Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 36.djvu/151

Rh enlightened of pagan legislators. Is it wise or prudent to permit the vigor of manhood to be dissipated or wasted, and to allow posterity to owe its origin to the waning strength of old men? It is certainly contrary to the warning voice of the most intelligent and disinterested of the medical profession. . . . This widow-making vice of marital disparity is but one feature in that hymeneal profanation which is the curse and disgrace of our age, as it was of the decline of Rome."

Climates of British Health Resorts.—The isothermal lines in the British Islands run north and south rather than east and west. Hence latitude is there a less sure guide to temperature than longitude. All the health resorts on the east coast have a very similar character, although they differ so much in latitude; and the like rule holds good on the west coast. The resorts on the south coast differ materially, according as they lie toward the east or toward the west. As a general rule, the east coast resorts are dry, somewhat cold and bracing, while the west coast resorts are relatively humid, mild, and relaxing. All the coasts are more or less windy; but there is a great difference between the dry, somewhat parching, and decidedly bracing wind that comes to the eastern coasts across the German Ocean, and the soft, rain laden breezes of the Atlantic. Some places, however, have a climate of their own, depending upon peculiar conditions. The line between the bracing and relaxing of the south coast resorts lies near the Isle of Wight. The most bracing resorts in England are those of Durham and Yorkshire; the most relaxing those of Devonshire and Cornwall. The resorts from the mouth of the Thames to Brighton form an intermediate class.

Distinctive Characteristics of Horseflesh.—The inspector of slaughter-houses in Paris distinguishes between horse-flesh and beef by the following marks: Horse-flesh is reddish brown, becoming darker on exposure to the air; it has an odor peculiar to itself; it is soft and slightly tenacious, allowing the finger easily to sink into it, and the fibers, when worked, break up and become pulpy; the muscular fibers are long and fine, and united by very compact cellular tissue; in cooking, it hardens and becomes more dense and compact than beef; and under the microscope the fibers and striations of the muscular tissue are finer than in the flesh of the ox. These differences not always appearing sharply defined enough to make the distinction infallible, James Bell has sought other tests, and found them in the character of the fats. It was observed that the adipose tissue of the horse was of a softer and more oily nature than that of beef. On melting, horse fat, at 70° Fahr., formed a clear oil; the melting-point of beef fat, which is solid at ordinary temperatures, varied from 110° to 116° Fahr. At 100° Fahr. the specific gravity of horse fat ranged from 908·4 to 908·8; the specific gravity of beef fat, at 120° Fahr., was from 903·6 to 904. These important characteristics of difference, particularly the fluidity of horse fat at 70° Fahr., make the distinction between the two fats very plain.

Mental Powers of Spiders.—"Some Observations about the Mental Powers of Spiders" are recorded by G. W. and E. G. Peckham in the "Journal of Morphology." The authors experimented on hundreds of spiders of most of the common genera and species, with relation to such faculties as they may be supposed to possess, but found the way to knowledge on the subject "long and beset with difficulties." The faculty of smell seemed to be fairly developed in all but three out of twenty-six species. It was exhibited in different ways—by various movements of the legs, palpi, and abdomen, by shaking their webs, by running away, by seizing the rod conveying the perfume and binding it up as they would an insect, and by approaching the rod with the first legs and palpi held erect. The position of the organ of smell is unknown, and was not found. In hearing, spiders made no response to any loud or sensational sounds, but all the Epeirids were sensitive to the sound of the tuning fork, while the spiders that do not make webs gave no heed to it. In love of offspring, all the spiders eagerly received back the cocoons when they had been deprived of them for various periods inside of twenty-four hours; some failed at twenty-four hours, while only a few recognized them after a longer period. They did not, however, seem able to