SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2204, 21 May 1891, Page 4

SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

AETII'ICIAI* ■ SKULL-SHAPING Astonishing success has attende4 the efforts of Dr Lannelongue,. an eminent specialist, of Paris,, to give intelligence to a little idiot girl. Though four,years old,,the child could •neither walk nor stand, and never smiled, nor took notice of anything. The doctor concluded that the abnormal narrowness of the head obr structed the growth, of the brain, and in May last be made an incision in the centre of the skull and cut a piece of bone from the left side. ihe resalt was marvellous. Within loss than a month the child could walk, and has become quite bright ; — playing, smiling, and taking notice of everything around her. BAIN-JOY. A German anatomist has called the attention of his class to certain; hysterical women who are > affected) with a kind of “paimjoy ’’—not only) experiencing no pain from surgical mutilation, but having a morbid desire* to bear without aosesthetics operations which should prove very painful. A: young woman was introduced who bad seriously injured her lower jaw during a paroxysm of hysteria; but who bad insisted upon having the necessary, removal of part of the jaw and. ligature of two arteries performed without au anaesthetic, and subsequently declared that the operations bad given her great pleasure. THE MOON -WEATHEE PEOBLEM. Prom tables. made by the use of synoptic charts, eliminating local dis-j turbances, Dr G. Meyer believes he has accomplished what other in 4 vestigators hare sought to do without success—shown an influence of thd 'moon on the weather. The height of the barometer, in months of September and January, is lowered at the time of full moon, and raised during the quarter. No effect can be traced for other monthi. ELECTBIOALLY-AIMED GUNS. In a new invention, a small dry battery, an electro-magnet and a circuit-closer of mercury Are so arranged in the stock of a gun that tbd weapon can be discharged only when elevated to a predetermined angle. At other positions the trigger is locked and cannot be pulled. The device is claimed to ensure precision iu range, and accuracy of firing at night when the range has been previously obtained. ANOTHES BILE. A substance having all the essential qualities of silk has been made from wild hemp by Nayemura Sakusabnro, of Hikone, Japan. The plant grows on moors and hillsides, and could be cultivated. The fibre is strong and glossy, and several silk factories are said to have found it to be in no way inferior to silk. THE POTATO DISEASE. In Denmark some interesting, and perhaps very valuable, researches into the potato disease have been made by Prof, J. L. Jenson. The disease is found to consist of a fungus, whose spores aye carried by the wind, and which first attacks the foliage of the plants. It spreads to the tubers in about seven days by spores washed down from the stem and foliage. Considering these facts, it was thought that the tubers might be protected by moulding the soil into a broad ridge 3 or 4 inches high and 10 or 12 inches wide after the first- weeding, and a further earthing up on one side only—causing the plants to bend so that the spores would fall away from the ridges—within seven days after the appearance of the disease on the foliage. Some 150 farmers are said to have experimented in this way, with these astonishing results: Where no moulding or earthing up was done,, the percentage of diseased potatoes was 3.4; where the moulding was: imperfect, 12; and where the moulding was perfect, only 1. Infection during harvest was prevented by allowing the tubers to remain in the ground for a month after the withering of the tops. COLD WATES. A cold wave is defined bv Prof. T. Russell as a fall of temperature in twenty-four hours ot 20 degrees over an area of 50,000 square miles, the temperature in some part of this area descending to 36 degrees. Between 1880 and 1890 no less than 691 cold waves were recorded in the United States. In the great cold wave of January 17, 1882, the fall of 20 degrees extended over an area of 1,101,000 square miles, and the fall of 10 degrees included 2,929,006 square miles. In six cold waves of the ten years the area of the fall of 20 degrees was more than a million square miles. Cold waves follow a day after an area of low pressure, or occur to the south-, east of an area of high pressure, reaching their greatest extent when both conditions are present. NESTS POE GEBMS. The impurities that collect under finger-nails have been investigated in the bacteriological laboratories ot Yienna. The matter obtained in 78 examina-. lions was placed in culture solutions, and gave 36 kinds or micrococci, 18 of bacilli, and 3of sarcinae, Cleanliness of the nails is especially necessary for all who come near a wound, and for those who live in a neighborhood where an epidemic prevails. A BBMAEKABLE PEESEBTATITE. A Belgian chemist has found that ] the green tar left after extracting the 011 from the white bark of the birch will effectually preserve even the most t delicate textures from decay. It ( yields neither acid nor alkaloid, ia 1 1 remarkably fluid in alcoholic solution,

*■*•■•*•> :. ' 1 # '‘ ‘ ~ jt } and When:once dried resists even toe action of alcohol, A. HJCW IDEA- „ A recant contract provides for street lighting in Paris o£ g Power is distributed by the compressed air system to a,great number ,pf s.mall motors, each of which supplies .electricity for a small number of lamps.