The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1883-03-02


passes through the roots of plants.
An English experimenter has ascer-
tanned thas for every pound of min-'
eral matter assimilated by q plant
an average of 1000 pounds of water
is absorbed. At the French Agri-
cultural Observatory of Montsouris
it was found that, in rich soil, 727
pounds of water passed through the
roots of wheat plants for every pound
Of grain produced; while in- a very
poor soil 2.69s pounds passed
through the wheat roots for each
pound of grain. ~. ~
According to. DR.: QuesneviIle,
water has been kept in potable
condition for more than three years
by adding to it half a grain of
salicylic acid. This treatment is
especially recommended for water
carried by expeditions to warm eli
mates. r-e
Prof. Leidy has related the case of
the sudden death of a COW, which
was MIXED one night (when it ap-
peared perfectly wel) and died the
next morning. A number of deaths
under like circumstances having pre-
vlously taken place in the same herd,
an examination Of this cow was
made, when the spleen was found to
be gorged with blood teeming with
the organisms known as BaciNi
anthracis, which are regarded as the
cause of splenic fever. This obser-
vation has led correspondent OF
the London Lancet to suggest that
parts of cattle which had been killed
while suffering from this disease may
sometimes be used toY oleomargarlne,
and as sufficient heat is not employ
ed in the manufacture of that sub
stance to kill the bacilli, consumers
of oleomargarine must run some
risk of contagion.
"Human languages" says Mons.
Julien Vinzons "appear to have
grown like trees in wood !, which in
the first stage are as numerous as
possible but are soo1 reduced to a
few individuals, of which a very
small number attain their full term
of life. Numerous as were at first
the local manifestations of human
beings, the primordial languages
were as innnmerable
The locality of fone original home
of the potato is settled by Mr.. John
G. Lemmons discoverylast season of
this plant in the mountains of Ari-
zona. One variety was found near
the summit of peak 10000 feet
high. From the wild plants Mr..
Lennon obtained some seeds, with
several quarts of small tubers, and
these will he distributed among care
fui experimenters for cultivation. It
ia hoped that the result will be a
new and vigorous race of potatoes to
take the place of the degenerated
varieties now grown.
Mr.. A. II. Keane has described
Krao, seven-year-old female child
now at the London Royal Aquarium,
1who is sensationally claimed by her
exhibitor to be the long sought
missing l;nk'' between man and the
higher apes. Krao is fairly intelli
gent. and her short stay among civ
ilized people has already caused her
TO dislike her old savage associates.
She has several physical peculiarities,
the chief of which are a forehead
covered with thick black hair down
to the bushy eyebrows, growth of
hair about quarter of an inch long
over her body, prehensile feet and
remarkably flexible hands. Mr.
Keane finds, however, the point of
chief interes. to be Krao's history,
which seems to indicate the exis-
tence of hairy race of people in
part Of India now chiefly occupied
by almost hairless Mongoloid peo-
Pile. Krao and her parents-also
hairy people-were found last year
by Mr.. Carl Book, and another hairy
family which came from the same
region is said to have been known.
Five times as many kinds of In
sects are estimated to exist as there
are species of all other living crea-
lures together. Four hundred and
fifty species are fostered by the oak
tree alone, ,and two hundred by the
pine. Humboldt, in Is49, estimated ]
that between 10000 and 10, 900
species were preserved in collections,
and it is now supposed that the num-
Der may be something like o.ooo.
With how largo n narf IF .Nafuro,s