tpns' of coal used iu Cleveland jn n year, and that the use of 10 per cent, of Uiis amount i!j unnecessary. That means an annual loss of 600,000 dollars through an unnecessary use oi coal. Houses mpst be painted more 'frequently wheii there is much in ft city. fher.e are about 7">,ortfl houses lii Cleveland,' and, estimating the average «qs/t ftt §0 dollars, the total cost'ot

painting all tne nouses would lie 13,750,000. I should say that a fair estimate of tile painting waste wouiu uc about 25 per cent, of this amount, or about 000,000 dollars, as houses must be painted a great deal ol'tener on account of smoke. I

;s "then tiierc are laundry tuns. n 100,000 men in Cleveland wear laundered collars and shirts, it would be fair to r say that the waste each year amounts e to 500,000, as 1 every one of these men [1 spends at least 10 cents a week more/ e for laundry than he would if there were no smoke. This is very conservative, as the white dresses and waists worn by women and washed at home mak«\ ,n ( large item of expense. Then there is the s loss caused by soot coming into contact - with merchandise in the stores and fa«i tones, mere is oil in soot, ana th'( • causes much damage." . :".3r OF SMOKE IN ILL-HEALTH. t .At tlie last annual meeting ot tne International Association tor tlie prevention of Smoke, H?*M. Wilson, Chief Engineer of the United States Geological Survey, declared that "Uns smoke evil is oile of the great dangers' of modern times, insidiously taking the Health of the individual, lowering his vitality, increasing the death-rate, and causing untold injury to property, in our cities live more than 30,000,0;!0 people, and | these suffer all the loss winch is shown in the total of 000,000,000 dollars. Tlie statement is based upon estimates made by Chicago, with 50,000,000 los's a year; Ueveiand, witli perhaps 4,i)uu,uuu;' inn a number ot otlier emcs. it means n per capita loss of 20 dollars a venr to every man, woman, and child in these cities. The smoke nuisance means uncleanliness, poverty, wretchedness, disease, and death. The medical men of tbe country are unanimous m tne uc claration that the breathing of coal smoke predisposes tne lungs to tuberculosis, and even more Violent lung trouble, such as pneumonia."

SIR RONALD ROSS AND MALARIA. Sir Konaid Koss argues strongly m favor of mosquito reduction for prevention of malaria in towns and crowded areas, although he betleves that in rural areas quinine prophylaxis, assisted, if possible, by screening, is more appropriate. The measure he advocates tends to rid a town not only of malaria, but ol other mosquito-borne diseases, one of which filariasis abounds in parts of India, and at the same time it does away with one of the wiortftj pests of tropical life. The Indian Government has,' ordered a conterence on malaria, which is to be held at Simla,