416 



NEW ENGLAND FAHMER. 



Sept. 



As I cast about me, wherever I go, 1 can but 

 mark the appearance of thrift or waste which stares 

 every traveller in the face, and even a careless ob- 

 server can tell the cause. Around the one is a 

 good, substantial fence, high enough, and strong 

 enough ; the other has a sheeji-hole here, and a few 

 old boards half nailed there, which a slight touch 

 of an animal would throw down, and while the 

 owner is asleep, the cattle enter, and destroy much 

 f his hard earnings, in a single night. Shiftless- 

 ness is the cause. 



On the subject of adorning, I would like to write 

 a volume, and hope to find time to think more on 

 tfiat subject, soon, for my very soul is pained within 

 me when I see such gross neglect on the part of 

 many as to the whole business of beautifying the 

 front and rear of their buildings with trees of vari- 

 ous kinds. I look upon a tree, as I do upon a 

 tried friend. Sincerity and fidelity are seen upon 

 its bark, branches, and leaves. A little care and la- 

 [)or furnishes such friends in abundance ; a shade 

 in the heat, a shield in the storm. B. D. 



Kennebec, Me. 



"WHY TEE CAT DOES HOT SWEAT." 



An article appeared in the Conntnj Gentleman 

 under this head, several months ago, which has 

 l!een copied into several country papers, and is still 

 going the rounds. The article contained several er- 

 rors, which, for the sake of the children and youth 

 that may read the piece and obtain false notions, 

 both of the phenomena of the case and the philos- 

 oj)hy, should be corrected. The first error is con- 

 tained in the proposition, that all herbivorous ani- 

 mals sweat, and that all carnivorous animals do not 

 sweat. It may be true that all carnivorous animals 

 never sweat, but it does not follow that all herbiv- 

 orous animals sweat. The rule is this — all animals 

 that loll, whether carnivorous or herbivorous, never 

 sweat, but throw off their surplus heat from the 

 mouth in the act of lolling. But all animals that 

 never loll, throw off their surplus heat thi'ough the 

 skin in the process of sweating. All animals that 

 chew the cud, (except man,) loll, and therefore nev- 

 er sweat. The hair of oxen and cows will be found 

 to be very wet sometimes on a warm daj', but such 

 moisture does not come through the skin, but con- 

 clenses from the atmosphere u];on the hair. This 

 takes place by reason of their bodies having been 

 cooled by throwing the heat from the mouth. Hors- 

 es generally sweat freely when at work, and espe- 

 cially in hot weather. I have seen horses, however, 

 ihat seldom sweat any, even in the hottest weather, 

 but would loll like the ox. Hogs, fowls and cats 

 even, will loll freely when worried in a hot day. 



13ut the explanation is as erroneous as the state- 

 ment of the facts of the phenomenon. The reason 

 ifiven i?, that the food of the herbivorous animals 

 contains a greater amount of fuel, and, therefore, 

 the heat produced must be thrown off through the 

 s'.in. Now, it is true that the foo3 of the herbiv- 

 cious animals contains more of the elements of 

 heat than that of carnivorous, and would produce 

 more heat if it were all burned, and burned as rap- 

 idly as the food of the carnivorous animal. 



But this is not the case ; for but a small propor- 

 tion of the food of the herbivorous animal is burned 

 at all, but passes through the animal unburned, in 

 the form of dung, or accumulated fat, whilst that 

 which is burned, is burned very slowly, so that it 



is not perceptible as it otherwise would be. Whilst 

 the proper food of the carnivorous animal is all of 

 it burned, and burned rapidly, producing a greater 

 amount of immediate, available heat, than would 

 be produced by vegetable food. The dog and the 

 cat are referred to by the writer as animals very 

 sensible to cold. But the dog and the cat are not 

 living in their normal condition. They live mostly 

 upon vegetables. But feed them with plenty of 

 pure flesh, and no animals would endure the cold 

 better. The inhabitants of all cold climates require 

 more meat than those of warmer climates, and re- 

 quire and consume more, also in the winter than in 

 the summer. The reason has already been given, 

 which is, that, though flesh contains less of the el- 

 ements of heat than vegetable food, it is all burned| 

 and burned more rapidly than vegetable. — J. L. 

 Edgerton. Georgia, Vt, Feb. 19, 18-56. — Coun- 

 try Gentleman. 



HOW THE FLY WALKS ON THE 

 CEILING. 



How the fly manages to walk over the smoothest 

 surface with his feet upward, in defiance of the law 

 of gravity, is a phenomenon that would interest us 

 more than it does, were it not so common. It has 

 been generally supposed that his feet were sup- 

 plied with valves or suckers, and that he is thus en- 

 abled to hold himself upwards by atmospheric pres- 

 sure. Others have attributed this peculiar power 

 to the secretion of a sticky liquid in the feet, which 

 enables him to sustain himself in this seemingly 

 unnatural position. The microscope has demon- 

 strated that in many insects of the fly kind, the 

 foot is furnished with a paii- of membranous expan- 

 sions, termed pulvilli, commonly known as valves, 

 and that these are beset with numerous hairs, each 

 of which has a minute disk at its extremity. There 

 is no doubt that this apparatus is connected with 

 the power these insects possess of walking with the 

 feet upwards, but there is still some uncertainty as 

 to the precise manner in which it ministers to this 

 faculty. AVe learn, however, from the Medical and 

 Surgical Journal, that the recent careful observa- 

 tions of Mr. Hepworth, published in the (^uaHerly 

 Journal of Microscopic Science, has led him to a 

 conclusion which seems in harmony with all the 

 facts in the case, viz., that the minute disks at the 

 end of the hairs upon the puhilli act as suckers, 

 and that each of them secretes a liquid, v/hich, 

 though not viscid, serves to make its adhesion per- 

 fect. 



Old Chuech Music. — In the tmie of Edward 

 Fourth, it was the custom to have whole chapters 

 of the Bible set to music and sung in the churches, 

 and an old writer mentions that the whole of the 

 first chapter of Matthew, containing the genealogy, 

 was so arranged. He goes on very quaintly to say 

 that "vv-hile the Bass was holding forth the existence 

 of Abraham, the Tenor, in defiance of nature and 

 chronology, was begetting Isaac ; the Counter-Ten- 

 or begetting Jacob ; and the Treble, begetting Jo- 

 seph and all his brethren." 



