Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 38.djvu/732

714 is, to form a tent-like covering over it." The Abbé Thiers, in his Traité des Superstitions, mentions certain days on which silly people fancied it was wrong to bathe, a notion which would never have arisen had not bathing been a common practice.

The Battersea Home for Dogs.—The Battersea Temporary Home for lost and starving dogs took care last year of 24,123 dogs, for 3,613 of which homes were found—either new homes or by restoration to their owners. The report says that homeless dogs coming from the London streets were for the most part untrained, ill-bred, deformed, diseased, and half-starved, which, by the necessities of the situation, "found in the lethal chamber a merciful refuge." The muzzling order greatly augmented the number of dogs sent to the home during the latter part of the year, and threatened to overwhelm the resources of the institution. The home had prevented the spread of rabies by clearing the streets of the dogs most liable to be bitten by rabid animals, and had thus benefited the whole community. A cats' home had been added for the boarding of these animals, and neglected pussies were now found new homes or sent to the lethal chamber. The Duke of Portland—who presided at the annual meeting of the society—expressed his satisfaction at the personal interest which was shown by the Queen in the work of the home, as was proved by "her interposition to lengthen the time between the incoming of the dogs and the consequences of no one claiming them" which is a beautifully delicate way of phrasing the unpleasant truth.

The Failure of the Apple Crop of 1890.—The failure of the apple crop of 1890 in western New York is accounted for by Prof. L. H. Bailey, of the Cornell Experiment Station, as a result of the weather, which was exceedingly wet and cool in the spring, then marked by unusually heavy rains, followed by drought. A blight was developed in the foliage of the trees, caused by the growth of the apple-scab fungus. The scab (Fusicladium dendriticum) is found upon the bracts or small leaves attending the flowercluster, and is frequent upon very small fruits. It is nearly always present, to a greater or less extent, upon both leaves and fruit, but it is rarely so destructive to foliage as in the last year. It has increased rapidly in New York of late years, and apples have been unusually scabby. The wet spring afforded it just the conditions for rapid growth. The scab appears to be somewhat worse upon low and undrained lands than upon high and warm elevations, although in the infected regions the latter are never exempt. A closely related species (Fusicladium pyrinum), by some regarded as identical with the other, attacks the pear, in fruit and foliage, and probably causes much of the failure in the pear crop. It has a tendency to remain in more or less definite spots, so that pear foliage rarely looks as brown as apple foliage. The injury to trees by the fungus is not vital. It is best counteracted by spraying with solutions of carbonate of copper, beginning before the flowers open, and making four or six applications between then and the 1st of August. A solution of copper sulphate, carbonate of soda, and carbonate of ammonia is also recommended.

Advent of the Ghost Idea.—Lady Welby offered a puzzle to the British Association when she presented the question, which has not been solved, of accounting for the great "break" in human thought which occurs when the "ghost idea," or the thought of another life and the supernatural, comes in. The governing notion of those who regard the human intellect as a result of evolution is that man slowly accumulated experience, and from it, by comparison, by deduction, and by meditation, arrived at last at abstract and non-material thought. He considered the effect of revenge, for example, and its operation on tribal society, till he arrived at the idea of just revenge, or, as we call it, of justice; and, finally, his horizon ever widening, at the lofty conception that forgiveness might occasionally, or even frequently, be more to the general advantage, or, in other words, might be nobler, and therefore to be adopted. This theory leaves much unexplained, but it is supported by an array of facts, and will, if accepted, explain many of the phenomena. Much of thought is a result of experience and observation, and more may be; and it may be possible to extend