Science.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1848, 10 May 1884, Page 2 (Supplement)

Science.

Seven Senses* Sm William Thomson, the great physicist, thinhß there are at least six Benses, instead of only five, and he even suggests that there may be seven. Hiß sixth sense is the Bense of foroe or roughness, and the possible seventh sense the sense of magnetism. This seventh sense, however, if it exists, has nothing mystics about it, in his opinion.

Electricity as a Motive Power. Sm "William Siemkhs prediots that electricity will prove very nseful as a motive power for small boats. Electric storage batterie« vrill be about as expensive as steam for the propulsion of launohei, bat will have the advantage of weighing leas than steam apparatus and oooupying less space. The necessity of re-charging the storage batteries from time to time, however, will probably limit the employment of electricity for purposes of navigation to comparatively short routes of travel, or at all events to those on which frequent stops onn be made.

Terrestrial Magnetism. A discussion has been going on in the columns of the French aoientifio journal, Les Mondts, on the question whether terrestrial magnetism has any nuoh influence on the human system as to make it advisable to lie with the head directed northwards m sleep. Some of the writers strongly maintain that the nervous organisation is directly affected by the magnetic currents of the earth, and one of them says : " There must be some foundation for the practice adopted by the Swedish peasants, who cause themselves to be buried for several hours s« as to lie north and south in order to cure neuralgia." The existence of snob, a custom is vouched for by the consul of Sweden at Algiers.

At the recent meeting of the British Medical Association, the section devoted to public medicine discussed the disposal of town refuse. The weight of opinion among the members was in favour of burning all refuse vegetable matter.

The competitive examination system was severely denounced by Dr. T. Clifford Allbutt, senior physician of the Leeds Infirmary, at the recent meeting of the Social Science Oongresß of Great Britain. He declared that •* the ohildren of much-examined men show traces of nervous disease, and that, if mothers are educated in the same way, the result will be the degeneracy of the raoe." Among men of science this statement has been reoeived ■with considerable doubt.

An anonymous writer on the viviseotion question states that the sum total o£ paingiving experiments performed upon animals in England during three years oompriaea less than a hundred cases, and says that these were followed not by torture, but merely by illness. The so-oalled " systematic torture of thousandsof beasts all over the world," sometimes mentioned by sensational writers, is declared to have no existence in fact.

Baron Nordbnbkjold, in bis recent Arctic expedition, advanced 280 miles into Greenland, reaching an altitude of 7,000 feet above the sea level. The land was seen to be still higher further East. The point reached by the expedition is more than half way across the country. The distinguished oommander is fully satisfied that no considerable parfc of Greenland is free from ice.

Begtjlir observations in regard to the migration of birds are no^r taken at one hundred and ninety-six light-houses on the coasts of England, Scotland, Ireland, and the^ adjacent islands, loeland, and Heligoland in the North Sea. The main feature of the autumn last year was the abundanoe of the goldcrested wren. Hundreds of thousands of these birds swarmed about the light-house on Heligoland. The common jay also appeared in vast numbers, and for three days thousands on thousands of them passed ov«r the island.

The theory that a network of telephone lines overspreading a town is the best possible protection against lightning has been advanced by a Belgian physicist, -who has devoted much attention during the past summer to studying the Bounds produced in the telephone by thunderstorms. The telephonic wire upon -which his experiments were made was, " of course," says Engineering, furnished with a good lightning conductor ; but how this lightning conduotor was constructed or arranged we are not told. A continaona noise comparable to that produced by frying meat proceeded from the wire ; and just before each flash of lightning the ohserver heard a sound resembling that produced by grease falling on hot iron. In this country considerable difficulty has been experienced in protecting telephone lines against the destructive effects of lightning. We know of one instance in Eastern Massachusetts where seven poles and the wires they supported were felled by a single thunderbolt.— New York Ledger.