284 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



5& 



we could safely infer that only one egj^ 

 is laid to a hole, and that as soon as 

 this final labor of procreation is over 

 the insect immediately dies. Through 

 a specialist at Clark University in 

 Mass., I learned that its name was pig- 

 eon-tremex — and then in a book sug- 

 gested by him it is described as belong- 

 ing to the genus commonly called horn 

 tails. But why it is a pigeon or columba 

 I have yet to learn. For a long time I 

 have been wondering why egg plant was 

 so called, and only this summer while I 

 visited the county fair in Hartford, I 

 discovered one exactly of the shape, 

 size and color of a lien's egg. In a sim- 

 ilar way it took years before I found 

 out why grape fruit and pineapples 

 were so named. 



In the sanitarium we are not per- 

 mitted to keep singing pets for they 

 might disturb the patients in the pre- 

 scribed quiet hour after the midday 

 meal, so one day I bought half a dozen 

 small gold fish which I kept in a glass 

 globe. It became my duty and pleas- 

 ure every morning to change the water 

 and to give them a pinch of specially 

 prepared food. For about three weeks 

 nothing happened to them until one 

 warm day I found it necessary to post 

 the following notice in the hall where 

 all patients resort at one time or an- 

 other. 



Ladies and Friends: 



It is my sorrowful duty to an- 

 nounce to you that one of my pets, 

 that silvery beauty of a gold fish died 

 yesterday of acute congestion of the 

 brain, caused by my criminal care- 

 lessness in leaving the glass bowl 

 in the hot sun the whole morning 

 Please do not blame me severely for my 

 heart is almost broken. My only sol- 

 ace, however, is the fact that the poor 

 dear passed away peacefully without 

 apparent suffering, after a few feeble 

 attempts at balancing itself in the 

 water. The remains lay in state in the 

 slop bucket of my room until this 

 morning, when they were tenderly bur- 

 ied in the waste can of the men's dining 

 room. I shall observe the customary 

 mourning for three days, by refraining 

 from social occasions where fish stories 

 are likely to be told. 



(Signed) 



A few days later I was told by a 

 Japanese friend who came to see me 

 that an entire change of water was in- 

 jurious to their health and would often 

 result in loss of scales; that the water 

 should be changed gradually, or else 

 a pitcherful kept in the same room so 

 that the old and new might always be 

 of the same temperature. It had been 

 my original intention to watch all my 

 goldfish carefully and christen them 

 each according to their moral or in- 

 tellectual peculiarities, for they must 

 have individualities no less marked 

 than we humans ! 



So far, however, I had no time suffi- 

 cient for completing this observation, 

 though I have no doubt this will insure 

 hours of close attention which will 

 carry me far beyond the reach of world- 

 ly cares and worries. Another source 

 of harmless pleasure for me was to take 

 snapshot pictures of cows and calves in 

 the pasture, of ducks and rabbits, of 

 pigs and turkeys on the farm, of a snake 

 in the midst of swallowing a toad, ana 

 of dogs and chickens of rare or ordinary 

 varieties. 



But of keener interest to me was the 

 making of mental sketches of my fel- 

 low patients and sanitarium workers, 

 for they formed a true microcosmos of 

 at least a miniature of the United 

 States of America in the process of her 

 nation building, representing as they 

 did mort than a dozen racial or na- 

 tional origins, gathered here in a com- 

 munity of about sixty people. But I 

 will not narrate my story along this 

 line for fear my good friends might 

 be offended were I to include them 

 in my nature study ! Suffice 

 it to conclude here with a point in 

 real natural history of ourselves. We 

 often speak about "every drop of 

 blood" in our veins — but how many 

 drops of it do we actually carry in our 

 bodies? Our medical authority Dr. 

 Bartlett already referred to, kindly and 

 patiently figured out for me that ap- 

 proximately one-thirteenth of the 

 weight of the whole body is blood, that 

 there are about eight pounds or pints of 

 blood in a person weighing 105 pounds, 

 that eight pints is equal to 128 ounces, 

 and that there being 480 drops to an 

 ounce, that person would have 61,440 

 drops of blood. 



