2S4 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Tambuni to the first falls. In the Crystal 

 Mountains he fell in with tribes absolutely 

 unknown up to the present, or who at least 

 had not been seen by whites with rare ex- 

 ceptions the Etemo, the Manga, the Otonto, 

 and the Toko. These people are described 

 as very inoffensive ; they regarded their 

 white visitor as a curious animal, and had 

 a certain fear of him. When he asked them 

 to accompany him into the interior they 

 agreed readily. They are frightfully poor, 

 being obliged to give up planting on account 

 of the ravages of elephants and gorillas, 

 which are very numerous and daring. Not 

 a single night passed, the traveler states, 

 that he did not hear those animals ravaging 

 around the villages, which are mostly very 

 large. As soon as the animals are known 

 to be near, the whole village is on foot en- 

 deavoring to frighten them away by shout- 

 ing. In these nocturnal expeditions, in 

 which the explorer took part, he noticed 

 that the head man of the village addressed 

 a speech to the elephants, and that in this 

 speech his own name was pronounced. He 

 was told that the elephants were threatened 

 to be handed over to him, and that, if they 

 did not fly at once, they would be visited 

 on the morrow, and the white man would 

 kill them. If the elephant seizes a plant 

 with its trunk, the people immediately raise 

 a dreadful, plaintive howling, and the prin- 

 cipal orator addresses, in a lamentable voice, 

 supplications to the enormous brute. 



i 



The Animal " Outing." That the change 

 of scene and air secured by an annual " out- 

 ing " is beneficial to health can not be doubt- 

 ed. The relief afforded counts for much, 

 the opening up of new sources of energy 

 counts for more, in the sum of advantages 

 gained. Meanwhile, not only will the profit 

 be small, but the result questionable, unless 

 the relief and the sense of freshness are 

 shared by mind and body alike. In a word, 

 perfect absence of worry is essential to the 

 full enjoyment and restorative action of the 

 holiday. This is just what the majority of 

 persons, particularly the heads of families, 

 forget, for themselves and those around 

 them. A jaded mind needs rest quite as 

 much as a weary body, and neither the one 

 nor the other can obtain the sort of rest 

 which is essential to a complete renewal of 



strength without the awakening of new in- 

 terests. The simple cessation of work may 

 in some few instances give relief, but much 

 more than this is necessary for the recovery 

 of health and renewal of energy when mind 

 and body are exhausted by long-continued 

 or monotonous toil, or domestic duty. It 

 follows that, in the choice of a locality and 

 in the manner of conducting the trip, the in- 

 clination should be consulted not less than 

 general convenience. It is too much the 

 practice to make a toil of a pleasure, and 

 create occasions of annoyance in the course 

 of the annual holiday. Everything should 

 be planned to leave the mind free as regards 

 the obligations of home duty, and enable it 

 to share the advantages of the change be- 

 stowed on the body. There is plenty of 

 thought for the physical part of man's na- 

 ture ; it may not be unreasonable to put in 

 a plea for the consideration of his needs as 

 a being endowed with a mental part, which 

 is apt to be overmuch burdened with re- 

 sponsibility and harassed by many cares. 

 The annual outing will be incomparably 

 more enjoyable, and productive of lasting 

 benefit, if these needs of the mind are con- 

 sidered, instead of being systematically over- 

 looked. People go away anxious, and return 

 to mourn over the smallness of the benefit 

 they have received. They took their wor- 

 ries with them, and might almost as well 

 have staid at home. Lancet. 



What is a Poison ? Under the fanciful 

 title of '' The Keys of Death," we find in the 

 " Monthly Journal of Science " a very in- 

 teresting article on the subject of poisons. 

 The author asks, in the first place, what is a 

 poison, but science, he holds, is not yet qual- 

 ified to give an answer. Certain physiolo- 

 gists have concluded that whatever is poi- 

 sonous in large doses must also be poison- 

 ous in the minutest. But it is easy to give 

 instances where, if the reagents employed 

 are less in proportion, or weaker than the 

 required standard, we obtain, not a smaller 

 quantity of the product sought for, but a sub- 

 stance totally different. Oxygen is a case 

 in point : diluted, it sustains life ; pure, it 

 destroys it. So with sulphuric acid. Mixed 

 largely with water, it is a refreshing, tonic 

 beverage ; in the concentrated state it de- 

 stroys all parts of the system which it touch- 



