WHAT MAKES A WHIRLPOOL.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2711, 15 January 1910, Page 4 (Supplement)

WHAT MAKES A WHIRLPOOL.

We make a little whirlpool when wo s tir our tea. and a whirlwind moving above the water will set it whirling for a time. But in many parts of the world there -are whirlpools which remain ironi day to day, or from century to century* The cause of them is the meeting of tw 6 currents of water, especially rap,d and .strong currents. \\ hen ve take a top or a ball and hold it between our hands and spin it by pushing one hand rrom us and pulling the other hand towards IIS we really see exactly how two opposing currents may treat the water where they meet. There is a great whirlpool below the f-vUs of Niagara: another, about which wonderful stories have been told, ts the famous Maelstrom off the coast of -Norway • but the most famous of all is the whirlpool called Charybdis, m the Strait of Messina. We know that this whirlnool existed thousands of years ago, but the region is terribly liable to earthquakes, as everyone now knows, and it is said that the position of Charybdis has been altered in consequence. N-ot far from where Charybdis used to be* there was a great rock very dangerous to sailors; its name was hey la. It was a great- difficulty for small ships to uass between the whirlpool and the rock without being enguhed m the one or wrecked upon the other, and to this dav. when a man has to steer Ins course of life very earefullyy between two dangers, we say that- lie is between Scvlla and Charybdis.

H -\S A MICROBE SMALLER MICROBES ON IT?

The more we study the world, the more necessary and right does it appear to ask. and to’ try to answer, such questions as this. For our notions or great -and small really depend just on what happens to be our own size; and that- proves nothing. The farther we go in the great world, the more we find, and the same is true the farther we go in the little world. The whole universe known to us may be only an atom in the eyes of God, and before we decide that there is a limit in the direction of smallness, we must try to prove it. , But we have good reasons ior allowing ourselves to sav “No'’ to this question. When we'study the size oijfe molecules, or particles of chemical"tra. stances that make up their bodies. And wo may.try to compare the two sizes. Now. when wo do so. we find that microbes are real]}' so small that probably independent living things could not- *be much smaller than they are. But, so far. we can only be fairly certain about- the answer to this question. It- is well to remember how very small microbes may lie—for instance, less than one twenty-five thousandth part of an inch across. This is. of course, very much smaller than the smallest kind of animal or plant that we can see. So the answer to o\ir question would be difficult- if it were: Does a tiny insect have microbes on it f It- is found that all sorts of living creatures which, not long ago, were thought to be the smallest kinds of life mav house countless microbes. Tiny insects, smaller than an ant, for instance, may have vast numbers of microbes living on or in them; and that sometimes is how we get serious illnesses. These insects bite us, and they leave a few of their tiny microbes behind.