employing empirical processes that had been established by practice. The vats were often infested by small worms (“vinegar eals”) which disputed with the mycoderma for the oxygen, killed it through submersion, and caused the loss of batches that had been under troublesome preparation for months. Since Mr. Pasteur’s researches, the _Mycoderma aceti_ has been sown directly in the slightly acidified wine, and an excellent quality of vinegar has thus been obtained, with no fear of an occurrence of the disasters that accompanied the old process.
Another example will show us the microbes in activity in the earth. Let us take a pinch of vegetable mould, water it with ammonia compounds, and analyze it, and we shall find nitrates therein. Whence came these nitrates? They came from the oxidation of the ammonia compounds brought about by moistening, since the nitrogen of the air does not seem to combine under normal conditions with the surrounding oxygen. This oxidation of ammonia compounds is brought about, as has been shown by Messrs. Schloesing and Muntz, by a special ferment, the _Micrococcus nitrificans_, that belongs to the group of Bacteriacae. In fact, the vapors of chloroform, which anesthetize plants, also prevent nitrification, since they anaesthetize the nitric ferment. So, too, when we heat vegetable humus to 100 deg., nitrification is arrested, because the ferment is killed. Finally, we may sow the nitric ferment in calcined earth and cause nitrification to occur therein as surely as we can bring about a fermentation in wine by sowing _Mycoderma aceti_ in it.
The nitric ferment exists in all soils and in all latitudes, and converts the ammoniacal matters carried along by the rain into nitrates of a form most assimilable by plants. It therefore constitutes one of the important elements for fertilizing the earth.
Finally, we must refer to the numerous bacteria that occasion putrefaction in vegetable or animal organisms. These microbes, which float in the air, fall upon dead animals or plants, develop thereon, and convert into mineral matters the immediate principles of which the tissues are composed, and thus continually restore to the air and soil the elements necessary for the formation of new organic substances. Thus, _Bacillus amylobacter_ (Fig. 2, II.), as Mr. Van Tieghem has shown, subsists upon the hydrocarbons contained in plants, and disorganizes vegetable tissues in disengaging hydrogen, carbonic acid, and vegetable acids. _Bacterium roseopersicina_ forms, in pools, rosy or red pellicles that cover vegetable debris and disengage gases of an offensive odor. This bacterium develops in so great quantity upon low shores covered with fragments of algae as to sometimes spread over an extent of several kilometers. These microbes, like many others, continuously mineralize organic substances, and thus exhibit themselves as the indispensable agents of the movement of the matter that incessantly circulates from the mineral to the organic world, and _vice versa_.–_Science et Nature._
* * * * *
Palms sprouted from seeds kept warm by contact of the vessel with the water boiler of a kitchen range are grown by a man in New York.
* * * * *
EPITAPHIUM CHYMICUM.
The following epitaph was written by a Dr. Godfrey, who died in Dublin in 1755:
Here lieth, to _digest macerate_, and _amalgamate_ into clay, _In Batneo Arenae_,
_Stratum super Stratum_
The _Residuum, Terra damnata_ and _Caput Mortuum_, Of BOYLE GODFREY, Chymist and M.D.
A man who in this Earthly Laboratory pursued various _Processes_ to obtain _Arcanum Vitae_,
Or the Secret to Live;
Also _Aurum Vitae_,
or the art of getting rather than making gold. _Alchymist_-like, all his Labour and _Projection_, as _Mercury_ in the Fire, _Evaporated_ in _Fume_ when he _Dissolved_ to his first principles.
He _departed_ as poor
as the last drops of an _Alembic_; for Riches are not poured on the _Adepts_ of this world.
Though fond of News, he carefully avoided the _Fermentation, Effervescence_, and _Decrepitation_ of this life. Full seventy years his _Exalted Essence_ was _hermetically_ sealed in its _Terrene Matrass_; but the Radical Moisture being _exhausted_, the _Elixir Vitae_ spent, And _exsiccate_ to a _Cuticle_, he could not _suspend_ longer in his _Vehicle_, but _precipitated Gradatim, per_ _Campanam_, to his original dust.
May that light, brighter than _Bolognian Phosphorus_, Preserve him from the _Athanor, Empyreuma_, and _Reverberatory Furnace_ of the other world,
Depurate him from the _Faeces_ and _Scoria_ of this, Highly _Rectify_ and _Volatilize_, his _aethereal_ spirit, Bring it over the _Helm_ of the _Retort_ of this Globe, place in a proper _Recipient_ or _Crystalline_ orb, Among the elect of the _Flowers of Benjamin_; never to be _saturated_ till the General _Resuscitation, Deflagration, Calcination,_ and _Sublimation_ of all things.
* * * * *
A NEW STOVE CLIMBER.
(_Ipomaea thomsoniana_.)
The first time we saw flowers of this beautiful new climbing plant (about a year ago) we thought that it was a white-flowered variety of the favorite old Ipomaea Horsfalliae, as it so nearly resembles it. It has, however, been proved to be a distinct new species, and Dr. Masters has named it in compliment to Mr. Thomson of Edinburgh. It differs from I. Horsfalliae in having the leaflets in sets of threes instead of fives, and, moreover, they are quite entire. The flowers, too, are quite double the size of those of Horsfalliae, but are produced in clusters in much the same way; they are snow-white. This Ipomaea is indeed a welcome addition to the list of stove-climbing plants, and will undoubtedly become as popular as I. Horsfalliae, which may be found in almost every stove. It is of easy culture and of rapid growth, and it is to be hoped that it is as continuous in flowering as Horsfalliae. It is among the new plants of the year now being distributed by Mr. B.S. Williams, of the Victoria Nurseries, Upper Holloway.–_The Garden_.
[Illustration: A NEW STOVE CLIMBER. IPOMAEA THOMSONIANA.]
* * * * *
HISTORY OF WHEAT.
Isis was supposed to have introduced wheat into Egypt, Demeter into Greece, and the Emperor Chin-Wong into China, about 3000 B.C. In Europe it was cultivated before the period of history, as samples have been recovered from the lacustrine dwellings of Switzerland.
The first wheat raised in the “New World” was sown by the Spaniards on the island of Isabella, in January, 1494, and on March the 30th the ears were gathered. The foundation of the wheat harvest of Mexico is said to have been three or four grains carefully cultivated in 1530, and preserved by a slave of Cortez. The first crop of Quito was raised by a Franciscan monk in front of the convent. Garcilasso de la Vega affirms that in Peru, up to 1658, wheaten bread had not been sold in Cusco. Wheat was first sown by Goshnold Cuttyhunk, on one of the Elizabeth Islands in Buzzard’s Bay, off Massachusetts, in 1602, when he first explored the coast. In 1604, on the island of St. Croix, near Calais, Me., the Sieur de Monts had some wheat sown which flourished finely. In 1611 the first wheat appears to have been sown in Virginia. In 1626, samples of wheat grown in the Dutch Colony at New Netherlands were shown in Holland. It is probable that wheat was sown in the Plymouth Colony prior to 1629, though we find no record of it, and in 1629 wheat was ordered from England to be used as seed. In 1718 wheat was introduced into the valley of the Mississippi by the “Western Company.” In 1799 it was among the cultivated crops of the Pimos Indians of the Gila River, New Mexico.
* * * * *
DETERMINATION OF STARCH.
According to Bunzener and Fries _(Zeitschrift fur das gesammte Brauwesen_), a thick, sirupy starch paste prepared with a boiling one per cent solution of salicylic acid is only very slowly saccharified, and on cooling deposits crystalline plates of starch. For the determination of starch in barley the finely-ground sample is boiled for three-quarters of an hour with about thirty times its weight of a one per cent solution of salicylic acid, the resulting colorless opalescent liquid filtered with the aid of suction, and the starch therein inverted by means of hydrochloric acid. The dextrose formed is estimated by Fehling’s solution. The results are one to two per cent higher than when the starch is brought into solution by water at 135 deg. C.
* * * * *
A catalogue, containing brief notices of many important scientific papers heretofore published in the SUPPLEMENT, may be had gratis at this office.
* * * * *
THE SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SUPPLEMENT.
PUBLISHED WEEKLY.
TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION, $5 A YEAR.
Sent by mail, postage prepaid, to subscribers in any part of the United States or Canada. Six dollars a year, sent, prepaid, to any foreign country.
All the back numbers of THE SUPPLEMENT, from the commencement, January 1, 1876, can be had. Price, 10 cents each.
All the back volumes of THE SUPPLEMENT can likewise be supplied. Two volumes are issued yearly. Price of each volume, $2.50, stitched in paper, or $3.50, bound in stiff covers.
COMBINED RATES–One copy of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN and one copy of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SUPPLEMENT, one year, postpaid, $7.00.
A liberal discount to booksellers, news agents, and canvassers.
MUNN & CO., PUBLISHERS,
361 BROADWAY, NEW YORK, N. Y.
* * * * *
PATENTS.
In connection with the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, Messrs. MUNN & Co. are Solicitors of American and Foreign Patents, have had 39 years’ experience, and now have the largest establishment in the world. Patents are obtained on the best terms.
A special notice is made in the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN of all Inventions patented through this Agency, with the name and residence of the Patentee. By the immense circulation thus given, public attention is directed to the merits of the new patent, and sales or introduction often easily effected.
Any person who has made a new discovery or invention can ascertain, free of charge, whether a patent can probably be obtained, by writing to MUNN & Co.
We also send free our Hand Book about the Patent Laws, Patents, Caveats. Trade Marks, their costs, and how procured. Address
MUNN & CO., 361 BROADWAY, NEW YORK.
Branch Office, cor. F and 7th Sts., Washington, D. C.