Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1882-03-03
Invisible Inhabitants OF the Air.

Pio' siio; III I'IIS tlS Il liItiItdtIoii VI toN-
fervr on a slide.
How so:" the visitor asked.
Simply because some people would
be frightened to death by what they
saw" was the reply. '>uppo>e, now,
that your eyes became suddenly highly
magnifying, You would be continually
DIGGING strange objects that would APP
pear flying in the air-rough blocks shin
ing in the sun, wondrouS animals and
vegetable shapes, masses of pollen, some
whirling around and circling in vor-
tex caused by the rush of fly, and
others in still places, arranged perhaps
in the air according to their specific
gravity. In fact the space near the
earth would present Il most astounding
appearance, and many unexplained oc-
currenccs would he made plain. There
is what might be called an atmospheric
faura-minute living creature, and
plants that from certain causes are
caught up, remaining for years in space.
| have collection of a variety of these
forms, called diatomS, containing more
specimens than all the combined gen
eral collections of all the museums in
the world, and nearly four thousand
totally different kinds or species; yet u
walnut followed out holds them all,
with room for many more. Here is a
collection in the matriX, or in the rough,
from the Bohemian deposit CT Europe,
that is about fourteen feet thick. This
piece represents two cubic inches, and
contains eighty billions, each one weigh
ing about 1871 ,000,000th parts of n
fEbaen f....l hat
they are equally common alive. Their
exact nature is unknown, but they may
be we'll described as vegetable crystals,
differing only from minerals in having the
power of locomotion. The best author
tiles, however, consider them animals,
but to ali intents and purposes they
combine the three-animal, vegetable,
and mineral. They have an outside
skeleton of silica, and it is curious fact
that the singular lines seen on them are
also noticed on crushed silica deposited
from fuoride of silicon. These lines
have been measured, and are used to
test magnifying glasses. Here is one
specimen-the amphapleura-that has
10000 lines to the linear inch. The
specimens are all mounted on slides, by
what is called a mechanical finger, that
picks up each shell and places it where
desired. As many as you wish can be
arranged on the glass slide and num-
bered, referring to Il catalogue for its
name and history. Here are two slides
that contain about eighty specimens col
lected from one dust shower"
The visitor examined them through
the powerful glass, and where moment
before nothing was seen, wondrous
forms appeared, some like an open pea
pod, delicately partitioned. Such was
the Epthema. Others were round and
delicately radiated, and had gigantic
name, as the CoScin0liscuS. AS a rule,
the smaller the specimens the longer
were their names. The different kinds
were marked and sculptured with curl
Gus ribs, concavities, bosses, lines and
curves, ridged and ornamental in q
manner truely astonishing in such mi
mute objects. Entire areas of land and
ranges of mountains are made up of
the fossil shells of these smallest of ami
NAL creatures piled together. Existing
in such quantities, they are easily caught
up into the air and kept there by con-
f1icting currents, occasionally falling in
immense clouds. Near Lyons, in 1916,
a shower of dust fell to the earth, and
a careful estimate showed that forty
five tons of these creatures had fallen
from the clouds, representing a number
so vast that the human mind could not
begin to grasp millionth part of it.
Diatoms are not the only fossil ami
mails that are blowing about in midair.
The well-known chemist. DR. Phipson,
found in examining atmospheric dust
that among the many-shaped mineral
fragments were numbers of exceedingly
small and spherical bodies. Subjecting
them to white heat, in contact with air
and that of hydro-chloric acid, they re-
tanned their forms intact and were
transparent. Living diatoms entirely
disappeared under this treatment an ;
DR.. Phipsen came to the conc 'usiou , II
the minute silicious forms were los 81
micrococci, and SO they proved, the re-
mains of bygone age drifting around
in this. We frequently hear Of blood
rains, tie earth or snow assuming after
o shower red hue. 1t is owing to
countless numbers of 'diatoms that have
with red dust been brought down by the
rain.
Larger than the diatoms, and more
perfect animals, are the F0raminifcra
that are also known to float in midair at
times, and have fallen in white showers
of dust in various parts of the world.
In point of numbers they were equal
with the diatoms. A single species in
Russia forms entire hills and masses OF
caloareous rock. The CITY of Paris is
built on ground composed almost entire.
1y of them, and in such numbers that
less than q cubic inch of chalk from
Chantilly contained $4,000 of them by
actual count, and they form the great.
er part of the chalk that GOV.
ers the mountains from Champagne,
France, to England. These immense
deposits have been formed by the ami.
NAL dying and the shell sinking to the
bottom.
The Egyptian pyramids are monu.
ments to the species called Nunan,ulites,
being formed of them in the syenite
They are beautiful shells, coiled and
separated into numbers of partitions
Others, like the Operallina, seemed
formed of rich scales, while others
again, like the Textilaria, are almost
exact limitations of the fancy interlaced
patterns of French braid. The seas
rivers, ponds and lakes are still receiv.
ing these forms, and the ooze in the At.
lantic is called the Gl06crilgina, from
being formed of them. So it is evident
that the seas are filing up, and in time
aha fEsS now 9ar b Tho HD e6r I'll sets
only to be filled up in turn, following
out the oft-repeated history of past ages
IN. Y. Sun.
BY late order from Rome it is or.
daiaed that olive oil must now be used
in all Catholic churches in Texas. For.
merlv the State was so thinly settled
and the Catholics so poor that the Pope
permitted the use of candles, coal-oi
lamps, and gas; but now that Catholics
are numerous and prosperous they mus,
conform to the rule as set down in the
Council of Trent.