POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



141 



enlightened of pagan legislators. Is it wise 

 or prudent to permit the vigor of manhood 

 to be dissipated or wasted, and to allow pos- 

 terity to owe its origin to the waning strength 

 of old men ? It is certainly contrary to the 

 warning voice of the most intelligent and dis- 

 interested of the medical profession. . . . 

 This widow-making vice of marital disparity 

 is but one feature in that hymeneal profana- 

 tion which is the curse and disgrace of our 

 age, as it was of the decline of Koine." 



Climates of British Health Resorts. The 



isothermal lines in the British Islands run 

 north and south rather than east and west. 

 Hence latitude is there a less sure guide to 

 temperature than longitude. All the health 

 resorts on the east coast have a very similar 

 character, although they differ so much in 

 latitude ; and the like rule holds good on the 

 west coast. The resorts on the south coast 

 differ materially, according as they lie toward 

 the east or toward the west. As a general 

 rule, the east coast resorts are dry, some- 

 what cold and bracing, while the west coast 

 resorts are relatively humid, mild, and relax- 

 ing. All the coasts are more or less windy ; 

 but there is a great difference between the 

 dry, somewhat parching, and decidedly brac- 

 ing wind that comes to the eastern coasts 

 across the German Ocean, and the soft, rain- 

 laden breezes of the Atlantic. Some places, 

 however, have a climate of their own, de- 

 pending upon peculiar conditions. The line 

 between the bracing and relaxing of the 

 south coast resorts lies near the Isle of 

 Wight. The most bracing resorts in Eng- 

 land are those of Durham and Yorkshire ; 

 the most relaxing those of Devonshire and 

 Cornwall. The resorts from the mouth of 

 the Thames to Brighton form an intermedi- 

 ate class. 



Distinctive Characteristics of Horse- 

 flesh. The inspector of slaughter-houses in 

 Paris distinguishes between horse-flesh and 

 beef by the following marks : Horse-flesh is 

 reddish brown, becoming darker on exposure 

 to the air; it has an odor peculiar to itself; 

 it is soft and slightly tenacious, allowing the 

 finger easily to sink into it, and the fibers, 

 when worked, break up and become pulpy ; 

 the muscular fibers are long and fine, and 

 united by very compact cellular tissue; in 



cooking, it hardens and becomes more dense 

 and compact than beef ; and under the mi- 

 croscope the fibers and striations of the 

 muscular tissue are finer than in the flesh 

 of the ox. These differences not always ap- 

 pearing sharply defined enough to make the 

 distinction infallible, James Bell has sought 

 other tests, and found them in the character 

 of the fats. It was observed that the adi- 

 pose tissue of the horse was of a softer and 

 more oily nature than that of beef. On melt- 

 ing, horse fat, at 10 Fahr., formed a clear 

 oil; the melting-point of beef fat, which is 

 solid at ordinary temperatures, varied from 

 110 to 116 Fahr. At 100 Fahr. the spe- 

 cific gravity of horse fat ranged from 908*4 

 to 908 8 ; the specific gravity of beef fat, at 

 120 Fahr., was from 903-6 to 904. These 

 important characteristics of difference, par- 

 ticularly the fluidity of horse fat at 70 Fahr., 

 make the distinction between the two fats 

 very plain. 



Mental Powers of Spiders. " Some Ob- 

 servations about the Mental Powers of Spi- 

 ders " are recorded by G. W. and E. G. Peck- 

 ham in the " Journal of Morphology." The 

 authors experimented on hundreds of spiders 

 of most of the common genera and species, 

 with relation to such faculties as they may 

 be supposed to possess, but found the way 

 to knowledge on the subject " long and be- 

 set with difficulties." The faculty of smell 

 seemed to be fairly developed in all but three 

 out of twenty-six species. It was exhibited 

 in different ways by various movements of 

 the legs, palpi, and abdomen, by shaking 

 their webs, by running away, by seizing the 

 rod conveying the perfume and binding it 

 up as they would an insect, and by approach- 

 ing the rod with the first legs and palpi held 

 erect. The position of the organ of smell is 

 unknown, and was not found. In hearing, 

 spiders made no response to any loud or sen- 

 sational sounds, but all the Epeirids were 

 sensitive to the sound of the tuning fork, 

 while the spiders that do not make webs 

 gave no heed to it. In love of offspring, all 

 the spiders eagerly received back the cocoons 

 when they had been deprived of them for 

 various periods inside of twenty-four hours ; 

 some failed at twenty-four hours, while only 

 a few recognized them after a longer pe- 

 riod. They did not, however, seem able to 



