The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1896-05-22
written for the CITIzEN.l

N.
mountain climbing. The road is to
start from Scheidogg, and pass through
the interior of the heights of the Ell
ger. Monch and Jungfrau, where 1t
will terminate in the heart OF the
mountain at the bottom of an immense
pit, which will have elevators for hit
ing the passengers the remaining 2l6
feet TO the summit and spiral stair
wav for those that would walk. The
railway will be more than eight miles
long, rising to height of $3.50 feet
with gradients varying from 1 to 70
DER cent. All stations except that at
the starting point-siX in number
will be bored from the solid rock, and
they will have exits leading to paths
by which travellers so desiring can fin
ish the trip on foot, and Will contain
dining-rooms, miniature bedrooms,
and everything for the tourists COM
fort possible. Electric current for pow
er, light and probably heat Will oe
generated by water from lake Luchi-
men.
The Roentgen rays of sunlight
should be sought, Prof. Lodge recon-
mends, from the tops of high noun
tains, because the atmosphere is equiv
alent to two feet of mercury, and must
entirely screen these rays from the
lower levels. Alpine tourists have of
ten reported an unaccountable Jogging
of plates. A medical paper reports ac-
ton of the X rays on the skin, long eX-
perimenting producing an effect re-
sembling sunburn.
Neither the basement nor the top of
q high house is the best place to live.
A Budapest investigator has found the
average life of jewellers in Easements
to be SO years, IL months; on ground
floors, 43 years months; on first and
second floors, A years 2 "a OSSS .- en-
third and fourth floors 6"no lee
The "whale cure for w no' no
the novelty offered by 8 aDlS-t
Australian town of EA Pan Oh
whale is lowed in the -. each pa
TENTS permitted to lie two hours in a
cavity cut in the body, huge poultice
of decomposing blubber closing about
him.
The rather startling suggestion is
made by Mr.. Henry j. Colbourn, of
Northampton, England, that our old
est inhabitants-the trees-may be
brought forward as living witnesses of
extraordinary terrestrial disturbances OF
many generations ago. The British
Museum contains polished section OF
a laNe Douglas fir, which was grown
in British Columbia, and is stated to
have been Iuore than 500 years old at
the time it was felled in 1885. A cur
ious feature of this section is the ap-
pearance of the annual rings near the
close of the trees first century, about
twenty of them being so closely crowd
ed together as to look like differently
colored zone of wood, three-fourths of
an inch wide, running around the
trunk. The suddenness of the change
OH both sides of the zone disposes of the
idea that it was due to overcrOWding
in the forest, which would have come
on and passed off gradually. The sup
position that twenty bad seasons or
twenty years of insect depredations oc-
Cured together is contrary to all our
experience, and it is not easy to ac-
count for this long period of weakness
in the forest giant. 1t appears, how
ever, Matchmaking allowance for some
uncertainty as to the time when the
tree stopped grOwing-the rings may
be found to correspond in date with
a period of remarkable commissions re-
corded near the middle of the four
teenth century. Heckel's "Epidemics
of the Middle Ages" states that the
outbreak of the Black Death was I'M
mediately preceded by a season of
twenty-siX years-commencing in 1888
of earthquakes, atmospheric disturb
ances, floods aud drouths, of an extent
beyond all precedent in history. Nox-
ious vapors arose from thousands of
chasms, and the seasons seemed to be
reversed. AS it seems quite possible
that the agencies which inflicted such
dire calamities upon the human race
should have Influenced forest vegeta-
ton, it would be interesting to deter
mine whether the record is confirmed
in other old trees.
From the we'll known fact that heat
hastens the emission of light stored up
in phosphorescent substances, M. Chas.
Henry has inferred that the emission
must be prevented by cold. Expert.
ment has proven the correctness of his
theory. Intense cold exerts a power
full action in preserving light in
latent condition is phosphorescent
bodies, and opens up the marvellous
possibility of keeping the absorbed sum
light stored up-as meat and vegetables
are kept from decay-by refrigeration,
ready for use at night or when needed.
An interesting and suggestive illus
TRITON of the influence other micro-o or
ganIsms may exert upon those that
produce disease has been given by
Metchnikoff. 1t had been found that
the water supply of both Versailles aud
st. Cloud contained cholera vibrios,
while the former city was practically
exempt from the disease and the latter
was not. An investigation with some
preserved choleraic dejecta gave curl
Gus results. Colonies apparently iden-
tical with the cholera vibrios were OBJ
tanned, but these differed in failure to
grow at temperature above $50 Fahr.,
to give the indol reaction, to produce
disease in animals, and to grow on gel
atiae plates. The plates were then ex-
posed to the air, when other organisms
fell on them. Most of these organisms
had no effect, but few-especially
some yeasts-had decided influence.
so that the cholera vibrios was revived
and made to grow by being used for
incubation along with faVorinp or
ganism. Several of the favorlng organ
isms were isolated, while others were
observed that certainly hindered de-
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