OCR Text |
Show ; : H lief 5!!rVey ithe Field 'of Sciece .Qpjpfipp' TlirrCf- Gleaoiogs from Science Publica- A Throughout the World OtlCllte UlgV&l tions mhis and Qther Countries JowiS " , r'nTJVPTriTTfp I H tdM LEA1LBSS POTTEEY. j jeetaj- i L0" .i?"'als aro making frc- Mm.nt,iV n11''' rwon '"fodi.ctiou i called leadles-: pottevv. 8Uch an -jft-omenl in the manufactme of nsjhina and earthenware is to bo hail-nrWIi hail-nrWIi pleasure, an heretoforo much l3u'tr'' Ji;is been routed bv means 8'?0- "Iy is the use of nle i (ho, manufacture of jcs y -ven dangerous lo the maker. rig Kin.v instances of lead iioisouing, m insidious chrome form's, Lmi traced to the use of lcad-r&t lcad-r&t fware Paralysis and blindness fel ?cn kl,own 1f fall to the lot of f 'L"or,l0rs' fhe users have undj ifferd in many ways. Numerous aftel "I patterns of the new pottery iiiTinul'actiired abroad, including - n4rfit a,ro "'Innd to every kind o? iiuajom th" ordinary pio p;i(P to the lossWeHgnod and highly ornamental s a JSL ?eea'feT OF LIGHT o SM ENERGY 017 MANKIND ! ic iiS " 1 oa.flHllWH 'em fr"m Va,"n,,p- UP-itMiJi f1 h"1 "' entombed miner fg' f his rescuers found noft" ,J0 loC!'1 ,'0,,, '5'. HloCn ,'tli Hio surface &PBfcd in "''O". Ihougltshe hu a bp:J,0 o"Iv a fw feet ;WmpVS,lcrr!,,-s-vivnls of en- atio'ftm: K ?n rtl n obsorvaiions re-ou re-ou &n tho h,, '"1 rts of light afe linen f V . fv.stem. by -it liihi ,,",.r'wn regarding the Jnd. f ml l vSVS f'm "I'"" "re F' anKn,1mlil1,'-'"s o: u "Inning men, en l ' tombed in total darkness and in n stale of complete resl. have been able f'o survive sur-vive alter c.onsiilerable periods of lime. On the other hand, il has b"en fouud that (he prolonged absence of light may prove fatal to mankind. Light is nec-5faP" nec-5faP" to the. proper ac-livitv of Iho Mlal luncfions and ils abseuce causes a suP8ninK nn(' 'le"ono,':inon ot' (he tis- tl, fn-!1 iriSa,m-plc,of ,his- wc nmv recall f PonLi'?1, "-1 'e'sten, penitc-nliarv ho In an,a wl"'rft for fifty vears Ine .-ells were poorly 1 glHod ih,,'i,,rL oners r,u.Tered liinclj f rmn (nbo Kis and other diseases, in spite of iho "S voi.t.lation. As soon l, the cells were f i!,m7,n.T' , u to become proncrlv l.ghlod the Imallh of tho inmakTiVn-mediately inmakTiVn-mediately unproved lo a surprising .lo-grce. .lo-grce. J ASTRONOMY AMONG PEASANTS ' ! ' i Astronomy among the Bupsian peaFantry has bei-n the subject of sludv during l h pnsl twelve vears on the part, of Pierre Slolan. Tho results of his obHcrvations. as set forth in a recpnt l-ronch astronomical magazine, give us an interoeling picture of folklore, now rapidly passing away, in which fairly positive knowledge is curiously mixed with Miiierslilinus and mytfiological reprcentn tions, All Russian peasants of course know tlm sun; (hoy consider it as a being at once mysterious and beneficent. The liioon is (o t horn the brother of the bun; it hides itself constantly from the view of iho hitler; il is covered with ice and snow; ou its disk one sees Cain killing Abel with his dub; its ravs are cold and rigorous if allowed to fall upon the eyes ofa sleeping person; (he direction of Iho corners ol its crescent serves as predictions of the weather. The stars are the lamps or caudles which God each day lights and extinguishes; wliilo the cornels are I lie exceptional messengers messen-gers of the Creator, who sends them lo announce wars, famines and pestilences. Tho comet of IS11, follower bv the invasion in-vasion of Napoleon, naturally confirmed this idea. A falling star proclaims that .oniP Himnn .being has Irmisgrcsned or sinned at that moment. The Northern I Light is the vai or box from which the lighlning first issues. Some of the planets plan-ets and constellations are thus named: I he Great i.tpar or Dipper is a chariot, or an oik or a. horse, attached to a post, around which if turns; or a casserole, or a turnstile. The Pleiades are smolder-nig smolder-nig embers, or a hen. and her e.hichs. or a duck s nest with ducklings; Orion is a garden rake: Voims is Iho star of night or ot tho dawn, or of the blushing blush-ing maiden; the Milky Way is the path of Moses, or the road to .lonisalem. I PEEDIGESTED BACTERIA. I 1 - I The very latest researches have only continued what. hs ror somo ,illK. bppn known regarding iho functions of Iho while blood corpuscles or leucocytes, which lor mnnv yo,-,,-5 W,M.0 niv;0"rv to anatomists. They hve for" Miofr timet ion the removal of (he objection- blood. T hey ,ave the wonrlerful pow- Za ' 0pl,i'C "nnllv destroying and .ac ually digesting ihein. Thus, if or instance, a number of ,0 m-K, !r'1)P, known as staphylococcus, wlcl. ro tern .the leucocytes rush f0 the invaded Point from all parts of the body - o battle to the mlruders and in most cases are able l0 overcon.o and kill hem. 1 he importance. Iherefore. of he white bloorl-corpuselea can hardly be overestimated. But it was uoliced (hat r,l times these policemen of Ihe body, as lheV ,!M.,. been called, seemed lo loso their power ot ejecting intruders. S0 experiments have been made with a view lo solving this problem. These experiments have led to the . discovery of cerlain sub stances in tho serum of the blood which apparently have the properly of rendering render-ing the microbes more readily at lacked by Iho leucocytes. If we ex t met a number num-ber of the latter from a little blood and wash them in several changes 0f water until all the blood serum 'is removed from them, they will seemingly have lost all appetile for any microbes we may bring in contact with thorn. But. if now we add a little blood i-eniiii, Hiev imiin.'dintolv regain their ferocious liking lik-ing for the miciubes and at once attack Ihein. Or, if 'he microbes are first bathed in serum and (hen washed, fhey are also devoured bv the leucocytes with great avidily. This substance, which thus evidently exists in the .blood-serum, and which thus "predigests" (ho microbes mi-crobes and renders them appel izing' to the leucocytes, is called opsonin, from the Greek' word meaning "prepare a banquet." It has not vet been isolated, and is known only by ils effects. There must be a number of different kinds of opsonins, contained in human blood-serum, because it has boon found that a person may have a low resisting power for the bacilli of .tuberculosis, and still be normally resislent to all other bae-teria. bae-teria. SLEEP. j I Sleep, tired nn turn's sweet restorer, balmy sleep, as Iho poet, ftdward Young, calls il. has always been a puzzle lo scientists, and an invitation 10 theorists. Many and ingenious have been lhe speculations and Iheories re-garding re-garding Ihe nature of I his peculiar phenomenon of life. From Ihe time of the ancients, who had their gods and godes.ses of sleep, down lo the most recent times, much has been said and v.rillen regnrdiug il. Heath, lo which 11 lias been compared, in. in a sense, easier lo comprehend: for death is ab-solnle. ab-solnle. a cessation of life's physical functions, whereas sleep is only an apparent, ap-parent, partial interrupt ion of them. The interest in (his mailer has been greatly revived by a recent book by Dr. Roris Sidis of Boston, who (herein gives the results of an experimental slndy of sleep. Before considering, however, this latest contribution to Iho subject, it. may be well lo review briefly Ihe later, more scientific explanations expla-nations of what we call sleep. Tlaller and Hartley first adnnced what, might bo said lo be a more rational theory by considering sleep lo be induced by changes in the circulation of Ihe blood and the brain. Dr. I'leury ascribed .sloop to cerebral anemia or gradual removal of blood from Ihe brain by the functions of daily life; while Brown and others, ou the contrary considered it to be caused b an oierluudiug of the brain by k . blood. Still others gave a chemical explanation by proin'g that a relative ly smaller absorption of oxvgen intc the tissues occurs during the "night; ot by showing that sleep is an illness, n self-poisoning of Ihe svslcm bvtoxic matters accumulating In the' blood through Ihe activity of the tissues, Still others, again, have advanced the theory that il is the result of an expansion ex-pansion and contraction of fhe nerve cells. Dr. Sidis. as an outcome of his numerous experiments, rejects all these explanations. He concedes that changes of (he circulation of the blood in Ihe brain, and of chemical composition compo-sition of fhe tissues no doubt coincide coin-cide with Ihe period of sloop, and I hat to.vje all era tions occur in Ihe svsteni during fatigue, the usual preliminary of jest. But he considers sleep itself to be a reaction of Ihe nervous svstoin lo stimuli. It is a well-known i'acl that if we. for insiance. continue lo irritate our nerves by a continuous prodding, these nerves will finally fail lo respond. re-spond. If we cut into our Mesh anv. where, pain is produced: but if the wound be persistently irritated, all pain will gradually cease. Onlv after a periori of resl will sensation and pain ret in n. So Dr. Boris has found thai ie"n is nothing more or loss than n failure of our ysfom to react (o the continued impressions produced upon our nerves through our senses. Stimuli th'Jl have exhausted themselves bv their monotony drop oul and are vo. placed by new ones, until tho whole roend of daily sensations is gone through and the organism, ceasing to iff-itond to its external environment, falls asleep. After a period of rest if. awakens and is ready to receive uew impressions. TELEGRAPHING PICTURES. : ; I The problem of transmitting pie'uro: by telegraph is a very old one, and has only of late beeu accomplished with any degree of commercial succets. It was attempted experimentally as far bnck as IS 1 7 by Bakewell, in ISoG by Car.olli, and later by Seleco and others. Kcccuth practical 'processes hae been I worked out. based upon these forme. experiments. but with distinctive i feature? making them workable under every day conditions. In H01 Prof, , Arthur Koru transmitted by electricity a photograph over telephone lines from Munich to Xurnberg; and four years . later his system ot photo-telegraphy was established for regular use between the newspaper offices of the Local Anr.eiger in Berlin, the Illustration In Paris and the Daily Mirror in London. Pictures are now regularly transmitted between these offices, sometimes some-times in the short period of twelve in i n ii t os. The process is based upon the use of selenium. I Sid well observed long ago that .tin; element selenium varied as (o its electrical resistance in the dnv time and in the night time. An electrical electri-cal current passed through il met with lens lesistance when the selenium was in the daylight than at night, when no illumination fell upon it. Now, a photograph consists of various shades of gray, and lighl will, of course, pass through Iho lighter parts more readilj than through the dark ones. Th'o photograph which is to be telegraphed is. therefore transferred lo a transparent sheet of celluloid, wrapped around a large glass cylinder, in the interior of- which is placed a lamp. Upon revolving the cylinder the rays of light from the lamp pass through the film and fall upon a prism, and are thence reflected lo the selenium cell. The light llius reflected upon the selenium naturally always varies in exact accordance 'with l lie density of that portion of the photograph through which it is passing at the tune. Therefore, if we send an electric current cur-rent through the selenium, whose resistance re-sistance changes when illuminated, its intensity will also vary accordingly. The sending inst rumenl thus sends oul to the receiver a current which con slantly changes each instant in intensity, inten-sity, according lo Ihe tones of the photograph. Koru uses a double selenium eel), in order to have a quicker and stronger response. Tlio picture is received at the other end of Ihe line by means of a shutter, which opens and closes in exact ?ic cordauce with the intensity of Ihe cur rout. The varying light ra thus pro : 1 m duced acts upon sensitive paper aud a IM results. H Berlin has also worked out a suece-, suece-, ful system which is based upon the fac' that' if a gelatine relief photograph is placed upon a. cylinder, the outlined of ; such a photograph will cause a nietnl stylo pressing against it lo be raised and lowered according lo the contours 1 of the picture. Now if the st.Uo. '5 attached to the membrane of a micro- IM phone and the cylinder revolved the IH si vie will press niore or less according IH lo' the varying thickness of the gela tine. A magnet ie current passing through Hip apparatus is thus caucd to arv just as speaking into an ordinary telephone causes a variation. The varying current is transmitted to jl a receiving station and these to sensi- H tivo paper. Illfnrts'a re now being made H by Baker lo utilize, this latter process for transmitting photographs by wire- IH less telegraphy. |