Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 8.djvu/786

766 be adopted. Whenever work, itself unaltered, looks larger than of yore, and is felt to be more trying, then the system is commencing to feel the effects of overwork, which, however, may actually have existed for some time unnoticed. This is especially true of the monotonous labor which is undergone by the clerks and subordinate officials of our commercial houses; if they are free from the anxieties which affect the principals, they are the more subject to the wearing action of monotonous labor. The institution of bank holidays is a step in the right direction, and ere long the absolute necessity for a more decided increase in the number of national holidays will be palpable enough. What man can safely do is not to be measured by his desires, but by his powers; and we are all rapidly becoming convinced that incessant toil is not only undesirable, but that it is uneconomical. The one day's rest in seven is not now sufficient for our needs."

French Public Libraries.—In a statistical work, comparing France with other European countries, the following interesting notes on public libraries occur: Paris has six great libraries, the property of the state, and open to the public, viz.: Bibliothèque Nationale (900,000 volumes), Bibliothèque Mazarine, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Bibliothèque de la Sorbonne. Outside of Paris France has 338 libraries which twenty years ago contained 3,689,000 printed volumes. Forty-one of these libraries are open in the evening. Great Britain has (in its public libraries) 1,771,493 volumes, or six volumes per 100 of the population; Italy 11.7 volumes per 100. In France there are 4,389,000 volumes, or 11.7 per 100 persons; in Austria 2,488,000 volumes, or 6.9 per 100; Prussia 2,040,450, or 11 per 100; Russia 852,000, or 1.3 per 100; Belgium 509,100, or 10.4 per 100. Since 1865 school libraries have been founded nearly throughout all France. We have already in the given the statistics of these school libraries, but we copy the figures again from the work to which we are indebted for the foregoing statistics. In 1865 there were 4,833 of these school libraries in France, containing 180,854 volumes; in 1866, 7,789 libraries, 258,724 volumes; 1867, 11,417 libraries, 721,853 volumes; 1868, 12,395 libraries, 988,728 volumes; 1869, 14,395 libraries, 1,239,165 volumes; 1870-'71, 13,638 libraries, 1,158,742 volumes.

Appearances attending the Passage of a Meteor.—In stating the results of his observations on the passage of a meteorite seen at Louisville, December 12, 1872, Prof. J. Lawrence Smith says that it first appeared as a large red light in the zenith, which seemed to stand motionless for several seconds, evidently because it was then descending in a line with the eye of the observer. Then starting off with an uncertain, faltering motion, it moved slowly toward the horizon, gradually fading from a lurid red to a dark purplish hue, and leaving a dense stream of blue smoke behind, which remained for several minutes. "These clouds," continues Prof. Smith, "are not unfrequently connected with the passage of these bodies through our atmosphere, and are usually more striking in the daytime, or, as in this instance, just after sunset, when the sun was well situated to light up the cloud and exhibit it to the observer who could no longer see the sun. What are these clouds? Are they composed of impalpable matter abraded from the surface of these bodies in their passage, or are they true vapor-clouds? From a close study of observations in connection with several well-known falls of meteorites, I am more inclined to adopt the former view; but there is reason for believing that the violent disturbance of a portion of the atmosphere (much of it, in the rapid passage of the body, undergoing great condensation), added to an undoubted electric disturbance of the atmosphere, would tend to the deposition of moisture, upon the atmosphere being gradually restored to its former equilibrium."

Insect-killing Plants.—During a botanical tour in Atlantic County, New Jersey, Mr. Meehan, of Philadelphia, found growing, near Hammonton, a great number of plants representing three species of Drosera, namely, D. filiformis, D. longifolia, and D. rotundifolia. All of these species had insects attached to them, but many of the plants had none. The remains of the insects which have been caught seem to