| Show scientific miscellany I 1 I 1 A night blooming leguminous plant elaml of trinidad is pollinated pollina ted by the agenor of bats prom from answers to questions published two or three years ago V and C henri find that a pers personal oitIs first memory may be of an event occurring as early as the age of six aft months or as late as an eight years two tw to four years being the usual age considering three varying characteristics of races cephalic index or ratto of extreme width to extreme leng bengtha thA skull ent of stature ai color of skin and hair a french st finds that while feddo W three headings these give twenty lwft t possible combinations in ift reality I 1 six occur in considerable numb non among the inhabitants of europe M four more in smaller numbers number concludes that only the follo following 1019 six primary races excluding turks VW inhabit europe northwester Northwest eft blonde long h hee very teal tall eastern race monde le short ibero ini in race brown very short western race brown lc le broad headed ab atlanto mediterranean race tall adriatic brown lc tall T tour four secondary races are probably aw to mixtures of the primary A rao eastern prussia blonde medium headed beaded tall of sw blonde very snort short of ireland and belgium medium suk le tall of holland no TO bavaria auburn sub medium the primary object of the inse grafting experiments begun a year more ago by mr henra IL 15 cram crain jr has been a study of insect cot col tion concerning which the results h t not yet been satisfactory ch chrisc of moths have been joined I 1 in ft ways twin unions head to be head to tall tail back to back and ali wing to have been most successful f fou ourt out of sixty nine surviving of tat unions in normal proportions only attempt in thirty two was sue bucce a where the species were diff different grent dem unions ot more than half of aaa pups pupa give better results and give monstrosities with two sets of wings the european hornet is shown by draa 0 howard to have existed near new york city for at least fifty years yet it has spread less than miles in europe the species usually inhabits outhouses out houses but in america the itts arrests are almost invariably built in hollow trees so 80 small a creature as the beaver according to mr H B woodward of the british museum has changed the obar character acter of a a considerable portion of afi the british isles to a remarkable degree the borders of the fens were once covered with forest and the beaver was one of the most plentiful animals ot of the region its dams turned the streams from their natural course the water yas in the valleys of the lea the ouse the cam and the nene was thus made to flow over the country at random the valleys gradually becoming stagnant areas tilled filled with bog moss and forming what we know as the fen lands A surgical operation upon a woman of 88 38 has resulted in a fistula through which dr franz has been enabled to study the effects of drugs on the secretion of bile the investigations correct a general delusion by showing ahat drugs have no influence calomel and corrosive sublimate did not affect the flow of bile salol caused a very slight increase and the only substance that produced any marked effect was the womans comans own bile administered in pills these pills increased tle the secretion more than a third in twenty four hours the quantity becoming less than before on ceasing to give the pills an effort has been made to determine the pulling strengths of elephants horses borses and men attached to a dynamometer barnum and baileys largest elephant registered a pull of 2 tons on the second trial but a smaller and more mom active elephant gave a record of 6 5 tons whether as the result of a steady pull or a sudden jerk appears to be uncertain A pair of powerful horses bersee registered a ton and a fifth while we it required the strength of 83 men to equal the pull of the smaller ele dhoot the sterilization of grape juice a brooe having been devised by M a french chemist is in urged lik in algeria as a means of creating a home hom market for the product of the vineyards the religion of the mohammedan ham does not forbid the use of grape juice as it does t K arf ordinary wine and temperance es 0 outside of algeria would wela pleasing drink free from alcohol hidden den pavements in parts paris have tw condemned as they serve as a breeding ng place fo for r au ag kinds of dangerous germs A recent interesting discovery is that many lizards in running rapidly take duft att posture and use the hind legs only this curious fact was first noticed by mr W saville kent an aus troba observer in the australian frilled lizard and has been since seen by him in other australian species the structure of american lizards leads him to infer that many of them may run on tw olegs mr henry Pr estoe who has haa TIVO twenty years in the west indies these conclusions stating that every lizar lizard he be has seen running from wa idi large iguana iguana which is five feet efti and lives chiefly in trees down to tb the smallest mite one sees occasionally ate stones moves on two legs pvn hurried the diamond lizard lizar k common in trinidad often leaves on a muddy surface footprints exactly like those of a fowl or bird the earthworm glorified by darwin is now accused of playing a considerable part in the spread of disease pasteur found germs of charbon near the surface of soil in which sheep that had died from disease had been buried several years previously and dr halstead boylan of paris finds reason for believing that not only charbon but typhoid and yellow fevers and tetanus may be spread by germs brought to the surface from dead bodies by earthworms an epidemic of yellow fever in the amazon valley in 1850 seems to have resulted from the sol over the grave of a jamacia man who had died from the fever and had been landed at para for burial the production of what is known as silkworm silk worm gut tor for fishing lines iv is a curious industry that has followed the decline of silk culture in the vicinity of murcia spain the grub is fed on the usual mulberry leaves but before it begins to spin it is drowned in vinegar and the substance that would have formed the cocoon is drawn from the body as a thick silken thread the threads are treated with chemicals dried put up in bundles of and sold along the mediterranean by experiments on rabbits prof fischel has demonstrated thit that getting chilled has a most important effect in predisposing disposing pre to disease |
