Evening star., 1897-03-06

conviction. that animal nourisned from
its earliest existence on sterilized food
could not long live. In order to test so i'm
pCrtant biological question. Messrs. Geo.
Nuttal and H. Thierfelder have lately car
ried out a series of exhaustive experiments
In the hygienic institute of the Berlin mi
versity on young guinea pigs. which had
been removed from the mother by means
of the caesarean operation. The young an
imals were placed In a sterilized chamber.
supplied with steriliZed air, and were fed
exclusively upon sterilzea milk. every pre-
caution being at the same time used to
prevent access of bacteria. Food was sup
piled every hour of both day and night.
and at the expiration of eight days, when
both investigators had become completely
exhausted through their arduous work, the
animal was killed, and a microscopic exam
ination made Of its alimentary canal No
trace of bacterial life could be detected.
ishment consumed $50 cubic centimeters Of
milk. and when killed was to all appear
ances In perfect health and spirits.
From these experiments Nuttall and
Thferfelder conclude that the presence of
bacteria In the alimentary canal is not
essential to vital processes, so long as the
food supplied is of animal nature: and
they believe that the result touches not
well. including man. Subsequently expert
ments made with a vegetable diet-the food
selected being English" biscuits. contain
Ing about per cent heterogeneous material,
L
of other non-nitrogenous matters and o.
per cent cellalose-brought about much the
same general result-if anything, only en-
phasizing 1t. The experiments were CON-
Quoted over a period of ten days, and dur
ing this time one of the animals had gained
- grammes and another IL grammes.
THE ULTIMATE SOURCES OF THE
MISSOURI.
Exploring the Headwaters of the
Giant Stream.
The detailed explorations of Messrs. ]. v
Brewer, James Blair. William NJ Culver
and Henry Hackett during the years 1885
and 1886 give to the world all the geo.
graphical details connected with the head
waters of what is seemingly "the longest
continuous unbroken current of running
water In the world'-namely, the Missouri
river. This giant stream, which from its
ultimate source to its mouth Through the
MississippD in the Gulf of Mexico, is now
carefully computed to have a length of
4,Z2I miles. rises in a caldera (assumed to
De or volcanic origin), near the crest of the
ROCKY mountains at the upper (eastern)
portion OF Culver's canon, IN the state of
Montana. Thence 1t flows westwardly and
northWardly through glaciated valleys and
under the successive names of Red Rock
river, Beaver Head river and the Jefferson
1ork, passes the mouths of the Madison
ana Gallatin to become the main stream.
which unites with the Mississippi a few
miles above st. Louis. The ultimate source
OF the stream Is located In latitude a
degrees 35 minutes north, and longitude
III degrees 3S minutes west, and at an ele-
walton of 5000 feet above the sea. The
mountain peaks Of greatest elevation that
dominate the region Of the source are:
Brown peak. 11.OOO feet; Crater peak, H.
$40 feet. and Blair mountain, 10000 feet.
The explorations. which were largely un-
dertaken for the DurpoSe of markinv the
Montana-Idaho state line, were accom-
piished under great difficulties and hard
ships, and, as stated by Mr.. Brewer, were
conducted principally on snow-capped
peaks where several hundred snowslides
had occurred recently: during the latter
part of June of the past year snow from
- to 80 feet in depth was frequently en-
countered, while the ice in Blair lake was
solid and firm and OF bluish-green color
Landmarks were established completely to
the summit of Blair mountain, IAN i'm
mense pile of natures accumulation stand
ing one-fourth in Montana and three
fourths In Idaho.