238 



KNOWLEDGE 



[Jajj. 13, 18^:.^ 



view, a small town on tlio opposite Bido of tho river from Uarris- 

 barg. Two cil!r.on8 Imd about 130 skops of bcos, itnd aa tho 

 suinm<'r was Hcnn'c* uf matoriul hucIi ms tho bees food u|»on. they 

 cunio iu largo niiuibers into thu houeos, stores, ^'rapo arbours, and 

 wherever there was nnytliinjj for them to feed upon. In one 

 instance they swarmed in a neighbour's kitchen, and were tlicre for 

 days, ho not being able to hive thom, tho queen being killed. 'Jliey 

 wore especially bad ab<iut canning and preserving time, compelling 

 the housewife to do her preserving in tho evening, and in one 

 instance the wife had to climb in and out of tho window for 

 days, not daring to open the doors, for the bees would go in by 

 liundreds ; persons were stung passing along tho streets and 

 highways ; entire houses became infested with bees, so much so 

 that tho inmates could not retire to rest at night without being 

 stung by the bees ; trays of fruit put out for drying were entirely 

 consumed. Indeed, a reign of terror was experienced for several 

 inonths, until a committee of citizens agreed to abate the nuisance, 

 and, after several efforts, appealed to the court. The defence 

 claimed that the raising and keeping of bees was an industry, and 

 as such could not come under the head of a public nuisance, and 

 that suit could not be brought nor damages recovered for the 

 keeping of honey-bees. Tho attorneys on both sides presented the 

 opinions of severtil judges and the law points in tho case, after which 

 tho court decided the case sliouUl be tried, and tho testimony was 

 received. But one case seems to be on record in the State, and 

 that was tried before Judge Pearson, in Dauphin County, years ago, 

 in which the defendant was adjudged guilty, and had to pay a fine 

 and abate the nuisance. — Scientific American. 



The T.vrE-WoRM. — Most of my readers know that the domestic 

 pig is subject to a disease known as " measles," in which, the muscles 

 are more or loss filled with cysis, which render the pork unfit for 

 food ; but I tlunk few are acquainted with its cause, llan, it is 

 well known, is occasionally infested by a parasitc^the so-called 

 " tape-worm " (Tccnia solium) — which may be described a,s having 

 a tape-like body of varying length, with a differentiated " head," or 

 scolex, at one extremity. This apparently single animal is in reality 

 a colony of mothers and daughters, the scolex being the parent of 

 all. This " head " is provided with a rosfellum, or, as it might be 

 called, proboscis, encircled by a crown of hooks, below which arc 

 the suckers ; each segment added to the scolex is a complete indi- 

 vidual containing a complicated and perfect reproductive system. 

 The last sognient — profjlottidcs — which are filled with eggs, break off 

 at intervals, and either the eggs are set free within the intestine of 

 their host, when they are passed out with the fseces, or the seg- 

 ments themselves are evacuated. The rape worm feeds on the juices 

 ef the bowel by absorbing tho nutriment through its skin, and does not 

 appear to seriously inconvenience its host in any way. In Abyssinia 

 tania hehninthosis is constant and general ; indeed the animal is 

 there regarded as a sort of hygienic agent, and cultivated rather 

 than discouraged, yet the people arc healthy ; certain it is also that 

 vfild animals, almost without exception, harbour at least one species 

 of tape-worm as a natural condition. But what has this to do with 

 ** measles" ? Now to the point. Let us suppose one of the before- 

 mentioned eggs taken into the stomach of a pig, either by its eating 

 the excrement of a person affected or through the water or air ; 

 here it hatches, not into a tape-worm, but into an animal of oval 

 form, transparent, contractile, in the middle of which are six stylets 

 arranged in pairs ; with these it cuts its way through the tissues 

 until the muscles are reached, when, having arrived at its desti- 

 nation, it stops burrowing and surrounds itself ^\'ith a sheath. 

 Here the stylets atrophy, a new and quite different crown 

 of hooks is produced, and the parasite becomes a cijuticerctis, 

 or vesicniar worm, tho cyst being about the size of a hazel 

 nut. This constitutes "measles" ; the exhaustion or oveu death 

 attendant on the disease is caused by the scores, hundreds, or even 

 thousands of animals boring through the tissues. Once encysted 

 there is no further suffering or danger. The cysticercus remains 

 encysted for months or years, or until tho piece of flesh enveloping 

 it is iutrodiiceil iiit" the stomach of mnn, in which case it instantly 

 quits its torpitl condition, leaves its sheath, makes its way to the 

 intestine, where, attaching itself by its suckers and hooks, it grows 

 — or rather reproduces — so rapidly, that in a few weeks a tape- 

 worm of several yai-ds in length is formed, which reproduces 

 eggs, and so ad infinitiiyii — from pig to ma», from man to 

 pig. Should tho eggs bo introduced into man himself or animal 

 other than the hog, tho cysticercus penetrates the tissues in 

 the same manner, but it is " not at home," and instead of resting 

 in the muscles, it makes its way to other organs, such as the brain, 

 heart, or eye, where its presence has caused in man several in- 

 stances of insanity and death. Should a piece of meat containing 

 a vesicular worm be eaten by a pig or animal other than man, a 

 tcenia is developed, but it also is " not at home," and does not 

 attain its full development. Both eggs and cysticerci are killed by 

 a temperature of 200° Fall., so there is no danger in eating well- 



rooked pork, even if it contains cysticerci. To prevent hogs con- 

 tracting "measles," it is only necessary to prevent them having 

 access, either through their food or water, to the secretioni of 

 man, and they will not suffer. Throughout the gcninn Tiznia wo 

 find this dual life ; for instance, tho cat has a tapeworm, tho cysti- 

 cercus of which she gets frcini the mouse; and the dog ono which 

 ho obtains from the sheep. — Hcientifie American, 



Oiiv iBatlKinatiral Column. 



Algkbkaical Equation. — In reply to " E. H.," there is no 

 method of solving the equation 



v/100-V'+ v'8y-Gi-6 = 



other than by reducing it to a cubic, and applying one of the 

 approximate methods to the resulting equation. We got by scjuar- 

 ing both sides, &c., 



!/* + 161/'- 192y'-3200v + 25G00 = 



ori/(y-8)-f 24!/(y-8)-3200(y-8)-=0 



Whence y = S, and i/' + 24!/— 3200 = 



As " E. H." points out, 9'74 is an approximate root of this equa- 

 tion. Tho other roots are imaginary. — Ed. 



[12]-"F.B.," admitting that if s^^ ^" ^'^J^-^ ■■ ■ ■ (^"^'^h 



1 . Z . 3 . . . . *7i 



asks whether we might not at once conclude from this that if 



and it can be shown that 



p>(^--i) 'h 



+ &c. +'n-rl, 



s„+i=s„r?i?i±in 



L n + l J 



then S„=Sn. 



We might, if we could prove the relation in question, but we must 

 do this first. How does " P. B." propose to show that when n 

 becomes 71 -F 1 in the expression for So, the result, or Sn + 1, is equal 



to Sn multiplied by T. ? It is easy to infer this after showing 



that So = Sii, but as a step towards proving this it is not at all 

 easy. — Ed. 



Square axd Ccbe Numbers. — J. A. Miles sends the following, 

 respecting some curious properties of square and cube numbers : — 



The first term of an arithmetical progression of n terms having a 

 common difference d, and whose stun is n° is equal to 



n^-' + A(i-,.).- 



IfS = n=, the first term is =»+-|- (1-")— 



Every square n" is the sum of an arithmetical progression of » 

 terras, the first term of which is unity, and the difference 2. 



Every square n" is the sum of au arithmetical progression of 11 j 

 terms, tho first term of which is — — and the common difference 1- 



If S =11', tho first term is 



Every cube n' is tho sum of an arithmetical progression of M 

 terms, the first term of which is unity, and tho common differcncol 

 2.(ii +1). 



Every cube n' is the sum of an arithmetical progression of n 

 terms, the first term of which is the root n, and the differerce -n. 



Every cube n' is tho sum of an arithmutical progression of n 

 terms, the first term of which is )i' — n + 1, and the difference 2. 



Evei-y cube n' is tho sum of an arithmetical progression of n 

 terms, tho first term of which is a triangular number — - — , and 



tho difference =«. 



Everj' cube n' above 1 is the sum of an arithmetical progression 

 of 11 terms, the first term of which is (n— 2)', and the differeuco 



= 8. 



