February io, 1893.] 
Eleventh Year. 
Vol. XXI. No. 523. 
SCIENCE. 
77 
one to ten times as great. Many of them have a diameter of 
less than one fifty-thousandth of an inch and it is probable that 
there are multitudes of them so small that the highest powers of 
the microscope do not render them visible. Two thousand of 
them could swim side by side through the eye of a needle and one 
could hold in his single hand fifty millions of millions of them. 
Of the smaller ones it would take 15 625,000,000,000 to fill one 
cubic inch. 
Now compare these with our mammoth Sequoias. The trunk 
of one of these trees, to say nothing about its roots and branches, 
jcontains at least 200,000.000 cubic inches. It is, therefore, 
8,125,000,000.000,000,000,000 times as large as a single bac- 
terium. This number is, of course, inconceivable. It may be 
read 3 125 millions of millions of millions. The proportion is 
about the same as that of an ordinary football to the earth itself. 
Again, the duration of the life of many of the bacteria is only 
an hour. There are 8.760 hours in a year, and in 3 000 years 
there are 26.280,000 hours. Thus the tree has lived on while 
more than twenty-six millions of generations of its invisible kin- 
dred may have lived and died in the stream at its base. From 
the bacterium to the sequoia, what a span ! Yet the rolling 
globe on which they live is but a speck in the universe, its 
diameter too small to be used as a measuring unit for interstellar 
spaces. As many bacteria could be laid side by side on a linear 
inch as earths upon the diameter of its orbit around the sun. 
Compared with the tree, the bacterium is almost infinitessimal; 
by the side of the earth, the tree is insignificant; in the solar sys- 
tem, the earth is but a small factor; and if the solar system were 
annihilated, it would be millions of years before its loss would be 
felt on distant stars. Magnitudes are, therefore, relative, and 
things are great or small according to the standpoint from which 
we view them. 
Cumberland University. 
DESTRUCTION OF 
CROWS DURING 
""SPELL. 
THE RECENT COLD 
BY DR. ROBERT RIDGWAY, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, WASHINGTON, D.C. 
Whether it be the result of disease or exposure, the suffering 
inflicted on the crows in the vicinity of Washington during the 
recent severe weather is of great extent, and of such a character 
as to excite the sympathy of any one familiar with the facts. On 
the 20th of January my son went rabbit bunting, and on his return 
told me he had found many dead crows in the pine woods, and 
others that were totally blind. The following day I accompanied 
him to the place where he had found them, and was really aston- 
ished at the sight presented. Very few crows were seen flying 
about, but upon entering the thick woods of scrub-pines, which 
was evidently the roosting-place of large numbers of these birds, 
they were met with on every hand. Some were lying on the 
snow, dead and frozen stiff ; many more were perched in the trees, 
at various heights, in all stages of helplessness. The majority of 
them could fly, and on our near approach would do so; but in a 
moment it became apparent that they could not see, for the first 
thing in their line of flight, as, for example, a branch, would 
stop them, when they would either flutter to the ground or, 
changing their course, would continue their flight, to be again 
checked by a branch, or if they happened to miss any obstruction 
until clear of the woods (which rarely occurred) they continued, 
slowly feeling their way, over the open fields, often dropping to 
the snow-covered ground after flying a few hundred yards. Those 
which did not fly at our approach were too much weakened from 
starvation to do so. They were easily caught, and in every in- 
stance were found to be absolutely blind, except one individual, 
which had one eye but little affected. In many the eyes were 
closed and much swollen ; in some one or both eyes had burst and 
frozen, this having possibly been caused by violent contact with 
the sharp ends of broken twigs. In all cases in which the eyes were 
not closed or inflamed the pupil was milky white and the iris 
bluish. Inability to find food on account of their blindness was 
evidently the immediate cause of starvation ; for it was found 
that the dead birds were, as a rule, very much emaciated, while 
many of the living ones, particularly those which were most 
active, and consequently difficult to capture, were in fairly good 
condition. It was pitiful to behold their suffering, both from the 
pangs of hunger as well as from the pain of their wouDded eyes. 
Sometimes the snow beneath the trees was nearly covered by pine 
needles and small twigs which they had plucked off and tried to 
eat (they were seen doing this), while' several of those which had 
fallen to the ground were eating snow. 
The extent to which this epidemic, or whatever it may be. has 
affected the crow population of this locality is not easy to esti- 
mate. My first impression was that the species was nearly ex- 
terminated there, since certainly 95 out of every 100 crows seen 
during the day were perfectly “ stone-blind,” and 10 per cent of 
them dead. That this impression was incorrect was, however, 
proven by the next day’s observation, the locality being visited 
much later in the day, when large numbers were seen coming in 
from the surrounding country to roost, — all these “ able-bodied ” 
crows having been abroad after food at the time of our previous 
visit. There seemed to be about as many of these as there were 
of the disabled ones, so the reduction in their numbers will proba- 
bly not exceed one-half, and may not be so great. 
A third visit, several days later, showed no increase among the 
afflicted birds. There were, however, as might have been ex- 
pected, a much larger number of dead ones, while those still 
living were found more scattered, being encountered nearly every- 
where in the open fields, where they had fallen, exhausted, during 
their flight from the woods. 
So far as I was able to discover, after very careful examination 
of all specimens within reach, during both visits, only the com- 
mon species, Corvus americanus, was affected by the malady. 
At any rate, neither my companions nor myself could discover a 
single fish crow ( C . ossifragus), though the latter was well repre- 
sented among those which were flying about. 
I am at a loss to account for this scourge Several causes have 
been suggested, the most plausible of which, it seems to me, is 
that in returning to their roosting-place one excessively cold 
evening they were compelled to face a freezing wind, perhaps 
bearing minute ice-particles, which actually froze their eyee. It 
may be, however, that a better explanation can be given. 
REMARKS ON AMERICAN LICHENOLOGY. — III. 
BY W. W. CALKINS. CHICAGO, ILL. 
The explorers for lichens in a locality so favorable as Florida 
will not fail to notice the abundance of brilliantly colored fungi, 
and. if interested, will be tempted to collect them. On some of 
these will perhaps occur parasitic lichens of rarity, as Colno- 
gonium and Opegrapha But beneath a bed of Agaraci, on the 
sandy soil of an old plantation, a close search will show another 
interesting lichen, known as Heppia. despreauxii Tuck. Its char- 
acter was long disputed, owing to a close resemblance to an allied 
genus of lichens, Solorina. The small cup shaped apothecia, 
growing single or in clusters, immersed in a green thallus, have 
deceived good Hellenists. We owe to Dr, Tuckerman the eluci- 
dation of this elegent species. Only two were described by him 
in the “Synopsis.” Last winter I had the good fortune to find 
anotner in the mountains of Tennessee, which, having been sent 
in vain around our own country, a puzzle to all, was promptly 
determined by Dr. Nylander of Paris to be the Heppia virescens, 
Acli. variety rugosa Nyl. I may remark that it is astonishing 
how soon afterwards we all saw the point. 
In the old field as well, with a mixed second growth of Pinus 
taeda, Ilex opaca. Ilex Cassine , Myrica cerifera, Olea americana, 
etc., will be found on their foliage numerous small fungi, such as 
Sphaeria. and Cercospora, many of which have been illustrated 
by Professor Ellis in his “ Exsiccati ” from my collections of 
fungi. 
In close contact, lichens and fresh- water algae and Hepaticce also 
hold equal sway. But, towering over all, the stately Magnolia and 
the Oordonia (red or bull bay), with their glossy evergreen foliage, 
afford us the tropical lichen, Strigula complanata Fee., and, rarer 
still, Heterothecium augustini Tuck., though, indeed, the Sdbal 
serrulata, common everywhere, abounds in elegant specimens in c 
