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The Conversazione

During the final days of last term, strange and awful scenes began to occur in various portions of Victoria College. The peaceful somnolence of that stately pile was rudely shattered; wierd sounds echoed through her cloistered halls, and there was hurrying to and fro and various murmurings of distress in many quarters. Startled students appeared on all sides, inquiring in fearful tones the reason for this disturbance.

On the last day, however, (Friday, 10th August), all was made clear. Victoria College put on her best array and Hung wide her doors, to admit the Public into her Temple of Mysteries.

Many and varied were the strange sights that were seen that night. The Public stood agape, as the secrets of Nature were revealed to the astonished gaze. Mysteries of plant and animal life, and even of the earth itself, were laid bare by the priests and priestesses in charge. Air, apparently such a prosaic and everyday phenomenon, was magically transformed into a liquid which could freeze meat; flames were heard to sing; and, to cap it all, the intruders discovered that they had blind spots in their eyes. What wonder that some of them even went to the extent of having their intelligence tested?

The Goddess of Mystery reigned supreme that night and smiled—not, perhaps, without a hint of amusement—upon all who came to worship at her shrine.

A number of interesting experiments were prepared in each Department, their mode of operation being explained to the public by the students in charge.

There were many demonstrations of the structure and physiology of plants and of animals, while sections of plant structures and movements of small living-plants were also shown. With regard to animal life, there was an exhibit of living forms showing the life-history of the lamprey, demonstrations of the circulation of the blood, dissection of different specimens, and exhibits of many beautiful, microscopic animals.

There was a demonstration of the manufacture of aniline from coal tar, and of dye stuffs from aniline. The phosphorus room, the demonstrations of spontaneous combustion and of flame, and the experiments on mercury and the thermite process, attracted many visitors.

In the Geological Department, there were exhibits of rocks, mineral specimens, etc., fossil remains of New Zealand life of earlier geologic periods, photographs and geological maps. There were also experiments illustrating the erosial action of streams on the surface of the land.

The Mathematical Department exhibited various sets of geometrical models; the Platonic and Archimedean solids; examples of solids which have the property of fitting together without gaps, including Kelvin's famous model; the star-polyhedra of Poinsot, etc.

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In the Psychology Department, there were experiments dealing with the testing of intelligence, motor capacity and colour vision; binocular and monocular vision; reaction, fatigue, learning and attention; as well as demonstrations of colour-mixing and visual illusions.

The experiments carried on in the Physics Department proved to be some of the great attractions of the evening, particularly the demonstration of liquid air. There was also an interesting display of gyroscopes and a working model of the Brennan mono-rail, and various experiments illustrating the properties of electric-magnetic radiations and the constitution of matter.

A large number of visitors attended the conversazione and apparently found it very entertaining, since they were extremely loath to depart. By about 10.30, however, all the Departments had firmly "closed down," and the demonstrators were provided with an excellent and most acceptable supper in the tearoom.

While the Physics Department tried to demonstrate the surprising advances made recently in that peculiar science, the Biology Department filled one with admiration for the wonders of nature. The Psychology Department made one doubt the extent of one s own sanity, and the Mathematics and Geology Departments both added their share to the mental unrest caused by trying to take in a bit of all the sciences at once. Finally, the Chemistry Department provided much of the spectacular, most of the humorous, and all of the grotesque on that eventful evening.

Chemistry students appeared to be making merely smoke and smells. Intermittent explosions strengthened the idea and, judging by the crowd that filled the rooms, this was a popular attraction.

The miniature gas-works was of interest. Coal supplied at one end of the bench, issued, at the other, as coal tar and coal gas. Sympathetic inks were also demonstrated. Writing in Cobalt Chloride (a colorless solution) was observed, after a time, to become visible as a light blue and then to silently disappear.

Experiments of domestic interest collected a large group of potential house wives. Soap was not to be used on aluminum pots—it dissolved them. Ink and fruit stains might be removed—if one knew how. Crystallisation experiments were of interest, but a bad second to those under the imposing heading of spontaneous combustion. The formation of combustible hydriades of silican by the action of hydrochloric acid on magnesium silicide was the star turn. Matches were made and magic practised on filter paper containing merculine iodide. This usbstance is red, or yellow, according to hte temperature. After it had been heated the paper was allowed to cool, and, at 127 deg., it suddenly changed colour.

Common poisons were detected and thermite reactions demonstrated—a knowledge of these is useful in cracking safes—and the manufacture of sulphuric acid from crude products was illustrated.

Catalysts appeared very human; they entice other things to work for them. Gases were ably prepared, but failed to confine themselves to the allotted spaces.

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A safety device, used in coal mines whereby any dangerous gases, by diffusion through the apparatus, rang a bell and sounded an alarm, was displayed. Time reactions and universal indicators were very spectacular.

No one would suppose New Zealand bees were so clever, until he had viewed the imposing range of complicated substances which had been extracted from their wax.

Mechanical analysis of soils and assaying for gold and silver were other interesting demonstrations.

In the Biology Laboratories, microscopes, and the possession of imagination, were the essential features. Bacteria, usually regarded as especially vicious species of germs, were being actually bred and nourished. The playful lamprey disported himself before the eyes of an admiring throng and responded well to the stihulus of a little rod, so thoughtfully provided by his keeper. A mighty crayfish lay stretched upon a board, his legs fastened down with a species of now almost extinct hat-pin. Various parts of his anatomy were exposed to public view and, strange though is seems, he did not appear at all appetising. The story runs, however, that certain favoured friends of the demonstrator retired towards the close of the evening, to a fish supper. It is rumoured that one of the great untaught asked of a sweet young student, "ordinary crayfish don't have all those stomachs and things, do they?" "Oh no, "she replied," but this one is quite extraordinary—a female specimen—and has one more rib than you."

The hydra appeared to be rather difficult to describe, and is remarkable, chiefly, for what he has not. He has no legs, no tail, no horns, and no stomach. However, he has a mouth, which possibly affords him some consolation.

In the Zoological Section, one saw chick embryos through windows fitted into eggs, a series of preserved stomachs, which had been inflated, dried and varnished, along with dissected cuttlefish, pawa and sea urchin. A series of models, to exhibit the evolution of the horse, in regard to hand and foot, teeth and skull, were also on view. Short lecturettes on this subject, were given by a student who, possibly, had done original work. Anyway, the Professor of Biology, as a result of listening-in to some of his discourses, is said to have become acquainted with several new, and hitherto unknown, phases of the horse's evolution.

The Conversazione was, without doubt, a success if, for no other reason, then merely because it caused certain science students to pack into a few hours more serious reading than they had clone for weeks previously.