Science Siftings

New Zealand Tablet, 10 August 1911, Page 1547

Science Siftings

By Volt.'

The Elephant and Music.

In spite of his unwieldy size and apparently inactive ear, the elephant loves music. Not only does he learn to step in time, but he has been known to accompany the drum and flute with certain inarticulate sounds. Buff on once made a series of experiments to ascertain the musical taste of an elephant in the Jardin des Plantes. Simple melodies, played on the violin, seemed to give the beast great pleasure, whereas variations made apparently no impression. But when the horn-player played a popular tune the elephant became much excited, danced, and made an effort to accompany the music with grunts. At last he put his trunk into the open end of the instrument, as if to draw out the music itself, and then caressed the player most tenderly, to show him his gratitude. " -! Raising Vegetables" on Sewage Lands. France recently enacted, a law making it a penal offence to raise edible vegetables on sewage disposal lands, because of the supposed danger of poisonous germs being carried and being introduced into the human system. Bacteriologists, having made a careful examination of the matter, declare the needlessness of this alarm. » They have demonstrated that microbes do not enter the body of the-vegetables under any circumstances, though it is possible for them to be entrained along the stem and leaves, but these locations do not favor their existence. Evidences of typhoid and cholera were negative, although a special search was made for such indications. The hardest germs only, such as tetanus, were found, and these are harmless when taken into the system through the stomach.

.Sponge Farming. Sponges are hereafter to be grown like corn or beans or perhaps we should say like oysters, for the sponge is an animal organism. Experiments carried out in the Mediterranean show that the cultivation may be undertaken with great probability of success on the French coast, and it will not be confined to the shores of Tunis, as was feared when its possibilities were first discovered. Sponges from the opposite shores of the Mediterranean have been already carried to France and planted there, and we may expect that in years to come the sponge fisheries will be greatly extended by such methods. The investigations made on this subject recently have proved that sponges may multiply by fission, or division of substance, but that they also reproduce by means of larvae issuing from the whole sponge, from pieces split off, or from the young sponges. Fragments of sponge transported to another locality heal in about three months and then begin to grow: irregular pieces soon become spherical and rapidly enlarge, adding 25 times their own volume in the course or four or five years. The growth, of course, is slow during the first year because of the necessity for healing the wound caused by tearing off the fragment from the main body for transplantation. The character of the spongy tissue appears to be somewhat altered by cultivation; the" dark tint becomes much clearer and whiter. It is not yet known whether there is sufficient change to alter the commercial value of the product, either for the better or for the worse. All these observations have been carried on by two enthusiastic Frenchmen, Messrs. Dubois and Allemand-Martin, in their laboratory at Sfax, Tunisia. The result, we are told, is the creation of a science of ' spongiculture,' whose principles, if carried out on the lines laid down by its founders, will make fortunes for the diligent, not only in France, but in Tunis as well, the product being larger, better, and more easily gathered.