144 



upward inclination to the horizontal plane, and one of these be bent 

 downward toward this plijue, it ai)pears to lose its vigor, wIhIg the 

 other gains in a like ratio. It is now announced as tlie discovery of an 

 ignorant peasant on the Danube, named Ilooibreuk, that this law holds 

 good only u]> to the horizontal position; and that if the branch is de- 

 pressed still further, and below the horizontal, it becomes characteuized 

 by much greater vigor than before, and, in fact, will put out leaves and 

 branches to an astonishing and unheard-of degree. But this depends 

 upon keeping the branches as nearly as possilile in a .straight line, the 

 effect being measurably lost with a considerable curvature. In this 

 case, only the buds which occu]>y the top of the arc are developed com- 

 Fig. c. pletely, at the expense of the rest, 



which remain in their original condi- 

 tion, contributing neither to the ex- 

 ^ tension of loUage nor of fruit. (The 



,.;.-' successive positions of the branch 



/;' are illustrated in the accompanying 



/ cut, Fig. G.) 



jI Duchesne-Toureace, in communi- 



cating these facts to Xes Mondes, at- 

 tempts to show the causes which seem 

 to determine so gTcat a flow of sap to 

 the branches inclined below thehori- 

 ...., -^----^ - • ' zontal line, and thinks that the ex- 



;:---'■■'"' planation is to be found in the estab- 



—v... • lishment of a siphon arrangement, by 



"■'"•■■>.•.•,,. means of which the juice is carried 



■"■■-^^^^^^^^^^^ over the bend from the main stem in 



'■^"■---xs,, excessive ilow. Be this as it may, 

 "~ the fact remains, as illustrated by 

 ^^^_^_ an experiment prosecuted by this 



:S^/^v=?^--"-'^^ gentleman. In early spring, when 



the sap was running in the vines, he toolc ibur plants of about the saine 

 size, and trimm.ed them so as to leave one stem to each, these being 

 arranged vertically, obliquely upward ; horizontally and obliquely down- 

 ward. He then cut off the stems, and collected and measured what ex- 

 uded, and found the amount from the branch inclined downv.^ard was 

 more than three times greater than that from the others. 



Murrain in cattle. — The subject of murrain in cattle iias of late 

 years received a good deal of attention, and little by little Ave are ac- 

 quiring more definite ideas in regard to this disease, as well as to its in- 

 fluence upon the healthfulness of the milk and flesh of the animal. The 

 experiments of Chauveau have shown that tuberculosis of cattle is 

 transmissible ; that is to say, by bringing sound cattle in communica- 

 tion with those that are diseased, similar tubercles become developed in 

 the former, or, in other words, they become afflicted with murrain, which 

 is only another name for tuberculosis. ' 



The investigations of Professor Ivlebs, in Berne, have shown still 

 further that the transmissibility of the disease is not limited to cattle, 

 but may also extend to other animals ; indeed he has been convinced 

 that the human tubercles are equally transmissible with those of cattle, 

 and that murrain in cattle ov/es its origin to the same infectious material 

 as the human tuberculosis. Thus, certain Guinea pigs having. been fed 

 with the murrainous matter, Vvcre infected with it, and others, treated 

 with the tuberculous matter from man, exhibited the same result. 



