Science Notes.

Freethought Review, Volume I, Issue 10, 1 July 1884, Page 4

Science Notes.

Professor Hull, who has just returned from a geological survey of Palestine, states that he has discovered the ancient sea margins of the Gulfs of Suer and Akabah at a height of two hundred feet above their present level, indicating that the Mediterranean and Red Seas have been at one time in natural connection with one another. The terraces of the Jordan have also been found to be no less than six hundred feet above the present level of the Dead Sea.

The Russian chemist, R. Mandelin, proposes a solution of one part of vanadase of ammonia in 100 parts of sulphuric acid as a valuable reagent for detecting strychnine. He says that a trace of this alkaloid on being brought into contact with a few drops of this new reagent upon a watch glass, causes a momentary but splendid blue colouration, which changes very rapidly into violet and vermilion. In his experiments he has found that the blue colour is evident with onethousandth part of a milligramme of strychnine. If so, the reagent in question possesses a very great degree of sensitiveness. The author has also found that the reagent is very stable. It is prepared by the trituration of colourless validate of ammonia with pure sulphuric acid (mono-hydrated). On account of the colourless state of the ingredients composing this reagent, it will probably supersede the chromic acid test, if the results we have just described be confirmed, of which we have little doubt.—Burgoyn's Monthly Journal of Pharmacy.

Professor Huxley's Rede lecture at Cambridge, on the " Origin of living forms," contains among a number of excellent sentences one worth quoting for general use. He had endeavoured to ascertain for himself how the doctrine of Evolution fitted with the facts of palaeontology, with regard to the higher vertebrate animals, and with regard to the chief varieties of invertebrate animals, and all he could tell them was that the farther his own investigations had gone, the more complete had appeared to be the coincidence between the facts of palaeontology and the requirements of the doctrine of Evolution. The conclusion he had come to was that at which every competent person who had undertaken a similar inquiry had arrived, and if they would pay attention to the writings of such men as Guadry, Rutimeyer, Marsh, Cope, and others, who had added materials upon which to form a judgment such as were not dreamt of when Darwin first wrote, they would find that they all without hesitation attached themselves to the doctrine of Evolution as the only key to the enigma."

Girard has bequeathed to the French Association for the Advancement of Science a capital sum of 100,000 francs the interest of which is to be devoted every five years to the encouragement of researches into the antiquity of man, with special reference to geological time.

Some very interesting papers were read before the Liverpool Astronomical Society recently. Miss E. Brown, discoursing on sunspots, said astronomers had been struck with the wonderful display of sun-spots that had occurred during the last two years. In November, 1882, there had been most surprising outbursts, and in one of the spots recorded by Mr Roberts the measured area was no less than 3,261 millions of square miles, so that fifty-five globes, each of the size of the earth, could have passed through side by side with some thousands of miles to spare !

Electric Light. —The spectrum of the voltaic arc consists of the contiuous ribbon spectrum of the white hot solid carbons, and certain bright lines due to the glowing vapours of the arc. The light is rich in the blue or actinic rays so productive of chemical action, and hence it is, perhaps, that Dr. Siemens found it so effective in forcing fruit and flowers by light, in lieu of the sun. It helps the development of chlorophyl ; and perhaps the electricity itself has also something to do with assisting growth, apart from the light, for several French experimenters have found that electrified soil and air seem to foster plants better than unelectrified. It is remarkable, too, that young bamboo shoots grow very rapidly after the thunderstorms which usher in the Indian monsoons.

With a reflecting telescope of three feet six inches diameter, Mr A. Connor, an enthusiastic amateur, has been taking some wonderful photographs of celestial objects. As a star photograph sometimes occupies as much as an hour and a half in the taking, even with the most sensitive plates, it was necessary to keep the objects focussed stationary, by applying clock-work machinery to the instrument. This long duration of the action of the feeble light from stars so remote that they cannot be seen by the naked eye, has the effect of impressing the chemical surface so that the invisible is pictured. It is evident that this opens out a new field of research, and must be a powerful auxiliary to the labours of the astronomer.

A New Cure For Cancer. — lnformation of one more remedy alleged to possess special virtues in curing " cancer" reaches us through a correspondent in Brazil. Dr. Ignaco Alcibiades Velloro, of Recife, Pernambuco, introduced the remedy to notice, and in a communication to the Journal de Recife gives his experience of its use. He states that the plant which is popularly known by the name of alvelos " belongs to the Euphorbiaceae, and is indigenous to Pernambuco. He alleges that a magistrate who was suffering from epithelioma of the face, and who had returned to his estate, despairing of relief, was entirely cured of his disease by the topical application of the juice of this plant. Dr. Velloso learning this was induced to apply the same remedy on two patients at the Hospital Pedro ll. — One a case of cancroid of the nose, the other of epithelioma of the lip—with the result that the first patient was completely cured in forty days, and the second in less than two months, much to the suprise of the other professional men of the establishment. Such results he thinks justify a trial of the remedy, especially in uterine cancer. The action of the juice of the plant, as others of the same natural order, is irritating, producing a spreading dermattis without much pain ; and the application of the cut stem or juice of the fresh plant to the diseased part is said to result in destruction of the morbid tissue which is replaced by healthy granulations— doing the work, in fact, of the chloride of zinc paste. 1 Lancet.'

M. Pasteur made an interesting communication to the Paris Academy of Sciences on February 26, relative to canine madness. He stated that the disease could be communicated to a dog by inoculation with fragments of marrow or of nerve taken from a mad dog. JTc also stated that he had rendered twenty dogs proof against the disease by inoculating them with a modified virus.