Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 36.djvu/147

Rh father, at bobbin-winding. A pattern-designer taught him reading and writing, and an excise-officer gave him lessons in arithmetic. He became interested in colors and dyeing, when sixteen years old, from observing the orange color of the dress of his little step-brother. Without books or means of obtaining instruction, but having got a full set of colors, and by the aid of trial experiments, he acquired considerable knowledge of the properties of dye-stuffs and of the current methods of coloring. Then he got books and learned exact methods. From this time his course was upward till he became master of his art, the inventor and teacher of new methods, and the author of some of the most valuable improvements that were made in dyeing previous to the introduction of the coal-tar colors. Mercer's skill and knowledge, says Mr. Thorpe, were ungrudgingly given to his fellow-workers in the art, and his assistance and advice were constantly sought. "He had, indeed, all the essential qualities and instincts of the scientific mind, and there was a certain comprehensiveness about the man, a certain vigorous grasp of general principles, and a largeness of view which made his influence felt at once among men of science." He was the author of some useful investigation in chemistry, and an early worker in photography.

A Chase of Evil Spirits.—A very curious custom is that called the women's hunt, which prevails among some of the aboriginal tribes of Chota Nagpore, India. It is observed whenever any calamity falls upon the community—such as, perhaps, a visitation of cholera. The women put on men's clothes, take up arms, and go a-hunting—not in the jungles, but in the nearest village east of them. They chase pigs and fowls, take as their own everything they kill, and levy black-mail from the heads of the villages for the purchase of liquor, or else they allow themselves to be bought off for a small sum of money and a pig. Toward evening the hunting party retire to a stream, cook and eat their meal, drink their liquor, and then return home, having acquitted themselves during the day in a thoroughly masculine and boisterous manner. Then the village that has been visited goes on a similar excursion to the next village east of it, and so on to the eastern borders of the district. By this series of excursions it is supposed the evil spirit of the affliction is safely conducted out of the district without offending its dignity. A single village is excepted from the operation of the custom, and is called Mahadaiva, being devoted to Mahadev, and under his special protection. If cholera appears there, it is because he is offended, and he must be propitiated before it will disappear.

A Discussion about Leprosy.—A recent discussion about leprosy in the Epidemiological Society of London has made it very obvious that our knowledge on the subject is extremely indefinite. While some persons insisted that the disease was fast increasing in India and is contagious and hereditary and threatening to European countries, others brought evidence of opposite tenor. A case was cited in which a man, born of leprous parents in a leper hospital and brought up there, who married a leprous woman, had not contracted the disease at thirty years of age. Other evidence was to the effect that contagiousness is conditioned by circumstances not well understood, among which are the quantity and character of the food supply. The influence of inheritance is as doubtful as that of contagion. On the other hand, it is certain that leprosy occurs in cases in which it has not been inherited, and no contagion can be traced.

Prunes.—Prunes are said to have been introduced into France by the Crusaders, and to have been first cultivated by the inmates of a convent near Clairac. The plum-tree is profitably cultivated in several of the departments, and grows well in any situation that is favorable to grapes. The fruit when ripe is covered with a "flower," which adds much to its value. It is usually gathered, after the night-damps have dried away, by shaking lightly from the tree, and only such as falls readily is taken. It is then put in a building, where it matures completely. Prunes are subjected to three or four cookings before they are ready for the market—two for the evaporation of the contained water, and the others for drying and giving a peculiar brilliancy to the