43° 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



placed upon her jaws, and to eat it. On one 

 occasion the puma (who is often allowed to 

 range the house), the dog, and Mr. Wittich 

 slept together in the same bed. ... In 

 training her he has chiefly used the whip, 

 which she feels only on the nose, ear, and 

 under the tail ; he assures me he has made 

 his own teeth meet through her skin in sev- 

 eral other parts of her body without her 

 showing any signs of sensation. Her mem- 

 ory is short, and three weeks' intermission 

 of the performance necessitates much extra 

 training and trouble." 



Beet-Sngar in Germany. — Baron Lucius's 

 report on the crisis in the beet-sugar indus- 

 try of Germany, from 1884 to 1887, brings 

 out the curious fact that the largest number 

 of roots were used in the manufacture of 

 sugar during 1884-'85, when the crisis was 

 most intense. This is accounted for by the 

 fact that preparations for extending the 

 manufacture and the cultivation of the roots 

 had been made before prices declined. The 

 increase was also promoted by the general 

 adoption of the processes of diffusion, and 

 the production of a beet-root richer in sac- 

 charine matter. The production of molasses 

 was also considerably increased. The Ger- 

 mans are estimated to consume eight kilo- 

 grammes of sugar per head ; and the ex- 

 ports have increased in greater proportion 

 than the production. 



NOTES. 



Prof. Samuel Cushman, Apiarist of the 

 Rhode Island Agricultural Experiment Sta- 

 tion, maintains, as the result of personal ob- 

 servation, that bees do no damage to grow- 

 ing or fair fruit. The juice of fruit is, in 

 fact, injurious to them ; and they do not at- 

 tack sound fruit, but only bruised fruit, or 

 that which has been previously injured by 

 other insects. Every member present of 

 the State Horticultural Society, before which 

 Prof. Cushman read his paper, sustained him 

 in this view. The author spoke also of the 

 useful agency of insects, particularly of bees, 

 in aiding the fertilization of flowers, and in 

 contributing to cross-fertilization. 



In Prof. John Bach McMaster's course 

 of instruction in the history of the United 

 States in the University of Pennsylvania, 

 text-books are eschewed, and lectures and a 

 printed syllabus take their place. Students 

 are referred, whenever it is possible, to print- 

 ed documents for information; and maps 



and diagrams, prepared by the members of 

 the classes, are required to accompany the 

 theses. 



The Royal Geographical Society has 

 awarded its Royal Medals to Emin Pasha 

 and to Lieutenant Younghusband — to the 

 latter, for his journey from Manchuria over 

 the Mustagh Pass to Cashmere and India, of 

 which we have published an account ; the 

 Cuthbert Peek grant to Mr. E. C. Hare, for 

 observations on the physical geography of 

 Lake Tanganyika ; the Murchison grant to 

 Signor Vittoria Sella, in consideration of his 

 recent journey in the Caucasus ; and the 

 Gill memorial to Mr. C. M. Woodford, for 

 his expeditions to the Solomon Islands, of 

 which a report has been published in the 

 Monthly. 



Extract from Stephen Girard's will, 

 dated February 16, 1830, in his eighty-first 

 year : " The orphans admitted into the col- 

 lege shall be instructed in the various 

 branches of a sound education, comprehend- 

 ing reading, writing, grammar, arithmetic, 

 navigation, geography, surveying, practical 

 mathematics, astronomy ; natural, chemical, 

 and experimental philosophy, the French 

 and Spanish languages (I do not forbid, but 

 I do not recommend, the Greek and Latin 

 languages), and such other learning and sci- 

 ence as the capacities of the several scholars 

 may merit or warrant. J would have them 

 taught facts and things, rather than words 

 or signs; and especially I desire that by 

 every proper means a pure attachment to 

 our republican institutions and to the sacred 

 rights of conscience, as guaranteed by our 

 happy constitutions, shall be formed and 

 fostered in the minds of the scholars." It 

 is interesting to see how distinctly this nota- 

 bly clear-headed man set forth the require- 

 ments of a real education, which are only 

 beginning to be adopted sixty years after 

 he penned these words. 



In the opinion of Sir T. Spencer Wells, 

 President of an English Sanitary Association, 

 much of the outcry about dangers from 

 women taking up men's work is breath wast- 

 ed. He thinks women capable of a great 

 deal more than they have been accustomed 

 to do in times past. "If overwork some- 

 times leads to disease, it is more morally 

 wholesome to work into it than to lounge 

 into it." For every example of disease of 

 mind or body induced by mental overstrain 

 he has seen twenty " where evils equally 

 to be deplored are caused in young women 

 by want of mental occupation, by deficient 

 exercise, too luxurious living, and too much 

 amusement or excitement." 



Movements for the abolition of war are 

 likely to gather increasing strength from the 

 growing and universal expensiveness of the 

 system. In the middle ages but little harm 

 was done by war, except to the fighters. If 

 a territory was overrun and devastated, there 



