POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



*37 



glass ; clear white breath figures of the de- 

 vice will appear. A piece of paper is folded 

 several times each way to form small squares, 

 then spread out and placed under glass ; the 

 raised lines of the folds produce white breath 

 traces, and in one instance a letter-weight 

 that was above left a latent mark of its cir- 

 cular rim. Some writing made on paper with 

 ordinary ink and well dried, left a very last- 

 ing white breath image after a few hours' 

 contact. Plates of glass lying for a few hours 

 on a table cover worked with silk acquired 

 strong white figures from the silk. Two cases 

 have been reported where blinds with em- 

 bossed letters left a latent image on the win- 

 dow near which they lay ; it was revealed in 

 misty weather, and had not been removed by 

 washing. A glass which has lain above a 

 picture for several years, but has been kept 

 from contact by the mount, will often show 

 on its inner side an outline of the picture, 

 always visible without breath. The words 

 white and black in the descriptions of the 

 impressions relate to the adherence of the 

 breath to the reliefs (white) or its non-adher- 

 ence (black). The exact cause of the phe- 

 nomenon is not known, but is supposed to lie 

 in some of the unknown regions of molecular 

 agency. 



Exclusive Communities. — The number of 

 ants dwelling together in a community, ac- 

 cording to Sir John Lubbock, is sometimes 

 as great as five hundred thousand. They are 

 always friendly toward each other, no quar- 

 rel ever having been observed between two 

 ants, members of the same community. They 

 are, however, very exclusive, and regard an 

 immigrant with horror. When an ant of the 

 same species belonging to another nest ap- 

 pears among them, he is promptly taken by 

 the leg or antenna and put out. It would 

 naturally be surmised that this distinction 

 was made by means of some communication. 

 To test whether they could recognize each 

 other without signs, attempts were made to 

 render them insensible, first by chloroform 

 and afterward by whisky. " None of the 

 ants would voluntarily degrade themselves 

 by getting drunk." Finally, fifty ants were 

 taken, twenty-five from one community and 

 twenty-five from another, and dipped into 

 whisky until intoxicated. They were then 

 appropriately marked with a spot of paint 



and placed on a table where the ants from 

 one nest were feeding. The sober ones no- 

 ticed the drunkards and seemed much per- 

 plexed. At length they took the interlopers 

 to the edge of the moat surrounding the ta- 

 ble and dropped each one into the water. 

 Their comrades, however, they carried home 

 and placed in the nest, where they slept off 

 the effects of the liquor. 



The Comma Bacillus, Cholera, and Sani- 

 tation. — Experiments by Prof, von Petten- 

 kofer and Prof. Emmerich, in which they 

 swallowed fresh cultures of comma bacillus 

 upon empty, neutralized stomachs, show con- 

 clusively to von Pettenkofer that the com- 

 ma bacillus, during its sojourn in the intes- 

 tine, does not produce the specific poison that 

 causes Asiatic cholera. This agrees with the 

 results obtained by Bouchard, who was able 

 to induce the symptoms of cholera in rabbits 

 by giving them the excreta of human cholera 

 patients, but not by giving them pure cultures 

 of comma bacilli or their metabolic products. 

 While he does not deny that the comma ba- 

 cillus has some etiological importance, von 

 Pettenkofer can not believe it is the x which, 

 without the assistance of y, can cause epi- 

 demics of cholera ; and he reiterates his well- 

 known views on the influence of the soil, es- 

 pecially in connection with the rainfall. His 

 practical teaching may be summarized in the 

 formula that it is the y — that is, the local 

 physical and sanitary conditions — that must 

 be attended to ; each place must, in short, 

 be made cholera-proof by sanitation. 



Children and Flowers. — In a paper read 

 before the Society of American Florists, on 

 training children to love and cultivate flow- 

 ers, Mr. Robert Farquhar argued that we 

 could either stifle or strengthen the love of 

 Nature which is planted in every young heart. 

 If we encourage and cultivate this love the 

 mind of the growing child will be opened to 

 the beauties of Nature, and we shall in this 

 way provide for it a means of healthy exer- 

 cise out of doors and a source of delightful 

 recreation all through life. Children should 

 have gardens of their own to care for, and 

 they should be instructed in garden practice. 

 They should be allowed to sow the seed and 

 care for the plants themselves, although they 

 should be directed in all these operations. 



