Morning journal and courier., 1885-12-05

\ D0LOT0 C0S war.
 The expression ffcoo1 as a cucumber now rests upon a solid scientific basis In a re cent study upon the heat of fever an Eng | fish investigator, while seeking for certain analogies in plants, took the temperature o1 the popular escullent at various stages of its growth, and found it to be about one degree below that of the surrounding atmosphere. But the rule holds good for young cucumber only. Venerable specimens were two de gress warmer.
 Richmond <vIrssz1aa.) i. the only large southern city that cannot boast of at least one fourishing newspaper. Every attempt since the war to establish such an institution there has been failure. The contrast between the present situation and that of forty or fifty years ago is most suggestive and strik- ing. Then the great Whig and Democratic organs of Richmond were acknowledged par ty oracles and their utterances were clothed with the prestige of authority
 There seems to be just now quite @ rage for turning inland cities into seaports by means of ship canals The last proposal of this nature comes from an Italian engineer, MT. Gabussi, who suggests that Rome should be connected with the by channel if teen and half miles in length. The pro posed canal, which it is estimated would cost nearly seven millions and half sterling, would have width at the bottom of seven ty-two feet and depth of twenty-six feet, so that merchant ships of the largest kind could take advantage of it.
 Cosmophobia, or 'sdread of the world pro- cess," is one of the latest names for ''the blues" A patient suffering from it is de- scribed by Dr. Vance in the Medical Review as believing that "the power of the world is the power of evil, and existence 8 frenzied earnival' He is troubled with durability of that part of the psychical mechanism International ideas" and is generally out of joint with the world, temperamsntal predis- position being prime factor in the trouble.
 Dr. Lanceraux asserted at the Antwerp beer, next to water is one of the best drinks, when it can be obtained unadulterated. In France where the beer of the country is scarcely ever doctored or tempered with, al coholism is rare, long they confne themselves to tbat beverage Wine of good quality is less innocuous. For children it is always bad, and in adults it predisposes to tuberculosis, nervous troubles, nightmare and other affections. But grain and potatoes are the agents whence is obtained the most deleterious form of alcohol These spirits
 
 in the extremities; pricking sensations, chills, insomnia, or else hideous visions, tendencies to suicide by hanging or drown ing, and in every instance premature old age.
 Professor A. E. BIount of Colo1ado's agri- cultural college at Fort Collins has devoted share of his time the last three years to ex- periments with grass, to discover the varie- ties best adapted to the soil, climate and stock of that section. The results promise and ranchmen. Professor Collins has so far treated thirty varieties thoroughly and by severe tests. After becoming well set the grasses were thoroughly irrigated, cut close and irrigated again. The next season they had no water, were cut early and often and were given no fertilizer whatever. Actual experiment. and experience had before proved that gramma, buffalo and ssblue joint" grass es were the best wild grasses for pasture. It is the problem of western agriculturists to find the other valuable ones that exist, do- mesticate and improve them. The Colorado tests showed that, in all respects, timothy, orchard grass, redtop and blue grass succeed ed best without water.
 A New York court has just rendered an opinion holding that wife has 8 right to assume the responsibility of paying her hus- bands as we'll as her own board at a hotel, and that on the other hand she may be held to it. The presumption is that the husband is liable for the bill. But the hotel keeper may show that the husband is inpeeunions and that credit was given to the wife, in which case her property may be detained for non-payment Here is what Chief Justice McAdam, who wrote the opinion, says on the subject: s'We cannot imagine why g wife with credit cannot take her husband, who has none, to hotel, and in order to procure board and shelter for her family arrange that ahe and not her irnneo1pious bushand eba11