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INmWIS [Am Why ICEBERGS Become More DANGEROUS as They MELT CEBERGS, which have always proved of in terest to the public, were studied with greater care after the Titanic disaster and many interesting things about them, not generally known, have recently been discov ered. A French scientist, M. C. Janet, has made some studies of these gigantic mountains ot ice that flow south from the eternal snows of the North, and north from the South Pole, and makes interesting comments upon his studies in Cosmos (Paris). In this Professor Janet explains why it is that icebergs become more and more dan gerous as they flow southward and melt, up to such time as they become very small Why SCHOOL CHILDREN Should Be Graded hy the X-RAY ABL children do not develop at the same rates (or age). School-grading is based on develop ment; therefore: School-grading cannot be based upob the rate of growth (or age). A syllogism of this character lies behind a most Important statement made by Professor Rotch of the Harvard Medical School, in which he points out the injustice ot grading children at school by their ages. Ten boys and girls of ten years or age are never equally developed; some are more mature than others, eorne have a better physical frame. It can be shown conclusively, that at the age of ten some children have advanced so far beyond others tn physical de velopment that they are fully as mature as the aver age child of twelve, and that others have lagged be hind so much that, their development is that of the average child of eight. Here, then, at the age of ten years, is a possible difference of four years, which is equivalent to pitting the average child of ten against the average child of six years of age. The most important thing for a child is physical growth. It is by this that he should be judged. There The Weight of an ATOM RECE7NT scientific researches have ap parently not only proved the actual existence of indivisible particles, but have actually succeeded in weighing them. This wonderful result has been accomplished almost simultaneously by two physicists— Professors Perrin, of the University of Paris, and Millikan, of the University of Chicago. Professor Perrin arrived at the discovery by a study of the so-called Brownian move ments of minute particles, the nature of which had not previously been understood. He con ceived the idea that the curious dancing and twinkling of minute particles seen in emul sions under a microscope are due to the bombardment of the visible particles by invis ible particles or atoms. By applying well knopn laws of physics to the problem he was Killing Insects by Electricity OCT in the West where everything is on a large scale, it takes large ideas to meet the requirements, apparently, •Ince miles of canals have been made for irri gation, thousands upon thousands of little stoves are burned “heating all outdoors” as it were in times of frost to preserve orchards, and similar things are done on a large scale. In the great Western orchards the destruc tive insects are also there, or getting there, in equally large numbers. To properly combat with them W. R. Frost, ot Spokane, has in vented an apparatus for ending the lives ot these insects by means oi electrical shocks. The apparatus consists of a storage battery to operate incandescent lamps of 6 candle power in globes, which are netted with tine steel wires. Attracted by the bright light in the tret; to which the globe is strung, the moth flies against the network, completes the elec tric circuit and is instantly killed, the body dropping into a receptacle beneath the globe. Mr. Frost things that one apparatus to an acre of trees will keep tbe moths under con trol, thus eliminating spraying and saving many dollars for equipment and fluid. It central station service it extended to Hie orchard tracts, as they are in the Spokane 'alley, the expense of batteries may be saved by making direct connection and using the commercial current The cost of covering the globes with wire nets is a sluall item ‘ ’ SbQ Treacherous RAPIER-LIKE RIDGES OF ICE Form Below the Watei and ENDANGER NAVIATION chunks of ice when they naturally lose their dangerous qualities. The iceberg melts in such a manner that it leaves only slightly submerged great knife like ridges of ice which are quite a dis tance from the exposed portion of the berg and which would easily rip the hull of a big vessel asunder should she plough across these submerged ridges at full speed. "The volume of the exposed part of some icebergs,” writes Professor Janet, "is some times very considerable. As the total vol ume of an iceberg is at least nine times that of the part out of water, and as most icebergs have reached a more or less advanced state of fusion by the time that they are first ob served, we may conclude that among the blocks given up to the sea by the fronts of certain glaciers some must be of very great size. “These blocks must have a nearly pris matic form, included between two horizontal faces. In fact, the upper face is part of the free surface of the glacier, which, except for crevasses and irregularities, is sensibly plane. The lower face is also practically plane because it has been sliding over the bed of the glacier. As for the side faces, they are the result of irregular cracks that are generally perpendicular to the upper and lower faces of the block and are consequent ly vertical when the iceberg floats freely. The upper and lower faces are usually of an elongated form, greater in a direction paral lel to the glacier-front. “Among the extremely varied forms that such an iceberg, originally prismatic and are many ways of telling the point of physical de velopment which a child has reached, but by far the best is the X-ray. The whole body is dependent on the skeleton and the bones tell the story of rapid or delayed growth. The bones of the wrist, for ex ample, are peculiarly helpful in this way, for the carpal bones are slow in coming; there is quite a space of time after the appearance of the first two before the third appears and another gap before the fourth and before the fifth. After that, the changes ot form and the massing of these bones reveal each stage of bone development at least until fifteen years of age. In the investigation of school children by this X-ray method, some sad conditions were found. Many children whose school lives had been most unhappy were found to be of slow development, and they had all their school-days been expected to do the work of those really two or even three years older. Others, again, well developed were kept back and hindered in every way though the work they were doing was so much below their powers that ft had no interest. Many a bright child, with an undeveloped frame, had able to determine that the weight of an atom of hydrogen is such that 3,000,000 billion bil lion weigh one gram (15.4 grains). But the atom is not the ultimate particle, but a group consisting of a thousand or more of smaller particles called electrons. Under the influence of powerful electrical currents, atoms may be made to throw off some of their electrons. Professor Millikan devised a method of capturing and weighing these elec trons and measuring their electric charge. The weights of atoms and molecules as de termined by these two wholly different meth ods agree with those which have been pre viously determined by other means. Thus the truth of the atomic theory, which was first conceived more thantrvo thousand years ago. is believed to be at last demonstrated by scientific proofs. How WE TRAVELLED 400,000,000 MILES Last Year WE travelled 400.000,000 miles last year. When the explanation is added that this re lates to astronomy many will exclaim: “Oh. well, around and around and around, of course, but that's not getting anywhere!” Such people are wrong, however, for this 400,000.000 miles we travelled does not represent tbe distance we travelled In revolving, it means that at the end of the year we are 400,000,D00 miles away from the spot we were tbe first of the year, and at tbe end of another year will be another 400,000,000 miles away, and so on through the years. It is true there may be some stars in the way but this will not frighten anyone, as it has been computes! __ ~ earth _ @ e 4 ______ Tp'-YrHE SUNIS f V —■*■■-*** /SUN. by learned astronomers that it will be half a million years before we even pass the first star, and there is little knowing when, if ever, this planet, earth, will actually come in contact with another heavenly body. All this interesting information comes from Professor Jonu Candee Dean, who has told some unusually in teresting things concerning the manner in which the sun is moving straight ahead and the earth keeping pace with it and all the time revolving about that great body. In "Popular Astronomy" Professor Dean tells much thj.t is tn w. at least to most readers. ' it has been found.” lie writes, “that the sun is mov ;ng toward its apex with a velocity of about twelve miles a second. To realize what this means, consider that the n&vire i Figure 2. fe-r-- _QL I: ’> iiifr'"' ' -»W 1 ■ 1 n- \U 1. : : i Br \W : i I It ;I | ■ : ■. I f£-> T Houre4-. I - ■; _ _-nW- Hg. I—How an Iceberg Begin* to Melt After Breaking from the Glacier Fig. 2—A More Advai ced Stage of Melting. Fig. 3—Taking a Form More Dangerou* to Navigation. Fig. 4—A Very Dangerous Form of Iceberg. been permitted to go on, ruining the constitution, whereas the whole body was crying out to be allowed to wait until it had reached the same plane of de velopment as its fellows. Dull brains with a highly developed physical condition can be left to themselves, save that the parents and teachers will have no com punctions in driving the child, while the same process of driving means ruined health and perhaps an early death to the child of the same age sitting at the next desk. Chronologic age is the very worst basis that could be thought of by which to grade children in schools, or indeed to compare them in every way. The first and most important point is to determine how old a child is in his place among other children, not merely in the number of summers and winters he has seen. Then the teacher can do justice to her children and need not have upon her conscience the grievous question as to whether school life is injuring the children in her class. The X-rays first to determine bone growth, psychological methods to determine mind development, and for the first time in the history of education there will be an equal opportunity for all. IN view of the admitted fact that a considerable pro portion of the reason for the success of homeopathy has been the ease with which its remedies can be swallowed, the allopath or "regular” school of medicine has been experimenting on the various drugs which can be given in the form of candy. It has been found that a very large proportion of the most important medicines can be put up as chocolate drops, fondants and jujubes of every description. One of the principal difficulties was encountered in the use of some of the metallic drugs Many people ' have gold fillings, or platinum fillings in their teeth, and some of the candy containing such matters as reduced iron, set up an electric current as soon as they come in contact with the metal in the teeth. The cod-liver-oil chocolate cream is recorded also as one muzzle velocity of a shot from a large modern cannon is only 1,500 feet per second, while the sun moves with a speed of 63,000 feet per second, or forty-two times as fast. If a cannon shot could be projected with the velocity of the sun. its energy and penetrating power would be increased 1.700 times, and if a shot could be made that would withstand the enormous pressure and heat generated, it would penetrate 1.500 feet of solid steel. Practically, however, a steel shot moving at this velocity and striking such a thick, solid st#el plate, would be instantly fused by the heat, generated from im pact. "The earth's mean velocity toward the apex is, ot course, the same as that of the sum while its oibital The helix descri bed by the earth in the progress toward the Sun's apex.” velocity is eighteen and a half miles a second The star called 61 Cvgnl in the constellation of the Swan, is the nearest star visible in our latitude. While the sun moves nearly 400,000,000 miles a year, it would take 100.000 years for it to move over a space equal to tbe distance that separates us from the nearest star. In the sun’s flight toward its apex it will take over 500,000 years for it to pass tile stnr Vega, but since Vega has a slow motion at right aug* '« to the sun’s motion, it fol lows :hat the sun will never pass very near that star. While the sun moves at a uniform rate, and probably in a straight line, the earth, owing to its motion around tbe sun. describes a huge spiral in space. How Bitter MEDICINE Is DISGUISED as CANDY compact, may assume under the action of the destructive causes to which it is subjected, there is one that probably presents itself frequently and which deserves our attention. “The upper face of the iceberg melts slow ly and pretty uniformly under the action of the air. There form on it small ridges and - small channels through which the water runs off. The exposed vertical walls also melt under the action of the air. The re-en trant parts of these walls are often less at tacked than the salient parts because they give passage to the air chilled by the melt ing of the upper surface. The salient parts thus tend to be smoothde down and there results a certain regularity of the lateral contour. “When the water surrounding it is at a sufficiently high temperature, the iceberg melts over its whole submerged surface. The result of the melting of the ice is to dilute the surrounding sea water and to chill it. The dilution produces a diminution, while the chilling causes an increase in the density of the water. While there is never exact com pensation between these two contrary ac tions, the result of the fusion of the iceberg produces only a slight variation of the density of the sea water. The result is that the whole submerged part of the iceberg remains constantly surrounded with cold water and thus melts uniformly and slow’ly. “This, however, is the case only with the lower surface and the parts of the side walls that are quite deeply sunk. The parts just below the surface undergo usually a more in tense fusion than the rest. This results from AT first glance it seems almost impos sible that there could be microbes in strictly fresh eggs, yet this is not only quite possible, but it frequently happens. There is always a condition attached to this state of affairs, however, and that is that the fresh egg must be cracked and the tough skin that envelops the egg must also be torn. A fresh clean egg is sterile. The bacteria that are present in broken or cracked eggs, in commercial "dirty" eggs, in disiccated. eggs, and in frozen eggs, get into the product from nest dirt on the outside of the egg or from the air during breaking of the eggs, in the process of disiccation, or from the hands of those who break the eggs. When an egg is what is termed “dirty,” and when it is cracked so that the membrane is also broken, then colon bacilli may gain access to the egg. Or, if dirty eggs are broken carelessly, or if the hands of those who break them are not clean, then colonies of microbes soon of the failures, although there are admixtures which make the emulsion fajrly easy to take. True medicine candy, however, according to the plans outlined before the American Medical Associa tion by a well known Chicago drug expert, now em braces more than twenty drugs which can be taken by children (or adults), with absolutely no realization that they are eating anything but candy, for neither in appearance, smell or taste is there any evidence of the medicine contained. It is expected that the mother will be able to give the child medicine without any realization by the patient 'that he or she is being dosed, and even solicitous friends might be able to’take advantage of the plan. It is objected that such a plan seems to be taking an unfair advantage of a child’s trustfulness, but those “Knowledge of the sun’s motion has enabled as tronomers to make the ‘base line’ used for their observa tions as long as they choose—as many times 400,000,000 miles as the number of years that they wait between measurements. Formerly the base line was limited to 93,000,000 miles —the distance across the earth’s orbit. The result has been the recognition of ‘proper motions’ of the stars, as distinguished from the apparent motions that are due to our own flight through space. “A remarkably interesting phenomenon of two great drifts of stars moving in opposite directions has recently been discovered. About 10,000 stars were dealt with lu this investigation. Toe fast-moving drift is flowing away from the constellation of the Serpent Bearer. The slow-moving drift is flowing from the constellation of the Lynx. The two streams of stars appear to be nearly equally divided and are completely intermingle*! with each other. The phenomenon is explained on the theory that two great universes have been drawn to gether. probably by mutual attraction, and are now passing through each other. Because of the enormous distance between individual stars, the chances of col lisions between them are very small. It must not be assumed that the discovery of the phenomenon of the two opposing stellar drifts has upset the theory as to the position of the solar apex; on the contrary, its posi tion calculated in this way satisfactorily agrees with that found by the other method." Microbes in FRESH EGGS a more rapid renewal of the chilled water, produced by the agitation due to waves and to surface currents. “In this case a sort of circular gorge it melted out around the berg, immediately be low the level of the sea, and the result is an excess of weight in the parts subjected only to aerial meltings. These, being ported, shortly sink lower. “The continuation of this process leads to the successive states represented in Figures 3 and 4, which need no further explanation. "At this stage the berg seems to reach out i under the sea and rip open the hull of a ship as with a rapier. “Simple friction against the submerged part of such an iceberg may, almost without shock, produce long tears In the relatively thin hulls of large vessels. The loss of the Titanic is perhaps due to an accident of this kind. “It is certain that In a freely floating loo berg the volume of the visible part Is nearly equal to one-eighth of that of the submerged part. But this submerged part has not al ways the form of a cylinder with nearly the same diameter as that of the visible part, for in the case where the latter is high and nar row the iceberg would then have to be very long vertically, and the situation of its cen ter of gravity would cause it to change posi tion so as to make it lie nearly horizontally. “We must conclude, then, that the sub merged part of an iceberg must be more or less extended beneath the surface of the sea whenever its visible part is relatively high and narrow.” form. The white of the eggs are a great deal like gelatin and the germs thrive and multiply rapidly in it. For this reason housekeepers should avoid buying cracked or broken eggs, no matter how fresh they may be. Housekeepers frequently buy broken fresh eggs and use them for cooking. For a long time it has been held that these eggs were quite as good as the whole ones, except that they cannot be boiled. Consequently they are bought and used for cakes and other cooking and also for frying, scrambling and in other forms. But this is a dangerous thing to do. No one can tell just how the eggs became broken or under what circumstances they were handled and what the dangers are. The whole eggs are, of course, quite safe, as no microbes have had opportunity to reach the inside of the shells and when they are boiled the danger is done away with. who have had much to do with the struggles of a little boy or girl against some particularly nauseous dose will welcome the new plan. There are many people, however, who still measure the value of a medicine by its nastiness, and even the most conservative of doctors would hesitate to give a prescription that shall be as tasteless as water, although there are many drugs used which have no taste. Coloring matter Is frequently put in medicine for the same purpose. The new school, however, uses coloring matter merely to add to the attractiveness of the candy and to make quinine taste like a cocoa drop, or to give phenacetins the aroma of violets. The era of candy medicine is at hand and the child of the future has all the luck. it will prove equally valuable for invalids and ner vous people, who also object to the taste of medicine. Moving Pictures Taken at Night TAKING moving pictures at night would seem almost impossible, especiallv would it seem impossible to the skilled photographer, for every photographer knows that after dark a picture has to be mail, by flashlight, and flashlight is Juat what its L name indicates, a great but zudden flash of light. ° To take moving pictures there must be . continua) light and how to secure a sus tained light of sufficient brightness to take a moving picture, that is, an extremely long timp exposure while the film is being run through the camera before tbe opened shut ter of the lens, is a problem. This has been done, however, according to The Inventine Age.” which says that it came about through a hustling committee in Kansas City which desired to advertise th«£ city thoroughly and wanted to add to heir municipal fame by perpetuating a mammal night parade to be held there tain festival. 8 a cei A platform twenty feet high was eras'-., on one side of a street through which the parade was to pass. On this were .truja sixty arc lamps in two rows, backed bv 5 monster sheet tin reflector, seventy feat i„ * and six feet high On the. opposite the street was another embankment of ii.hr almost as powerful, so that for a distance of about 100 feet the street was brilliantly R. luminated. The machines were started when the parade began to pass, and a film 600 ieet long was made, showing every detail Snapshots taken by private cameras were found to be as good as similar pictures made In daylight.