Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1872-05-22
CuriOsities of Science.
CHEWING BETEL NUT.

There Is fascination in betel nut
more extraordinary than a tobacco pas
sion The consumption of the latter
in chewing alone, in the United States,
is amodern phenomenon. An inveter-
ate chewer may have moral resolution
enough to break of the habit, though
it rarely happens that an effort is made
to do so, as an apology is found for
continuing practice that is positively
destroying the foundations of health.
Once addicted to chewing tobacco, to
abandon it is an achievement few have
the happiness to overcome, notvith-
standing the melancholy mortality of
men in the meridian of life who are
constantly being destroyed by the sub
tile influence of that strange plant on
the nervous system Thus sudden
palsy of the heart, palsy of a limb,
palsy of one-half the tongue, and even
instantaneous death, are traceable by
physicians to excessive use of tobacco.
But the vice of betel nut chewing, how
ever, is still more remarkable When
the habit is established, there seems no
retreat. Each victim wears out his
teeth, gums, digestion, and dies with
an unsatisfed longing for another
quid, Betel nut trees thrive in most
parts of tropical India, the Indian
Archipelago and the Philippine
Islands. They grow up gracefully about
thirty feet, rarely, more than eight
inches in diameter. 1t is a palm,
dreca cdtechu. Penang is the univer-
sal name of the nut in those places
where it is produced, hence Pulo
Penang means betel nut island. At
six years Of age the tree commences
bearing nuts the size of a small pullet's
egg, of bright yellow color, inclosed
in husl1 similar to the cocoanut.
Within is a spherical nut very much
like nutmeg. Broken, q bit of it
wrapped up with a piece of unslaked
lime in peculiar leaf the siri betey'p5-
per, extensively cultivated for the pur-
pose.
The gums and mucous membrane of
the mouth are quickly stained brick
red, the teeth crumble to o level with
the gums, and In that condition an in
veterate betel chewer is wretched with
out a supply. There are large planta-
tons of betel nut trees in Java to meet
demand for home consumption and dis
tant provinces. uas
can afford it add tobacco to the lime.
A morbid craving for either betel nut
or tobacco are sources of immense
revenue to many governments. Meth
er reasonings nor appeals to the intelli-
gence of chewers, who are shortening
their DAYS by an excessive indulgence,
have ever had the slightest influence in
convincing them that they were violat-
ing a law of organic life.
Science fails to explain the cause of
our intense morbid craving for veget-
able narcotics SO potent as tobacco and
betel nuts.
AGE OF OUR WORLD.
No man in his senses would attempt
to fix upon the time, in years since this
world has been going it's rounds in the
orbit in which it is still moving.
Mr.. Lyell, the greatest geologist of
of the age, gives an opinion, predicted
upon veritable testimony of the rocks,
that the Falls of Niagara have been
running at least thirty-fUe thousand
yedrS! From the remote date to this
day, there have been no very remarka-
BILE changes on this Northern part of the
American continent, of a violent char
acter. What cycles of time must have
passed away before the water began to
drill canal from Lake Erie to Lake
Ontario! for then the flora and living
creatures that peopled the earth and
the water were entirely different from
the types revealed in fossil remains of
periods antedating the beginning of
Niagara Falls by millions of years.
Who can determine the beginning or
fix upon the day of destruction of this
fair world 2 God alone knows when it
began, or when it will end. eH "b
SINGING MICE.
Singing birds and noisy insects are
quite familiar objects, but musical
quadrupeds are an anomaly.
Horses and several species of serpents
evidently receive pleasure from sweet
sounds. ANTAGONISTS ascertained long
ago that when that division of the in.
ternal ear technically called cochLe0 ex-
listed, which is fully developed in man,
marked susceptibility to musical i'm
pressions existed.
Where chocleal spiral appears, even
in an elementary form, it presupposes
a corresponding organization of the
brain. It is law in organic life that
the special organs of sense beara defn-
tie relation to the nervous system, the
great controlling organ of the whole
being within the skull.
It seems that the larger the surface
over which the acoustic nerve is ex-
banded, the greater the musical capac-
ity in birds. In very distinguished
musical characters the power is in
their brain, the ear being simply an in
strument through which the mind
maintains relation with the air by.
by which vibrations are transmitted to
the apparatus within.
Musical mice do not sing by cur
rent of air passing through the larynx
Or musical box-that prominent pro-
tuberance in the upper part of our
throat. On the contrary, an equivalent
for vocal cords arc vibrating folds of
the skin just at the outlet of each nos
tril '-
By forcing air with little extra
force, entirely depending on the will
of the mouse, such is the tension of
those valvular folds, q shrill note is
produced. The performer varies the
tone from a grave to an acute sound at
WILL Ah6IG ID IL CURIOUS
to the varying harmony of an HolIan
harp, and the sOngster- is undisturbed
when concert has been fairly com
manced. When Gagged, and the per-
forming prisoners become familiar with
the surroundings, they will sometimes
sing with the ardor of a veteran canary.
Singing mice are not very common.
Usually, they are found in a range of
country between the Add and 5Oth de-
grees of latitude north. Houses have
been superstitiously supposed to be
haunted by ghosts of murdered ladies,
who thus announced themselves by a
soft wall between ceilings, under the
hearth, in cellar walls, chamber closets
or dismal garet, the terror of cham
bermaids and all heroic servants.
The mechanism by which the singing
1c oooo,,,,IiohoI ic