Amador ledger., 1906-07-20

and Others have been disposed to
attribute this to seeds, bulbs or
spores of former vegetation that
have remained in the ground awaiting
favorable conditions for growth. Re-
cent studies IN France are thought to
confirm this view. Some years ago
large quantities of plant of south
ern Europe called VOLTS milk OF
cypress-spurge (Euphorbla lathyris,
L. } were discovered in a remote two
year old clearing in large forest OF
the canton of Petite Malpierre, but
two years later these had disappeared,
while thick growth was seen in a
neighboring two-year- clear ing,
with few specimens only III a clear
ing little more than three years old.
M. Fliche is convinced that the plants
have been crowded out by the growth
of the forest trees. He finds that
large Gallo-Roman iron works former
ly existed at this spot, and, as the
Romans made medical use of the
Euphorbia iathyris, he concludes
that persons living at the works first
introduced the plants, and that on
the invasion of the region by forest
the seeds lay dormant until the land
was again cleared.
A curious friction effect lately
described to the Paris Academy of
Sciences is produced by rapidly
spinning a glass globe filled with
water containing fine powder.
When the powder Is lighter than
water, it collects along the axis of
rotation; when heavier, the sphere
separates into three zones, with two
parallels OF latitude equidistant from
the equator, the upper and lower
segments being clear while the pow
der is in the central zone and mostly
on the boundary lines.
The hillocks of white ants IN Cey-
Ion contain chambers about as large
as cocoanuts, which enclose sponge
like nests, each occupied by thou
sands of ants. The "termite trutf1es
described by DIR. Dotiein of Munich
are PIN nhead nodules of white fungus
cultivated in these nests as food.
With his new diving suit, M. de
Pluvy, the French hydraulic engineer,
has made considerably more than 1OC
descents reaching depths of $50 to 3OC
feet much below the limits of ordin-
ary diving. No air is received from
the outside. Ihe dress consists OF
an armor OF sheet metal from one fifth
to one-third OF an inch thick, with
joints and coupling points of pressed
leather and rubber, and a helmet
with two cylindrical regenerating
chambers attached. The air, ciIculat-
ing through the helmet, has its
oxygen continually renewed by
chemicals in these chambers, regulat-
ing valves keeping the pressure in the
helmet constant at all depths. Mount
ing and descending are effected by
cable carried on drum driven by
an electric motor, and this cable also
carries the current needed tor the
respiratory apparatus. The diver
communicates with the surface by
telephone, while wires run from the
armor to electric lights that show the
working of the different parts of this
complicated "dress"
The improvement of our plants is
one of the great world movements
now being inaugurated, III the opin-
ion of Luther Burbank, and we may
expect the gain in the production OF
food and other necessities to keep
pace for a long time with the de.
mands of increasing population. Not
only are the old plants to do better
work, but we are to have better
plants. Science, our authority tells
US, sees better grains. nuts, fruits
and vegetables, all in new forms,
sizes, colors, and fiavors, with more
nutrients and less waste, and with
every injurious quality eliminated,
and with power to resist sun, wind,
rain, frost, and destructive fungus
and insect pests; fruits without
stones, seeds or ST lines; better fiber,
coffee, tea, spice, rubber, oil, paper,
and timber trees, and sugar, starch,
color and perfume plants. Every one
of these, and ten thousand more, are
within the reach of the most ordinary
skill in plant breeding.
In argon and helium has been seen
the anomaly of elements without
chemical affinity. DR.. L. Cooke has
shown the London Royal Society that
even these gases follow the rule, as
at about 1900 degrees g. argon forms
an unstable compound with zinc and
helIum with cadmium.
The dangers of athletics in excess
have been recognized by others be-
sides DR.. Robert h. Coughlin, but he
has put the results into concrete
form. Of 12S deaths among athletes
last year, 80 we're due to disease and
78 to accident. Cerebro-s spinal
meningitis was the direct cause of
death in nine cases; heart disease IN
eighth; pneumonia in seven; pulmon-
ary tuberculosis in seven; Bright's
disease In five; appendicitis in four;
typhoid fever in four; suicide in two;