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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



foreign ; and 55 are worst, 98 arc bad, and 

 112 are indifferent, The weeds in Iowa not 

 found in New Jersey are mostly of the indif- 

 ferent class, native in large part of the prai- 

 rie, and as a rule quickly disappear when 

 the land is placed under cultivation. The 

 New Jersey list can be made up from the 

 one for Iowa by omitting 75 of the native 

 prtiirie plants, mostly perennials, and adding 

 43, a large percentage of which are annuals. 

 The only single weed of the first rank stricken 

 from the Iowa list in adapting it for New 

 Jersey is a species of pigweed, but even this 

 has within a year been found in New Jersey. 

 On the other hand, there are several first- 

 class (worst) weeds that are added in the 

 adaptation of the Western list to the East. 

 Of such, for example, are a pepper-grass, the 

 wild radish, two kinds of cocklebur, fever- 

 few, wild onion, wild leek, nut-grass, Ber- 

 muda grass, and a kind of chess. The East 

 is overrun with a larger number than the 

 West of the most aggressive weeds " weeds 

 that assert their ability to resist the forces 

 of the cultivator and plant their banners 

 upon the tilled ground, likewise annual weeds 

 that stock the soil with a multitude of seeds, 

 ready to spring into life whenever an oppor- 

 tunity offers. Some species of weeds, such 

 as a goose-foot, a pigweed, a thistle, plantain, 

 shepherd's-purse, and purslane, are found 

 everywhere from Maine to California ; others 

 are prominent on the Pacific coast and not 

 elsewhere; and there are weeds peculiar to 

 the Rocky Mountain region, and others to 

 the prairie region. In the middle prairie 

 States it is mostly the members of the sun- 

 flower family that prevail. In the central 

 States the list is led by the Canada thistle, 

 quack-grass, docks, daisy, chess, plantain, and 

 purslane. If to this list we add wild carrot, 

 onion, and parsnip, and the like old foreign 

 enemies, we have the extensive catalogue of 

 these plant pests that prey upon the lands of 

 New England. 



Hypnotism as a Remedy. Accounts are 

 given by Dr. George C. Kingsbury, in his 

 Practice of Hypnotic Suggestion, of fifty 

 cases of pain or disease which he has him- 

 self treated by hypnotism. In forty-five of 

 these, complete cure followed, without any 

 relapse so far as is known, and there was at 

 least some slight or temporary relief in the 



five others. In one case the hypnotism was 

 used as an anaesthetic in childbirth. The 

 patient was hypnotized twelve times in prep- 

 aration for her confinement, and once more 

 when it began. She was brought to the con- 

 venient stage of hypnotic somnambulism in 

 which she could understand and obey orders 

 and nevertheless felt no pain. In the treat- 

 ment of three patients of confirmed drunken 

 habits some remarkable results in the way of 

 sobriety, or even dislike for alcohol, were ob- 

 tained, which had lasted up to the time of 

 the publication of the book, nine months or 

 more, and none of them was known to have 

 relapsed. In many lesser ills, such as neu- 

 ralgia, headache, toothache, etc., the relief of 

 the pain was immediate and complete. The 

 author has found no damage done by hyp- 

 notism in careful hands. 



The Weather and Influenza. A paper 

 by Dr. Lang, of Munich, treats of the rela- 

 tions between influenza and changes of 

 weather. Among atmospheric conditions 

 favorable to the development of infectious 

 maladies are light and rare precipitations, 

 while the soil dries out and dust abounds, 

 and next slight winds. Such conditions pre- 

 vail in anti-cyclones. But not every baro- 

 metric maximum that occurs can be accused 

 of being a promoter of an epidemic. The 

 germs of the disease must be present, then 

 the anti-cyclone is a danger. Entirely local 

 conditions can not be held to account for 

 what passes in the atmosphere, nor for 

 events that depend on its constitution, for 

 the air is not, like us, fixed to the ground. 

 It is continually suffering displacement, and 

 brings us elements from all the places over 

 which it has passed. We must look, there- 

 fore, to the place where the wind started 

 that is, to the center of the aerial circulation 

 of the region in which we are. We know 

 that the distribution of barometric pressure 

 is a determining cause of the movements of 

 the air, and it may be that the corpuscles 

 scattered through the atmosphere have been 

 brought from far-off regions, especially if the 

 distribution of the pressure has continued 

 the same during a considerable time. In the 

 winter of 1889-'90 a barometric maximum 

 was fixed for six weeks in the eastern part 

 of Europe, with only unimportant modifica- 

 tions in its shape and extent. Now, since 



