Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1915-09-02
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS

The ST. Vincent de Paul Society Of
Brooklyn. n. Y, by way Of a service
to the people. looks over the city's
waste to recover articles that have
been thrown away Internationally.
Things found last year ranged from a
$500 roll Of bills and solid gold watch
in an old vest pocket to two healthy
specimens of the rubber plant.
Bundles of laundry are the most fire.
quent item.
An anti-typhoid campaign, carried
out in Yakima county. Washington, by
the United States public health ser
vice in cooperation with the local
health authorities, has given striking
results, which are described in q re-
cent public health bulletin. Prior to
1911 this county had every year
typhoid fever rate three times as high
as the average rate for the whole
! United States. In the summer Of 1911
practical measures for the correction
| of the obviously insanitary conditions
were recommended. and, what is much
more important, were carried out by
the people. The annual prevalence Of
typhoid has in consequence, been re-
duced about 80 per cent.
question of using prickiy pear (Opuntia'
as food for cattle takes the form OF
bulletin Of the department Of agriculture
Of Bombay. The author describes expert.
ments at the government dairy at Kir-
dee, in which sig bullocks we're fed with
a mixture Of 100 parts Of prickly pear to
six parts of cotton seed at the rate OF
70 pounds 10 each 1000 pounds live weigh:
a day during six months. The spines.
which form the danger in feeding prtckly
pear, were burned off over a stove. after
which the fodder was cut into small
pieces by means of chaff cutter or
chopper. This experiment and others
proved that a mixture Of prickly pear
and cotton seed will not only support life,
but will restore half-starved animals to
good condition
The sacred mushroom Of the Aztecs.
which was called by them teonaniacatl
and used as an intoxcant was, accord
ing to investigations recently reported,
not a mushroom. but the narcotic cactus.
Lophophora Williamsii. now we'll known
for its use by the American Indians in
religious ceremonies. 1t is popularity
called "mescal button" though better
name is peyote. Early writers on Mexi-
co described it as a mushroom. and this
notion as to its botanical status still
survives. The mistake is due to the fact
that in one Of the two principal forms IN
which ii is prepared the head Of the
plant is cut off transversely, and when
dried it bears a close resemblance to
mushroom In its other form it Is cut
longitudinally or in irregular fragments,
and was described by early writers as
raiz diabolica, or devils root
The strength of hemloek stick q foot
square that had been in water almost 20
years, was recently tested in the 100000
pound testing machine at Rensselaer,
Polytechnic institute at Troy, y. Y. The
timber, which was is feet nine inches
long. had formed part Of one of the
piers of the Congress street bridge at
Troy. When the pier broke down after
the food III the spring of 1913, the timber
was turned over to one OF the material
testing laborator of the institute. II
was kept in the open air for three
months, and then placed in a dryroom
for a little more than nine months. When
nlaced in the testing machine, the COL
urn failed under load of $4,000 pounds.
that IS, the long -submerged wood showed
an ultimate strength Of 2s7o pounds to
the square inch In the opinion OF FRO
lessor T. r. Lawson. who conducted the
test the remarkable strength Of this piece
of hemlock seems TO show that oeans
| immersed in water for a long time does
not decrease the column strength OF TIM
Der that is subsequently permitted 70
dry out.