The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1903-01-29
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FOrty-hVe TONS is the record weight
ever pulled by pair of horses. This
was in the shape of bark loaded on a
sleigh and pulled on ice.
Dueling is made a safe pastime by
DR.. Devillers, of Paris, who has pro-
yided kind of chalk bullet that leaves
only harmless mark where it hits.
Persons threatened with cataract Of
the eye are cautioned by DR.. George
Wherry against the use of sugar.
Opacity of the lens has been found to
follow the administration of much
sugar to fishes and certain other ami
mails.
Prof. D. ]. Cunningham, of Dublin,
In a recent lecture, described the inner
tied nature Of observation-disclosures in man.
He also made some very interesting
statements about the location, in the
brain, of the center of speech. In all
right-handed persons this center Is on
the left side of the brain. But in left
handed persons the speech center is
shifted to the other side, SO that, as
Prof. Cunningham says, 1.-THE left
handed speak from the right brain"
Recent experiments in France have
shown that the yellow and green colors
possessed by the silk spun by certain
caterpillars are due to coloring matter
derived from the food and passed
through the blood of the spinners. By
impregnating leaves with artificial col
ho
cies of caterpillars to produce silk of
bright orange-yellow and fine rose hues.
BY the aid Of the spectroscope the pres
ence and nature of colored pigments in
the blood of the little animals was es-
tablished.
1t has been demonstrated that fresh
~ dug peat may contain as much as ~
per cent of water, and that air-dried
turf may still have 10 to 80 per cent Of
water, while giving as much as one-half
to two-thirds of the heating power of
an equal weight of superior coal re-
port on "carbonized peat fueP' esti-
mates roughly that ten tons Of raw ma
terial, freshly dug, yield the calorific
value Of at least one ton of fairly good
coal. These figures give basis for in
teresting .speculations, and one conclu-
sion is that the peat Of Ireland could
give an annual output of 100000 horse
power in electric energy for 1850 years.
The green vegetable growth discov
cred by German physician is believed
to be not rare in the contents of the
stomach. 1t consists of two kinds Of
cells, as seen under the microscope. but
. is believed to represent various forms
of algae that are introduced with drink
ing water and food, and develop in the
presence Of acid. The growth has been
noticed chiefly in cases of considerable
acidity of the stomach. 1t is remark
able that these new algae are favored
by an excess Of hydrochloric acid,
while the ordinary algae of stagnant
water are killed if little hydrochloric
acid is added. Just how important
part this vegetation plays is yet to be
learned.
One of the most entertaining of re-
cent chapters in natural history is that
which relates to the many curious
means that birds and other animals
possess of deceiving the eyes of their
enemies E. Sandys. in writing of up
land game birds, calls attention to re-
markable and beautiful instance. Wnen
the ptarmigan puts on its winter dress
It has black tail. One might suppose
that this would attract attention to the
hird branching 1
serves for concealment. Every pro-
lection on a snow field casts dark
shadow, and that Is what the tail of the
motionless ptarmigan looks like, the
body Of the bird resembling a mere
hump on the white background.