Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 28.djvu/441

Rh cast of countenance. He pointed out that the purity of the race depended on the number of proselytes made by the Jews in ancient and mediæval times. The earlier proselytes, before the foundation of Christianity, were mostly follow-Semites, and would not affect the type, while the numbers made afterward were too small to modify the race. A considerable number of Jews, the Cohens, were not allowed to marry proselytes, and must consequently be tolerably pure. Mr. Jacobs's general conclusion was therefore in favor of the purity of the Jewish race.

The Elm-Leaf Beetle.—The entomological division of the Department of Agriculture has published an account, prepared by Dr. Riley, of the elm-leaf beetle (Galeruca xanthomelæna), which has committed serious damage upon the elms in many States during the past few years. It is an importation from abroad, and fortunately gives its attention mostly to foreign species of elm, the common native species, Ulmus Americana being generally exempt from its ravages. The injuries it commits are severe about one year in three, while they are relatively light in the intervening years. It works its destruction from May to August, and prefers the warm side of the tree. The most effective remedies against it are the ordinary arsenic washes and powders, and these appear to injure the tree as well as kill the insect. Their effect is also worst on those species and varieties which suffer most from the ravages of the beetle. In administering the poison, it is well to anticipate the appearance of the insect, so as to prevent its getting a start.

Conditions of Success In Life.—The physiological conditions of success in life, according to Dr. James T. Searcy, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, m his address before the State Medical Association, consist chiefly in the vigorous and healthy action of the brain and nervous system. Therefore the structural integrity and functional capacity of the brain are most important matters, and how to preserve and improve them are vital questions. Hence the author believes, "if we can discover the ways in which brain capacity is improved, we will have done a great deal, and, if we can slate the ways in which it is lowered, we will have done a great deal." The excellent man will not only show his ability to take in, to understand, but he will also show it in knowing what to take in, in his ability to select for a purpose. "The successful man possesses ability not only to learn, but to verify his learning and to deduce his conclusions correctly, and execute them tenaciously. The simply erudite man is not the successful one. He must be capable not only in his receptive ability, but also in his adjusting and emissive abilities. This often puts the man who is simply the scholar at such disadvantage in the presence even of the unlettered man of 'common sense.' 'Common sense' may be defined to be the inherent excellence of capacity in all three of the departments of brain-action. He need not be an 'educated' man to show this trait, but if he is educated his inherent 'common sense' tells all the better. He leans well and properly, he reasons well and properly, and he executes well and properly."

How Woods preserve Moisture.—M. Wocikoff, an eminent Russian observer, asserts, in a recent article in Petermann's "Mittheilungen," that the office of forests in diminishing evaporation can not be explained by the lower temperature or the greater humidity which are known to exist under their shadow. The most important factor contributing to the result is the resistance opposed by woods to the winds, the force of which being greatly reduced under the trees, the air is changed more slowly, and consequently the moisture is less readily carried away. Documents which have been collected at Nancy, in France, show that the vicinity of a forest increases the quantity of rain. It would seem that in Central Europe, where the difference between the temperature of the ground and air within the forest and that of the open is but little in the winter, the forests would have slight influence on precipitation at that season. Nevertheless, the forests receive more water than the open spaces in winter, because of the lowness of the clouds combined with the resistance that the woods offer to the moist west winds. Rain-water is stored in the moss and herbage of the woods, to be