of Rural Art and Taste. 



351 



Dartvin vs. Darivin. — A Darwin phi- 

 losopher was brought before a justice on a 

 charge of drunkenness. In defence, he said, 

 " Your worship, I am a Darwinian, and I 

 have, I think, discovered the origin of my 

 unfortunate tendency.' One of my remotest 

 grandfathers was an anthropoid of a curious 

 turn of mind. One morning, about 4, .391, 633 

 B.C., he was looking over his store of cocoa- 

 nuts, when he picked up one for his breakfast, 

 in which the milk had fermented. He drank 

 the liquor and got gloriously drunk, and ever 

 after he always kept his cocoanuts until foi*- 

 mentation took place. Judge, then, whether 

 a tendency handed down through innumer- 

 able ancestors should not be taken in my 

 defence." Casting a sarcastic look at the 

 prisoner, the justice said, " I am sorry that 

 the peculiar arrangement of the atoms of star- 

 dust resulted in giving me a disposition to 

 sentence you to pay a fine of five shillings and 

 costs." 



Gas Pipes Fatal to Trees Cuttings of 



Willow, the lower ends of which were placed 

 in flasks containing a little water and filled 

 with coal gas, developed only short roots, and 

 the buds on the upper parts died shortly after 

 unfolding in the air. Of ten plants in pots 

 (varieties of Fuchsia and Salvia), among the 

 roots of which coal gas was conducted through 

 openings in the bottom of the pots, seven died 

 in four months. To show that the plants 

 were killed, not by the direct action of the 

 gas, but in consequence of the poisoning of 

 the soil, several experiments were made with 

 earth, through which coal gas had passed for 

 two or three hours daily for two-and-a-half 

 years. The rootlets of seed sown in this soil 

 remained very short and soon rotted. A 

 plant of Draciena was repotted in the soil ; in 

 ten days the leaves dried up and the roots 

 died. These results sufiiciently account for 

 the fact, that the trees planted near gas pipes 

 in streets so often die ; the closing of gas 

 pipes in wider tubes, having openings to the 



air, and through which currents coi;ld be 

 maintained by artificial means, has therefore 

 been recommended as a remedy. Such a 

 plan is still to be more recommended on 

 hygienic grounds, since it has been shown 

 than infiltration of coal gas through the soil, 

 takes place even into houses not supplied with 

 gas. — Scientific American. 



Ouarana, a special vegetable remedy. 

 — The value of Guarana, as a vegetable 

 remedy for nervous headache, is thus vouched 

 for by a correspondent of The Cultivator. 

 " Gruarana, made from the bruised and roasted 

 seed of the Paullinia sorbilis, growing in 

 Brazil, contains an alkaloid allied in character 

 to that found in tea and coffee, and which 

 comes nearer to a specific for sick headache 

 and any other ill effect from our exertions, 

 than any remedy I have ever found for any 

 disease, in a practice of over forty years. 

 Taken at the first warning of an attack, it 

 will ward it off' in nine cases out of ten, and 

 do more than any medicine I have ever known 

 to prevent its return." 



Coal Loss by Exposure. — That coal 

 loses considerably in value by exposure to the 

 weather has long been known by practical 

 men, but few probably would suppose that 

 the heating power of bituminous coal is some- 

 times diminished forty-seven per cent, from 

 that cause, ten per cent, being the loss in the 

 same coal under cover ; anthracite suffers less 

 from the exposure, but enough to render it 

 economical under most circumstances to keep 

 it sheltered. 



Health from Flowers — It is reported 

 that an Italian professor has discovered that 

 perfumes from flowers have a chemical effect 

 on the atmosphere, converting its oxygen into 

 ozone, and thus increasing its health-impart- 

 ing power. As the result of his researches 

 he states that essences of cherry, laurel, 

 lavender, mint, junii^er, melons, fennel, and 

 bergamot are among those which develop the 

 largest quantities of ozone, while anise and 

 thyme develop it in a less degree. Flowers 

 destitute of perfume have no such effect. He 

 recommends that dwellers in marshy localities 

 and near places infected with animal emana- 



