Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 40.djvu/154

154 reports of the United Kingdom Temperance and General Provident Institution are regarded by Dr. J. J. Ridge as affording evidence of increasing weight and conchisiveness to the value of temperance as a factor in longevity. For the last year the actual claims upon the Institution for relief were, in the temperance section, 71·06 per cent; in the general section, 100·2 per cent of the expected claims. A summary of five quinquennial returns, or for twenty-five years, shows that while in the general section the deaths have fallen short of the expected number by 242, in the temperance section the deaths are 1,470 fewer. The fact that in the general section the deaths are below the healthy male average proves that the difference between the two sections is not due to excessive drinking on the part of any considerable number of the general section. The comparison is therefore fairly between abstainers and moderate drinkers, and goes to show that the use of alcoholic liquors produces degeneration of the tissues and shortens life.

habits of crocodiles are described by M. Voeltzkow, who observed the animals in Vituland. Seventy-nine newly laid eggs were obtained from a spot six paces in diameter which had been cleared of plants, apparently by the crocodile having wheeled round several times. The eggs lay in four pits, dug in the hard, dry ground, about two feet obliquely down. According to the natives, the crocodile, having selected and prepared a spot, makes a pit in it that day, lays twenty or twenty-five eggs in it, and covers them with earth. The next day, it makes a second pit, and so on. It remains in the nest from the beginning, and sleeps there till the young are hatched, in about two months, at the setting in of the rainy season.

by Prof. William Frear, in the American Chemical Association, dealt with differences in composition in the European and the American chestnut. European chestnuts transplanted to this country lose their peculiarities in some degree, but American chestnuts also exhibit wide differences in different years.

question of the relative influence of animal and vegetable diet on the animal temperature has never, according to the Lancet, been investigated in the human species on a sutficiently comprehensive scale to be of any value; hvX such comparative facts as throw light on the matter tend to indicate that vegetable feeders, among the lower creation, have a high temperature. The evidence, however, does not seem to be uniform to this point, and it is suggested that some of the apparent discrepancies may be due to the nature of the clothing of the skin. A correspondent of the Lancet and his wife have for about three years been living chiefly on fruit and vegetables, with a little milk and its products, eggs and cheese, and without alcohol, and find that they live as healthily as before, at a lower expenditure of energy. If it be proved that a minimum of animal diet will support life efficiently under reduced combustion and reduced waste of material, "a valuable as well as curious fact will be added to our practical knowledge."

limit of a man's power to do without sleep has been the subject of curious experiments. Lord Brougham once tried it on himself, and, beginning Monday morning, kept awake till Tuesday night, when he fell asleep on seating himself while trying to dictate to an amanuensis. The recent competition of six men in Detroit, in trying to postpone sleep for seven days, is in point. Beginning on Monday noon, March 80th, four of the men failed before Thursday. A fifth kept up till Sunday morning, had a hard struggle with his sleepiness all through the day, and succumbed at midnight. The sixth completed the time and was conducted to the stage and introduced to the spectators, but was sound asleep before the introduction was over. It is said, however, that these men were allowed to sleep in fifteen minute naps at the end of their several vigils, and it is added that they suffered no permanent ill.

to Brandis's Wald in der Vereinigten Staaten von Nord America, forest vegetation is much richer in North America than in Europe, and comprises 412 species—of which 176 are native to the Atlantic region, 106 to the Pacific, 10 are common to both, 46 to the Rocky Mountain region, and 74 are tropical species near the coasts of Florida—as against 158 species in Europe. Six North American species of forest trees—the red-bud or Judas tree, persimmon, hackberry, plane tree, hop hornbeam, and chestnut—are also indigenous in Europe, all now growing there naturally south of the Alps. And since many American forest genera existed in Europe in Tertiary times, while only five European forest genera (Ceratonia, Laburnum, Olca, Syringa, and Laurus) are not found in America, it is possible that other species formerly common to both countries were destroyed in Europe north of the Alps by the Glacial epoch.

report shows that ether is now used to a considerably large extent in Ireland to produce intoxication. It is preferred to whisky because it is cheaper and more effective. Its effects are described as arousing combative instincts and producing a high state of exhilaration accompanied by shouting and singing and the use of provocative words. Even children are accustomed to it, and come to school smelling of it.