Scientific.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2146, 10 April 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

Scientific.

— Hmit.v Electrotypes.— A new method for disposing of the human body after deiUh has bef-n propoied by M. Kergovatz, a chemist of Brent. His system is an antiseptic one, stated to be much simpler and le"<s expensive thin the old process of embalming, and in nothing more than a new galvanoplastio application. The body w coated with a conducting substance, ntich as plumbago, or is bathed with a solution of nitrate of lilver, which, aftor decomposition under the influence of sunlight, leaves n, finolydividod deposit of metallic silver. It is then placed in a bath of sulphate of copper, and connected for electrolysis with several cells of a gravity »r other battery of constant current. The result is that the body ih incased in a skin of oopper, which prevents further change or chemical action If dpsired, this may be again plated with gold or silver, according to the ta«te or wealth of the friends of t'ue dead. M. Kergovatz has employed the process eleven times on human nab jecti and on many animals, and states that in all cases it was perfectly satisfactory. — Electro-Maonktic Separation or Omm — At the argentiferous lead mine of Oberlahnstem, the ore contains considerable quantities of blende and spathic Iron. The Genie Civil says that the ore It rousted so as to transform the carbonate of iron into a magnetic oxide. The ore, after cooling, is screened, and all finer than 4 mm. diameter passes over a shaking table to a revolving drum, inside of which are placed magnets. The magnetic particles are raised by the revolution of the drum, and are dropped when they havo passed its summit. It requires two or three operations to make a> clean separation. Soarlkt Fever in Mill— The latest theory— by no means a rearming one— as to the nature and origin of scarlet fever is that it may be had " direct from the cow," and is, in short, tho form assumed m human beings by some originally vaccine disease. An epidemic, or rather several epidemics, of scarlet fever in Marylebone, Humpstead and other districts in England, have been traced to certain milk. Every care has been taken to discover whether the milk could have been infected after leaving the cow, and on fall investigation this theory has been excluded. — Franklin Relics. —^sveral relics, consisting of various documents in a cylindrical tin-case, which had been deposited by several of the Franklin Search Expeditions thirty years ago, and a statement left by Sir Allen Young when at Beechey Island in 1875, were recovered by Captain Fairweather, of the British Navy, last June, at Prince Regent's Inlet, and have been turned orer to the j Admiralty by him. i —A Peculiar Plant. — According to the Medical Abstract, the discovery has j been made in Columbia of a shrub which | exudes a juice having so powerful an effect in arresting the flow of blood that large veins may be cut by a knife and •meared with it without causing hemorrhage. The plant is called "aliza" by the natives. — Sea-Icb.— Lieutenant Greely has arrived at a firm conviction that ice in the sea never forms to a depth of more than live to ten feet. The floebergs and icebergs of great thicknesses that are encountered floating out at sea, he maintains, are merely detached portions of the great polar ice-cap. — A Japanksb Paper.— A peculiar black paper of Siara and Burmah, made from the bark of certain tree\ is used very much an are slates here. The writing caD be rubbed oat by the application of betel leaves, just as slate writing is erased by means of a sponge. — Siawbkd PAfER. — A Japanese inTcntor has discovered a means of making ' paper from seaweed. It is thick in texture, and, from its transparency, can be substituted for glass in windows, and, when coloured, makes an excellent imitation of stained glass.