Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1915-10-13
EDUCATIONAL NOTES
Items OF Interest TO Friends and
Patrons of our Schools.
Smithsonian Annual Report


annual report dealing with the vari-
Gus activities of the institution and its
branches, and including a series of
articles on recent advances and de-
velopments in astronomy. geology,
mathematics, mechanics, aviation,
chemistry, geography, botany, zool-
ogy andethnology, all Of which are
prepared in a non-technical style
making them of interest and value to
the general reader.
One Of the most facinating articles
IN this report IS written by a French
scientist, Paul Becquerel, and con-
Germs the nature and relations of lat
ent life, one of the most remarkable
| phenomena Of the living kingdom. We
meet latent life everywhere that
| germs exist, and since germs are con-
tlnually emitted in considerable
quantity, even more by plants than
] by animals, there is not a piece of
! ground on which we tread, nor the
smallest quantity of air that we
breathe, which is free from them. The
| spores of fungi, bacteria, algae, mos
ses and ferns, the myriads of grains
| of pollen and seeds of flowers and
| plants, the cysts of certain minute
protocol, the eggs Of some crustac-
cans and insects, all pass into a state
! OF latent life. So also do animal it's
sues, and even some perfectly devel-
| oped forms of life, such as certain
species of algae, MOSES, lichens, roti-
tefs, artisca and nematodes, called re-
viviscents.
To Leeuwenhoek, the founder of mi
nI h. Il. L
tons on reviyscent animals, the artis-
ca or water-bears, and the rodifers
which are found in sJagnant water.
He observed with great astonishment
that these little beings may remain
dried up for five months amid moss
and dust without showing the slight
est trace Of life, and, when miostened.
resume their vital functions.
Baker experimental with the nema-
todes, whose life cycle is only 10
months, succeeded in bringing them
to life % years after their desicca-
ton, thus proving that their life had
been greatly prolonged by this pro-
cedure. SpallanZani brought rotifers
to life by placing them in water. after
they had been dried and preserved for
three years. Another scientist eX-
perimented with rats tails and sue
ceeded IN grating them successfully
after they had dried eight days, and
heated two hours at temperature of
80 degrees Centigrade
The authors work has been applied
mostly TO seeds, some Of which he
brought TO life after % to 81 years
had elapsed. Re employed great heat
and cold, and experimental with dry
and wet seeds, seeds in a vacuum and !
seeds submerged in liquids, and on the |
whole evolved much interesting infor-
nation concerning this subject, deal |
ing literally with life and death.
Some aspects of industrial chemis- |
try are discussed in the report of DR.. I
l.. II. Baekeland, who says that indus
trial chemistry has been defined as |
the chemistry Of dollars and cents" /
although it possesses far-reaching /
economic influences and it's endless |
ramiiications have become interviewer /
with the whole fabric of modern civil (
!i2atlon. Reviewing the early history 1
OF applied chemistry, beginning q lit I
tie over q hundred years ago, the au-
thor shows the development of this
branch Of science and the many
phases of manufacture into which it
enters
Prof. Felix Won Luschan. of the
University Of Berlin, contributes an
article on the early inhabitants of
western Asia which covers the divers
races found in that part of the world |.
and gives much chronological data
thereon. Standing on the "New
Bridge" in Constantinople, the author
states that he has heard over 20 diff
ferent languarge spoken, and seen as
many as different types. He des-
cribes some Of the apparent foreign
elements, and then takes up the re-
naming tribes and groups encounter
ed in an anthropological study of
western Asia, a study pursued by the l.
writer for 80 years.
Recent excavations at the ancient !
Egyptian city About" called by the
Greeks Abydos, are described in the
report by Edouard Naville. Abydos
was primarily a place for the worship
Of Osiris, the most human god of the
Egyptian pantheon, who was cut up |
into pieces by his rival, Set, or Ty-
phon, but brought back to life by his
son Horus, who reconstructed his
body.
Here was located his tomb, al
though we do not know whether it
the gods body or just his
head as the Greek writer's say. 1t was
noted burying-ground from the Neo-
ithic age to the Roman empire, and
I'll about are cemeteries filled with
lead from the intervening epochs. Re-
Mains of temples are near by. that of I
Seti |, father of Rameses III, being I
Utmost in its entirety. :
Between a doorway with enormous
intels and the temple of Seti /, the !
xcavators unearthed a large edifce :
built at the time of the ]
pyramids that is, belonging to the q
irst dynasties. 1t is a unique struc- L
ure built of massive materials, rec ]
angular in shape, and inclosed by y
wo-layer walls 20 feet thick, bound =
ogether by dove-tails.
The area inclosed measured SIS by
90 feet and was separated into three j
arallel naves Of enormous monolith- {
c pillars of granite. The two side C
ayeS had n ceiling OF granite Tnono | n