P OP ULAR MIS CELL ANY 



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be concealed as long as possible, and un- 

 knowing visitors continue to go down as 

 into a trap. "Not long ago," again says 

 the "Lancet," "family after family went 

 down to one of our [English] largest sea- 

 side towns, to be infected w ith scarlet fever, 

 the existence of which at the place was care- 

 fully concealed." The dangers arising from 

 imperfect sanitary arrangements at these 

 resorts and in the lodging-houses have been 

 much discussed of late, but the agitation 

 ought to be kept up without intermission 

 till they are all remedied. The question of 

 drainage, which is a difficult one anywhere, 

 is no less difficult at seaside resorts than at 

 other places. The most natural measure is 

 to carry the sewage to the nearest and most 

 convenient spot at which it can pass into the 

 sea, and this is often the place where visit- 

 ors and loungers will be most exposed to its 

 emanations. The case is still worse on lakes, 

 for there the slowly moving water becomes 

 charged with sewage ; and cases of illness 

 have been known to arise from boatiug in 

 the neighborhood of the discharge-pipes. 

 Many physicians have had experience with 

 diseases arising from filth that have been 

 contracted at the seaside, and cases of ty- 

 phoid fever originating in such places have 

 been noticed in England as well as in the 

 United States. That sickness is not more 

 general is doubtless due to the fact that 

 visitors spend so much time in the open air. 

 If they lived there as they do at home, they 

 would, perhaps, find many of these places 

 the reverse of " health resorts." 



Rhythmic and Colored Lights for Light- 

 houses. Sir William Thomson urges a three- 

 fold reform in the British lighthouse system, 

 viz. : " A greater quickening of nearly all 

 revolving lights ; the application of a group 

 of dot-dash eclipses to every fixed light; 

 and the abolition of color as a distinction 

 of lighthouse-lights, except for showing 

 dangers and channels and ports by red and 

 white and green sectors." He observes that, 

 in revolving lights of which the period is 

 ten seconds or less and the time of extinc- 

 tion seven seconds or less, the place of the 

 light is not practically lost in the short in- 

 tervals of darkness, the eye sweeping delib- 

 erately along the horizon to " pick up the 

 light, passes over less than the breadth of 



its own field of view in the period of the 

 light, and thus picks it up almost as surely 

 and quickly as if it were a fixed light. Com- 

 pass-bearings may also be taken with these 

 quick-revolving lights almost as easily and 

 accurately as if the light were continu- 

 ous. The distinction by color alone ought 

 to be prohibited for all lighthouse-lights, on 

 account of its liability to confusion with 

 ships' and steamers' side-lights. In place 

 of color, Sir William would distinguish ev- 

 ery fixed light by a rapid group of two or 

 three dot-dash eclipses, the shorter, or dot, 

 of about half a second duration, and the 

 dash three times as long as the dot, with in- 

 tervals of light of about half a second be- 

 tween the eclipses of the group, and of five 

 or six seconds between the groups, so that 

 in no case should the period be more than 

 ten or twelve seconds. The Holywood Bank 

 Light, Belfast Lough, until 1874 was in- 

 closed in a red-glass lantern, was only visi- 

 ble for five miles, and was constantly liable 

 to be taken for a sailing vessel's port-side 

 light. In 187-1 the red glass was removed, 

 and the light was marked by a dot, dot, 

 dash (. . , or letter U of the Morse flash- 

 ing alphabet),, repeated every ten or twelve 

 seconds, and has been so ever since. It is 

 now recognized with certainty as soon as 

 seen in ordinary weather from the mouth of 

 the Lough, ten miles off, and has proved 

 most serviceable as a leading light for ships 

 bound for Belfast or entering the Lough. 

 Sir William Thomson's objection to colored 

 lights is corroborated by Mr. J. P. Thomp- 

 son, who relates, in a letter published in 

 "Nature," how he narrowly escaped ship- 

 wreck off the Cornish coast by inability to 

 perceive the red flashes of the " Wolf " 

 light, which seemed to have been neutral- 

 ized by the fog, or from the daze caused by 

 the phosphorescence of the sea. 



A Singular Root-Growth. A correspon- 

 dent of " Die Natur " describes a singular 

 form of growth of fibrous roots, which he 

 and his associates observed in opening one 

 of the ancient-burial places, called crom- 

 lechs, at a town in the province of Posen, 

 Prussia. Along with other objects usually 

 found in such burial-places, they noticed sev- 

 eral urns, filled with ashes, calcined bones, 

 and sand, and all closed with a cover shaped 



