The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1897-03-18
CURIOUS FACTS.

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sect to which they are best adapt
ed for their fertilization.
Percival Lowell in an interest
ing paper on Venus in the Light
of Recent Discoveries" in the At
1antic, shows how his observations
at Flagstaff. Ariz., have led to the
conclusion that the planet Venus
always presents the same side to
the Sun, and is, therefore, lifeless.
A curious fact, not commonly
known, about the gait of red deer
in England has recently been pub
lished in book on 'Hunting,' by
Lord Burlington. It appears that
a stag crosses his legs right and
left in walking, while with female
deer, except under particular cir
cumstauces, the prints Of the hind
foot will be found in direct line
with those of the fore foot.
The red clover, when introduced
into Australia, grew most luxuri-
antly, and lowered, but produced
no seed. The reason for this was
the absence of humble bees the
humble bee being the one that
does the fertilizing, almost exclu-
sively, in red clover. Bees were
introduced, and the clover seeded
in profusion consequently. Ex-
actly the same was the case with
the apple.
Germany will not have monop-
oily of bullet-proof coats. An
Englishman has made a similar
article Of vegetable fibres from
India and Africa, which is used
daily at a London music hall
where young woman wearing it
is fired at by rifle experts with
regulation army ammunition. The
performance is no humbug, and
the Government is investigating
the invention.
According to DIR. James Camille,
in the Lancet, the bubonic plague,
now raging in Asia, attacks rats
before it makes it's appearance
among human beings in the same
locality. A month before the
plague broke out in the city Of
Bombay, it was observed that the
rats were dying by thousands.
Other animals are also affected,
but none so soon or so fatally as
rats.
The United States Geological
Survey uses band saw, the inven-
ton of the department.. for cut
ting specimens which come for
microscopic examination. This
band saw. which will cut anything
from hot butter to crystal quartz,
is nothing more than an endless
steel wire, between an eighth and
a sixteenth of an inch thick, run
ming at very high speed over two
good sized wheels. Water and
emery are fed on the wire as it
runs.
Rain is one of the most active
rock destroying agents, acting up
on it both chemically and mechan-
ically, these crumbling parts are
washed off so that the higher
peaks above where the forests grow
are always bare, naked rocks: be-
cause the continual wash OF the
rain and force of the winds sweep
away all of the debris; consequent
ly the naked rock is always ex-
posed to rapid disintegration by
frost, rain. wind and changes of
temperature.
The researches and experiments
of Messrs. Broca and Richet have
led them to the conclusion that the
cerebral nervous system is incapa-
BILE Of perceiving more than an av-
erage of ten separate impressions
per second. After each excitation
of the nerves a period Of inertia
follows, lasting about one tenth Of
a second, and during this period
new impression cannot be made.
According to the same authority,
a person cannot make more than
ten, or at the most a dozen, separ-
ate voluntary movements of any
kind in second, although the mus
Giles, independently of the will, are
capable of making as many as
thirty or forty.
The total amount Of food needed
for repair for growth and for heat
ing, physiology teaches us, is much
less than is generally imagined,
and it impresses us with the truth