The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1888-12-28

centies OF POpuIStlOn.
CoNsANGUINEoUs MARRIAGEs.-Investi-
eating marriages Of near relatives, Mr.. A. H.
Huth concludes, as did Mr.. G. III. Darwin
some years ago, that the popular belief in
sterility, or deaf-mute, idiotic or deformed
offspring, Is ! natural result of such unions,
is without foundation in fact. The effect is
really to intensity the tendencies common
to the progenitors, and it is only when the
tendencies thus liable to be magnifed in the
descendants are bad that unions . cousins
need be avoided. sua
A French botanist describes the curious
reviviacstion property of the resurrection
plant" (salagineua lepidophylla). When
the root withers, each branch curls up, and
the plant appears more or less ball. like. It
may so remain q long time, and when water
is then supplied, the branches unroll, the
green color returns, and growth recon-
mences.
A REMARKABLE EXPERIMENT. MI.
Friese Greene, q British photographer, has
actually produced ! picture with only the
light issuing from his eye. Having stared
for fifteen seconds at q 3000-candle electric
arc only three feet away, he closed his eye
and quickly brought it over = sensitive plate
At Z distance Of ono inch. The result was .
very faint but distinct image Of the arc and
the carbons, due, probably, to momentaIy
phosphorescence Of the retina. A second
attempt failed, and gas lights proved too
weak to produce effect.
The submarine torpedo boat of Lieut..
Isaac Peral, launched in Spain some weeks
ago, is about 70 feet long and 9 feet wide,
with . displacement of 81 tons. Its two
screws are driven by powerful electric accu-
mula:ors, to be charged from q station on
shore, and it is supposed to be able to pro-
vide respirable mir sufficient to sustain its
crew Of seven men forty.eight hours under
water.
Since Humboldt witnessed fish thrown
from the volcano Cotopaxi, In 1903, it has
been found that the phenomenon is repeated
from time to time during eruptions, and that
it occurs also in other volcanoes Of the
Andes. The fish are sometimes elected in
vast quantities. All belong to one species,
which exists in some of the lakes on the
sides of the mountains.
The work of connecting by canal the two
great arteries Of navigation in western Sibe-
ria has 50 far progressed that . boat Sc feet
long and Il feet wide, taking 81 feet Of
water, has been lately drawn from the Obi
into the Yenisei with q load of 40 tons of
flour. The two rivers are $50 miles apart.
Poison ~ST1MULANTs. WY Every virulent
poison known to botany or chemistry, says
DR.. Felix L. Oswald, can be used for pur-
poses of stimulation. The Yakoots of Nor
thern Siberia fiddle with poisonous toad.
stools, the Syrian mountaineers with arsenic,
the miners of the Peruvian Andes with YER.
digris, the Chinese and Turks with opium,
the Syrians with q decoction of hemp seed,
the Malays with the acrid Juice of the betel
nut. In q few starving villages Of Dalmatis,
foxglove leaves (digitalis) are used for in
toxicating purposes. The great preference
for alcohol for centuries, and even since the
first dawn of historic tradition, may be ex-
planned by the fact that it is by far the most
universally accessible of the virulent stimu-
lants, rather than by any attractiveness of
its taste or by hereditary desires. Even the
drunkard's children, contrary to common
belief, are nauseated by the first taste of
fermented or distilled liquors.
VEGETABLE ARMoR.-It has been recon-
mended that refuse cocoanut fibre, which Is
very plentiful where the fruit is grown, be
used as a backing for the armor Of val YES.
sells. Compressed plates may be made Of it,
which, N being penetrated so as to admit
water, would quickly swell and close the
o%rifice, preventing the sinking of the vessel.
In recent experiments, bullet holes n early
an inch In diameter were made in half: inch
plates Of this material protected by boards,
when q jet Of water shot through but ceased
to flow in less than one minute.
Hard working Parisians average sensibly
less in stature thar their wealthy neigh
bors.