The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1904-10-12

Washington, September 1O.-Will
peanuts put you to sleep?
Many people are now using them
for this purpose, eating few just be-
fore they go to bed, and Bishop Ly-
man, of Baltimore, and the Episcopal
Church, is quoted as saying that they
cured him Of chronic insomnia. One
evening, on his way home he paused
at vendors stand, bought five cents
worth Of peanuts and ate them. He
slept that night "ike top" and en-
ployment Of the same remedy on sub
sequent occasions was attended by the
same satisfactory result.
Certainly, if peanuts are soporiic,
one great advantage they possess is
that theo are harmless. The trouble
with sleep-producers is that their
after-effects are bad, and the last state
of the insomnia victim who tal-"s
them is liable to be worse than the
6rst-s remark which specially ap-
plies to those seeking relief in bro
mides and narcotics derived from
opium, which create dangerous habits.
Ground nuts Gas they are called in the
South) are &c eminently wholesome
article of food; they are not at all in
digestible, though commonly supposed
to be 90, and Government experts
have sscertaiIed by analysis that they
contain more nutriment per pound
than beefsteak.
It is fact, perhaps without signi-
fcauce, that the negroes who work in
the peanut fields of the Carolinas are
remarkably sleepy lot-suggesting q
notion that the growing plants spread
about them subtle soporifc inhu-
ence. But, leaving that aside, it is
undeniable that peas Of this kind (or
such they are, properly speaking, and
not nuts at ally have marked ten
dency to fatten the oolored folk Of
the plantations, who devour them
in large quantities., preferring them
raw.
So many people suffer from sleep
lessness that the discovery of new
remedy or palliative for that dreaded
affliction is justly regarded as of ex-
traordipary Importance. At the pres
ent time the department of agricul-
ture is experimenting with a curious
plant, known as sleepy grass" which
grows in New Mexico, between the
Pecos and Rio Grande. It is known
bontanically as Stipa vasseyi, but
nothing as yet has been definitely as
certained in regard to the nature of
the peculiar sleep-producing sub
stance which it contains. When
horses eat it they go to sleep standing
up, and it is almost impossible to
wake them, SO sound is their slum-
ber. They behave as if drugged, and
do not get over it for three or four
days.
The sleepy grass is found on the
lower slopes Of the hills in the regions
mentioned, and it is quite plentiful
on the Sacramento Mountains, west of
Pecos Valley. It .is tall and It's long
rye-like heads, when ripe, are very
tempting to horses. Apparently it is
the leaves that contain the mysteri.
ous soporiio, and not the grain, but
there can be no certainty on this
point until it. 10 settled by analysis.
Travellers, it 10 said, are obliged to
go into camp for week while their
horees sleep off the effects OF the
plant; but. after one good dose, the
beasts will never touch the grass
|again. 1
With o view to aseertaining some
thing definite on the subject the Cow
3ernment experts have planted patch
lof sleepy grass ct Washington, in the,
rear Of the department OF agriculture.
1t ripened last week and the seed
= III s..t q & s ~
heads were cut off, to be apalyzsd..
aLikewise, the grass itself, AID even
the roots, will be subjected TO analy-
/ sis, in order to fnd out what the
aasleep-pfoduoius substance is and TO
isolate it. It must. be decidedly
powerful, and it may be very valuable
For medicinal use. Unquestionably it
Exists in the stalks, which the horses
pat, bu. there may be much more Of it
En the roots. ~. 81
Most sleep,making drugs, as already
stated, are dangerous, Their after
p elects are bad and habits fof them
a re easily formed. What TO- most
heeded is 9 sopofi6c and nerve.soother
Athe two are much the same) without
p Nemesis. Possibly the ''aleepy.
kl-ss