Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-01-02
FACTS FOR THE CURIOUS.

A SCIENTIST says The whole globe
contains 100000 900 inhabitants. If
each man, woman and child could pull
with force Of 100 pounds, to move a
bar OF steel $3.50 feet wide and as many
thick, it would require the united efforts
of 1900 such worlds as this
In the middle ages cats, once the OBJ
ject of veneration in Egypt, were in
France looked upon as satanic agents,
and were burned alive. In Paris every
st. Johns day number of the abhorred
animals were heaped UP in baskets and
bags in the Place de Greve, to afford an
auto-da-fe, the sovereign himself setting
fire to the pile.
ACCORDING to the best authorities, the
quantity of salt contained In the sea
amounts to 100000, 900, 100000 cubic
feet, which, if placed in pile, would
form mass 40 miles long, as many
broad, and as many high or, otherwise
disposed, would cover the whole of Eu-
rope islands, seas and ALTO the
height Of the summit of Mont Blanc,
which is about 5000 feet high.
IT is difficult to realize the enormous
power of the bright speck, Jupiter, shin
ing so quietly in the sky. A writer has
shown that the power which the sun has
to put forth to hold Jupiter in his orbit
is equal to the combined strength of
17O,0O0,OOO bars of solid steel, each one
mile in diameter. Jupiter's pull upon
the earth, according to the same author
ity, is equal to the strength of 23,0QO,-
100000 bars Of steel, each of them one
foot in diameter. So, if the mere power
of gravity were all that was required to
make Jupiter's approach dangerous to
the earth, evidently he is not lacking in
the power. But no one need fear that
the sisterhood of worlds which acknowl-
edge the dominion of the sun will prove
equally destructive.
HANS BUCKNER, skillful German
experimenter, announces a discovery of
great interest and Importance in it's
bearing upon the theory of evolution.
He has succeeded in transforming one
kind of microscopic fungi, which is a
dangerous agent of disease, into another
kind of fungi which is perfectly harm
less. This remarkable result was
IcdCllSo ny III COAtluuOuo tiOdtIuCaU VI
the fungi for six months, during which
time 1,500 generations were produced.
He was through this process enabled to
transform the bacteria which cause
"milzbrand," the dreaded Inflammation
of the spleen, into the heupilze," or
harmless fungi of hay, and vice versa.
He also produced an organism, hitherto
unknown, which forms connecting
link between the above-named fungi.
GLOVES have strange, eventful histo-
ry. In the third century a glutton
named Pithylius never dined without
gloves. This enabled him to seize, be-
fore his fellow guests, the hot meats
with rapidity; and, to prevent his tongue
from being burned, he had it incased in
leather sheath. The origin of gloves is
uncertain. However, in the eleventh
century, the mobiles wore gloves, highly
ornamented with canoes, rubies, pearls
and emeralds. The dignitaries Of the
Venetian republic wore gloves, heavily
embroidered with gold and pearls.
Charlemagne was as famous for his
splendid gloves as for his walnut wine.
Later, Italy and Spain introduced the
fashion of wearing gloves, with subjects
painted thereon like fans. In the SIX
teenth and following century, sovereigns
accepted presents of gloves, which was
more pacific than picking one up when
thrown down.