The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1873-05-30

CURIOUS AND sOIBNFIFTg.s Z


a. CURIOUS AND SOIENTIFFg.e g
ORTHoGRAPHY OF WHIsKY. The word
| whisky is a corruption. of the Celtic
word g nisge," " or ,water-a verbal root
which appears in the names of the
Wisk, -Esk,s-Usk, Exc, Thames, and
other Celtic rivers; and tsgrog' is con
nected with the name of the British
admiral Vernon. = A sailor used to. wear
e. grograini coat and the seamen gave
him the nickname. sof sold Grog, .
which was afterward applied to the rum
and water, bheuseE of which was intro
duoed by him INTO the nayy.sdf
i IRRFeAFION- By CANALs.-It1 is more
than 100 years since the 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 IT'S, and perfected in
.1740, or 183 years ago. Preston, the
historian, describes, or rather notices,
irrigating canals ia Mexico 500 miles In
length. constructed by the unknown
but more civilized people of this lconti-
nent, who preceded the Indians found
by Columbus. Our industrial develop
ment 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 neces-
sary work. tEr-
DECAY OF FRG1frs. rapidity with
which fruits decay after they have
ripened is owing to the developments of
certain fungi. Of one of these, the
well-known mildew Aftco1. stoJonifer,
Wyville Thomson says This species
is often found on juicy fruits, covering
them with white woo1ly patches scatter
ed over with small black heads. and
producing a very rapid putFefaction be-
meath the surface of the fruit A num-
Der of delicate branching filments
form a rich network IN the substance of
the fruit tiIamen6s, which are easily dis
tinguished 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
fyceIiu1n. and are found in almost all
fungi 60 So 717..-. -za -5f.
An EXTRAORDINARY SURGICAL OPERA
TIoN.-The Lancet gives an account of
an extraordinary operation in which the
nerves of the left upper extremity, from
their origin at the vertebra1 column al
most to their insertion at the hand, were
raised from their beds and subjected to
stretching and pulling. The patient
was 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 'theuppeF 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 axiIla 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. ~ sf. b. sraf-rzf
z'E KKEPINGt AH1AA4B LIFE IN Ice
Some curious facts with respect to the
freezing of certain animals have long
been known aDuring his voyage to Ice
land, in 1928 OF. 1929, Gainmard, laying
exposed in the open air a box filed with
earth In which tOads were put. opening
it after a 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 a moment
have given them the whimsical inter
probation that he did. John Hunter
fancied it might be possible TO prolong
life Indefinitely by placing q man IN a
very cold climate, and there -subiecting
him to periodical freezing The man,
he said, would perhaps live a thousand
years, If, at the end Of every ten years,
he were frozen for a hundred, then
thawed out at the end of the term for
ten years. more, and so continuously.
e Like all inventors, - Hunter adds, 81
| 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
late and very remarkable efforts of T.
A. Pouchet have proved.
WHAT ARE CYCLONES Professor T.
B. Maury, IN recent article ON the
subject, said The word cVcIone 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. It simply
means a storm which acts in a circular
direction, and whose winds converge,
by radials or sinuous spirals, toward a
centre, moving in our hemisphere in
the opposite direction to that Of the
hands Of clock, and in the southern
hemisphere in a contrary. direction.
Taking this as the definition Of q cy-
clone, it seems clear, from observation
alone, that all storms are to be regarded
as cYcIonic. Volumes have been writ
ten to prove that this is not the case.