St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1883-03-31

about three hundred are used ny MALL
according to a memoir by Mons. de
Candolle.
The entomologist of the British Royal
Agricultural Society, Miss A. Z. Orme-
rod, says that some kinds of catteTpl-
lars may be frozen in their winter
shelters so that they may be brok-
en- like sticks without being IN
jured by the freezing.
In reply to a suggestion that raw
meat should be more generally eaten'
DR.. T. r. Allinson points out that at
least seven diseases are known to be
communicable from the lower animals
to man, and that eighty per cent of the
animals eaten in London are said to be
diseased. The unsound meat cannot be
distinguished by inspection, and cook
ing is the only safeguard against infec-
ton.
Sir Joseph Hooker has described
new genus of the rubber-producing
plants,-of Malayan origin,--to which
the name Dycra has been given.
A large subterranean grotto has been
discovered in the side OF mountain at
Dorgali, in the island of Sardinia. 1t
has many beautiful stalactites, and
there are fifteen long lateral galleries,
the arch of one of them resting on a
range of high pillars having a white
ness like that of marble. A marvel
lous effect in colors is produced when
the grotto is Lit up with torches.
Prof. Bruins, of Tubingen, has made
some experiments on dogs which he re-
CARDS as proving that bone-marrow,
completely separated from the bone,
may be transplanted under skin of the
same animal at a remote part OF the
body with the result of giving rise to
the formation of bone and cartilage.
After considerable difficulty the Cava-
liere d'Amico has succeeded in accom-
plishing the important botanical re-
suit of acclimatizing number Of for
eign plants in Sicily. Among them is
the tea-plant, and it is hoped that Sicil-
ian tea may ere long become not nn-
important article of commerce.
Mr.. Vacher has assured the British
Medical Association that milk from tu-
berculous COWS must be regarded as
dangerous, but the transmission of con-
sumption by milk is almost incapable
of proof because so many other possible
sources of disease exist in all cases
where persons become affected. A wise
course is to boil all milk to be used as
food.
It is we'll known that many fine
bronzes soon turn quite black, while
others equally exposed do not. The
Berlin Society of Architects finds that
the blackening is probably due to the
presence of zinc in the bronzes SO affect
ed.
Mr.. Gill, the astronomer at the Cape
Town Observatory, reports an observa-
ton there made which is quite without
precedent in the history of comets. On
September nth the comet was followed
| by two observers with separate instru-
ments until it reached the very edge of
| the suns disk, where it suddenly disap
peared This observation is an extra
ordinary illustration Of the intense
brilliancy of the comet at perihelion.
On the 18th of October was COM
menced the fourth century of the "New
Style" of time-registering. The true,
year does not contain an exact
number of days, SO the fractions have
been allowed to accumulate and have
been added as whole days at such times
as have been considered sufficiently ac-
curate for practical purposes. As the
plan introduced by Julius Caesar of ad-
ding one day to every fourth year was
| found to make the average civil year a
| few minutes too long, Pope Gregory
XIII in 1852 ordered that the year be
corrected by dropping ten days-giving
to the next day. after October 4th the
date of Ocober 15tl-and that the cal
endar be made more nearly accurate by
having three fewer leap years in each
four centuries, making every centurial
year not divisible by 1000 year of only
1865 days. This improved system forms
the Gregorian calendar, which has taken
the place of the "Old Style" in all coun-
tries save Russia, where the latter meth
cd is still retained.
Recent analyses are stated to show
that the water of the "Holy Well" at
Mecca-so eagerly drank Iby pilgrims