Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 August 1883 — REFUTING WHAT HAVE BEEN CALLED EACTS. [ARTICLE]

REFUTING WHAT HAVE BEEN CALLED EACTS.

* "Tell me some popular errors in regard to the microscope. ” “One very old and very common one is that every drop of water we drink is teeming with animal life. There never was a greater mistake. It Is very rarely, indeed, in lake water that any animalculse are to be found. If a little bit of grass, or shred of meat, or any organic matter be left in the water for two or three days, there they can be found. It is supposed that a peculiar kind of organism like eels can be found .in vinegar. It may be that way back in the country, where they make vinegar out of apples, and not out of aquafortis, there may be some, but they don’t seem to thrive in city vinegar. Another thing, people seem to think that hairs are hollow. The hair is no more hollow than a fence post, and the coloring matter, instead of being filled in a tube, is mixed up in the cells of the hair. The mistake never would have occurred if it had been recollected that the hair is but a modification of the epidermis. Then there is another idea that the human skin is as full of pores as a sponge.” The fallacy of this idea was demonstrated by the microscopist’s taking a slice with a razor off his hand and putting it on a slide. The reporter was surprised to find that the pores were very scarce indeed, appearing to be about a fiftieth of an inch apart.— Cleveland Herald.