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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



pound of pork, on the contrary, requires 

 about 5r pounds of corn for its production. 

 "When eggs are 24 cents a dozen, and pork 

 is 10 cents a pound, we have the bushel of 

 corn fed producing $2.88 worth of eggs, and 

 but $1.05 worth of pork. 



" Judging from these facts, eggs must be 

 economical in their production and in their 

 eating, and especially fitted for the laboring- 

 man in replacing meat." 



Qualifications of Medical Students. At 



the opening of the medical session of Glas- 

 gow University, last week, Prof. McCall An- 

 derson said few could doubt that a prelimi- 

 nary examination of candidates for admis- 

 sion to the classes was called for, but if 

 proof were required it might be found in 

 the answers given to the following questions 

 submitted to candidates by one of the ex- 

 amining boards : " What is meant by the an- 

 tiquity of man ? " Answer : " The wicked- 

 ness of man." " The Letters of Junius? " 

 " Letters written in the month of June." 

 " The Crusades ? " "A war against the Ro- 

 man Catholics during the last century." 

 " The first meridian ? " " The first hour of 

 the day." "To speak ironically?" "To 

 speak about iron." "A Gordian knot?" 

 " The arms of the Gordon family." " The 

 Star-chamber?" "Place for viewing the 

 stars." " To sit on the woolsack ? " " To 

 be seated on a sack of wool." "A sole- 

 cism?" "A book on the sun." "The year 

 of jubilee?" "Leap-year." They could, 

 the professor added, have appreciated this 

 last answer all the more heartily had it em- 

 anated from one of the female medical stu- 

 dents. It is, however, only just on women 

 to admit that they are, as a rule, serious in 

 their studies, and are not in the habit of 

 joking examiners. There is, indeed, an 

 earnestness of purpose in their efforts to 

 compete with man which entitles them to 

 respect, and even imitation. Pall Mall Ga- 

 zette. 



The Strn??le for Existence. Prof. Al- 

 fred Newton, in his address to the Biologi- 

 cal Section of the British Association, de- 

 scribed as follows the effects consequent 

 upon the introduction by man of foreign 

 species of animals into newly-discovered 

 regions : " Set face to face with unlooked- 



for invaders, and forced into a contest with 

 them from which there is no retreat, it is 

 not in the least surprising that the natives 

 should succumb. They have hitherto only 

 had to struggle for existence with creatures 

 of a like organization ; and the issue of the 

 conflict which has been going on for ages is 

 that, a3apted to the conditions under which 

 they find themselves, they maintain their 

 footing on grounds of equality among one 

 another, and so for centuries they may have 

 'kept the noiseless tenor of their way.' 

 Suddenly man interferes, and lets loose up- 

 on them an entirely new race of animals, 

 which act and react in a thousand different 

 fashions on their circumstances. It is not 

 necessary that the new-comers should be 

 predacious ; they may be so far void of of- 

 fense as to abstain from assaulting the 

 aboriginal population ; but they occupy the 

 same haunts and consume the same food. 

 The fruits, the herbage, and the other sup- 

 plies that sufficed to support the ancient 

 fauna, now have to furnish forage for the in- 

 vaders as well. The new-comers are creatures 

 whose organization has been prepared by 

 and for combat throughout generations in- 

 numerable. Their ancestors have been ele- 

 vated in the scale of being by the discipline 

 of strife. Their descendants inherit the 

 developed qualities that enabled those an- 

 cestors to win a hard-fought existence when 

 the animals around them were no higher in 

 grade than those among which the descend- 

 ants are now thrown. The struggle is like 

 one between an army of veterans and a 

 population unused to warfare." 



Economy in the Use of Steam. A series 

 of experiments has been made, as we learn 

 from Iran, upon the 80-horse-power engine 

 at Portsmouth dock-yard, for the purpose of 

 testing the value of a process, the invention 

 of Mr. Marchant, of London, whereby steam, 

 after having done its work in the cylinder, 

 is pumped back into the boiler, to be re- 

 utilized for steam-power. The advantage 

 which the inventor claims for his invention 

 is a considerable saving of fuel, because, 

 inasmuch as it is economical to keep the 

 boilers supplied with hot water from the 

 condensers instead of cold water, it follows 

 that to keep them supplied with steam di- 

 rect from the cylinders must prove still 



