The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 9, 1899, Page 31

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JULY 9, 1899. 31 AND THIS FATALLY POISONOUS INSECT IS AL- READY 1N CALIFORNIA, SO SAY OUR LOCAL MEN OF SCIENCE. ve an epidemic of bug egraphic advices from 0 more than for v g calamity it. "And the of dire forebodin ot either ent v physicians skillec ve poisons th future name!—a me the in- the heaven save wh ihe matter o s stings, the g the ority of lic obser- has lived ar over the Unit any es b: E Hichi had rgetica MISS ADA WALKER At ‘the Tivoll. OPERATIC STAR NOW IT g THE KISSING BUG. Menalolestes Picipes. Enlarged Thirty Diameters. i A MOST DANGEROUS INSECT. g TOSOSOS> oo So Says Professor Fuchs, Curator of Entomology of the California Academy of Sciences. X HE Menalolestes picipes is one of the most dangerous insects cn the whole Pacific slope. It is a great torment to all workers in orchards and often inflicts fatal wounds. Every year hundreds of farm hands are bitte: and I have known several to receive a number of bites on the backs of ¢ their necks in the same forenoon. The species that causes the most trouble is commonly found 52 beneath stones and rubbish, although when they become plentiful they are found on trees and bushes. $ Any person bitten should apply ammonia at once and the danger will be reduced to a minimum. It :Z would be a good idea for people living in the country to keep a supply of ammonia on hand all the time. 8 People whose blood is not in the best of condition have the most to fear. GGOGL GBI T A AN, NS00 L] that uncomfort- nd declare that pulle legs about in all directions S s purposely, and gave firm tugs to the feelers and pushed dysons foidlest amiie e ead here and there until Mr. Menalo- nsect 2 s own con- tes looked as natural as life and as if m on his which he t ready to start off to find somebody v, the fact re- as painful to be to b g pur- Applying remedies at once he was ce which who to poke his stinger into. “That is the position he takes when he said the professor, as he contem- 4 his work. “Now, this insect is a bug. He has a large number of rela- tives. In fact his family is one of the largest in the Insect kingdom. is goes under the general name of thosé time to spread 1d then, being ened from his past f on record along enemsy 1; n,.n‘;;,‘ Sty £ R oidea. The mem _ers of this family ashion S are both herbaceous and carnivorous. They and n atances one ean but feed on the juices of plants and fruit and 1 on other insects. They will even become we to have THE BUG AS an epidemic cannibals it. should necessity drive them to chief and was to vely faces and pain- at the doctors had been “Their partioular feed, however, is the caterpillar. They drive their beaks into of the crawling insects and simply one cudgeling their over for the past suck it to death by removing every cses SIS e NIEWER BY . not phase him in -3 2 Hd‘l. of ‘No part of this country is exempt ! ) e his am- E from the ravages of these insects. There for n is to con- S A are two distinct species found in Califor- s -;f\;(w;*n[v\ ‘m stir nia—the Menalolestes picipes and the uto INGE the Teports fom: the Menalolestes abdominalis. The latter, the fl:\‘:m‘]hm‘nm‘\h”\:lrt'_m about the fatal ravages of the so. however, does not appear to have ever : ) ¥ bega alled ‘Gtaing. bug® Callfuinia. Deen caughtiinithevectiof atinging, al- though there little doubt but that it their unwelcome presence known 5 AR e Tt scientists have turned atten- Pennsylvania, New York S ol beady ot the in_ could be as poisonous as the other. There R is very little difference between them, ex- er botel kespers, both aty | - ESEU PRI S8 B RS R e R e polor of e wiligR HIn Gl te, mountains, are on e e T gard the insect belongs to the species esort of the insect in question, altho resort of insect in question, although ynowy as Heteropterous Hemipetra. that A% there have been remarkably few casual- well : K “As far as 1 have been able to discovi ehvioThrant ties. This, however, may be due to the “\ fax asil mave hpen; sbls codiscoyer, r ; e i e e e B el T TR picipes makes its home and frighten away. timid guests. 1% O e oty eon' under stones, fallen logs and the bark of sovernment entomolog U LIS Erlideanialy rotten trees. rubbish heap is a good sure us the alolestes _ Professor Fuchs, entomologist of the place to look for them really means no hs lifornia Academy ences, has just = “The habits of the insect place it among means vicious, but that his habit of p 1de a s h s collectic 1d the swift runners. It is very hard to very h which he nd but one specimen of the species that catch them in the day time and at night act wi rp-pointed be; does all the damage. they fly, but of this there i{s a good deal s the Menalolestes d, as there is about all is bug Is known vet to be studic intentional mischief, the bacte- ito u This one is a terror in id Professor chs, as he picipes,” s nocturnal inse »n which probo: in his pinned the ee-eighths-inch long speci- more ways than one and I count it as being introduced tently into the men up in front of the microscopic cam- one -of the most dangerous insects on the stem of the human being about whom to be photc 1 The Call. whole Pacific Slope e feels a practic expressed curlosity. Then, by delicate touch by a “The calling of the Menalolestes picipes wer scientists, however, disagree with pair of tiny tweeze he twisted and the ‘ki not right. The "AND AN OLD FAVORITE MISS BLANCHE BATES. Soon ‘to Appear at the California Theater. From a Photograph of the Specimen in the California Academy IDIE/AIBILY? STINGER: CENLARGED) © e HYSTERIA IN ANIMALS. That animals are subject to atfacks of hysteria {& a discovery only lately made by physiclans. Yet the two cases re- corded in the Neurologisches Centralblatt by Dr. H. Higler seem to leave no doubt about the matter. The animals that were affected were a cat and a canary respectively. The cat, which was nine months old, ‘healthy and active, was one day deeply bitten in the back by a dog and immediately fell dbwn aralyzed. When Dr. Higier first saw It five or six weeks after the injury, it walked only with its fore paws, dragging its body and hind limbs. There was com- plete loss of sensation in the hind paws and in the hinder third of the body, hoth sides of the abdomen and pack of the animal belng indifferent to deep punctu; with a needle and to hot applications, but T Alyays responded to gentle touching of the front half of the body. The tail was paralyzed, but none of the limbs atro- phied, as is usual in such cases. Dr. Higler considered that the cat was suffering from an inflammation of the spinal cord, but what occasioned him su prise was the fact that the animal gave no positive signs other than the paraly One day_the servant girl, being curious to see whether the cat would fall on all fours. as cats usually do, threw it from of Sciences. A N e S e e e i e Y ) the first floor of the house on to the pave- ment. As a matter of fact, it alighted on all fou: immediately ran away and was, contrary to expectation, comp ¢ cured of its sensory and motor paralysis, which had lasted for than two months. The therefore, really had no lesion of the s al cord at all and all its symp- toms due to the fright experienced by the bite of the dog. In other words s manifestly suffering from a ter the cat w attack of I I Dr. Higier's second case showed itself in a canary whose cage, with the bird in it, pulled down from the wall by a cat, but Dr. Higier interposed before the cat seized it. The bird lay on the bottom of the cage, stiff as if dead, but Te- vived by spr h cold water, after which it wa took its food well and showen no abncemality except that from having been a fine singer it became silent. For six weeks the bird never uttered a note. then this condition passed off quite unexpectedly and the eanary once more sang very well. Dr. Higler.also refers to three cases mentioned by Dr. Tou- rette in which dogs showed hysterical symptoms. ———e—— ‘With a population of 5,500,000, London harbors every day 120,000 strangers. Some may remain a week, some a month, but all the year around there is an average of 120,000 visitors who are within the Metro- politan boundaries. S THE «KISSING BUG CLIMATIC CON- DITIONS OF THIS STATE SEEM TO BE SUCH THAT ITS POISON HERE IS NOT SO DEADLY. fact that people have been bitten on the lips with fatal results denotes nothing, because the bug will bite, or sting, into any part of a human heing that it comes into contact with. Of course it is only natural, considering that the in does most of its prowling at night, that it should fly against people's faces, as that is the only portion of the body that is un- covered. Of my own experience, I have never known death to ensue as the result of the bite of the Menalolestes picipes. But I ve heard of a number of fatal cases and have no doubt that the report was reliable. S The worst that T ever knew that hap- pened in California was in an orchard not far from this city. A farm hand was out trimming tre: : in March and the day “Suddenly the man gave a yell and put hand up to the back of his neck. rybody crowded around and looked at the place the man indicated, but could see nothing. “We all thought at first that it was a spider that had bitten the man, but he soon gave another yell and said he had been bitten again further down the back. Turning down his collar, we found the 't that had done the busine “By this time the first bite had com- renced to swell and become very red. . man groaned In agony, but we were Jwerless to do anything except hurry m off to a doctor. This naturally took some time, and the n was in pretty bad condition when help came to him. For hours the doctor unable to afford the least relief and man suffered agonie: It was several days fellow was out of danger, and he needed the constant attention of the doctor. At \e time his neck swelled up to nearly -e the natural size and he was a most ful-looking object. Convalescence was low. but he finally pulled through and doctor said it was about as close a ve as he ever met with in his practice. ‘I have known of numerous other cases of men being stunsg. Orchardmen have been stung on the hands, wrists and the < of their necks. Some of them suf- | agonies and had to take to their beds, while others merely Wwere incon- venienced for a few hours “The reason for this I cannot account for except that it was the condition of the s blood. Weak, thin or diseased blood 1d urally have less resistance to G w the before the poor tw me wor the poison than strong, heaithy blood. And, on the ot hand, the poison in- jected from the insect might be of differ- ent strength at different times. An in- cect that had lain dormant for some houts Wwould be more likely to eject a stronger poison than one that had been active for several hours and perhaps been forced to defend itself on several occasions. “There are some who hold to the idea that the poison that so much dam- age to the human ¥ bacteria it has accumulated 0 1 of the ect’s probe. In hunting for blood food, claim that this probe is driven into flesh and the bact naturally left “But this is not so. The insect secretes poison and ejects it at the instant of mak- ing the puncture. It has a full set of glands stmilar to the mosqu the poison merely collected, as it would be of many different kinds uld produce a result in accordance ith the poison that had been collected. I call the Menalolestes picipes a most for several reasons. at night, when peo- v, to it until they its sting can w people Small chil- might play lefend have been stung. Secondly prove deadly. And thirdly think the bug is dangerous. dren like its red color and one with fatal results ut there is a sure and simple remedy. That is ammonia. If you get stung put a drop on the wound and you will not run much danger of fatal resu st getali Ty s i HEAT OF THE EARTH. sor Agassiz has been for several with _the tance of Mr. k. F. West, making rock temperature observations while the min- ing ope; > Calumet and Hecla Compar going or y speak as follow W ave now attained a vertical depth of 4712 feet and have taken temperatures of the rock 105 feet; at the depth of the level of Lake Superior, 655 feet; at that of the level of the sea, 1257 feet; at that of the deepest }\:u't of Lake Superior, 1663 feet, and at »ur additional stations, each respectiv 50, 561 and 1356 feet below the ceding one, the deepest points at which temperatures have been taken being 4550 feet. ““\Ve propose when we have reached our final depth, 4900 feet, to take an addi- tional the details of our observations. est rock temperaturé and to publish The high- rock temperature obtained at_ the th of 458) feet was 79 degrees Fahr. The rock temperature at a depth of 105 feet was 59 degrees Fahr. Taking that as the depth unaffected by local changes we have a column of 4 feet of rock, with a difference of one degree for every The crust of the earth would be n convulsions. “If there is a rise of one degree 24 feet there Is a four-de every 30 feet, or about a twenty: gree rise every mile. According to this, Dy penetrating the earth fifty miles -the temperature reached would be 1250 degrees Fahr. A hole 250 miles deep will bring the peratures up to about 6000 degrees for —_———e————— Costume Rosa Bonheur Really Wore. There is a widespread impression that the late Rosa Bonheur was in the habit of wearing men's attire. This is only par- tially true. She -.dressed as a man while at work in her studio, because this dress gave her greater freedom of action while working on her canvases, which were often of large size. In pursuit of her studies of horses her favorite subjects, she also found this cos- tume convenient. With her strong mas- culine face and short hair she passed very well as a man, and found that she attract- ed less attention among the horse markets in this dress than in the usual garb of a woman. Hence it became her usual at- tire on these excursions. At home, on the street and in the usual walks of life she wore a plain black dress without display of any sort. When going out she donned a plain black bonnet, and became simply a rather large woman, no- ticeable only for the strength of her fea- tures and the keen penetration of her dark eyes. She was fond of wearing the ribbon of the Legion of Honor. —_————————— The fir tree is the commonest of all trees, being found in every part of the world,