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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and rational explanation on the theory that 

 the continent as a whole is approximately, 

 and the interior plain is almost perfectly, 

 isostatic. Most of the deviations from the 

 normal arise from excess of matter and are 

 associated with uplift. The Appalachian 

 and Rocky Mountains, and the Wasatch Pla- 

 teau, all appear to be of the nature of added 

 loads, the whole mass above the neighboring 

 plains being I'igidly upheld. The Colorado 

 Plateau Province seems to have an excess of 

 matter, and the Desert Range Province may 

 also be overloaded. 



NOTES. 



In the article on The Collecting of Naval 

 Stores, in the February Monthly, we inad- 

 vertently omitted to give credit for the cut 

 on page 479, illustrating the French method 

 of tapping or " bleeding " pine trees for their 

 turpentine. The block was kindly placed at 

 our disposal by the Forestry Department at 

 Washington, to which we owe our acknowl- 

 edgment. 



From a note in the Revue Scientifique we 

 gather that M. L. Roncorini, of Turin, a pupil 

 of M. Lombroso, has recently made some 

 interesting microscopical researches on the 

 brains of epileptics, criminals, and idiots. 

 He found alterations in structure which were 

 fairly constant, and which in most cases 

 were marked enough to difPerentiate them 

 from the normal brain. If his work is con- 

 firmed by future observations it will justify 

 M. Lombroso's theory that criminals and epi- 

 leptics are closely related. 



A NEW application of the phonograph is 

 described in a recent issue of Industries and 

 Iron. The Knowles Steam Pump Company 

 has a large pumping station on the Elk 

 River in California. Something went wrong 

 with the big pump, and the manager of the 

 station, in order to save the expense of hav- 

 ing an expert come on from New York, 

 conceived the ingenious notion of using a 

 phonograph. He first spoke into the receiver, 

 giving a general account of the matter, and 

 then placed the receiver so that the working 

 of the pump was recorded on the wax roll. 

 When the cylinder was put into the ma- 

 chine in New York, the voice of the man- 

 ager of the pumping station was heard 

 giving the symptoms, and then asking the 

 listeners to pay attention to the pump's ac- 

 tion. By this means the difficulty was made 

 out and the proper remedy forwarded. 



In a letter on the poison ivy, in Garden 

 and Forest, W. H. Harrison says : " The poi- 

 son of the ivy, though always present, proba- 

 bly, like all sap, varies slightly in activity with 

 the season, though perhaps not more than 



does man's power of resisting it, for the 

 warm, perspiring skin of summer with its 

 open pores takes in and throws out juices 

 much more readily and is more easily irri- 

 tated than the dry, firm skin and contracted 

 pores of the exposed parts in winter. Aside 

 from the sand form, all parts of the poison 

 ivy are poisonous at all seasons, the root 

 being by far the most virulent of all. I 

 have seen a robust physician in the prime of 

 health poisoned almost fatally and rendered 

 nearly helpless for many days simply by pull- 

 ing the roots. The poisoning, which is of an 

 erysipelatous nature, usually appears in light 

 cases at the point where the ivy juice comes 

 in contact with the skin, but severe cases are 

 apt to centralize at some point where the 

 skin is tender. The remedies for this poison 

 are unsatisfactory. The best way to effect 

 a cure is to let the irritated area severely 

 alone, notwithstanding the itching." 



At the August meeting of the German 

 Society of Anthropology, Dr. Waldeyer de- 

 livered an address on the somatic differences 

 of the two sexes. He argued that since a 

 wide collation of measurements and statistics 

 proves that woman has a smaller brain, has 

 less physical strength, preserves more traits 

 of infancy and childhood in adult life, and 

 has practically in all times and places held 

 a position inferior to man, in our schemes 

 of social improvement these undeniable facts 

 should be respected, and he quoted with ap- 

 proval the opinion of Bartels, that the edu- 

 cation, physical and mental, of woman, how- 

 ever high it may be, should be always aimed 

 to fit her for the duties of the family circle 

 only. 



The Argentine Medical Club of Buenos 

 Ayres offers three prizes, the first of three 

 hundred dollars, for researches in bacteri- 

 ology, to be presented before May 31, 1897. 

 The prizes are offered to honor the memory 

 of Pasteur. 



Messrs. Macmillan & Co. announce in 

 preparation An Atlas of Nerve Cells, by M. 

 Allen Starr, M. D. Its object is to present 

 to students and teachers of histology a se- 

 ries of photographs showing the appearance 

 of the cells which form the central nervous 

 system, as seen under the microscope. 



As the result of a trial carried on for a 

 year the New York Agricultural Experiment 

 Station has found that a lot of Leghorn hens, 

 having ground and moistened grain as thirty- 

 seven per cent of their food for the year, cost 

 less to feed, both as regards live weight and 

 the eggs produced, than a similar lot having 

 their grain food dry and whole. With two 

 pens of Cochins the same result was obtained 

 as regards live weight, but the opposite in 

 regard to the production of eggs. As to the 

 comparative profits from large and small 

 breeds, this experiment turned out rather 

 favorably to the large ones. 



