El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-08-31

The two scientists sent out by the
National Museum of Washington
have arrived in the City OF Mexico land
are already able to report some inter-
esting discoveries. In that country of
ancient mysteries, deep in the heart OF
unexplored territories, there are ruins
and relics enough to keep the arch
aelogists busy for long time to come.
DR.. ]. N. Rose and DR.. Walter
Hough, who are there in the interests
of the National Museum, began their
work we'll by rediscovering q cactus
that has long been lost plant to botan-
lists.
The plant was first discovered in the
sos by DR.. Parry, when he was con-
nected with the Mexican Boundary
Survey. It was afterward lost, and
botanists declared that it had .only ex-
listed in the Imagination of DR.. Parry.
The latter tried to find the plant again
in order to convince his skeptical as
sociates of it's existence, but it has
never come to light again until the re-
cent discovery by Drs. Hough and
Rose.
The news that this plant, the Latin
name of which is Echinocactus Parryi,
has been rediscovered by the National
Museum expedition, will be very well
come to the scientific world to lovers
of the curious in the botanical depart
ment of research.
Leaving the main object of their
visit aside for time the two scientists
have taken up, at the especial request
of the Mexican government, the study
of the two great Mexican drilks-mes-
cal and pulque.
These two plants are really as much
a mystery to Mexicans as the Aztec
ruins. The natives drink pulque and
hu nj
what it is puzzles most of the Mexican
people, and is even mystery to scien-
lists, for there are so many sources
from which it can be obtained that the
name is believed to be given to many
liquors that are not strictly speaking
pulque at all.
The interest in the matter has been
msgnified through the discovery, by
one of the Mexican medical men at
tached to a prison there, that pulque
has hitherto unknown medical proper
ties, and has been used successfully in
eradicating from the prison the germs
of scurvy which have always been
terrible enemy to the Mexican Indians.
What Is known of pulque and what
has already been discovered by the
two scientists from Washington may
be summed as follows:
The plants are grown in great plan
Z
which contains water, alcohol, sugar.
mucilage, salts, and special acids which
are produced though the TRANSFORMED
ton of the essential constituents of the
plant.
The quality OF the liquor varies &C
cording to the plant from which 1t is
taken. The best comes from the plains
of Apan. Tlaxcala and Puebla. A
liquor that ia used i. making the finer
quality of pulque is directly extracted
from the fruit by scraping it. 1t ia q
liquor. slightly viscid.
with an aromatic smell due to an es-
sential oil and an agreeable sweet
taste.
1t contains. by analysis water, essen
tial oil, agavic acid, agavic honey with
an acid taste, gum, starch, resin,
vegetable albumen, salts and cellu-
lose.
Not all the fruit, it has been found.
is equally rich in the Indispensable
materials to produce pulque. The
liquor, on account of the large percent
age of sugar and gum, easily ferments
after few hours exposure, developing
agavic acid as it comes in contact with
the air, which transforms sugar into
alcohol.
The fermentation of the liquor origi-
mates chemical transformations which
never stop, hut keep on to the acetic
which transforms alcohol