Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 11.djvu/395

Rh State during the ten years ending with 1869, 17.21 per cent, were illiterate, and 81.83 per cent, had never been apprenticed. "All observers will admit," remarks the author, "that there is not as much intelligence and skill working on the farms now as there was twenty years ago. The fears of the farmers were not that their sons would know too much, but that they would do too little. It was not book-farming, or wisdom with work, they feared; but making hay in the shade, or farming by the fireside; plucking geese in the courts, preaching for practice, pills for pumpkins, the pen and yard-stick for the plough and harvest-fork. The change has not been from prison to school so much as from honest labor to idleness and crime. Everything else being equal, mental culture raises the standard of morality; but we would choose a community of industrious and illiterate members, rather than one of idle and literary habits, for a high standard of morality."

Latest Phase of the Spontaneous-Generation Controversy.—Dr. Bastian, of London, having submitted to the Paris Academy of Sciences the results of certain experiments which, as he maintains, decisively confirm his theory of spontaneous generation, Pasteur criticised the English investigator's methods and conclusions, and asked for the appointment of a commission to determine on which side the truth lies. At the same time he expressed a wish that Dr. Bastian should in like manner ask the London Royal Society to appoint a similar commission. According to the terms of M. Pasteur's challenge, Dr. Bastian must obtain, in the presence of competent judges, bacteria in sterile urine on the addition of liquor potassæ in suitable quantities, the liquor potassæ being prepared from pure potash with pure water; or, if made from impure materials, it must be submitted to a temperature of 230° for twenty minutes. Dr. Bastian has accepted the challenge, and has applied to the Royal Society for the appointment of the commission. The French commission is already constituted: it consists of Milne-Edwards, Dumas, and Boussingault. The Lancet justly complains against this selection, on the ground that all of the three commissioners are more or less strong supporters of Pasteur's view. Their bias must inevitably indispose them toward Bastian's arguments. The Lancet asks why Frémy or Trécul, or some other man without bias either way, was not placed on the commission. The Academy has apparently made a mistake in this matter; perhaps when the comments of the Lancet are brought to the notice of the members, a change will be made in the commission. The Royal Society has not yet named the members of the English commission.

Action of the Retinal Nerves.—Some years ago, while suffering from indisposition, Prof. Tait observed that, whenever he awoke from a feverish sleep, the flame of a lamp, seen through a ground-glass shade, assumed a deep-red color, the effect lasting about a second. He supposes that the nerve fibrils of the retina also slept, and that, on awaking, the green and violet nerves resumed their functions a little later than the red. This observation of Tait's is recalled by Prof. Ogden N. Rood, in the American Journal of Science, who adds an analogous observation of his own, going to show that after nervous shock the green nerves (to adopt the theory of Young) receive their activity later than the red, and probably later than the violet nerves. Having taken chloroform at the hands of a dentist, he observed with surprise, on regaining consciousness, that the operator's face was very red, and the next instant that his hair was of a purplish-red hue. The illusion persisted for a second or two. Prof. Rood then gives an instance of chronic effects of similar character which were observed for a couple of weeks continuously, during convalescence from typhoid fever. In this case white objects appeared of a not very intense orange-yellow; here the activity of the green and yellow nerves was diminished relatively to that of the red.

Food of the Water-Tortoise.—Though proverbial for its sluggishness, the water tortoise, according to a writer in Science Gossip, appears to have a special relish for the natural food of the cat. Keeping a couple of them in an aquarium, but uncertain as to the kind of food best suited to their needs.