8 4 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



highest place. Its use implied the personal courage of the individual 

 at close quarters. The arrow might slay at a distance, and be dis- 

 charged by a coward. The spear, again, if long enough and deftly 



* 



y 



35 



36 37 38 39 



Development or the Swokd among Savages. 



40 



41 



held, could kill without risk to the holder thereof, unless the adversary 

 were similarly armed. But the sword meant personal conflict, where 

 the victory was not always to the strong. Rightly it is the sign of 

 might and governance, for it implies both the will and the power to 

 execute the behests of its holder. It is one of the insignia of author- 

 ity, because it is the sign of courage and skill. 



-^^ 



ON THE DIFFUSION OF ODOES. 



By E. C. EUTHEEFOED. 



THE following paragraph is similar to others I have occasionally 

 seen going the rounds of the papers for the last twenty-five or 

 thirty years : 



It is said that a grain of musk is capable of perfuming for several years a 

 chamber twelve feet square without sustaining any sensible diminution of its 

 volume or its weight. But such a chamber contains 2,985,984 cubic inches, and 

 each cubic inch contains 1,000 cubic tenths of inches, making in all nearly three 

 billions of tenths of an inch. Now, it is probable, indeed almost certain, that 

 each such cubic tenth of an inch of the air of the room contains one or more of 

 the particles of the musk, and that this air has been changed many thousands of 

 times. Imagination recoils before computation of the number of the particles 

 thus diffused and expended. Yet have they all together no appreciable weight 

 and magnitude. Moseleifs Illustrations of Science. 



