POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



715 



removed from another fowl, great numbers 

 of small, white, opaque specks were seen in 

 the cellular tissue, and by means of the mi- 

 croscope mites were found, of the species 

 Laminosioptes gallinorum (Megnin). The 

 opaque specks were of a calcareous sub- 

 stance, and many contained the remains of 

 one or more of these mites. In the same 

 fowl Dr. Taylor found thousands of encyst- 

 ed nematoids, resembling, under a micro- 

 scope of low power, Trichina spiralis, but 

 under a power of about 500 diameters they 

 seemed to be of an undescrib|d species. A 

 third fowl also contained mifes of the spe- 

 cies gallinorum. Dr. Taylor deems it proba- 

 ble that a considerable amount of disease 

 prevailing among American domestic fowls, 

 and not referable to any known type, may 

 be due to such parasites. He suggests that 

 carbolic acid, or other disinfectants, sprink- 

 led about henneries, might prove useful as 

 an antidote to these, and to external para- 

 sites. 



The Ferment-Organism in Plant-Grortli. 



— Professor Storcr, of the Bussey Institu- 

 tion, in reporting upon his experiments with 

 vegetable mold as a fertilizer, suggests 

 that the activity of the development of the 

 organism or ferment of nitrification is a 

 very important factor in the action of ma- 

 nures, which deserves cai'eful study. In- 

 deed, he says, one of the first things now 

 to be done in seeking to explain the agri- 

 cultural value of the nitrogen in vegetable 

 mold is to determine precisely what the 

 ferment-organism is, and to study its habits 

 and the history of its development. When 

 this knowledge has been gained, "it will 

 doubtless be practicable for the farmer to 

 employ the soil-nitrogen in a much more in- 

 telligent way than has been customary hith- 

 erto. He will then be able to count defi- 

 nitely upon the soil-nitrogen as a resource 

 in a sense that was hardly to be thought of 

 by his predecessors. Many methods of till- 

 age and of manuring, and some modes of 

 mulching — the conduct of which is now 

 purely empirical — and the whole subject of 

 composts made with peat and loam, will un- 

 doubtedly then be brought into the domain of 

 reasonable practice. For example, the ques- 

 tion is now open whether the power of clo- 

 ver and root-crops to supply themselves with 



nitrogen may not depend upon the comfort 

 and shelter these crops offer to the nitrify- 

 ing ferment. It is not unlikely that the 

 ferment-organism may prosper exceedingly 

 beneath the dense shade of clover and other 

 large-leaved plants, in the comparatively 

 moist surface-soil which is peculiar to such 

 fields. Perhaps even the manner in which 

 the roots of those plants act upon the soil 

 may have a favorable influence upon the 

 life of the ferment. ... So, too, in the 

 case of Indian corn, a plant which grows 

 vigorously in hot weather, it is probable 

 that its observed power of utilizing the soil- 

 nitrogen to better advantage than the small 

 grains can will be found in some peculiar- 

 ity of the crop which promotes the growth 

 of the nitric ferment in the soil beneath it, 

 and so makes the nitrogen of the vegeta- 

 ble mold available as plant-food." On this 

 point, Jared Eliot, writing in 1747 on the 

 importance of tilling Indian corn thorough- 

 ly, observed : " What is still more remark- 

 able, if the Indian corn be well tilled, the 

 next crop, whether it be oats or flax, so 

 much the bigger and better will that suc- 

 ceeding crop be, so that the land must have 

 gained strength and riches ; if it were not 

 so, why did not the Indian corn exhaust 

 and spend the strength of the land, espe- 

 cially when we consider how large corn is 

 made to grow by the good tillage ? " Pro- 

 fessor Storer predicts that the making of 

 composts may, if his hypothesis is true, 

 soon cease to be regarded as a subject of 

 technical chemistry, and the consideration 

 of the theory of composting may pass from 

 the chemist's hands into those of the botan- 

 ist or biologist. 



Importance of cnltirating the Eye-sight. 



— Dr. R. Brudenell Carter has published a 

 paper urging that the culture and improve- 

 ment of the eye-sight should receive a share 

 of the attention that is giren to physical de- 

 velopment in other directions. He believes 

 that it is not school-life alone, but the gen- 

 eral conditions of civilization that have 

 diminished our capacity of vision, and cites 

 instances of sharp sight and long sight in 

 savages, that were not regarded as at all 

 unusual, where white men were exceedingly 

 dull of vision. " Is there any reason," he 

 asks, " why perfection of sight should not 



