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Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 84.djvu/522

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518
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY
the degenerate corpuscles are the tender cells of latest development. In the human being the latest development is the brain. The microscope shows the degenerate corpuscles, with the goods upon them, down in their bodies the gray matter of the brain. This accounts for the tremendous mortality among heavy drinkers and for the degeneracy that will be referred to later.

The second quotation, the head lines and editorial from the April publications of a Sunday newspaper syndicate, is as follows:

WHEN THE WORLD'S BACK BROKE

By James Oliver Curwood

Illustrated by

Charles Livingston Bull

EDITOR'S VOTE.—Mr. Curwood is the first writer to tell in fiction the dramatic story of that day thousands of years ago, when in the space of what was probably tin more than a few minutes the earth tilted twenty-three and a half degrees on its axis, transforming what was then a tropical world into the blackness of a night which lasted for unnumbered centuries, and out of which came what are known as the North Polar regions of today. In that one "first night" of a life that had known only perpetual day all living creatures perished; but entombed in their caskets of ice and frozen earth many of tin m have conn down tn us fifty or a hundred thousand years later, so completely preserved that the flesh of mastodons recently discovered was eaten by dogs and men. In fact, Mr. Curwood helped uncover a mastodon at Fort Migley and ate of the flesh.

QUARANTINE OF HAWAIIAN FRUIT

The office of information of the Department of Agriculture has sent out a notice in regard to the stringent regulations which have been adopted to guard against danger from the melon fly and the Mediterranean fruit fly. Any one who attempts after May 1, to bring into the United States certain Hawaiian fruits, nuts and vegetables will face a penalty of $500 fine or imprisonment for a year or both. A new order issued by the Department of Agriculture provides this punishment for attempts to violate the quarantine declared in 1912, under the plants quarantine act, against Hawaiian products which might introduce into the United States two dangerous pests, the melon fly and the Mediterranean fruit fly. ruder the new regulations importations of bananas and pineapples are per mined under stringent conditions of inspection and certification. Practically all other fruits and such vegetables as tomatoes, squashes, green peppers and string leans are absolutely excluded. Circulars are to be distributed on all incoming steamships warning passengers of the quarantine and the reason for it.

Hitherto the United states has fortunately been free from both the melon fly and the Mediterranean fruit fly. The latter in particular has proved a source of great loss, practically putting i an end to the fruit industry wherever it has obtained a good foothold. The Bermuda peach crop, for instance, is now a thing of the past. It is believed to have originated on the west coast of Africa, its name being due to the great damage it did after it had been carried to the Mediterranean. It also spread to Bermuda, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, whence t was carried in ships' cargoes to Hawaii. In all probability the fly would lie in California to-day if it were not for the fact that no fruit is grown in the immediate vicinity of San Francisco. The great danger is that some traveler may unknowingly bring with him as a curiosity pest-infected fruit, nuts or vegetables and introduce them into a region favorable for the fly's spread.

Commercially the quarantine will not seriously interfere with Hawaiian industries. Bananas and pineapples, the only fruits which are grown in the island in commercial quantities, do not, as a rule, carry the infection. When property inspected and packed in accordance with the department's regulations, they will, therefore, be allowed admission. Other fruits, such as alligator pears, Chinese ink berries,