Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1899-05-25

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absorbed out of them by the muscles
and organs they become negative cleo
trically and begin to be attracted back
to the lungs through the veins. As
soon as they get back into contact with
the inflated air cells they are recharged
from the fresh air in the lungs and
the process is repeated. DR.. Roder-
mund would have US believe the dia-
phragm and the lungs are the machine
Of perpetual motion called life, and not
the heart, as generally supposed.
DR.. Theodore n. Gill, the noted biol
ogist, finds that the only animals pecu-
liar to Hawaii are unimportant, there
being one bat and few birds among
them. The freak Of the group is
naked, Eighties rail. The feathers
from another bird were exclusively
used in the manufacture Of the famous
Hawaiian war cloaks. There are in
Hawaii no native fresh-water fishes,
although several saltwater species
have adapted themselves to the inte-
rior lakes and streams. Isolation has
been blessing to these islands in that
it has prevented the immigration of
any reptiles. Cuba offers to the new
collection an odd creature, known as
the ''almipui." 1t is one of the rarest
of American mammals and is peculiar
to Cuba alone. 1t is the largest insec-
tivorous animal of the new world.
The length of it's body is nearly 4
foot and of its tail about ~ inches.
In general appearance Mr.. Almipui
strongly resembles Br'er Postum,
though he belongs to an entirely off
ferent order of mammals He lives in
underground caves, and, like the inter
esting 'magou," does his bug-hunting
at night. Cuba also offers three ma
tive species of ''capromys," distantly
related to the guinea-pigs. In Cuba
are found native crocodiles, and kind
of iguana, which, DR.. Gill says, is
priced as food by all who can catch
it. There are also many brilliantly
colored lizards of the same family as
those enormously called fchameleons."
There are quite a number of Cuban
snakes, but none of special interest.
Almost all are perfectly harmless.
A comparison of the number of spe-
cies of plants known to the various
learned men who have lived during the
past 1000 years ana whose names are
more or less familiar to us, shows,
says Prof. F. H. Knowlton in the Plant
World, haW marvelOusly our knOWl
edge Of plants has been increased.
Thus Hippocrates, called the Father
CT Medicine" who lived between 500
400 B. c., knew only 234 species or
kinds of plants. Theophrastus, 81
225 B. c., who was perhaps the first
real botanist whose name has been
handed down to US, described about
500 species of pants, which he divided
into trees, herbs and shrubs. By Di-
oscorides, II A. D., the number was
raised to 600 species, and by Pliny, 23-
10 A. D., to 500 species. During the
ensuing 1900 years ana more, cOmpar-
atively little work was accomplished.
Ray, who wrote between 1856 and 1904,
enumerated and described 1885 spe-
cies Of plants. The number of plants
known to Linnaeus in 1771 was only
1851 species, less than half the num-
Der supposed to have been known TO
Ray. PERSON. in 1907 recognized 20,
900 species Of Towering plants, while
DeCandolle in 1909 recognized 10000
species. An estimate made about five
years ago placed the number of known
plants in the world at 173,706, of
which the seed plants made up about
$4,000. Considering the number OF
new species published every year, it is
probable that the number now in the
books is not much short Of 100000 spe-
cies.
A solution Of the problem why the
earliest known civilizatiOns-thOse of
Babylonia, Egypt ard China-should
all have made their appearance in the
deltas of great rivers, has at last been
suggested, says the Fall Mall Gazette.
1t has been shown that clay, which for
practical purposes is insoluble in va
ter, will nevertheless combine with l.
to certain extent, remaining in a
state VI SuSDSuSlOu hlOW L DIS tOlIO4udI
or gelatinous In this condition it has
the curious property Of absorbing like
a sponge any crystalline salts, as, for
instance, those Of nitrogen. But II
into the water containing this colloidal
clay a solution of common salt be
poured, the clay, with the heterogeneous
salts that it holds like a trap, will in
stantly be thrown down as woolly
precipitate. Now, this is exactly what
happens with a great river like the
Nile. During it's periodic floods It
holds in solution a large quantity of
colloidaI clay. This clay in its turn
attracts from the air quantities of the
nitrogen, which is, as Sir William
Crookes has lately informed us, the
life of plants. On meeting the salt
water Of the sea this clay, with its i'm
prisoned nitrogen, is thrown down,
and remains behind as a delta COM
posed of the ideal soil Tor the raising
of cereals. AND that the introduction
of cereals has always been the first
condition of civilized life needs no
demonstration. The traditions of ey-
cry nation have always made their civ
ilizer or culture god the person who
first taught them agriculture.
The New York botanical garden
notes the Sun, will publish shortly the
results of a recent expedition sent out
under it's auspices to explore the flora
of Yellowstone park anu the surround
ing region. The party Of botanists
was under the immediate supervision
of DR.. P. A. Rydberg, and its expenses