Amador ledger., 1906-03-30

single grain of pollen is found by
Prof. f. W. Dunbar, of Hamburg. tc
contain enough toxin to cause in
tense Irritation in sensitive hay
feVer patient, and in the Towering
time'of the grasses the air may deposit
as many as four million grains on a
square meter in twenty-four hours.
This statement is made in answer to
the objection that there cannot be
pollen enough to account for hay-
fever. Pollantine, the anti toxin. is
now prepared on large scale from
the serum of horses treated with pol
len toxin. and drop in the eye or
nostr1l gives prompt relief. Of 500
patients about 60 per cent we're kept
free from attacks of hay fever during
the entire season, while only 12.5 per
cent used the antitoxin without anv
success.
About fifteen years ago an extra.
ordinary account was given of an
East Indian ant (Oecophylla smarag-
dlna), that fastened the leaves of its
nest with threads spun by its own
larvae. The much doubted report
has been confined by late observations
OF E. Doflein in Ceylon and E. GoeIdi
in Brazil. Dofein slightly tore a
nest, when five or six ants arranged
themselves in straight row and slow
ly pulled the edges of the leaves to-
gether, while others cleared away the
pieces. Other workers then appeared,
each carrying larvae in it's man
dibles. The larvae we're used as dis
taffs and shuttles, and soon fine
threads bound the leaves together and
we're crossed in firm web.
Window glass is the novel covering
for wounds recommended by a British
surgeon. The glass is smeared with
carbolated oil and packed around the
edges with absorbent cotton, and
gives protection against blood poison
ing, hemorIhage and irritation. The
glass can be removed for cleaning
without trouble.
The transmutatIon of metals-so
much ridiculed few years ago-is
now thought to be taking place in
nature, but the modern alchemist is
still as powerless as was the ancient
one to bring it about by artificial
means. If it ever becomes practic-
able, the valuable product will be
the energy released as electricity or
in other form. Mr. Il. Soddy points
out that the energy of some hundreds
of tons of coal would have to be put
into an ounce of silver to convert it
into gold; but that a more probable
change would be from a heavy ele-
ment like lead, the operation yielding
energy of great value, with the guId
as an unimportant by-product. A
similar extraction is going on at our
great power stations-water power,
streams and gas. The fuel or high,
potential water is converted into baser
products, and the process abstracts
valuable energy that is converted
into useful forms.
What is now known as hypnotism
was heralded nearly a half century
ago as of great Importance in medical
diagnosis and as a moral aid in train
ing children, and much greater powers
have been assigned to it in recent
years. A late French writer has
shown that its usefulness has been
greatly exaggerated. 1t affects only
wills too weak to be aided, and it
can have no value in systematic
education. Grasset has concluded
that it is so often harmful that it
should be employed only by the
practised physician. The same author
ity has found that suggestion may not
be expected to cure purely mental
state, nor even grave and profound
nervous disease like hysteria; and
that its chief value in therapeutics is
in locaIizlng nervous disorders,
especially hysteria.
Tubing and chemical utensils are
now made from magnesia in a German
factory. The apparatus looks like
that from baked porcelain CLAY. and
it is not cracked or otherwise injured
by sudden heating. The temperature
may be safely carried up to 1850
degrees G.
The small quantities of manganese
shown by chemical analysis in animal
and vegetable substances have been
looked upon as accidental and un-
necessary. Recent Investigations,
however, have tended to prove that
the metal is Indispensable to the liv-
ing cell, and Bertrand, a French ex-
perlmenter, has found that pure
sulphate of manganese has a marked
fertilizing effect. an application OF
about 30 pounds to the acre giving an
increase of 22.5 per cent in crop OF
oats. The crop from the manganese
fertilizer, however, is shown by
analysis to contain no more of the
metal than the crop from other soil,
the plant seeming to require certain
definite proportion.
| A peculiar mealy flavor of milk has
been traced by two British bacteria
logists to the action of small amount
of copper dissolved from containing