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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



board, impress one very differently from the 

 immense fields devoted to single crops and 

 the commodious barns of the north. Other 

 differences may be seen on the upper Rhine, 

 where the inhabitants of both sides were 

 originally the same people, but have been 

 subjected to different influences in the course 

 of their history. The French have made 

 their marks all over the Alsatian territory 

 and in the towns cf quite another character 

 from the native German aspects of the 

 Baden side. 



A Snrvival of Torture. Although the 

 practice of torture to extract evidence was 

 formally abolished in 1789, the spirit of the 

 Inquisition has not yet died out in the conti- 

 nental countries of Europe. This is shown 

 now and again in criminal cases. But not 

 the convicts only are treated with the utmost 

 severity. The mere suspicion of crime is 

 enough to make a man's life miserable. He 

 practically loses all civil rights, and finds 

 himself at the mercy of an interrogating 

 magistrate with full power to extract a con- 

 fession, by moral suasion if possible, by more 

 forcible means if need be. Subjected to a 

 prolonged and tortuous system of cross-ques- 

 tioning, the accused often completely break 

 down mentally and confess at random what- 

 ever has been suggested to them, much in 

 the manner of the trials for witchcraft in 

 our own Puritan New England. A case 

 creating quite a sensation in Paris some 

 thirty years ago was that of a woman who 

 under this fire of interrogation admitted hav- 

 ing killed her newborn infant, two months 

 even before the birth of the child. If the 

 culprits are suspected of obstinacy in an- 

 swering, all sorts of expedients are used to 

 make them more compliant, such as making 

 their diet unpalatable, or altogether with- 

 holding food and water, and penning up in 

 close, dark quarters. 



Prof. Cannlzzaro's Jnbilec. The seven- 

 tieth birthday of Prof. Stanislas Cannizzaro 

 was celebrated on November 21, 1896, amid 

 a concourse of the most distinguished scien- 

 tists and other men of note of Rome. He 

 was presented with a gold medal and a bust 

 of himself in bronze, and received innumer- 

 al)le letters, telegrams, addresses, and perga- 

 menus from the leading scientific societies of 



the world. Prof. Semeraro, Rector Magnifi- 

 cus of the Roman University, said in his 

 address : " His greatest glory lies in the fact 

 that most of the professors now teaching 

 in Italian universities have been his pupils. 

 The pressure of business as vice-president 

 of the Senate and member of the Superior 

 Council of Public Instruction, and many oth- 

 ers, never were pretexts to him for overlook- 

 ing the modest duty of a teacher." Hon. 

 Galimberti, presenting him with the Grand 

 Cordon of the Crown of Italy, said : '" Your 

 name is worthy of being joined with those 

 of Galileo, Torricelli, Volta, and Galvani. 

 To Emanuel Kant, who, in his absolute sen- 

 tence, considered chemistry as a union of 

 empirical knowledge, you replied half a cen- 

 tury ago, pronouncing among the confusion 

 of doctrines immovable ideas and true laws 

 that render chemistry an exact science, for it 

 lies now on mathematical truth." Cannizzaro 

 replied in an interesting speech. Referring 

 to the combination of the functions of teacher 

 and investigator, he said : " Had I not been 

 a teacher, my publications would not have 

 appeared, and I should have continued to 

 disseminate science of new carbon com- 

 pounds. I bring here Lord Kelvin's exam- 

 ple, who, in his last jubilee, spoke of the 

 utility he had found by the continued con- 

 ferences with his pupils." 



Some Antipathies of Animals. A num- 

 ber of very curious featuries in the antipa- 

 thies of animals are pointed out in an article 

 on the subject in the London Spectator. 

 There are permanent hereditary antipathies, 

 like those of cats against dogs, and purely 

 instinctive, inexplicable antipathies, which 

 are naturally the least common, but of which 

 there are marked and definite examples. Of 

 such is the disgust which tlie camel excites 

 in horses. These animals " have been asso- 

 ciated for centuries in the common service 

 of man, and early training makes the horse 

 acquiesce in the proximity of the creature 

 which disgusts him. Otherwise, it is far 

 more difficult to acctistom horses to work 

 with camels than with elephants, precisely 

 because the repugnance is a natural antipa- 

 thy and not a reasoned fear." They get 

 used to the sight of an elephant, but the 

 smell of a camel disgusts and frightens them. 

 English horses that have never seen a camel 



