Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-08-21
FINDS LATENT LIFE
IN MANY PLACES
Paul Becquerel in Smithsonian
Annual Report Tells of
Discoveries.
WATER VITALIZES GERMS
LONG LYING DORMANT
Book Replete With Interesting
Topics, Which Also Are Pub
lished in Pamphlets.

| The Smithsonian Institution has just
issued it's sixty-ninth annual report
| dealing with the various activities of
| the institution and its branches and
| including thirty-two timely articles on
| recent advances and developments in
astronomy, geology, mathematics. me-
| chanics, aviation, chemistry, geog-
| raphy, botany, zoology and ethnology,
| all of which are prepared in nom
technical style. making them of inter-
est and value to the general reader.
| These articles are either written es-
pecially for the report or are selected
from scientific journals and publica-
| tions from all over the world which
are not readily obtainable by the pub
lie. The whole report comprises a VOL
ume of more than 700 pages, with 1855
| plates and many other illustrations,
| but the individual articles are issued
| in separate form for distribution to
| treated.
Latent Life Everywhere.
One of the most fascinating articles
| in this report is written by a French
Germs the nature and relations of latent
| life, one of the most remarkable phe-
| nomena of the living kingdom. We
meet latent life everywhere that germs
exist, and since germs are continually
emitted in considerable quantity,
even more by plants than by animals,
| there is not piece of ground on
| which we tread nor the smallest guam
| tity of air that we breathe which is
free I'm pi
bacteria. algae, MOSES and of ferns,
| the myriads Of grains of pollen and
seeds in flowers and plants, the cysts
of certain minute protocol. the eggs
| OF some crustaceans and insects pass
into state of latent life. So also do
animal tissues. and even some per-
fectly developed forms of life, such as
certain species Of algae. MOSES, Ii
chens. rotifers, artisca and nematodes,
called reviviscents.
Water Vitalizes Them.
To Leeuwenhoek G701), the founder
Of micrography. we owe the first OBJ
servations on reviviscent animals, the
artisca or water bears. and the rotifers
of the roofs and cutters. He OBJ
served with great establishment that
these little beings may remain dried up
for five months amid moss and dust
without showing the slightest trace of
life, and, when moistened, resume their
vital functions. Baker, experimenting
with the nematodes, whose life cycle is
only ten months. succeeded in bringing
them to life twenty eight years after
their desicatfon, proving that their life
had been greatly prolonged by this
Spallanzani brought rotifers to life
by placing them in water after they
had been dried and preserved for three
years: another scientist experimental
tYyft ta &os H. AAI t. -
ing them successfully after they had
been dried eight days. and heated two
hours at temperature of 80 degrees
|Centigrade.
mostly to seeds, some of which he
brought to life after twenty EIGHT to
eighty-seven years had elapsed; he en-
ployed great heat and cold. and expert
mented with dry and wet seeds, seeds
in vacuum and seeds submerged in
liquids, and on the whole evolved much
interesting information concerning this
subject. dealing literally with life and
death.
Some aspects of Industrial chemistry
are discussed by DR.. L. H. Baekeland,
who says that industrial chemistry has
been defined as 1.-The chemistry of dol
lars and cents" although it possesses
far-reaching economic influences. and
its endless ramiications have become
interviewer with the whole fabric of
modern civilization. Reviewing the
early history of applied chemistry, be-
ginning little more than hundred
years ago, the author shows the devel-
opment of this branch of science and
the many phases of manufacture into
which it enters.
Different Races and Types.
Prof. Felix v. Luschan of the Uni
verstiy of Berlin contributes an arti-
Gle 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 Con-
| stantinople the author states that he
has heard over twenty different Ian
guages spoken. and seen as many diff
ferent types. He describes some of the
apparent foreign elements, and then
takes UP the remaining tribes and
groups encountered in an anthropo-
logical study Of western Asia, study
pursued by the writer for thirty years.
Recent excavations at the ancient
Egyptian city About. called by the
Edouard Naville. Abydos was primarily
| a place for the worship of Osiris, the
| most human god of the Egyptian pam
| theon, who was cut into pieces by his
| rival Set, or Typhon, but brought back
| structed his body. Here was located his
| tomb, although we do not know wheth-
| err II contained the gods body or just
his head. as the Greek writer's say 1t
was a noted burying ground from the
Neolithic age to the Roman empire, and
all about are cemeteries filled with dead
from the Intervening epochs.
| Remains of temples are nearby. that
| of Seti I, father OF Rameses II. being
almost In its entirety. Between a door
way with enormous lintels and the
temple of Seti l the excavators I'M
earthed a large edifice evidently built
at the time of the pyramids-that Is.
belonging to the first dynasties. 1t Is
| a unique structure. built of massive
materials. rectangular in shape. and
| incIosed by two-layer walls six meters
thick, bound together by dovetails. The
area inclosed measured 80 by 20
meters and was separated into three
parallel naves by enormous monolithic
pillars Of granite. The two side naves
| had q ceiling of granite monoliths
about Ave meters long and more than
two meters thick. The central section
compose q great reservoir or pool.
surrounding which are seventeen cells.
| connected by a narrow footpath.
Through the rear Of one OF the cells
located in the center OF the back wall,
the entrance to the tomb Of Osiris was
| found 1t seems curious that this an
cient Egyptian structure. which may
be one OF the oldest, should be neither
a temple nor a tomb. but reservoir.
fed by subtsPraneAn waters. 1t was
l I'D in with