MISCELLANY. 



38i 



should ever fail. And the supply does be- 

 gin to fail (1863), fail rapidly. It is known 

 that 1,200,000 lbs. of Peruvian (or cincho-i 

 na) bark are annually imported into Eng- 

 land ; and it is estimated that no less than 

 3,000,000 lbs., and probably a much greater 

 quantity, are consumed every year through- 

 out the world. The demand is daily in- 

 creasing, and the drain upon the forests of 

 New Granada, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, 

 has now been going on for two centuries. 



" Thus, what with the excessive and un- 

 ceasing demand for bark, and the reckless 

 manner of collecting it, large tracts of coun- 

 try, formerly famous for their abundant 

 yield, are now entirely denuded of almost 

 every trace of cinchona- vegetation." 



The Caterpillar Msance in Philadel- 

 phia. — For several years the measuring- 

 worm preyed on the leaves of the trees in 

 Philadelphia to such an extent that, early 

 in the summer, scarcely any foliage would 

 be left remaining. The English sparrow 

 was introduced to counteract the destroyer, 

 and performed its work so effectually that 

 after a year or two no more measuring- 

 worms were to be seen. But now, accord- 

 ing to the Medical Times, another enemy of 

 the trees has made its appearance, the cater- 

 pillar of the Orgygia leucostigma moth. As 

 long as the measuring-worm was left unmo- 

 lested, the caterpillar, which comes late in 

 the season, found the struggle for existence 

 a sharp one, its natural provision having 

 been previously consumed by the worm. 

 Now, however, it finds abundance of food, 

 and is consequently prospering and rapidly 

 multiplying. The sparrows will not attack 

 it, protected as it is by its hairy coat. Per- 

 haps some other feathered exterminator can 

 be found to destroy the tribe; but, inas- 

 much as the sparrow is a very stubborn and 

 pugnacious little fellow, it is a question 

 whether he will allow any other bird to 

 trespass on his domain. Meanwhile, the 

 caterpillar pest is assuming formidable pro- 

 portions, as witness the following passage 

 from our medical contemporary : " At pres- 

 ent, very many trees in this city have again 

 put on the familiar, woe-begone look of old, 

 hiding their misery with the merest tatters 

 and shreds of leaves. * But the new-comer 

 doesn't drop on you ! ' Doesn't he though ? 



If he does not drop he crawls, or gets on 

 some way or other ; and the man who has 

 felt his long hairs tickling his neck, struck 

 for a fly, and found in his hand a bare and 

 bursted carcass, on his shirt-collar a stain, 

 and down his back a bunch of tickling hairs, 

 will vote the ' survival of the fittest,' in its 

 latest form, an unmitigated nuisance." 



Eating Alcohol* — It has been generally 

 supposed that the alcohol formed in the 

 primary fermentation of bread was all ex- 

 pelled by the process of baking. Mr. 

 Thomas Bolas, of London, has communi- 

 cated to the Chemical News the result of 

 some experiments on this point. He shows 

 that when about two ounces of ordinary 

 bread is mixed with water and distilled, and 

 the distillate is afterward purified, a per- 

 ceptible quantity of alcohol may be ob- 

 tained. He made quantitative analyses of 

 six samples of fresh bread, obtained in so 

 many shops in London, which gave of al- 

 cohol an average of 0.314 per cent. So 

 that, when a man has eaten 100 pounds of 

 fresh bread, he has consumed with it a little 

 more than five ounces of pure alcohol. 



The Grape-Tine Blight. — M. Planchon, 

 of the French Academy, an eminent bota- 

 nist and entomologist, visited this country 

 last summer to study the habits of the 

 phylloxera, an insect which is ravaging the 

 vineyards of France. Prof. Planchon was 

 the first to discover that the blight of the 

 grape-vine is the work of the Phylloxera 

 vastatrix ; and then Prof. Kiley, State ento- 

 mologist of Missouri, proved the American 

 origin of the redoubtable ravager. 



M. Planchon's investigations in this 

 country fully corroborate Prof. Riley's ob- 

 servations as to the identity of the Euro- 

 pean and American insect, and as to the 

 comparative immunity of certain American 

 grape-vines. The Missouri entomologist's 

 discovery of a species of acarus, which is 

 the deadly enemy of the phylloxera, has at- 

 tracted much attention abroad, and M. Plan- 

 chon takes a supply of acari back with him 

 to France, hoping by their aid to check the 

 career of the destroying insect. 



For five years, every remedy that ima- 

 gination could suggest, under the stimulus 

 of a reward of 20,000 francs, has been tried 



