Amador ledger. (Jackson, Amador County, Calif.) 1875-19??, 1906-10-12

In India, where earth eating is com
mon, Drs. h. Fl. Mann and David
Hooper have made new investigation
of the so-called edible cIays. In 81
samples, silica was the chief ingre-
dent. constituting over 50 per cent in
8 samples. "Gopichanda, prepar-
ed earth from Baroda, was found to
be mail with 61.53 per cent of cal
cium carbonate; but only 8 of the
other samples showed more than one
per cent of lime. "Multanimatti, >"
sold for edible purposes in bazars of
Baluchistan, Baroda and Bengal, is a
buff-colored shale. Laterite is the
edible clay of Mysore; halIoysite,
that of Travancore and the Wynaad;
Cimolite is baked and eaten in Bonn
bay; and hydrated silica finds favor
in Madras and Travancore. ''Palia''
stone, used in Rajputana to satisfy
hunger in time of famine, is tale
schlst. Most of the remaining speci-
mems are mixtures of sand and clay.
These earths have only Intinitesimal
proportions of organic matter, and
they are utterly without food value.
A needed scientific. instrument
pointed out by DIR. Ouade, French
meteorological, is a nivometer, OF
snowgage. Attempts to use the
pluviometer, or rain-gage have been
made, a lamp being added to melt the
snow, but the melting has been
partial, and the opening has become
flied. The lack is of greater import
ance than may at first appear The
snowfall in France, for instance, has
heen diminishing for years, and
accurate measurements are required
to determine whether this is a tenn
porary phase in cycle of wet and
dry years, or whether the snow is
soon to disappear permanently.
For the international telescope
urged for southern observations,
Prof. e. Z. Pickering suggests Z
foot reflector, with focal length of
A feet, to cost 100000.
The leaf organs lately studied by t.
Jameson, of Aberdeen, indicate that
all plants and not merely the legu-
minous ones having root-nodules-
derive some of their nitrogen directly
from the air. The microscope will
show these organs on Spergula
arvensis, the common weed corn
spurry, where they appear as shurt,
blunt, transversely divided, upright
hairs; and in early Development the
highest segment sof each hair is
found to contain greenish chlorophly
like matter separated from the air by
only very delicate film. 1t was con-
cIusiveIy proven that these green tips
absorbing atmospheric nitrogen
are manufactures of albumen.
Different stages were seen to cores
pond with the age of the hair, some
tips revealing the beginning of the
process. others being gorged with
albumen, while still older hairs were
discharging the albuminous matter
through the lower sections. A cir
cular space surrounding the segments
receives continuous inflow of the
liquid albuminous matter, which
passes onward into the internal
channels of the leaf. The organs
we're found IN many other plants.
wild and cultivated, including the
chickweed, nettle, turnip, rage,
potato, beat. carrot, lettuce, chicory,
tobacco, geranIum, petunia, balm,
daisy, holly and pine. Owing to the
abundance of these organs for taking
up air nitrogen the turnip, the bean
family and other highly heterogeneous
dicctyledons require little farm-yard
manure. On the other hand the
cultivated monocotyledons, such as
cereals and grasses, have few of the
leaf organs, and urgently need nitro
genous manure.
Perhaps no more singular feature
of any planet is known than the great
red spot that appeared on Jupiter in
1878. Round at first, this soon be-
came elIiptical with length of %, 600
miles and a breadth of 6,400 and
the original deep red color has faded
out in recent years. While the oval
form has been kept, the spot has not
been stationary. With the late break
ing out of conspicuous double belt
on Jupiter, the drift has greatly &C.
CELEBRATED, and the spot has moved
westward 1000 miles in three
months.
The many uses and infammable
character of celIuloid have led to an
active search for substitutes. The
new material of G. Trocquenet, a
French inventor, is mixture of
cellulose, asbestos and the organic
matter contained in oyster shells.
The celiublose is obtained by teating
seaweed successfully with acid and
aIkali, aud washing. The asbestos Is
ground with petroleum oil; while the
ground oyster shells are treated with
hydrochloric acid, and the insoluble
residue is boiled with water, washed
with weak alkaline solution, and
collected on a filter. The mixtures
contain from 30 to 65 parts of the Gel
IuIose, 2 to II parts of the oiled
oobootoc ond On 70 Az DorEc IF tha