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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ink drawing could hardly be better repro- 

 duced than by the best process, " nothing 

 does or ever can compare with the work done 

 through the sensitive medium of the eye and 

 hand of man. In fact, I consider wood en- 

 graving far better than any or all the repro- 

 ductive arts, as it stands quite alone in its 

 wonderful adaptability, for any variety of 

 texture one likes can be produced on the 

 boxwood block. This can not be said for 

 either etching, mezzotint, steel, or copper, 

 each having its own methods, great as the 

 masters have been who have worked upon 

 one or the other of these materials. . . . The 

 crowning advantage enjoyed by wood engrav- 

 ing, through which it obtains its immense 

 superiority over all other methods, is that 

 the engraver is enabled to work in both black 

 and white line. . . . Nothing is out of the 

 range of imitation possible to wood engraving. 

 The differences of textures of flesh, silk, 

 satin, cloth, wood, steel, glass, the grain of 

 wood, marble, weather-worn stone, furs and 

 skins of animals, atmospheric effects, foliage 

 of all kinds all these it can represent, and 

 beyond everything it can render the diifer- 

 ences between oil and water color, and can 

 accurately transcribe the old master's work 

 with all its cracks and blemishes from damp 

 and shrinkage." The author looks forward 

 to a great future for wood engraving as a 

 fine art. 



The Mescal Ceremony. At a recent meet- 

 ing of the Washington Chemical Society Mr. 

 Mooney read an interesting paper on The 

 Mescal Ceremony among the Indians. The 

 mescal plant is a small variety of cactus na- 

 tive to the lower Rio Grande region and 

 about the Pecos River, in eastern New Mex- 

 ico. Its botanical name is LopJwphora, or 

 A nhalonium williamsii. It is grayish green, 

 club-shaped, and without sphies. There is 

 another mescal plant, the maguey of Arizona, 

 with which the New Mexico species should 

 not be confounded. The local Mexican 

 name for the plant is peyote, a corruption of 

 the original Aztec name, from which it would 

 seem that the plant and ceremony were 

 known as far south as the valley of Mexico 

 at a period antedating the Spanish conquest. 

 Several related species are described by 

 Lumholtz as being used with ceremonial 

 rites among the tribes of the Sierra Madre. 



The dried tops when eaten produce such 

 marked stimulating and medicinal results 

 and such agreeable mental effects, without 

 any injurious reaction, that the tribes of the 

 region regard the plant as the vegetable in- 

 carnation of the Deity, and eat it at regular 

 intervals with solemn religious ceremony of 

 song, prayer, and ritual. The juice of the 

 cactus has an intensely bitter taste, due to 

 an alkaloid pellotine, which is present to the 

 extent of 075 to 89 per cent. This alka- 

 loid has recently been investigated by Dr. A. 

 Heffter, of the University of Leipsic. Its 

 composition is expressed by the following 

 formula: CisHigNOa. It seems as a thera- 

 peutic agent to have two distinct actions. 

 The first effect is narcotic in nature, owing 

 to a paralysis of the brain; this stage is 

 shortly followed by a tetanic condition, owing 

 to the heightened irritability of the spinal 

 cord. Thus pellotine falls into the pharma- 

 cological group with morphine. Prof. Jolly, 

 of the Charite, in Berlin, has made clinical 

 use of it as a narcotic in doses of 0'04 



Esthetics in Engineering. The address 

 of Prof. Frank 0. Martin, of the Section of 

 Engineering of the American Association, on 

 The Artistic Element in Engineering, was a 

 plea for consulting beauty as well as utility 

 in engineering construction. The engineer is 

 not so bound by the mathematical traditions 

 of his profession but that he has abundant 

 opportunities to cultivate the ajsthetical side. 

 It is not true, as is often supposed at the first 

 thought, that there is a conflict between the 

 utilitarian and the artistic. While the mere 

 application of money will not secure beauty, 

 that feature may often be obtained without 

 additional expenditure, or at most with one 

 that is relatively trifling. As an example in 

 which beauty had considerable influence in 

 matters where it seemed little concerned, 

 Prof. Marvin mentioned an engine room 

 which had been elegantly fitted up, with the 

 result that the engine fell under closer and 

 more minute inspection than it could receive 

 in the ordinary dark room, and was more 

 carefully attended to and that meant more 

 economy for the owner. Our railroad com- 

 panies find it advantageous to beautify their 

 stations and cultivate their embankments. 

 The engineer may find a wide field in beauti- 



