142 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



than are the flowers ; if tender and young, 

 they are pressed too hard, or later in the sea- 

 son are not pressed sufficiently to make the 

 leaves dry flat. Too many use newspapers 

 for the light sheets on the driers. The 

 printed letters were made with oil, and such 

 spots can take up little moisture. Plants 

 are put in driers which are not thoroughly 

 dried by the heat of the stove or the direct 

 rays of the sun. The old-fashioned press 

 made of tight boards is a clumsy device, but 

 still in use. Plants are not changed two or 

 three times a day on the start, and all this 

 time kept in a warm place hence the color 

 is not good ; they are too long for mounting, 

 and must be broken or cut ofP or cut in two 

 to fit the sheet of standard size. For the 

 proper methods, novices are referred to cer- 

 tain articles in botanical journals, to a chap- 

 ter on the subject in Gray's large text-book, 

 " or, better still, to hang about and worry 

 some good collector and see how he does it." 



Bathing after Exercise. The Lancet ob- 

 serves that " the popular notion of the in- 

 jurious effect of a cold bath taken by one 

 who is overheated from exercise must pos- 

 sess as all such ideas have some basis in 

 experience ; and yet it is falsified by the ex- 

 periences of athletes from the days of the 

 Greeks and Romans even until now, who find 

 in this procedure a refreshing and stimulat- 

 ing tonic after the exertion they have recent- 

 ly undergone. And, physiologically speak- 

 ing, a cold plunge or douche taken immedi- 

 ately after the physical effort, when the skin 

 is acting freely and there is a sense of heat 

 throughout the body, is as rational as in the 

 experience of the athlete it is beneficial. It 

 is paralleled by the tonic effect produced by 

 the cold plunge when the skin is actively 

 secreting after a Turkish bath, and finds its 

 rationale doubtless in the stimulation of the 

 nervous system, in the increase of internal 

 circulation, and also in the renewal of ac- 

 tivity to the cutaneous circulation after the 

 momentary contraction of bloodvessels due 

 to the cold. The popular belief, doubtless, 

 rests on the injurious effects which may be 

 induced by the bath in one who does not re- 

 sort to it immediately, but allows time for 

 the effects of fatigue to show themselves on 

 the muscles and nerves and for the surface 

 of the body to get cool. Taken then, the 



bath is more likely to depress than to stimu- 

 late ; there is less power of reaction and 

 greater liability to internal inflammations. 

 At such a time a warm bath rather than a 

 cold one is more suitable and more safe. It 

 has been suggested, however, that the prac- 

 tice of indulging in a bath after violent ex- 

 ercise may initiate renal disease. Of this 

 there is no evidence. The transitory albu- 

 minuria observed after prolonged cold baths 

 may indicate the disturbance in the renal 

 circulation which ensues upon them ; but 

 these cases are in a different category from 

 those to which we are now alluding, nor are 

 we aware of any facts to prove that, even in 

 them, Bright's disease has been developed in 

 consequence of the transient departure from 

 the normal. Lastly, it must be I'emembered 

 that those indulging in athletic exercises of 

 all kinds are presumably sound in heart as 

 well as limb, and that such persons may take 

 with impunity and, indeed, with benefit meas- 

 ures which would be distinctly harmful to 

 the weakly." 



Recreations for City Cliildren. Struck 

 by the fact that the present crowding of 

 houses in cities is unfavorable to the free ex- 

 ercise of children in play such as prevailed 

 when man lived iu a more scattered way, 

 Prof. S. T. Skidmore, of Philadelphia, has 

 sketched a scheme for the evolution of a 

 new system of play. Even under the pre- 

 vailing conditions, the way for the develop- 

 ment of proper play, he beheves, is just as 

 open as for anything else, while its develop- 

 ment requires the genius of thought and 

 well-directed business enterprise. The au- 

 thor's plan rests upon the principle that 

 " play is the exercise of the faculties as such ; 

 the doing is for the sake of the doing. It is 

 Nature working toward her end in the child 

 by prompting to the free, objectless exercise 

 of those expansile powers which he sees at 

 work in adult life. If he sees the way open 

 and he has the needful facilities, he will imi- 

 tate so closely, in miniature, the activities of 

 the age to which he belongs, that his play 

 will not be a nuisance, so discordant as to be 

 intolerable ; but if left entirely with his own 

 resources, he can do nothing else than drag 

 forward those relics of barbaric play which 

 have descended to him by tradition- from 

 barbaric children, who copied the simple 



