Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 24.djvu/146

136 a lye formed from the residue or refuse of the grapes after pressing, which is either that obtained from the present year or some that has been kept from a previous vintage. The raisins, held in wire colanders holding from five to eight pounds each, are plunged in this lye while it is boiling. After the immersion, the workmen examine the skins to see if they are shriveled enough. If not, they immerse the grapes a second time, which is usually the last. The process of immersion is a very delicate one, requiring skillful watching and keen judgment on the part of the workmen. The grapes must not be allowed to burst, nor the skins to crack. The grapes must not get too hot or be too sweet, or the raisins will mold. Raisins dried by this process are considered inferior. To prepare raisins by steam, the grapes, after having been sunned for twenty-four hours, are put on drying-shelves in a room heated by steam to 160° Fahr., and kept there for twenty-four hours, when they are taken to a cooling-room to be gradually cooled till they are ready to be packed. Drying in the sun is preferred to the other processes wherever the sun affords enough heat. Stagings are built of brick or stone, on which the grapes are exposed at such an angle of inclination as to be in the sun throughout the day. A temperature of 145 is thus attained in August. At night, the grapes are covered with canvas or with boards. During the process of drying, those grapes that remain green or are spoiled are carefully removed, and each grape is turned, in order to preserve a uniformity in the darkening of color. Raisins prepared by the scalding process dry in four days, while those dried in the sun take ten days, but the difference of time is largely compensated for by the economy of expenditure. The raisins are not ready for packing immediately after being dried, but have to be kept for several days in the stores on the planks on which they are carried. Those that are spoiled or defective are picked out, especially if they appear broken or bruised, for one drop of moisture from them would probably damage a whole box. The crop of raisins produced in the Malaga district from the vintage of 1880 and 1881 is estimated at between 2,000,000 and 2,050,000 boxes of 22 pounds each.

Centripetal and Centrifugal Movements of the Limbs.—Dr. G. Delaunay controverts the theory of Carl Vogt, that the direction of the lines in writing, whether from right to left, the result of a centripetal, or from left to right, the result of a centrifugal, movement of the hand, depends upon exterior conditions rather than a physiological necessity. His investigations have taught him to believe that the general direction of all movements is determined by physiological and anatomical influences. Quadrupeds, he says, as a rule are capable only of vertical or forward and backward movements; a few of them, as the cat and monkeys, can make centripetal movements. Man is the only one who can execute centrifugal ones. The physiological evolution from vertical to lateral first centripetal, then centrifugal movements, is a result of an anatomical evolution that has been well described by Broca, in his work on the "Order of Primates." According to M. Delaunay's researches, movements are rather centripetal than centrifugal with primitive or inferior races rather centrifugal than centripetal with superior races; and the change from one to the other takes place as the race advances. Formerly watches were wound from right to left now they are wound from left to right. Some English watches are an exception, but the Americans, who are more advanced in evolution (so M. Delaunay says) than the European English, wind their watches from left to right. As it is with watches, so it is with most other machinery. Writing from right to left was characteristic of the earlier nations, and is still so of the less advanced peoples, but has given way to writing from left to right as the races have improved. As between the sexes, women are more inclined to centripetal, men to centrifugal, movements; this is seen in drawing and in the adjustment of clothing. Children are more inclined to centripetal than to centrifugal movements; they strike with their palms rather than with the backs of their hands, draw from right to left, and have a propensity to spell and write in the same direction. M. Delaunay sees in this a tendency to atavism. As between individuals, the more intelligent persons, better scholars, are more ready in left to right, or centrifugal; the less