POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



285 



from flowers and berries of elder ; from syc- 

 amore, walnut, blackberry, and balm. To 

 make shrub, to one gallon of milk flavored 

 with lemons and Seville oranges were added 

 two quarts of red wine, two gallons of rum, 

 and one gallon of brandy. The books give 

 directions how to spin gold and silver webs 

 for dessert, to spin birds' nests, to make a 

 Chinese temple or obelisk, a fish-pond with 

 silver and gold fishes, a hen's nest with 

 strips of lemon for straw, and eggs filled 

 with flummery, and a hen and chickens in 

 jelly. To make a "desert island," "take a 

 lump of paste and form it into a rock three 

 inches broad at the top, set in the middle of 

 a deep china dish, and set a cast figure on 

 it with a crown on its head and a knot of 

 sugar-candy at its feet, etc. ... If this dish 

 is for a wedding supper, put two figures in- 

 stead of one." There are also recipes for 

 a " rocky island," a " floating island," with 

 sheep and swans, " or you may put in snakes 

 or any wild animals of the same sort," " Sol- 

 omon's temple in flummery," " moonshine," 

 and " moon and stars in jelly " — a half-moon 

 with seven stars shining out of flummery 

 colored with cochineal and chocolate to imi- 

 tate the color of the sky. Among solid 

 dishes the books tell how to make porcupine 

 of a breast of veal, to surprise a shoulder of 

 mutton or any other joint, to dress a joint to 

 look like a hen and chickens, to bombard 

 veal, to transmogrify pigeons, to Florent'ne 

 a hare, make a Solomon Gundy, make an 

 artificial turtle, and barbecue a pig. 



Trees and Malaria. — According to Prof. 

 Corrado Tommassi Crudelli, some of the 

 prevalent notions respecting relations of for- 

 ests and malaria are mistaken ones. The 

 relations are not direct. Forests do not 

 contribute to the propagation of malaria un- 

 less they are growing upon a malarious soil ; 

 and they can not make a soil malarious 

 which would not be malarious without them. 

 But they favor the development of malaria, 

 when it is already there, by intercepting the 

 solar rays, and thus checking evaporation 

 and retaining moisture in summer. When 

 the obstacle to the direct action of the solar 

 rays is removed from infected land, the sum- 

 mer drying lessens the malarious generation, 

 and in some favorable circumstances may 

 even arrest it. The idea prevails in Rome 



that forests act as a screen to prevent mala- 

 ria from crossing them by causing it to be 

 filtered out in their foliage, and the estab- 

 lishment of forests at certain places is ad- 

 vised for that purpose. But it has been 

 proved that the destruction of woods and 

 forests in such situations has not led to an 

 increase of malaria, but frequently to its 

 mitigation by promoting better drainage and 

 improved cultivation. The production of fe- 

 vers in the Agro Romano and in Rome is 

 the result of a complexity of meteorological 

 and physiological conditions. An abundant 

 development of malaria is verified only when 

 the malarious soil is damp and warm. The 

 malarious charge of the atmosphere may 

 vary greatly according to the different pro- 

 portion of the two indispensable factors of 

 malaria — heat and moisture. If both are at 

 their maximum, so is the malaria, especially 

 when the sky is clear. When the malarious 

 charge of the atmosphere has been great for 

 many days in succession, and the bodies of 

 the inhabitants have become more or less 

 impregnated with the malarious germs, a 

 fall of temperature may be very injurious, 

 by causing an arrest of the germs within 

 the organism and preventing their rapid 

 elimination by the secretions. Hence it is 

 that northern winds exercise an unfavorable 

 influence during the fever seasons. 



Soda Salts in Arizona. — The deposits of 

 sulphate of soda of the valley of the Verde 

 River, Arizona, have long been known and 

 extensively quarried by the rancheros of the 

 region to obtain a substitute for salt for cat- 

 tle and horses. They have recently been 

 visited by William P. Blake, who found the 

 deposits of thenardite and allied minerals 

 associated with it to cover several acres in 

 extent, and reach a thickness of fifty or sixty 

 feet or more. They appear as a series of 

 rounded hills, with sides covered with a 

 snow-white efflorescence and a greenish-col- 

 ored and yellow clay at the bottom and top, 

 partially covering the saline beds. The bulk 

 of the deposits consists of thenardite, in a 

 coarsely crystalline mass, so compact and 

 firm that it has to be got out by drilling and 

 blasting. The white efflorescence on the 

 hills is composed of the hydrous sulphate of 

 soda {mirabilite), which occurs in close as- 

 sociation with the thenardite. Other asso- 



