Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 29.djvu/882

862 of the new journal will contain a memoir by Professor Sasaki on the development of the maggot parasite in the silk-worm. The government awarded Professor Sasaki a gift last year in recognition of his admirable discoveries concerning the diseases of silk-worms. The Tokio Anthropological Society, although recently organized, is doing excellent work. It has already issued five numbers of its journal, each one illustrated by lithographic plates. We wish, for the benefit of foreign readers, it would give a brief synopsis in English of the contents of each number. Mr. Iijima, who studied with Leuckart in Leipsic, and took the gold medal over all the German students for the best thesis, is again in his native land and working in the laboratory of the college. E. S. M.

The Lengthening of Human Life.—The "Lancet," apparently accepting the general opinion that the maximum age attainable by man has risen somewhat during the present century, observes that the line of seventy years is now very frequently passed, that many reach fourscore "without excessive labor and sorrow," and that "we have among us nonagenarians who carry on with still respectable proficiency the activities of their prime. Such effective longevity is a bright spot in the history of our advancing civilization. Its comparative frequency and its association with different physical types suggest a certain generality in its origin, and encourage the hope that it may be, in some measure at least, dependent on personal conduct." After middle age, however, not personal conduct, but inherited vital force, is a potential factor, although it is not an exclusive one. Disposition may have great influence upon vitality; "and there can be no doubt," says the "Lancet," "in our opinion, that there is much room for exercise of private judgment and energy in seeking the prolongation of one's own life." It is not to be believed "that man is unable so to adjust his circumstances to his needs as to continue to live after a certain mean period. The weaker will sometimes prove himself the more tenacious of life by observing rational methods of living of which the more robust is careless. Moderation has probably more to do with success in this respect than anything else. To eat sufficiently, and drink stimulants sparingly, to alternate work with adequate rest, and to meet worries heartily, will afford every one the best chance of arriving at a ripe old age."

Premonitions of Inebriety.—Dr. T. D. Crothers, of Walnut Lodge, Hartford, Connecticut, having studied "the incipient stages in inebriety," endeavors to show that the oncoming of the disease, as he regards it, may be foreseen, and that preventives and curative measures applied at that time give more promise of certain results than at any other period. Sometimes premonitions of inebriety reveal themselves in the dispositions of the subject before any spirits have been used by him; when they may be marked by dietetic delusions and other symptoms of nerve and brain irritability, which seem to depend on heredity or some obscure injury to the nerve and brain centers. He believes that the recognition and study of this stage opens up a field of prevention and cure that will attract great attention at an early day.

Signal Stations at Sea.—Mr. F. A. Cloudman, of Rondout, New York, has projected a plan for the establishment of ocean-signals, light-ships, and life-saving stations at sea. His system embraces a strongly constructed cylindrical vessel, with a convex upper deck, moored at such a depth of submergence as will give it the greatest attainable stability, by means of cables and anchors fixed in the bottom of the ocean. From the top of this structure arises a skeleton framework, to sustain a brilliant electric arc-light, with Fresnel lenses, a powerful steam-siren, and ventilating, smoke, and steam pipes. The interior of the vessel is to be divided into several decks or holds, to be used as cabins, offices, operating and apparatus rooms, etc. An ocean-cable is to be run from shore to shore, looping in at each of the stations. For deep-sea service, the stations should be placed at maximum distances of five hundred miles from one another. For coast service, they should be placed at or near dangerous shoals, reefs, etc., and connected by telegraph cable with the mainland.