Scientific American Supplement, No. 362, December 9, 1882

V >> Various >> Scientific American Supplement, No. 362, December 9, 1882

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BACTERIA.

Bacteria, whether significant of disease or decline of health, are found
more or less numerous in everything we eat and drink. The germs or
spores of many kinds, known as _termo_, _lineola_, tenue, spirillum,
vibriones, etc, exist in almost infinite numbers; some of the smallest
are too small to be seen by the highest powers, which, being lodged in
all vegetable and animal substances, spring into life and develop very
rapidly under favorable circumstances. They develop most rapidly when
decomposition commences, and seem to indicate the degree or activity
of that decomposition, also hastening the same. They are found most
numerous in the feces, and usually fully developed in the fresh
evacuations of persons of all ages. They may be seen plainly under
a thin glass with high powers with strong or clear light, when the
material is much diluted with water.

These bacteria appear almost as numerously, yet more slowly, in urine,
either upon exposure to air or when freshly evacuated, when the general
health of the individual is declining, or any tendency to decomposition.
A diagnosis can be aided very greatly by a study of these bacteria,
as they indicate or determine the vitality, vigor, and purity of the
system, whether more or less subject to disease, even before any signs
of disease appear. They seem to preindicate the hold of the life force
on the material, and always appear when that force is broken. Their
relative quantity found in feces is as a barometric indication of the
general health or some particular disturbance, and it is surprising
how very fast they multiply while simply passing the intestines under
circumstances favorable for their growth. These forms, so small, are
important, because so very numerous, and their study has been, perhaps,
avoided by many; yet they certainly mean something and effect something,
even the non-malignant varieties as mentioned above, and it is certainly
worth while to continue to study their meaning, even beyond what has
already been written by others on the subject.--_J.M. Adams, in The
Microscope_.

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THE SOY BEAN

(_Soja hispida_.)

A good deal of attention has lately been directed to this plant in
consequence of the enormous extent to which it is cultivated in China
for the sake of the small seeds which it produces, and which are known
as soy beans. These vary considerably in size, shape, and color,
according to the variety of the plant which produces them. They are for
the most part about the size and shape of an ordinary field pea, and,
like the pea, are of a yellow color; some, however, are of a greenish
tint. These seeds contain a large quantity of oil, which is expressed
from them in China and used for a variety of purposes. The residue is
moulded with a considerable amount of pressure into large circular
cakes, two feet or more across, and six inches or eight inches thick.
This cake is used either for feeding cattle or for manuring the land;
indeed, a very large trade is done in China with bean cake (as it is
always called) for these purposes. The well-known sauce called soy is
also prepared from seeds of this bean. The plant generally known as Soja
hispida is by modern botanists referred to Glycine soja. It is an
erect, hairy, herbaceous plant. The leaves are three-parted and the
papilionaceous flowers are born in axillary racemes. It is too tender
for outdoor cultivation in this country, but, has been recommended for
extended growth in our colonies as a commercial plant. The plants are
readily used from seed.--_J.R.F., in The Garden_.

[Illustration: THE SOY BEAN. _(Soja Lispida)_]

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ERICA CAVENDISHIANA.

The plant of which the illustration is given is one of those fine
specimens which has made the collection of J. Lawless, Esq., The
Cottage, Exeter, famous all over the south and west of England. It is
only one specimen among a considerable collection of hard-wooded plants
which are cultivated and trained in first rate style by Mr. George Cole,
the gardener, one of the most successful plant growers of the day. The
plant was in the winning collection of Mr. Cole exhibited at the late
spring show held at Plymouth.--_The Gardeners' Chronicle_.

[Illustration: ERICA CAVENDISHIANA.]

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PHILESIA BUXIFOLIA.

We figure this plant, not as a novelty, but for the purpose of showing
what a fine thing it is when grown under propitious circumstances.
Generally, we see it more or less starved in the greenhouse, and even
when planted out in the winter garden its flowers lack the size and
richness of color they attain out-of-doors. It comes from the extreme
south of South America, which accounts for its hardihood, and is a near
ally of the Lapageria: the latter is remarkable for withstanding even
the noxious fumes of the copper smelting works in Chili, and as the
Philesia has similar tough leaves, it is probable that it would support
the vitiated atmosphere of a town better than most evergreens. In any
case, there is no reasonable doubt but that, if cultivators would take
the necessary pains, they might select perfectly hardy varieties both
of the Lapageria and of the Philesia. As it is, we can only call the
Philesea half-hardy north of the Thames, while the Lapageria is not even
that. The curious Philageria, raised in Messrs. Veitch's nursery and
described and figured in our columns in 1872, p. 358, is a hybrid raised
between the two genera. For the specimen of Philesia figured we are
indebted to Mr. Dartnall.--_The Gardeners' Chronicle_.

[Illustration: PHILESIA BUXIFOLIA--HARDY SHRUB--FLOWERS, ROSE PINK.]

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MAHOGANY.

The mahogany tree, says the _Lumber World_, is a native of the West
Indies, the Bahamas, and that portion of Central America that lies
adjacent to the Bay of Honduras, and has also been found in Florida. It
is stated to be of moderately rapid growth, reaching its full maturity
in about two hundred years. Full grown, it is one of the monarchs of
tropical America. Its trunk, which often exceeds forty feet in length
and six in diameter, and massive arms, rising to a lofty height,
and spreading with graceful sweep over immense spaces, covered with
beautiful foliage, bright, glossy, light, and airy, clinging so long to
the spray as to make it almost an evergreen, present a rare combination
of loveliness and grandeur. The leaves are small, delicate, and polished
like those of the laurel. The flowers are small and white, or greenish
yellow. The fruit is a hard, woody capsule, oval, not unlike the head of
a turkey in size and shape, and contains five cells, in each of which
are inclosed about fifteen seeds.

The mahogany tree was not discovered till the end of the sixteenth
century, and was not brought into European use till nearly a century
later. The first mention of it is that it was used in the repair of
some of Sir Walter Raleigh's ships, at Trinidad, in 1597. Its finely
variegated tints were admired, but in that age the dream of El Dorado
caused matters of more value to be neglected. The first that was brought
to England was about 1724, a few planks having been sent to Dr. Gibbons,
of London, by a brother who was a West Indian captain. The doctor was
erecting a house, and gave the planks to the workmen, who rejected them
as being too hard. The doctor then had a candle-box made of the wood,
his cabinet-maker also complaining of the hardness of the timber.
But, when finished, the box became an object of general curiosity and
admiration. He had one bureau, and her Grace of Buckingham had another,
made of this beautiful wood, and the despised mahogany now became a
prominent article of luxury, and at the same time raised the fortunes
of the cabinet-maker by whom it had been so little regarded. Since that
lime it has taken a leading rank among the ornamental woods, having come
to be considered indispensable where luxury is intended to be indicated.

A few facts will furnish a tolerably distinct idea of the size of this
splendid tree. The mahogany lumbermen, having selected a tree, surround
it with a platform about twelve feet above the ground, and cut it above
the platform. Some twelve or fifteen feet of the largest part of the
trunk are thus lost. Yet a single log not unfrequently weighs from six
or seven to fifteen tons, and sometimes measures as much as seventeen
feet in length and four and a half to five and a half feet in diameter,
one tree furnishing two, three, or four such logs. Some trees have
yielded 12,000 superficial feet, and at average price pieces have sold
for $15,000. Messrs. Broadwood London, pianoforte manufacturers, paid
L3,000 for three logs, all cut from one tree, and each about fifteen
feet long and more than three feet square. The tree is cut at two
seasons of the year--in the autumn and about Christmas time. The trunk,
of course, furnishes timber of the largest dimensions, but that from the
branches is preferred for ornamental purposes, owing to its closer grain
and more variegated color.

In low and damp soil its growth is rapid; but the most valuable trees
grow slowly among rocks on sterile soil, and seem to gather compactness
and beauty from the very struggle which they make for an existence.
In the Bahamas, in the most desolate regions, once flourished that
curiously veined and much esteemed variety once known in Europe as
"Madeira wood," but which has long since been exterminated. Jamaica,
also, which used to be a fruitful source of mahogany, and whence in 1753
not less than 521,000 feet were shipped, is now almost depleted. That
which is now furnished from there is very inferior, pale, and porous,
and is less esteemed than that of Cuba, San Domingo, or Honduras.

In a dry state mahogany Is very durable, and not liable to the attack of
worms, but, when exposed to the weather it does not last long. It would
therefore make excellent material for floors, roofs, etc., but its
costliness limits its utility in this direction, and it is chiefly
employed for furniture, doors, and a few other articles of joinery, for
which it is among the best materials known. It has been used for sashes
and window frames, but is not desirable for this purpose on account of
the ease with which it is affected by the weather. It has also been used
in England to some extent for the framing of machinery in cotton-mills.
Its color is a reddish brown of different shades and luster, sometimes
becoming a yellowish brown, and often much veined and mottled with
darker shades of the same color. Its texture is uniform, and the rings
indicating its annual growth are not very distinct. The larger medullary
rays are absent, but the smaller ones are often very distinct, with
pores between them. In the Jamaica woods these pores are often filled
with a white substance, but in that brought from Central America they
are generally empty. It has neither taste nor odor, shrinks very
slightly, and warps, it is said, less than any other wood.

The variety called Spanish mahogany comes from the West Indies, and is
in smaller logs than the Honduras mahogany, being generally about two
feet square and ten feet long. It is close grained and hard, generally
darker than the Honduras, free from black specks, and sometimes strongly
marked; the pores appear as though chalk had been rubbed into them.

The Honduras mahogany comes in logs from two to four feet square and
twelve to fourteen long; planks have been obtained seven feet wide. Its
grain is very open and often irregular, with black or gray specks. The
veins and figures are often very distinct and handsome, and that of a
fine golden color and free from gray specks is considered the best. It
holds the glue better than any other wood. The weight of a cubic foot of
mahogany varies from thirty-five to fifty-three pounds. Its strength
is between sixty-seven and ninety-six, stiffness seventy-three to
ninety-three, and toughness sixty-one to ninety-nine--oak being
considered as one hundred in each case.

There are three other species of the genus _Swietania_ besides the
mahogany tree, two of them natives of the East Indies. One is a very
large tree, growing in the mountainous parts of central Hindostan, and
rises to a great height, throwing out many branches toward the top. The
head is spreading and the leaves bear some resemblance to those of the
American species. The wood is a dull red, not so beautiful as that known
to commerce, but harder, heavier, and more durable. The natives of India
consider it the most durable timber which their forests afford, and
consequently use it, when it can be procured, wherever strength and
durability are particularly desired. The other East Indian species is
found in the mountains of Sircars, which run parallel to the Bay of
Bengal. The tree is not so large as any of the other species described,
and the wood is of much different appearance, being of a deep yellow,
considerably resembling box. The grain is close, and the wood both heavy
and durable. The third species, known as African mahogany, is brought
from Sierra Leone. It is hard and durable, and used for purposes
requiring these properties in an eminent degree. If, however, the heart
of the tree be exposed or crossed in cutting or trimming the timber, it
is very liable to premature and rapid decay.

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ANIMALS AND THE ARTS.

In many of the museums efforts are made to perfect economic collections
of animals, so as to show how they can be applied to advantage in the
arts and sciences. The collection and preparation of the corals, for
example, form an important industry. The fossil corals are richly
polished and set in studs and sleeve-buttons, forming rich and
ornamental objects. The fossil coral that resembles a delicate chain has
been often copied by designers, while the red and black corals have long
been used. The best fisheries are along the coasts of Tunis, Algeria,
and Morocco, from 2 to 10 miles from shore, in from 30 to 150 fathoms.
Good coral is also common at Naples, near Leghorn and Genoa, and on
various parts of the sea, as Sardinia, Corsica, Catalonia, Provence,
etc. It ranges in color from pure white through all the shades of
pink, red, and crimson. The rose pink is most valued. For a long time
Marseilles was the market, but now Italy is the great center of the
trade, the greater number of boats hailing from Torre del Greco,
while outside persons are forced to pay a heavy tax. The vessels are
schooners, lateen-rigged, from three to fourteen tons. Large nets are
used, which, during the months between March and October, are dragged,
dredge-like, over the rocks. A large crew will haul in a season from 600
to 900 pounds. To prevent the destruction of the industry, the reef is
divided into ten parts, only one being worked a year, and by the time
the tenth is reached the first is overgrown again with a new growth. In
1873 the Algerian fisheries alone, employing 3,150 men, realized half a
million of dollars. The choice grades are always valuable, the finest
tints bringing over $5 per ounce, while the small pieces, used for
necklaces, and called collette, are worth only $1.50 per ounce. The
large oval pieces are sent to China, where they are used as buttons of
office by the mandarins.

THE CONCH-SHELL.

Somewhat similar in appearance to coral is the conch jewelry, sets of
which have been sold for $300. The tint is exquisite, but liable to fade
when exposed to the sun. It is made from the great conch, common in
Southern Florida and the West Indies. The shells are imported into
Europe by thousands, and cut up into studs, sleeve-buttons, and various
articles of ornament. These conches are supposed to be the producers of
pink pearls, but I have opened hundreds of them and failed to find a
single pearl. The conch shell is used by the cameo cutter. Rome and
Paris are the principal seats of the trade, and immense numbers of
shell cameos are imported by England and America, and mounted in rings,
brooches, etc. The one showing a pale salmon-color upon an orange ground
is much used. In 1847, 300 persons worked upon these shells in Paris
alone, the number of shells used being immense. In Paris 300,000
helmet-shells were used in one year, valued at $40,000 of the bull's
mouth, 80,000, averaging a little over a shilling apiece, equal to
$34,000. Eight thousand black helmets were used, valued at $9,000. The
value of the large cameos produced in Paris in the year 1847 was about
$160,000, and the small ones $40,000. In the Wolfe collection of shells
at the Museum of Natural History, Central Park, is a fine specimen of
the queen conch from the Florida reef, with a fine head cut into the
outer surface, showing how it is done. The tools of the worker in cameos
are of the most delicate description. Fine files, knitting-needle like
implements, triangular-shaped steel cutters, are arranged in a seemingly
endless confusion before the worker. The shell or piece of shell to be
cut is either lashed or glued to a heavy block or held in the hand, and
the face, animal, or other object outlined first with a delicate lead;
having thus laid the foundation, the lines are gone over with a delicate
needle first, then various kinds, the work gradually growing before the
eye, reminding one of the work of the engraver on wood.

LIVING BEETLES, ETC.

Insects have always been used more or less in decoration, especially in
Brazil, where the richly-colored beetles of the country are affected as
articles of personal adornment. Recently in a Union Square jewelry store
a monster beetle was on exhibition, having been sent there for repairs.
It was alive, and about its body was a delicate gold band, locked with
a minute padlock; a gold chain attached it to the shawl of the owner.
Sometimes they are worn upon the headgear, their slow, cumbersome
movements preventing them from attracting great attention. They are
valued at from $50 to $100 apiece. Snakes, the rich green variety so
common in New England, are worn by some ladies as bracelets, while the
gorgeous reptiles are often imitated in gold and silver, with eyes of
diamonds, rubies, or black pearls. Gold bears are the proper thing now
for pins. In the East the chameleon is often worn as a head ornament,
the animal rarely moving, and forming at least a picturesque decoration,
with its odd shape and sculptured outlines. Various other reptiles, as
small turtles, alligators, etc., are pressed into service. The curious
soldier-crab has been used as a pin. Placed in a box with a rich pearly
shell prepared for the purpose, it will change houses, and then, secured
by a gold or silver chain, roams about the wearer, waving its red and
blue claws in a warlike manner. Birds are, perhaps, more commonly used
as natural ornaments than any other, and a cloak of the skins of humming
birds is one of the most magnificent objects to be imagined. One, of a
rare species, was once sold in Europe for $5,000. Single birds are often
worth $700 or $800. A cloak of the skin of the great auk would bring
$8,000 or $10,000. Some of the most beautiful pheasants are extremely
valuable--worth their weight in gold. Tiger claws are used in the
decoration of hats, and are extremely valuable and hard to obtain.

Within ten years the alligator has become an important factor to the
artistic manufacturer. The hide, by a new process, is tanned to an
agreeable softness and used in innumerable ways. The most costly bags
and trunks are made from it; pocket-books, card-cases, dining-room
chairs are covered with it, and it has been used as a dado on the
library wall of a well-known naturalist. It makes an excellent binding
for certain books. Among fishes the shark provides a skin used in a
variety of ways. The shagreen of the shark's ray is of great value.
Canes are made of the shark's backbone, the interstices being filled
with silver or shell plates. Shark's teeth are used to decorate the
weapons of various nations. The magnificent scales, nearly four inches
across and tipped with seemingly solid silver, of the giant herring,
are used, while scales of many of the tribe have long been used in the
manufacture of artificial pearls.

PEARLS.

The latter are perhaps the most valuable of all the offerings of animate
nature, and are the results of the efforts of the bivalve to protect
itself from injury. A parasite bores into the shell of the pearl bearer,
and when felt by the animal it immediately fortifies itself by covering
up the spot with its pearly secretion; the parasite pushes on, the
oyster piling up until an imperfect pearl attached to the shell is the
result. The clear oval pearls are formed in a similar way, only in this
case a bit of sand has become lodged in the folds of the creature, and
in its efforts to protect itself from the sharp edges, the bit becomes
covered, layer by layer, and assumes naturally an oval shape. This
growth of the pearl, as it is incorrectly termed, can be seen by
breaking open a $500 gem, when the nacre will be seen in layers,
resembling the section of an onion. The Romans were particularly fond of
pearls, and, according to Pliny, the wife of Caius Caligula possessed
a collection valued at over $8,000,000 of our money. Julius Caesar
presented a jewel to the mother of Brutus valued at $250,000, while
the pearl drank by Cleopatra was estimated at $400,000. Tavernier, the
famous traveler, sold a pearl to the Shah of Persia for $550,000. A
twenty-thousand-dollar pearl was taken from American waters in the
time of Philip II. It was pear-shaped, and as large as a pigeon's egg.
Another, taken from the same locality, is now owned by a lady in Madrid
who values it at $30,000.

Fresh water pearls are often of great value. The streams of St. Clair
County. Ill., and Rutherford County, Tenn., produce large quantities,
but the largest one was found near Salem, N. J. It was about an inch
across, and brought $2,000 in Paris. The pearls from the Tay, Doon, and
Isla rivers, in Scotland, are preferred by many to the Oriental, and in
one summer $50,000 worth of pearls have been taken from these localities
by men and children. Mother-of-pearl used in the arts is sold by the
ton, from $50 to $700 being average prices. The last year's pearl
fisheries in Ceylon alone realized $80,000, to obtain which more than
7,000,000 pearl oysters were brought up.

SEPIA AND SILK.

The sepia of the artist comes from a mollusk, and is the fossil or
extant ink-bag of a cephalopod or squid, while the cuttle-fish bone is
used for a variety of purposes. In the islands of the Pacific the young
of the pearly nautilus are strung upon strings and sold for $25 and $20
as necklaces. The tritons are in fair demand, and many tons of cowries
are sent to Europe yearly, while the shipment of a thick-lipped strombus
in one year to Liverpool amounted to 300,000. The rich coloring of the
haliotis is used for inlaying art furniture. From the pinna, silk of a
peculiar quality is obtained. It is the byssus or cable of the animal.
The threads are extremely fine, and equal in diameter throughout their
entire length. It is first cleaned with soap and water, and dried by
rubbing through the hands, and finally passed through combs of bone,
iron, or wood, of different sizes, so that a pound of the material in
the rough gives only about three ounces of pure thread. It is mixed with
a third of real silk and spun into gloves, stockings, etc., having a
beautiful yellow hue. The articles made from it are, however, not in
general use. A pair of gloves from pinna silk would cost $1.50, and
stockings about $3. Fine specimens of such work can be seen in the
British Museum.

Though not of animal origin, amber is one of the choicest vegetable
productions used in the arts. It is the fossil gum of pines. Great beds
of it occur at various points in Europe. On the Prussian seaboard it is
mined, and often washes ashore. In 1576 a piece of amber was found
that weighed thirteen pounds, and for which $5,000 was refused. In the
cabinet of the Berlin Museum there is a piece weighing eighteen pounds.
Ambergris, from which perfumery is made, is a secretion taken from the
intestines of the whale, and a piece purchased from the King of Tydore
by the East India Company is reported to have cost $18,000. Whales'
teeth, the tusks of elephants, and those of the walrus and narwhal, are
all used. Elephants' feet are cut off at a convenient length, richly
upholstered, and used as seats; the great toe-nails, when finely
polished, giving the novel article of furniture an attractive and unique
appearance.

It is probably not generally known that the web of certain spiders has
been used. Over 150 years ago, Le Bon, of France, succeeded in weaving
the web material into delicate gloves. Prof. B.G. Wilder investigated
the question thoroughly, and was a firm believer that the web of the
spider had a commercial value, but as yet this has not been realized.
It would be difficult to find an animal that does not in some way
contribute to the useful or decorative arts.--_C.F.H., in N.Y. Post_.

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