7i6 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



the extent of the terraced shores shows 

 that this view is erroneous. Such shores 

 have been found everywhere in high north- 

 em latitudes, so far as their wastes have 

 been penetrated. Tliey are also extensively 

 found, but generally diminishing in height, 

 down in the temperate latitudes. In other 

 words, around the north pole, and far down 

 toward the south, the sum of the negative 

 movements of the coast-lines is greater 

 than the sum of the positive movements, 

 but the sums become more nearly equal as 

 we come south. The opposite is the case 

 in the tropical waters, in the regions of the 

 coral reefs, where the sum of the positive 

 movements is in excess. Farther to the 

 south, beyond the twenty-fifth to the thirty- 

 fifth parallels of latitude, there begin again 

 to appear, in South America, in South 

 Africa, Southern Australia, and New Zea- 

 land, terraced lands like those of the north, 

 the same excess of negative movements, the 

 same signs of oscillation, as in the north. 

 The gradual tendency to a higher exposure 

 of the land toward both poles has been 

 noticed in single large tracts by many ob- 

 servers in North America, in England, Scot- 

 land, Scandinavia, China, Australia, and 

 South America. When we consider as a 

 \vhole the character and extent of these 

 movements, as recent observations have 

 defined them, and regard the compensatory 

 results of the excess of positive movements 

 toward the equatorial regions, and of the 

 negative movements toward the neighbor- 

 hood of the poles, we shall be convinced 

 that we should no longer speak of an inex- 

 plicable oscillation of the lithosphcre. We 

 have, in fact, to do with continuous changes 

 in the figure of the fluid covering of the 

 earth. Since the epoch of the maximum 

 of cold, which Ilochstctter believes came 

 upon both hemispheres at once, an excess of 

 positive results has taken i^lace in the direc- 

 tion of the poles, causing an accumulation 

 of water around them, and this has been 

 followed by an accumulation in opposite 

 directions, or toward the quator, causing a 

 change of form which is still going on. 



Persian Opinm The production of opi- 

 um has greatly increased in Persia within 

 the last two years, and the quality of the 

 drug has been correspondingly improved. 



Previous to 18*76 the average annual produc- 

 tion was about 2,000 cases, and the largest 

 return in one year did not exceed 2,600 

 cases. The amount for lS78-'79 was 6,700 

 cases, and the estimate for 1879-80 is for 

 7,100 cases. Great care is now taken to 

 prevent adulteration, but this does not ap- 

 pear to be always essential. Five sixths 

 of the product is sent to China. For this 

 market the drug must be fine and prepared 

 in oil, but need not be rich in morphia. 

 It can be largely swelled up with foreign 

 substances, with but little danger of detec- 

 tion by the testing processes in use there. 

 It is said that pure and superior opium, 

 though not so finely manipulated, has been 

 rejected in China, while the fine opium, con- 

 taining admixtures, has found favor and a 

 fair market. The preparations intended for 

 England are made especially pure, and yield 

 an average of about twelve per cent, of 

 morphia, while those intended for China 

 yield from nine to ten per cent. 



Mortality in Different Pursuits. The 



reports of the British Registrars-General 

 show that the annual death-rate in the Unit- 

 ed Kingdom is about one in forty-five of the 

 entire population. The larger, but not the 

 largest, towns lead in the rate of mortality, 

 and the rural mainland districts occupy an 

 intermediate place between them and the 

 insular districts, the extremes varying by 

 about fifty per cent. As between the three 

 great classes into which the population may 

 be divided the laboring, the trading and 

 professional classes, and the gentry and 

 titled the chances of life are very nearly 

 equal, although a slight advantage appears 

 to be shown in favor of the first class. The 

 trades most unfavorable to long life are, 

 as a rule, those which tend to expose the 

 operative to an atmosphere loaded with dust, 

 or compel him to deal in one way or another 

 with poisons. Dry grinding, as practiced on 

 needles and forks at Sheffield, is the worst ; 

 working in coal-mines is next in deadliness. 

 Gilders and silverers of glass are exposed 

 to vapors of mercury ; workers in brass are 

 liable to diseases produced by exposure to 

 volatilized oxide of lead ; all who work in 

 paints are subject to great risks ; soldiers 

 and sailors have their lives shortened by the 

 exposure they have to undergo, or by diseases 



