Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 37.djvu/149

Rh be expected, "intemperance in drink" heads the list of single causes, with 18,290 cases. Of "moral causes," "domestic trouble," "adverse circumstances," and "mental anxiety and worry, and overwork," are collectively held responsible for 25,897 cases. Of other moral causes, "religious excitement" is credited with 3,769 cases, "love affairs" with 2,224, and "fright and nervous shock" with 1,953. Of physical causes, "sexual diseases" are credited with 3,447 cases, "overexertion" with 761, "sunstroke" with 1,686, "accident or injury" with 4,199, "diseases of women" with 11,315, "old age" with 5,773, "privation and starvation" with 2,607, "fevers" with 880, "puberty" with 582, and "other bodily diseases or disorders" with 14,719. Previous attacks had occurred in 22,703 cases. Hereditary influence was ascertained in 28,063, and congenital defect in 5,881. As between the sexes, 66,918 were of the male and 69,560 of the female sex.

Rights on Other Men's Lands.—A paper by Mr. Hyde Clarke, on "The Rights of Property in Trees" on the land of another, relates to a curious custom of primeval times which still survives in some lands. The author first met it as a land judge in Asia Minor in 1862, when he was called upon to grant compensation for olive-trees belonging to one or more persons on the lands of others, and for honey-trees or hoards of wild honey in state or communal forests. Papers read by the Rev. Dr. Codington gave information of the existence of a like system in Melanesia. It likewise prevails, according to Mr. Crocker, of the British North Borneo Company, in Borneo, in respect to the katapang, or honey-tree, and also in the case of caves containing edible bird's-nests. Sir Spencer St. John also observes that in Borneo the land nominally belongs to the state or tribe, but the ownership is not a private property in land in our sense of the word. He had observed that certain of the tapang, on which the bees construct their nests, often belonged to special families, and were not touched by their neighbors. Sir Thomas Wade has found a similar right in China, where, when hill farms or gardens are leased, the tenant will pay the proprietor a yearly rent. All fir-trees or bamboos on the ground before it is let belong to the proprietors, and the tenant is "not free to appropriate them. If there were no such trees on the ground when it was let, and such trees were subsequently planted by the tenant, they would be at his disposal. Separate property in trees is also traceable in India, particularly in Chota Nagpore, where Mr. J. F. Hewitt has frequently found that fruit trees growing on land are owned by persons other than the owners or cultivators of the soil. The mhowa-trees, which are exceedingly valuable, are frequently divided among the inhabitants of the villages near which they grow. This individual property in trees is not in Turkey confined to Asia Minor, but prevails as a general law in the empire. Miss Pauline Inby found it in Bosnia, and bought an interest of the kind in a certain estate. It seems also to have anciently existed in the British Islands, and is recognized in the Brehon records of Ireland. But there, and in most European countries, the vestiges of the separate rights have ceased to exist.

Soaping Geysers.—It ha3 been often observed that throwing soap into the geysers of the Yellowstone Park will produce or hasten an outburst. The phenomenon has been investigated by Prof. Arnold Hague, of the United States Geological Survey, who finds that two conditions are essential to the production of an eruption in this way: first, the surface caldron or reservoir should hold but a small amount of water, exposing only a limited area to the atmosphere; and, second, that the water should stand at or above the boiling-point of water for the altitude of the geyser basin above sea-level. The latter is the principal factor. Many of the geysers and hot springs present the singular phenomena of pools of water heated above the theoretical boiling-point, and, unless disturbed, frequently remain so for many days without exhibiting any signs of ebullition. Thermal waters in this condition may be made to boil by other artificial means that will disturb their equilibrium, as by casting sinter into them, and, in one instance at least, by a strong temporary gust of wind. If soap or lye is thrown into most of the small pools, a viscous fluid is formed; and viscosity is, in