A Prolific Pair. 



In the church of St. Nicholas at Ghent, 

 t|iere is a tabjet to the memory of Oliver 

 Minjau and Amalberga Slaugeuf, his wife, 

 who were the parents of 31 children, 21 boys 

 and JO girls. Qld Oljver appeared at the 

 heac}ofbi821 sons, all in uniform, when 

 Charles Y. made his entry into Ghent as 

 Count of Flanders. Charles was so pleased 

 at the fact of a simple artisan bringing up 

 and educating such a family, that he confer- 

 red on Oliver a modest pension. The renown- 

 ed Count of Abensburg, when the Emperor 

 Henry II. visited his German provinces, pre- 

 sented his 32 children as the most accepta- 

 ble ottering he could make to his sovereign. 

 The Count was happier with them than poor 

 Minjan and his wife Amalberga with theirs. 

 The' 31 children of this Ghent couple were 

 carried off together in 1626, by the suette, 

 which we have no difficulty (as it is called 

 the newly-imported disease) in recognising 

 as the black sweat of England. Minjau and 

 his wife died within a few weeks after the 

 loss of all their children, among whom they 

 lie interre^. Their monument is tbo niqst 

 affecting of the m,any memorials of the dead 

 raised in populous Ghent. 



AN OSSIFIED MAN. In a quiet little village on 

 the Western Reserve in Ohio, says the Prescott 

 Transcript, there lives a man who, physiologically 

 considered, is certainly one of the wonders of the 

 world. His joints are completely ossified turned 

 to bone and he is not capaHe of making the 

 slightest movement, except alteiuutely opening and 

 shutting two fingers of his right hand. His body 

 is as rigid as iron, and could not be bent forward 

 or backward without breaking some of his bones. 

 This singular process of ossification has been going 

 on in his system for more than twenty years. He 

 is now about forty-six years old, and has not had 

 the use of his limbs, so that he could walk, since 

 he was nineteen. Ossification commenced first in 

 his ancle joints gradually extending itself through 

 his system until he was entirely helpless. Since 

 that time h has been entirely under his mother's 

 care, and she watches over him with an anxiety 

 which none but a mother can feel. When about 

 twenty-six years old, he became entirely blind from 

 some unknown cause, and has remained so ever 

 since. At about thirty he suffered greatlj from the 

 toothache, and finally he had his teeth all extract- 

 ed. A year or two afterward, his finger and toe- 

 nails all came off, and were supplied by others 

 growing out from his fingers and toes at right an- 

 gles, and presenting the appearance of horns. 

 What is still more singular with regard to his 

 nails, if the end of the nail be cut off, it will bleed 

 freely. 



Such is the condition of this remarkabie man at 

 the present time. He has been visited by a great 

 number of scientific men from all parts of the world, 

 but all have failed to give any plausible reason of 

 the cause of his transformation from flesh to bone. 

 Singular as it may appear, although his jaw-bone 

 is firmly set in his head he not only talus freely, 

 but fluently converses with his friends and those 

 who visit him, on all ordinary topics of the day, 

 and he shows himself well informed and of good 

 mind. He is always cheerful, appears contented 

 and happy, and it seems probable jhat he will live 

 many years to come. / & f> ^ 



THE LITTLE MONSTER IN YOUR SUGAR. 



The sugar Acarus approaches somewhtit r 

 in organization and habits, to the louse and 

 the itch insect itself, which are also included 

 in the genus Acarus. The sugar mite is 

 in size so considerable that it is plainly visi- 

 ble to the unaided sight. When present in. 

 sugar it may be detected by the following 

 proceedings: 



Two or three teaspoonfuls of sugar should 

 be dissolved in a large wine glass of tepid 

 water, and the solution allowed to remain at 

 ret for an hour or so; at the end of that time 

 the animalcules will be found, some on the 

 surface of the liquid, some adhering to the 

 sides of the glass and others to the bottom, 

 mixed up with the dark and copious sedi- 

 ment. The body is oval, or rather somewhat 

 ovate, being broader behind than before. 

 From its posterior part proceed four long 

 and stiff bristles, two together on each side, 

 and some eight or ten pmaller ones are ar- 

 ranged nearly at equal distances around the 

 circumference of the body; from its interior 

 part a probosis of complex organization pro- 

 ceeds and from its inferior surface of eight 

 legs, joined or furnished with* spines or hairs 

 at each articulation; the spine whioh issues 

 from the last joint but one of each leg, is 

 very long, and extends much beyond the ter- 

 mination of the leg itself. Lastly, each leg ! 

 is armed at the extremity with a formidable 

 hook. The Acarus Sacchari clings to life 

 with great tenacity, for warm water does not 

 always kill it. Hence, those who sweeten 

 their drinks with brown sugar must swallow i 

 several of these disgusting insects in a living ; 

 state, for the heat of the beverage is rot suf- j 

 fieient to destroy them. For the consolation 

 of our readers, we are happy to announce 

 that this inpect is never found in purified, 

 i. e. lump sugar. It owes its existence and 

 nutriment to the albumen, which, as we have 

 said before, is always present in inferior su- 

 gars. It is well known that grocers are sub- 

 ject to an infection of the skin, denominated j 

 * 4 grocer8' itch," of which one of the symp- 

 toms is extreme irritation and itching. To 

 this disease all grocers are not equally liable, 

 but those particularly who are engaged in 

 the "handling of the sugars," as the ware- 

 houseman. Now the Acarus Sacchari actu- 

 ally belongs to the same genus as the Aca- 

 rus Scabiei, or itch insect, than which it is 

 larger, and possessed of an organization still 

 more formidable and forbidding. News of 

 the World English paper. 



A GREAT HAUL OF GRIZZLIES. Daniel Linda, 

 says the Pacific Sentinel, who resides on the Cerralitos 

 creek, about fourteen miles from Santa Cruz, and seven 

 from Watsonville, caught, last week, four grizzly bears 

 in one trap, inside of thirty-six hours. They were a 

 family consisting of two old ones and two cubs. The 

 first night the old she-bear was entrapped, and the oth- 

 ers made their escape. The next morning Mr. Linda 

 managed to get the old bear into a cage in which he 

 had kept a bear last year, and placed it in or near the 

 trap. The other three coming the second night after to 

 look for the old one, entered the trap and were all nicely 

 corraled. This beats anything in the bear-catching 

 line we have seen recorded. 



