Pemaquid

“ If the laws of the land required criminals to be hung, he cannot be blamed for their administration. Sad indeed will it be for magistrates, if they are to be thus designated because they execute the laws. It would not be [18] difficult to place his character in an honorable light, as he was seen by his contemporaries; and as to his brother, George Popham, he has been truly styled by the historian of ancient Pemaquid, the "worthy" President, whom "New England counts as among the earliest, if not the very first, of her 'illustrious dead.'"
Sabino. ”

“ Life is too short to waste in trying to solve all we can't understand. And speaking of mysteries," continued Frank, "you ought to have been born and brought up where I was, on an island off the coast of Maine. There is more mystery to the square mile down that way, I believe, than anywhere else in the world, unless it be Egypt. There is a little village called Pemaquid, where they fence it in and charge an admission. I know of a dozen places where there are old Indian villages ”

“ In experiments often repeated under my direction, carefully distilled water in bottles, most scrupulously clean, with glass stoppers, and protected from dust, but not sterilized, has uniformly refused to support bacterial growths even when cautiously seeded at the start, and the same is usually true of pure natural waters. Some further experiments showed hardly any bacterial growth even of the most hardy water bacteria in a solution 1 part of peptone in 1,000,000,000 parts of distilled water, and solutions ten times as strong only gave moderate growths. ”

“ Such water when boiled is fit for drinking purposes.
A simple but not infallible test for ascertaining animal or vegetable contaminations in water is to put fifteen or twenty drops of permanganate of potash solutions, or Condy’s fluid, into a tumblerful of water. If the water is free from such impurities, the permanganate will retain its beautiful red colour. Should the water contain organic matter, the red hue soon disappears, and in proportion to its contamination will be the discoloration.
Bad water is far more dangerous than impure air ”

“ Chlorella vulgaris, an alga frequently found in soil, has been shown to be extremely plastic in its relations to food substances. Given only a dilute mineral-salts solution as food source, it absorbs CO2 from the air, and grows in sunlight with moderate rapidity. The addition of glucose to the medium in the light greatly increases the rate and amount of growth and the size of the cells, while in the dark the colonies not only remain green but have been shown to develop more vigorously than in full daylight. The organism is also able to use peptone as a source of nitrogen in place of nitrates. ”

“ By spontaneous and extremely slow evaporation at ordinary temperatures, camphor sublimes in lustrous hexagonal plates or prisms, having but little hardness. If triturated in a mortar, camphor adheres to the pestle, so that it cannot be powdered per se. But if moistened with spirit of wine, ether, chloroform, methylic alcohol, glycerin, or an essential or fatty oil, pulverization is effected without difficulty. By keeping a short time, the powder acquires a crystalline form. With an equal weight of sugar, camphor may also be easily powdered. ”

“ Kelp, the half vitrified ashes of seaweed, is exhausted with water, and the solution filtered; the liquid is then concentrated by evaporation until it is reduced to a very small volume, the chloride of sodium, carbonate of sodium, chloride of potassium, and other salts, being removed as they successively assume the crystalline form; oil of vitriol is now added, in excess, to the residual dark-brown mother-liquor (iodine-lye) , and the evolved gases are either kindled or allowed to escape by a flue ”

“ The first difficulty was, how to account for the great hardness of many of our seaside specimens. Although for the most part inclosing an “organism,” which must have been that of some zoophyte, they show no traces, in their present compact texture, of the soft and yielding consistency they must at that time have possessed. The matrix in which they lie, and from which they drop as the ripe nuts fall from a hazel-bush, is seldom or never of so hard a substance as are the pebbles themselves; in many cases the difference is as great as between the teeth and gums of a living mammal. ”

“ Do not imagine that the mould has sprung spontaneously from boot, or paste, or jam; its germs, which are abundant in the air, have been sown, and have, germinated, in as legal and legitimate a way as thistle-seeds wafted by the wind to a proper soil. Let the minute spores of Penicillium be sown in a fermentable liquid, which has been previously boiled in order to kill all other spores or seeds which it may contain; let pure air have free access to the mixture: the Penicillium will grow rapidly, striking long filaments into the liquid, and fructifying at its surface. ”

“ Take half a wine glass full every morning.
Among all the lotions, and the best to use with the above diuretic, is a pimpernel water, which is so sovereign a beautifier of the complexion as to deserve a place on every lady’s toilet. It is prepared by only infusing half a handful of this herb in a quart of water, letting it stand all night. It may be used a little warm, but not hot. If not sufficiently powerful to remove the pimples, take camphor rubbed fine in a mortar, put upon it, a little at a time, 1 ounce of the juice of lemons, when dissolved, add 1 pint of white wine. ”

“ Mode of Condensing and Preserving Vegetable Substances for Ships’ Provision, &c.—The quantity of liquid matter which enters into the constitution of vegetables is very great; when they are deprived of it their bulk is very trifling. That preparation of animal food called pemmican, in which six pounds of meat are condensed into the space of one, is mainly effected by abstracting all the fluid from it. Vegetables may be treated in the same way: let them undergo the process of boiling over a fierce wood fire, so as to preserve their colour when completely cooked ”

“ The darkened ill ventilated and modestly heated conditions in the tank are all conducive to the propagation of a micro-organism known as bacteria. The activity of these organisms causes a chemical decomposition of the organic matter in the sewage a part passing off as gas and a 25part passing off in the effluent as inorganic matter, while another portion is deposited in the bottom of the tank as sludge. ”

“ The permeability of the membrane can very readily be changed, as will be seen later. There is reason for believing, for example, that the permeability of fish to salt increases after death—for stale fish strike through more quickly than fresh fish—and that permeability increases at temperatures near the freezing point of water. ”

“ The office of one of these organisms is to convert ammonia into nitrite, while the other converts nitrites into nitrate.
The bacteria are present or quickly develop in the sewage which may be considered a nutrient medium for them by reason of containing a large amount of their natural nitrogenous food.
These organisms, according to Warrington, may be separated by successive cultivations in favorable media; from a potassium nitrate solution with no ammonia we may obtain nitric organism alone; from an ammonium carbonate solution we may obtain nitrous organisms in a pure state. ”

“ From the moment household wastes enter the tank, fermentation begins its work of reducing them from noisome sewage to harmless water. Both intake and outlet pipes extend below the level of the contents, with a baffle plate across the center which prevents direct outward flow. The heavy [Pg 155] solids sink to the bottom and anaerobic bacteria, which develop only where there is no oxygen, breed rapidly and break these up so that they rise to the top and provide the ever present scum which excludes all air and stimulates fermentation of the entire content. ”

“ The chemical changes (oxidation of iron and organic acids) , which prepare the inert or even hurtful ingredients of peat to minister to the support of vegetation, take place most rapidly in presence of certain other substances.
The substances which rapidly induce chemical change in peats, are of two kinds, viz.: 1.—animal or vegetable matters that are highly susceptible to alteration and decay, and 2.—alkalies, either ammonia coming from the decomposition of animal matters, or lime, potash and soda. ”

“ This scum is a growth of yeast-like organisms which feed upon the acid formed by fermentation. If allowed to grow undisturbed it will eventually destroy all the acid and the fermented material will spoil. To prevent mold from forming it is necessary to exclude the air from the surface of the brine.
Perhaps the best method is to cover the surface—over the board and round the weight—with very hot, melted paraffin. If the paraffin is hot enough to make the brine boil when poured in, the paraffin will form a smooth, even layer before hardening. Upon solidifying, it forms an air-tight seal. ”

“ The whole is filtered, directly the precipitate begins to be formed. During the filtration, the filter should not be allowed to become empty. It is best to use a filter pump. Only at the end is the liquid allowed to pass entirely through the filter, after which the latter is immediately placed in a vacuum exsiccator. After a day or two the peptone is absolutely dry, and may then be weighed. First, a 10 per cent. solution, in 0.9 per cent. solution of common salt, is prepared, and the deviation of rotation of the solution is determined. ”

“ This is a perfectly dry substance, which yields none of its water to air which is dry and free from carbonic acid. When changed into carbonate of lime, the water, which as a hydrate it contained, chemically combined, is set free, while the lime and the carbonic acid combine. This water is commonly considered to produce the damp spots which appear here and there in new buildings. It has been imagined that the respiration of the new inmates increases the amount of carbonic acid in the air, and accelerates the process, setting free the water, which renders the wall damp and chokes up its pores. ”

“ To show you the activity of that sludge, we got the raw sewage, perhaps a million bacteria per cubic centimeter, in the first aerating tank, within half an hour; the sludge contains anywhere from fifteen to twenty million bacteria per cubic centimeter. In this sludge we give the bacteria the natural environments for their work. We give them food, lodging, and air, and that is just exactly what aerobic bacteria need, and the desire is to have intensified the aerobic bacteria, which we have at all times when the plant is being properly operated. ”

“ The bacteria are adjusted to strong salt solutions, that is, the body fluid is of such concentration and their covering membrane is of such partial permeability that when surrounded by strong salt solution they live normally, but when water or weak brine surrounds them these relations are disturbed and they die. Probably water enters the cell in excessive quantity. It is known that the reddening does not attack fat fish. Perhaps the fat acts directly on the membrane, or indirectly by acting on the calcium and magnesium in the salt, to effect the disturbance. ”

“ By filtration, water may be deprived of living beings and of all suspended impurities; but substances held in solution, cannot thus be separated. Ebullition destroys the vitality of both animals and vegetables; expels air, or carbonic acid, and causes the precipitation of carbonate of lime, but the water should be afterwards subjected to the process of filtration. Distillation, when properly conducted is the most effectual method of purifying water. ”

“ By osmosis oxygen is taken from the air into the blood without any leakage of blood. By the same principle the kidney tubules remove undesirable substances from the body while holding back all desirable substances. By osmosis the roots of plants select the necessary minerals from the soil. A weak sugar solution will readily ferment, but if made concentrated it destroys yeast and bacteria by osmosis and is therefore an excellent preservative of fruits. Salt is also a preservative by virtue of its concentration. ”

“ Salt-petre is separated from the brine which first affords it, or from the water with which it is washed out of nitrous earths, by the process commonly used in crystallizing salts. In this process the brine is gradually diminished, and at length reduced to a small quantity of an unctuous bitter saline liquor, affording no more salt-petre by evaporation; but, if urged with a brisk fire, drying up into a confused mass which attracts water strongly, and becomes fluid again when exposed to the open air. ”

“ So far as is at present known the unorganised ferments in the dung, besides those which are secreted by the bacteria, are mostly digestive ferments114 —pepsin, pancreatin, and trypsin—certain quantities of which pass out of the animal’s body in an unchanged condition. Of these, pepsin only acts in an acid solution, and, although fresh bate liquor is faintly acid to litmus, it quickly becomes neutralised by the lime in the skins, so that the action of this ferment can only be limited in extent. ”

“ Respecting the chemical condition we may shortly say that the chief characteristic of sewage is its enormous amount of contained organic matter in suspension or solution; respecting the bacterial content we may say that the chief species of the very numerous organisms are those commonly concerned in fermentative putrefaction. London crude sewage contains on an average about four millions of micro-organisms per cc. Many of these are "liquefying" bacteria; that is to say, they have the power of liquefying gelatine, which is generally one of the features of putrefactive species. ”