250 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



in the act of consecrating the eucharistic 

 elements, entertained a doubt as to tran- 

 substantiation, when suddenly he perceived 

 on his alb (white robe) drops of Wood, 

 which had previously been concealed by the 

 plaits of the garment. He hastened to hide 

 the stain, but in the excited state of his im- 

 agination only saw the appearances of bleed- 

 ing hosts multiplying. This wonderful oc- 

 currence (as it was then esteemed) gave 

 occasion to the establishment of the festival 

 of Corpus Christi by Pope Urban IV., and 

 is the subject of Raffaelle's beautiful Mira- 

 colo di Bolsena, which he painted in the year 

 1512. The well-known savant, Ehrenberg 

 of Berlin, was the first to attempt an expla- 

 nation of the occurrence, by assigning nat- 

 ural causes for it. A Berlinese lady, having 

 shown to him some potatoes boiled in their 

 skins, and then laid aside for the space of 

 one day, with a deep-red color appearing 

 where the skins had burst, he discovered 

 the existence, at the broken places, of a 

 microscopic animalcule zobs to -g oVrrth of a 

 line in diameter, which he recognized as the 

 cause of the phenomenon. In memory of 

 the marvels wrought by the creature in 

 past times, he gave it the name of Monas 

 prodigiosa the miraculous monad. 



" The City of the Future." There is a 

 tendency among the more comfortable 

 classes to make cities merely places to work 

 in, but to abandon them for the country as 

 soon as business is over for the day. l^r. 

 0. B. Bunce, in Appletons' Journal, op- 

 poses this movement, and claims for city- 

 life superiority over country-life, in almost 

 every respect. He proposes to utilize the 

 pure air above our heads, by erecting build- 

 ings of many stories, with steam-elevators 

 and every modern convenience. This would 

 bring the entire population within easy 

 reach of the theatre, lecture- and concert- 

 hall, art-gallery, museum, etc. In short, 

 the writer makes out a strong case for the 

 city, as regards intellectual life. Then 

 come physical health and comfort. It is 

 an error to suppose that the city is less 

 salubrious than the country ; a walk up 

 Broadway is sufficient to prove this. Dys- 

 pepsia, rheumatism, and diseases arising 

 from damp houses and undrained lands, are 

 more common in the country. The city, 



too, is not subject to the plague of mosqui- 

 toes. The writer would have city people 

 employ all the resources of science, to 

 evolve from their surroundings all the 

 health and comfort, all the enjoyment and 

 intellectual life, which the town can afford. 



An Aged Carp. The following remark- 

 able story concerning the age of a carp re- 

 cently killed at Chantilly, while fighting 

 with a pike, is told by the Paris Gaidois: 

 " It was the oldest carp in the world, being 

 475 years of age, and belonged to M. 



C , the proprietor of a fine property at 



Chantilly. It was an historical carp, a carp 

 which was born at the Comto de Cosse's, in 

 the time of Francois I. ; it had passed 

 through various fortunes, having had no 

 less than thirty-two masters. M. G pur- 

 chased it a year since for 1,300 francs. The 

 name of the carp was Gabrielle, and it meas- 

 ured nearly 29J inches round, and S85 inch- 

 es in length." 



The Potato - Disease. According to 

 recent statements in the English papers, one 

 of the most serious of the multiplied ills 

 from which England is now suffering is the 

 almost total failure of this year's potato- 

 crop, due to the attack of a parisitic fungus 

 peculiar to plants belonging to the same 

 natural order as the potato. This affection, 

 which is known as the pofato-disease, or 

 more commonly nisi, was first observed in 

 Germany in 1842, where it assumed a serious 

 character. In 1844 it broke out in Canada, 

 and did a great amount of damage. In the 

 following year it was first noticed in Eng- 

 land, and in 1S46 prevailed all over Europe, 

 but was most destructive in Ireland, where 

 it gave rise to the celebrated Irish famine. 

 The mycelium of this fungus eats into and 

 completely destroys the tissue of the leaf 

 and stem, and, when once its ravages have 

 commenced, there is little hope of arresting 

 them. From the leaves and stem the dis- 

 ease frequently extends to the tubers, where 

 it sometimes lies dormant for months, so 

 that, after being stored, apparently sound 

 in autumn, they become affected in the fol- 

 lowing spring. When the disease appears 

 in the growing plant, brown spots are first 

 seen on the margins of the leaves, corru- 

 gating them as they spread. Yery rapid 



