Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913, 1905-11-04
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Sugar cane and the beet are to have
a rival. The new sugar plant from
South America which has been named
eupatorium rebandium is pronounced
by Bertoni. the German chemist to be
of great industrial value. 1t grows
eight or ten inches high, and is found
to contain from twenty to thirty times
as much saccharine matter as sugar
cane or the beet.
A curious blackening of the faces
and hands of certain persons being
treated by electricity has been no.
took place only when the patients
chair was electrically positive and the
crown of the head negative, and when
oil-heaters were being used to warm
the room. The blackening proved to
be due to invisible carbon particles
thrown off by the burning oil and
drawn to the positive pole.
Stovaine enters the list beside chlor-
oform and ether. Stovaine, the new
anaesthetic of Dr. Fourneau, is in
five minutes gives complete insensibil-
ity below the point of injection. while
the patient does not lose conscious
ness. The effects last for an hour and
a half No unfavorable results have
been reported in the numerous tests
that have been made in France, but
fears Of lack Of control and danger OF
blood poisoning have been expressed
A great deal of attention has recent
ly been drawn to the experiments of
Mr.. John b. Burke, of the Cavendish
Laboratory, Cambridge, England
where, by putting radium into tubes
of sterilized bouillon, he has produced
puzzling phenomena, which have been
regarded as possibly indicating the
spontaneous generation of living or
ganisms out of non-living matter.
Every known precaution was taken to
exclude living germs, yet under the
apparent influence OF the radium, bac-
teriaslike forms developed In the
tubes. This strange growth showed a
continuous development, followed by
segregation, and finally by decay. DR..
Sims Woodhead suggests that the mi
eroscopic forms may be crystals, but
Mr.. Burke thinks that they resemble
vital organisms, and he has named
them "radiobes'
Trees carry off the palm for long
lives. The distinction of being the
oldest living thing undoubtedly be-
longs to some giant tree. and many
attempts to locate 1t and determine
It's age have been made. A century
ago De Candolle found two yews-
one OF Portugal, in Berkshire. and
one at Hedsor, in Bucks-that were
estimated to be respectively $500 and
3,24O years old. Both are still -four
ishing, and the older tree has a trunk
twenty-seven feet in diameter. A
gigantic baobab of Central America,
with trunk twenty nine feet through,
was thought by Humboldt to be not
less than $3.50 years old Mexican
botanists believe they have now dis
covered a life-span even greater than
this, and from the annual rings a cy-
press Of Chepultepec, whose trunk is
11S feet in circumference, is assigned
an age of about 600 years.
The recovery of gold from sea wa
ter is still a fascinating problem.
Liversidge has estimated that the
ocean contains from 100 to 300 tons of
gold per cubic mile, or a total of 1O0,-
OOOOOO,000 tons; but if this be divid-
ed by 100 the value would still be
S697, 100000, while NJ. de
Wilde, of Brussels, finds that all of
the gold mined up to the present time
would not form a cube more than
thirty feet square, representing
value of $13,559, $4,000. NJ. de Wilde
has a new method of separation, from
which he expects great results. He
treats ocean water with a concentrate
ed solution of salt of tin, which tran
forms the gold into purple of Cassius,
an oxide of gold and tin, and this is
nXed by hydrate of magnesia, which
Is liberated from the sea water on
adding lime water The hydrate of
magnesia has been charged with as
much as IS per cent of gold, which is
removed with cyanide of potassium
solution.
Where Wealth Takes Second Place.
There is one thing about our wan
Ing democracy that greatly pleases