1875.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
67 
ELLIPSES. 
(Fill the following blanks with words pronounced 
alike, but spelled differently). 
1. We-were-busy-go. 
2 . The-has not very long-. 
3 . The -had a silver-in her hand. 
4. He-a hole in the-. 
5 . I-him with a-for some-. 
6. They were staying-the-. 
7. I would as-eat a-. 
8. The young--a grand display. 
9. When you - — the-do it-for the-. 
Ambrose M. S. 
ANSWERS TO PUZZLES IN THE DECfeMBER NUMBER. 
Diamond Puzzle. 
A 
ACE 
1! R O W N 
TAUNTON 
ACONCAGUA 
SCRATCH 
T A G U S 
SUM 
A 
Double Acrostic.—B- el -L 
O- hi -O 
S- a -W 
T-hre-E 
O- w -L 
N- el -L 
Cross Word.—V alentine. 
Square Word.—D ACE 
A N A M 
C A 1. M 
EMMA 
Alphabetical Arithmetic. — 638)1749052(2741. (Key: 
Black Horse. 
Pi.—“Take the spade of perseverance, 
Dig the field of progress wide. 
Every stubborn weed of faction 
Worry out and cast aside.” 
Anagrams.— 1. Accommodates. 2. Establishment. 3. In¬ 
dispensable. 4. Reinstated. 5. Persistence. 6. Appropria¬ 
tions. 7. Disproportionate. 8. Transformation. 9. Falla¬ 
cious. 10. Embarrassment. 
Arithmorems.— 1. Vivid. 2. Seed. 3. Pass. 4. Ibex, 5. 
Vawl. 6. l f ee. 7. Olio. 8. Rood. 9. Onyx. 10. Hoax. 
Numerical Enigma.— Robinson Crusoe. 
Thanks for letters, puzzles, etc., to Joe, Denver, C.T., Clio, 
H. F. S., Edna M. L., M. J. F., Charlie S„ and C. D. D. 
Send communications for the Puzzle Box to Aunt Sue, 
Box 111, P. 0., Brooklyn, N. Y., and not to 245 Broadway. 
The Ihoctor’s Talks.—Al>out Blow¬ 
ing; Soa]).15ubl)Irs. 
The boys were quite convinced that they did not know 
all about soap-bubbles, and were ready to learn more. 
Supposing this would be the case, I arranged a little sur¬ 
prise for them, and had my soap-bubble toy prepared be¬ 
forehand. I had them blow some fine large bubbles, as 
large as possible, and they did not fail to notice the 
beautiful colors they showed, but soon after they became- 
large enough, and of course thin enough to display their 
tints, they would burst. I then took my bubble-toy and 
blew. A prolonged O-h h ! from all hands showed, that 
it was the most beautiful bubble they had ever seen. 
Even when quite small it was a perfect kaleidoscope of 
changing colors ; and when I shook the bubble free, and 
used my arm for a battle- 
door, and the bubble for a 
shuttle-cock, and bounced 
it all around the room, you 
may be sure they were de¬ 
lighted. Then I made 
another bubble, and set it 
upon the mouth of a small 
vial, and put it upon the 
mantle-shelf as an orna¬ 
ment, and never was work 
of art so beautifully color¬ 
ed, as this rainbow-tinted 
bubble. It stood for sev¬ 
eral minutes, and would 
have remained longer, had 
it not been moved for a 
closer look at it. “Uncle,” 
said Wat, “you have not got soap and water to 
make those bubbles with.”—“O yes, I have,” was the 
reply.—“ Then there is something else with it, for just 
common suds would never make any such bubbles as 
those,” said Art., and the boy was right. So of course 
I had to tell them all about it. In the first place, you 
must have the very nicest kind of soap, white Castile is 
the best; this is shaved up, and put into a bottle of rain¬ 
water, about two ounces of soap in a pint of water; the 
water is allowed to dissolve as much soap as it will, and 
the clear liquid poured off from the soap, which set tles to 
the bottom. Then I take two parts of this liquid, and 
one part of glycerine, and mix, and this mixture I have in 
the toy. “ But Uncle, could we not blow just such bub¬ 
bles with our pipes, if we had this mixture?” asked 
Walter.—“Of course, you can, and I have prepared 
enough for all of yon.”—“ But what is this glycerine?” 
asked Arthur.—“ I was afraid you would ask me that,” 
I replied.—“ Afraid ? Why ? “ Because it is rather diffi¬ 
cult to answer, so that boys and girls will understand it, 
but I can tell you something about it. You will remem¬ 
ber that I told you, [see article in January,] that in mak¬ 
ing soap, a part of the fat, oleic acid, united with soda, 
to make the substance we know as soap, the other part 
of the fat, which I did not then say anything about, is 
glycerine, and when the soda joins the oleic acid to form 
soap, the glycerine is left by itself, or ' set free,’ as the 
Chemists say. Whenever soap is made from fat, much 
glycerine is produced, though this is not the way in 
which glycerine is made for sale, as in soap-making it is 
so mixed with impurities, that it goes to waste.”— 
“Then Uncle,” said Arthur, “fat is oleic-acid and gly¬ 
cerine.”—" Exactly, that statement is near enough to the 
fact for our purpose. Now here is some glycerine, you 
see how clear, and like the finest honey, it is.”—“It 
looks good enough to eat.”—“You may taste it.”—“IIow 
sweet! Almost like honeyThat,” said I, “is why 
it is called glycerine, as it is named from the Greek word 
glukos, which means sweet.” Of course they thought 
it very wonderful that fat should contain such a sweet 
and fine looking syrup-like substance, and one too that 
would readily mix with water, and I had to tell them 
that the most remarkable thing about it was its not dry¬ 
ing ; a surface smeared with glycerine will keep moist 
day after day, and not dry, and that is one reason why 
bubbles made with a mixture of this lasted so long, was 
that the thin film of the bubble did not evaporate so rap¬ 
idly as when soap and water alone were used. After all 
had tried the glycerine mixture, and blown the most 
magnificent bubbles imaginable, they wished to know 
how I managed to put the bubble on the vial, which is a 
very easy, and when the bubbles are made with this mix¬ 
ture, a very pretty thing to do; I have heard of bubbles 
made in this way lasting for several hours, if placed un¬ 
der a glass shade, but I never tried it. To put the bubble 
upon the vial, you first thoroughly wet the neck and rim 
of the vial with the liquid, then blow a bubble, and 
when it is still small, touch it to the mouth of the vial; 
if the bubble breaks, try again, but if it does not, and 
with a little care it will not, go on blowing, and when 
the bubble is large enough, lift your pipe away in a one¬ 
sided manner, just as you do when you throw a bubble 
off from the pipe. A few trials will make it very easy. 
Walter tried it, and after a few attempts succeeded.— 
“But,” said I, “your bubble is not a handsome one, it 
is only a little thing, and has no fine colors. You must 
make it larger if you would see its beauty.”—“ Larger, 
indeed,” was the reply, “ the bubble is done, and I’d 
like to see any one make it larger.”—“Easy enough, give 
me that bit of broken pipe-stem.”—After thoroughly 
wetting one end of the stem with the liquid, I dexter¬ 
ously pushed it through the wall, or film of the bubble, 
and increased it to more than twice its former size, to 
the great astonishment of all the children. Indeed, if 
one is a little skillful, he can do many curious things with 
the glycerine and soap bubbles, and as for the chain of 
bubbles, blown with Mr. Bliss’ toy, I have made fifteen, 
or more if they were small, but the weight soon becomes 
too great for the last one. “ But uncle,” one asked, “ is 
not this glycerine very dear ?”—“Not so dear as former¬ 
ly, it is now made on the large scale, and sold at 75 cts. a 
pound, but in small quantities our village druggists sell 
it for about 10 cts. an ounce.”—“I wish now, uncle,” 
said Walter, who has something of an artist's eye for 
color, “ that you would tell us how these bubbles are so 
beautifully colored—when you first begin to blow, the 
film is without color, and soon it breaks into as many 
beautiful hues as a—a—well, a peacock’s tail.”—“Can 
you tell me why a leaf is green and a flower white, yel¬ 
low, or red?”—“No, except that they are made so.”— 
"Well, then, the bubble is made so,” I replied. “No, 
uncle, that won’t do, because the bubble at first has no 
color, then when you make it larger it will show colors 
which keep changing and changing the more you blow, 
and when you get the bubble very large and thin, and 
expect it to be still handsomer, it seems to lose its color 
and bursts, now I would like to know why ?”—The boy 
had asked the very question I hoped he would, but he 
touched a subject upon which the most learned men are 
not quite agreed, and I could only promise another even¬ 
ing to tell them something about it, at least enough to 
show 7 that even a soap-bubble will suggest questions that 
puzzle the men of science. The Doctor. 
A Boy Asks Questions. 
The boy is named Anson, he lives in Wapello Co., O., 
and he has some questions that he would like the Doctor 
to answer. That is right Master Anson, if you, and all 
the other boys—not to omit the girls—will ask questions 
about things that puzzle them, we shall have a right 
lively time of it. Master Anson asks two questions ; one 
about heated air is a very well put query, and when I 
get through with the bubble talk, I hope to attend to 
that. If I forget it, ask again. Letters for me should 
be addressed “ The Doctor,” 245 Broadway, care Orange 
Judd Company, nere is our young friend’s question just 
as he puts it: “I have noticed after putting horse hairs 
in water for some weeks, they would appear to be so 
many snakes, and would swim around in every direction. 
I would like to know how this could be, I do not believe 
that a horse-hair could turn to a snake.”—Now this is a 
very curious case. Our correspondent sayB he has notic¬ 
ed something, and then says he don’t believe what he 
has seen. I don’t think that Anson wrote just what he 
intended to say. If he did put horse-hairs into water, 
and they did “appear to be so many snakes,” and 
“ swim around,” why does he write to me about some¬ 
thing his own eyes has seen, and ask how it could be? 
He, no doubt, meant to say that he has put horse-hairs into 
a pool, and afterward found something alive that looked 
like a horse-hair. I will state the facts in the case, and 
then our friend Anson may perhaps see where he failed 
to express himself just as he intended. It is a popular 
belief, because hair-like worms are found in pools and 
other places where horses drink, that the horse’s hairs 
drop into the water, and there change into snakes. Now 
this matter is perfectly well understood, in the first place 
these snakes, so-called, are not snakes at all, but worms, 
and they no more come from hairs than colts are hatched 
from pumpkins. The “hair-snakes ” or “hair-worms,” 
as they are more properly called, are just as much dis¬ 
tinct and independent animals as the horse itself. There 
is enough about them that is strange, without going to 
the hair story absurdity. These animals are called by 
naturalists Gordius. Perhaps you have read of Alexan¬ 
der and the Gordian knot, and these were .so named 
from the way they have of making difficult knots of 
themselves. There are'male and females, and the female 
lays eggs in the water—long strings of them. When the 
young Gordius is hatched, it is quite unlike the parent, 
and very minute, being only 1 / i50 of an inch long. Now 
here comes the strange part. The water-beetles and 
such insects, being on the look-out for food, swallow an 
infant Gordius when they get a chance, and that is just 
what young Gordius wants, for inside the insect it can 
grow—just as a tape-worm grows in man—and by and by 
come out a regular “hair-worm,” to keep up the story 
that horse-hairs turns to worms. No, Master Anson, your 
question about heated air is so well expressed, that I am 
not willing to believe you intended to say that you have 
really “ noticed ” that hairs turn to worms; but if you 
still think you have, you must tell us more about it. Do 
not think I am unkindly criticising you, for I would not 
discourage you from asking more questions, and when 
you look at your question as it appears in print, you 
will see that you have said rather more than- you in¬ 
tended. Let me hear from you again. The Doctor. 
Valentine's Morning-. 
There is excitement in the household, the post-man 
has come with his letters, as he usually does, but why 
on this particular morning, the 14th of February, should 
all old and young rush to see what the letter carrier has 
brought, while on every other day in the year there is no 
such eagerness ? It is St. Valentine’s morning, and the 
youngsters, and some not so young, are expecting a val¬ 
entine. Twenty-five years ago a similar scene might have 
taken place in almost any city house, and in the cot', .ry, 
where there are no letter carriers, the interest wou,^ be 
shown in some other way. Even now, when the custom 
of sending Valentines is much less common than it was, 
the business of the Post-office is greatly increased on 
the 14th of February, and in some parts of the country 
the day is much more observed than in cities. Still 
young people of the present time can have little idea of 
how their parents and grand-parents regarded the day, 
and it is likely that before many years Valentine’s day 
will be lost sight of altogether. Perhaps you would like 
to know something about the day and how it was former¬ 
ly observed. There was once a very good man, who, in 
the time when people were made to suffer for their 
religious belief, was beheaded because he thought differ¬ 
ently from other people. Then after he was dead, his 
goodness was remembered, and he was called Saint 
Valentine. All this happened in Home, some 1,600 
years ago, when they did very strange things. One of 
the customs of that time, was to put the names of all 
the girls, or as we should say now, young ladies, in a 
box, and for the boys or young gentlemen to draw out 
the names—a sort of social lottery you will see. Well, it 
was expected that each young man would be very polite 
and attentive to the young lady whose name he drew, for 
a whole year, when another drawing took place. As 
this ceremony was held on the birthday of St. Valentine, 
or St. Valentine’s day, February 14t,h, the girl was the 
young man’s “ Valentine,” and the youth was the young 
ladies’ “ Valentine.” It was a harmless amusement, and 
was probably one of the few ways young people had in 
those old old times of having a bit of fun. In later 
times the custom of choosing Valentines by lot, was 
revived in France and England, and included married as 
well as single people, and those who were thus chosen 
as Valentines, were expected to make costly presents to 
one another, and sometimes great fun was made, by hav¬ 
ing a little girl drawn as the Valentine of one old enough 
to be her grand-father. One very learned man wrote in 
his diary some 200 years ago, that he was glad that he 
had that year drawn his own wife as his Valentine, and 
