Food 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



260 



one another and upon deep-sea Crustacea, 

 that deep-sea Crustacea feed upon deep-sea 

 worms, that deep-sea echinoderms feed upon 

 deep-sea foraminifera, and so on through 

 all the different combinations; but the 

 fauna would soon become exhausted if it 

 had no other source of food-supply. This 

 other source of food-supply is derived from 

 the bodies of pelagic organisms that fall 

 from the upper waters of the ocean, and is 

 composed of protozoa, floating tunicates, 

 Crustacea, fish, and other animals, together 

 with diatoms and fragments of seaweed. 

 HICKSON Fauna of the Deep Sea, ch. 2, p. 

 43. (A., 1894.) 



1267. FOOD OF ENTOMBED RHINOC- 

 EROS Science Brings Past to Present. In 

 1772, Pallas obtained from Wiljuiskoi, in 

 lat. 64, from the banks of the Wiljui, a 

 tributary of the Lena, the carcass of a rhi- 

 noceros (R. tichorhinus), taken from the sand 

 in which it must have remained congealed 

 for ages, the soil of that region being always 

 frozen to within a slight depth of the sur- 

 face. This carcass was compared to a nat- 

 ural mummy, and emitted an odor like 

 putrid flesh, part of the skin being still 

 covered with black and gray hairs. So great, 

 indeed, was the quantity of hair on the foot 

 and head conveyed to St. Petersburg, that 

 Pallas asked whether the rhinoceros of the 

 Lena might not have been an inhabitant of 

 the temperate regions of middle Asia, its 

 clothing being so much warmer than that 

 of the African rhinoceros. 



Professor Brandt, of St. Petersburg, in a 

 letter to Baron Alexander yon Humboldt, 

 dated 1846, adds the following particulars 

 respecting this wonderful fossil relic : " I 

 have been so fortunate as to extract from 

 cavities in the molar teeth of the Wiljui rhi- 

 noceros a small quantity of its half-chewed 

 food, among which fragments of pine-leaves, 

 one-half of the seed of a polygonaceous plant, 

 and very minute portions of wood with por- 

 ous cells (or small fragments of coniferous 

 wood), were still recognizable. LYELL Prin- 

 ciples of Geology, bk. i, ch. 6, p. 80. (A., 

 1854.) 



1268. FOOD OF PLANT PRESERVED 

 TILL CONSUMED Antiseptic Power of Se- 

 cretion of Sundew. The secretion seems to 

 possess, like the gastric juice of the higher 

 animals, some antiseptic power. During 

 very warm weather I placed close together 

 two equal-sized bits of raw meat, one on 

 a leaf of the Drosera [sundew], and the 

 other surrounded by wet moss. They were 

 thus left for 48 hours, and then examined. 

 The bit on the moss swarmed with infu- 

 soria, and was so much decayed that the 

 transverse strice on the muscular fibers 

 could no longer be clearly distinguished; 

 whilst the bit on the leaf, which was bathed 

 by the secretion, was free from infusoria, 

 and its strice were perfectly distinct in the 

 central and undissolved portion. In like 

 manner small cubes of albumin and cheese 



placed on wet moss became threaded with 

 filaments of mold, and had their surfaces 

 slightly discolored and disintegrated; whilst 

 those on the leaves of Drosera remained 

 clean, the albumin being changed into trans- 

 parent fluid. DARWIN Insectivorous Plants, 

 ch. 1, p. 12. (A., 1898.) 



1269. FOOD OF SAVAGES Snakes, 

 Lizards, Grubs, and Ants Eaten by Rude 

 Tribes Dearth in Lack of Agriculture. 

 His [man's] first need is to get his daily 

 food. In tropical forests, savages may eas- 

 ily live on what Nature provides, like the 

 Andaman Islanders, who gather fruits and 

 honey, hunt wild pigs in the jungle, and 

 take turtle and fish on the coast. Many 

 forest tribes of Brazil, tho they cultivate 

 a little, depend mostly on wild food. Of 

 such the rude man has no lack, for there 

 is game in plenty and the rivers swarm 

 with fish, while the woods yield him a sup- 

 ply of roots and bulbs, calabashes, palm- 

 nuts, beans, and many other fruits; he col- 

 lects wild honey, birds' eggs, grubs out of 

 rotten wood, nor does he despise insects, 

 even ants. In less fertile lands savage life 

 goes on well while game and fish abound, 

 but when these fail it becomes an unceasing 

 quest for food, as where the Australians 

 roam over their deserts on the lookout 

 for every eatable root or insect, or the low 

 Rocky Mountain tribes gather pine-nuts and 

 berries, catch snakes, and drag lizards out of 

 their holes with a hooked stick. TYLOB An- 

 thropology, ch. 9, p. 206. (A., 1899.) 



1270. FOOD OF THE WORLD FOUND 

 IN FRUITS AND SEEDS Vegetable Altru- 

 ism The Plant Lives for Others. All ani- 

 mals, in the long run, depend for food upon 

 fruits and seeds, or upon lesser creatures 

 which have utilized fruits and seeds. Three- 

 fourths of the population of the world 

 at the present moment subsist upon rice. 

 What is rice? It is a seed; a product of 

 reproduction. Of the other fourth, three- 

 fourths live upon grains barley, wheat, 

 oats, millet. What are these grains ? Seeds 

 stores of starch or albumin which, in the 

 perfect forethought of reproduction, plants 

 bequeath to their offspring. The foods of 

 the world, especially the children's foods, 

 are the foods of the children of plants, the 

 foods which unselfish activities store round 

 the cradles of the helpless, so that when the 

 sun wakens them to their new world they 

 may not want. Every plant in the world 

 lives for others. It sets aside something, 

 something costly, cared for, the highest ex- 

 pression of its nature. DRUMMOND Ascent 

 of Man, ch. 7, p. 228. ( J. P., 1900.) 



1271. FOOD, ONE ARTICLE OF, UNI- 

 VERSAL The Value of Bread. If it is a 

 fact that the kind and variety of nour- 

 ishment exercise the greatest influence 

 upon the state of health, the capacity 

 for work and endurance, it must be of 

 very special importance to become ac- 



