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TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of the air ; the increased number of hours 

 of open-air exercise permitted ; and the im- 

 proved hygienic surroundings of the patient. 

 An ideal health resort for consumption 

 " should be sparsely and newly settled. It 

 should possess a pure water-supply and ade- 

 quate drainage. It should be of a dry and 

 porous soil, and should be favorably situ- 

 ated with respect to neighboring heights 

 and marshes and prevailing winds. It 

 should be equable in temperature and 

 should possess the maximum of pleasant 

 weather. It should not be so hot as to be 

 enervating, nor so cold as to prevent out- 

 door exercise and proper ventilation of the 

 houses. It should afford plenty of amuse- 

 ment ; it should not be crowded with con- 

 sumptives, and it should be sufficiently 

 unfashionable to admit of hygienic dress. 

 Above all, it should afford suitable accom- 

 modations for the invalid." 



Intelligence of Swallows. Professor 

 Grant Allen, speaking of swallows, says 

 that no other race has lived in such close 

 connection with man and yet learned so 

 little from his companionship. Still, they 

 show some signs of intelligence. In mak- 

 ing the mud walls of their nests, for in- 

 stance, they allow each layer to dry thor- 

 oughly before proceeding to top it by 

 another course. In acquiring the habit of 

 building in chimneys, which has been car- 

 ried to swallows by the westward course 

 of civilization, they exhibit some faculty of 

 adaptation. As a rule they place their nest 

 five or six feet below the top of the chim- 

 ney, to keep it out of the way of owls, not 

 directly over the kitchen-fire, but over an 

 adjoining flue. And it requires some art to 

 get down into the shaft. The emergence of 

 the young swallows from this place is a re- 

 markable instance of intelligent action still 

 wavering on the brink of mere hardened in- 

 stinct. As soon as they are strong enough 

 to move, the chicks clamber rather than fly 

 up the perpendicular shaft, by beating their 

 wings " in some ineffectual compromise be- 

 tween a flop and a flutter." Often they fail 

 and fall crushed to the hearth. Then, hav- 

 ing reached the summit, it is some time be- 

 fore they venture upon flight, and they ac- 

 quire the art only by degrees as it were. 

 Mr. Romanes has collected a few yet more 



unequivocal cases of intelligence in swal- 

 lows. In one case a bell-wire, on which a 

 swallow's nest partly rested, twice demol- 

 ished it. Convinced that it was a dangerous 

 object, they constructed a tunnel for the wire 

 to pass through, and were troubled by it no 

 more. In another case a pair of swallows 

 were molested by sparrows trying to dispos- 

 sess them of their nest. They thereupon 

 modified the entrance to their home, so that, 

 instead of opening by a simple hole, it was 

 carried on outward in the form of a tunnel. 

 Instances are recorded where several swal- 

 lows have combined to drive away sparrows 

 which had robbed a pair of comrades of 

 their nest. 



A Pony Champion." Land and Water" 

 has a remarkable story of a pony which 

 saved its master from destruction by a sav- 

 age dog. The master, a clergyman residing 

 in a lonely neighborhood, was going, with 

 the pony, a retriever, and a Dachshund, while 

 obeying a call to visit a sick parishioner in 

 the night, past a shepherd's cottage where 

 a very fierce dog was kept. This dog, hav- 

 ing got loose, made an attack on the party, 

 trying the retriever first and then the Dachs- 

 hund. The pony became frightened, and 

 the master dismounted, when the dog turned 

 upon him. The affair became very serious 

 for the clergyman ; the Dachshund had 

 been put out of the combat, the retriever had 

 hid behind the hedge, and he had to keep 

 up the fight alone, with no other weap- 

 on than a riding-whip. Then he "heard a 

 scampering, and the next moment the faith- 

 ful pony rushed up and darted so suddenly 

 between the combatants that the dog turned 

 tail and fled, evidently thinking the pony to 

 be a larger and dangerous edition of him- 

 self. The gallant little fellow pursued the 

 cur until he was fairly chased back to the 

 cottage-door. Then he returned quite do- 

 cile to his master, and the friendly quartet 

 were able to continue their way in peace 

 and safety once more." 



NOTES. 



A reproduction in phototype of seven- 

 teen pages of a Syriac manuscript, contain- 

 ing the epistles known as the " Antilegome- 

 na," is to be published by the Johns Hopkins 

 University, under the editorial supervision 



