The Louisiana cotton-boll. [volume] (Vermilionville [i.e. Lafayette], Attakapas, La.) 1872-1883, 1873-06-11
CURIOUS AND SCIENTIFIC.


word "nisgc," or watcr-a verbal root
which appears i'll the names of tn"
Wisk, Esk, Usk, Exc, Thames, and
other Celtic rivers and "grog' is cou-
nected with the name of the British
Admiral Vernon. A sailor used to wear
a grograin coat and the scamen gave
him the nickname of "Old Grog,
which was afterward applied to the rum
and water, the use of which was intro
duced by him INTO the navy.
IRRIGATION BY CANALs.-Tt is mTHe
than 100 years since tho Spaniards set
tied in New Mexico and introduced the
practice of terrace irrigation. In the
valley of San Antonio, Western Texas,
the same system of watering land was
commenced in 1918, and perfected i'll
174O, or 1873 years ago. Preston, the
historian, describes, or rather notices,
irrigating canals in Mexico 500 miles in
length, constructed by the unknown
but more civilized people of this conti
nent, who preceded the Indians found
bv Columbus. Our industrial develop
mcnt has not reached the point of dig
ging canals 500 miles long to manure
cultivated and impoverished fields }; but
we are rapidly fastening to that nccos-
sary work.
DECAY OF FRUITS. The rapidity with
which fruits decay after they have
ripened is owing to the development of
certain fungi. OF one of these, the
well-known mildew MatcOr &tO5011itcr,
Wyville Thomson says "This species
is Cften found on juicy fruits, covering
them with white woolly patches scatter
ed over with small black heads, and
producing very rapid putrefaction be
meath the surface of the fruit. A num-
ber of delicate branching tilaments
form q rich network in the substance of
the fruit tilamcnts, which are easily dis
tinguishod from those of some nearly
allied forms by their loog, simple tubes
without partitions. These delicate fla
mentous tubes, which are the parts
first to appear and form the basis, as it
were, of the fungus, are called the
Mvcelium, and are found in almost dIl
fungi"
AN EXTRAORDINARY SURGICAL OPERA
T1oN.-The Lancet gives an account of
an extraordinary operation in which the
nerves of the left upper extremity, from
their origin at the vertebral column al
most to their 5resertion at the hand, were
raised from their beds and subjected to
stretching and pulling. The patient
was a soldier who had been struck on
the nape of the neck by the butt end of
a musket, and following the injury
there was the most violent contraction
of the muscles of the upper extremity,
attended by a loss of sensation in the
skin over the same. This continued
for nearly two years, when the opera
ton was performed by making three
long incisions, one on the arm, one in
the axilla and one over the left clavicle;
the nerves were raised, submitted to the
manipulations described above, then re-
turned, and when the wounds healed
the parts were entirely restored to their
normal state.
"KEEPING" ANIMAL LIFE IN Ice
Some curious facts with respect to the
freezing of certain animals have long
been known. During his voyage to Ice
land, in 1928 or 1929, Gainmard, having
exposed in the open air box filled with
earth in which toads were put, opening
it after certain time, found the reptiles
frozen hard and brittle; but they could
be restored to life when put in warm
water. Many ancient authors cite SINH
lar cases, and we can almost bring our
selves to understand how a great Eng
lish Psychologist might for moment
have given them the whimsical inter
probation that he did. John Hunter
fancied it might be possible to prolong
life Indefinitely by placing man in
very cold climate, and there subjecting
him to periodical freezing. The man,
he said, would perhaps live thousand
years, if, at the end of every ten years,
he we're frozen for hundred, then
thaved out at the end of the term for
ten years more, and so continuously.
" Like all inventors" Hunter adds, Il
expected to make my fortune by this
scheme, but an experiment completely
undeceived me-" Putting carp into a
freezing mixture, he observed, in fact,
that, after being entirely frozen they
were dead, past recovery. The case is
the same with all other animals, as the
lato and very remarkable efforts of E.
A. Pouchet have proved.
WHAT ARE CYCLONES Professor L.
B. Maury, in a recent article on the
subject, said: The word cvctonc has
/
frequently, but incorrectly, been used
as significant of an enormous or very
violent meteor, as if its application was
to be confined to the devastating hurri,
cane of the West Indies or the terrible
typhoon of the China seas. 1t simply
means storm which acts in a circular
direction, and whose winds converge,
by radials or sinuous spirals, toward 8
centre, moving in our hemisphere III
the opposite direction to that of the
hands Of clock, and in the southern
hemisphere in contrary direction.
| Taking this as the definition of ey
clone. it seems clear, from observation
alone, that all storms are to be regarded
as cyclonic. Volumes have been writ
ten to prove that this is not the case
But we have only to examine few