Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1879-10-01
POPULAR SCIENCE.
LEAD IN SALIVA.

vered of arsenic in the case of patients
under arsenical treatment.
CURIOUS FACT.
The Mongols ascertained the number
of enemies slain by cutting off the right
ear of each of the dead. In 1889 they
collected 100000 of these from the plains
of Russia, and after the battle of Leig-
nitz in 1241, filled with right ears nine
enormous sacks.
GLASS sLEEPEgs.
On some of the English horse railroads
they are experimenting with glass
sleepers. These are made by a process
patented by F. Siemens, of Dresden.
Unlike the De Ia Bastie glass, when
broken, the Siemens product does nos fly
into fragments. The sleepers are three
feet long, four inches wide, by six inches
deep, and are moulded to fit accurately
the rail. Bearing plates are placed
under the Joints and the rails are at
tached to them. A sleeper resting on
supports 80 inches apart breaks with a
weight of five tons. Glass, unlike pine,
is practically indestructible by moisture,
and is, of course, not SO heavy as cast
iron. The glass sleepers cost about the
same as iron ones.
THE FIG.
Few plants throw greater light on the
early migrations of mankind than the
fig. Hamburg, the most accurate of
writer's on the history of plants, falls
into the startling error of stating that
"the fig was not known in Greece and
the Archipelago and the neighboring
coasts of Asia Minor during the Homeric
age, though it was very common in later
times" the fact being that both the
wild fig, eraneos, the great wild fg-tree
near the sources of the Scamandar, and
the cultivated sukee, are mentioned by
Homer. But the fig is native of Kag-
han and the valleys about Kandahar,
and probably spread westward and south
westward with the earliest migratiOns
of mankind along the southern slopes of
the Hindu Kush and Caucasus into all
the countries of the Mediterranean. The
story of Adam and Eve was probably
carried along with it into Assyria.-The
Athengum.
A SMALL INSECT.
Lewinbeck tells of an insect seen with
q microscope, of which q, 100000 would
only equal mite. Insects of various
kinds may be seen in the cavities of a
grain of sand. Mold is a forest of beau
tiful trees, with branches, leaves and
fruit. Butterflies are fully feathered.
Hairs are hollow tubes. The surface of
our body is covered with scales like a
fish; single grain of sand would cover
100 of these scales, and yet each scale
covers SO pores. Through these narrow
openings the perspiration forces itself
like water through sieve. The mite
takes 500 steps to second. Each drop
of stagnant water contains world of
animated beings, swimming with as
much liberty as whales in the sea. Each
leaf has q colony of insects grazing on it
like COWS in a meadow.
MAD-sToNEs.
The superstition in regard to the mad
stones is we'll rooted in the popular i'm
agination, and has the right to be. It is
very ancient. Pliny gives its history,
for it was old even in his day, and it has
hardly shown any diminution since.
The men recently bitten by dog sup
posed to be rabid in this city. have been
anxious to get at mad stone. One of
them has gone to Indiana for the pur-
pose, and the others would be glad to do
so if they had the means. Now, it is as
capable Of demonstration as anything
can be that no stone, mad or other.
wise, can have power to heal in genu-
inc case Of rabies. Poison can not be
extracted from the system by such SIM
lief in the efficacy of the remedy accom-
plishes the cure. The Imagination often
plays an important part in causing or
Hammond has lately shown; and there
is no reason in the nature of things why
an imaginary case of hydrophobia should
not be relieved by the application of
imaginary remedies. 1t is an odd fact
that stones, taken from the stomachs of
deer, are supposed to be especially power.
full in extracting poisons, and were SO ia
ancient times, though it is difficult to
conceive why this beast, in preference to
any other, should be opposed to poison.
Chicago Tribune.
TYPHOID FEVER.
Mr.. Thomas M. Morgan of Victoria
College, in the Island of Jersey, has
communicated to the Chemical Meas some
instructing facts regarding an outbreak
of typhoid fever in the Female Orphan
ated in the country, and far removed
from any sewers. There was no fever in
the neighborhood. Water for drinking
was obtained from a sink in the court
yard, and covered in. It had pleasant
taste, and was perfectly clear and color
less; but some Of it was sent for analysis,
and a remarkable quantity of nitrates
was found in it. The water was then
condemned as bad. Fresh cases of fever
still occurred, and the patients acknowl-
edged that they had used the water of
the well after the danger was disclosed
to them. The pump was removed, and
no more of the children were attacked.
It was easy to account for the impurity
of the water. The well was sunk through
a yellow loan, from Is to % feet thick,
to water-bearing well of coarse yellow
sand or gravel. At a distance of so feet
from the well was cess which had long