7 i8 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



sewers of Paris, or the underground ave- 

 nues, that might be made by connecting 

 the sidewalk vaults of New York, seems to 

 be an indispensable prerequisite to any 

 practicable general location of electric tele- 

 graphic and other wires under the ground. 

 Nevertheless, the overhead electric-light 

 wires are a nuisance, and fitly entitled to 

 the epithet, " a Damocletian terror," which 

 the London " Lancet " applies to them. 



Food-Value of "Whole-Wheat" Flonr. 



Dr. Campbell Morfitt, who has been largely 

 instrumental in introducing improved forms 

 of bread and new methods of bread-making, 

 has reported an experiment he has made to 

 ascertain the relative value of common flour 

 and of his " whole- wheat " flour. The ob- 

 jections to the old Graham flour, that its 

 coarse bran was irritating to the digestive or- 

 gans, were well founded. The "whole-wheat" 

 flour is free from this fault, for the bran is 

 not coarse or sharp-edged. Dr. Morfitt 

 makes three kinds of flour : the crude, rep- 

 resenting the entire grain ; a standard re- 

 fined granular meal, representing ninety- 

 three or ninety-four per cent of the cleaned 

 grain ; and a pearl-white meal representing 

 all the farina of the grain with some cereal- 

 ine, about eighty-three per cent of the whole. 

 Given weights of each of these were care- 

 fully brushed over a fine wire-cloth till all 

 the farinaceous portions had gone through. 

 That which was left on the sieve called 

 proximate bran amounted, in the mean, to 

 1S*28 per cent of the crude, and 12*19 per 

 cent of the standard meal. Therefore, wheat 

 may be said, generally, to consist of 81*72 

 per cent farina and 18'28 of branny matter. 

 The proximate brans were next inclosed in 

 fine cloths and kneaded under relays of cool 

 water till the latter ceased to become cloudy, 

 and by this treatment were reduced in weight 

 rather more than one half. The residue left 

 from this treatment was called absolute bran. 

 It exists in a fixed ratio to the meal in all 

 the wheats indifferently of 9'65 per cent 

 from the crude, and 5*80 per cent from the 

 standard meal. Thus, the total of actual 

 bran in any wheat does not exceed ten per 

 cent. The proximate bran was then sub- 

 jected to an artificial digestive process, to 

 discover how much more of its substance it 

 would yield in that way. The quantity of 



"ultimate" bran left after this experiment 

 was reduced by 18 "44 per cent, or to V'87 

 per cent for the crude meals, and by 21-88 

 per cent, or to 4*56 per cent for the stand- 

 ard meals. The more powerful natural di- 

 gestion of the stomach must certainly ex- 

 tract still more from the meals. " Results 

 could not be more impressive than these," 

 says Dr. Morfitt, " as to the superior nour- 

 ishing value of whole-wheat meal, for they 

 prove that the separation and rejection of 

 the bran must inevitably impoverish the re- 

 sidual farina of the flour." 



Foisonons and Medicinal Herbs in In- 

 dia. No country is better supplied with 

 medicinal as well as poisonous herbs than 

 India. The waysides and ditches abound in 

 plants that possess some strange, and some 

 the most deadly qualities. One of the most 

 common of these plants is the datoora, with 

 its large white flower, and leaves resembling 

 those of the hollyhock. It is well known 

 as a remedy for asthma, and its leaves are 

 used in the shape of cigars or " tobacco," 

 but its seeds are a subtile and powerful poi- 

 son, in small quantities causing temporary 

 insanity, and in large either permanent in- 

 jury to the brain or death. The natives 

 believe that it is used by robbers to aid 

 them in their operations. The mad&r grows 

 from two to four feet high in isolated groups 

 along road-sides and in open, sunny places. 

 It is soft and branching, with broad, thick, 

 dark-green leaves covered with down, and 

 large white waxen flowers tinged with pink 

 toward the center. The application of the 

 leaf is a sovereign remedy for sprains, 

 swellings, and pains. The strangest and 

 most powerful property of the madar re- 

 sides in the milk, which exudes abundantly 

 on the slightest scratch of its succulent leaf 

 or stem. The natives profess to use it for 

 any obstinate sore, especially in the nostril, 

 but when swallowed it produces spasms of 

 hilarious intoxication of which the patient 

 recollects nothing after they are over. The 

 natives say that if a probe is formed from a 

 mixture of the maddr-mi\k with a pounded 

 ruttce-seed, dried and hardened in the sun, 

 and if the skin is pricked with this and the 

 point left, death will follow imperceptibly 

 and painlessly in two or three days, leaving 

 no trace of the cause but the faintest speck 



