POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



139 



over the foregoing ; this superiority the au- 

 thor calls in question. Even as regards 

 knowledge and power, the advance which 

 some claim as a characteristic of humanity 

 is effected by exceptional individuals who 

 arise in certain races under favorable cir- 

 cumstances only, and is quite compatible 

 with long intervals of immobility and even 

 of decline. Besides, it is not proved that 

 the lower animals are literally incapable of 

 progress. To enforce this point the author 

 quotes certain interesting observations made 

 by the writer of a work entitled " Flowers 

 and their Unbidden Guests," who had for 

 months been in the habit of sprinkling pow- 

 dered sugar on the sill of his window, for a 

 train of ants which passed in constant pro- 

 cession from the garden to the window. 

 " One day he took it into his head to put 

 the powdered sugar into a vessel, which he 

 fastened with a string to the transom of the 

 window, and, in order that his long-petted 

 insects might have information of the sup- 

 ply suspended above, a number of the same 

 set of ants were placed with the sugar in 

 the vessel. These busy creatures forthwith 

 seized on the particles of sugar, and, soon 

 discovering the only way open to them, viz., 

 up the string, over the transom, and down 

 the window-frame, rejoined their fellows on 

 the sill, whence they could resume the old 

 route down the wall into the garden. Be- 

 fore long the route over the new track from 

 the sill to the sugar by the window-frame, 

 transom, and string, was completely estab- 

 lished, and so passed a day or two without 

 anything new. Then one morning it was 

 noticed that the ants were stopping at their 

 old place, the window-sill, and again getting 

 sugar there. Not a single individual any 

 longer traversed the path that led thence 

 to the sugar above. This was not because 

 the store above had been exhausted, but 

 because some dozen little fellows were work- 

 ing away vigorously and incessantly up aloft 

 in the vessel, dragging the sugar-crumbs to 

 its edge, and throwing them down to their 

 comrades on the sill." 



The Earthquake of Kovember 18, 1878. 



Of the earthquake of November 18, 1878, 

 Professor Nipher, of the University of St. 

 Louis, says that it was felt over an area of 

 fully 150,000 square miles, the region dis- 



turbed forming an ellipse, with its major 

 axis reaching from Leavenworth to Tusca- 

 loosa, a distance of over 600 miles. The 

 minor axis extended from near Clarksville, 

 Arkansas, to a point midway between Cairo 

 and St. Louis, a distance of 300 miles. The 

 region of greatest disturbance was along 

 the Mississippi from Cairo to Memphis. 

 Here the shocks were universally felt ; the 

 walls of buildings could be seen to move, 

 and strong frame houses creaked as when 

 every joint is strained by a strong wind. 

 At Ironton, Missouri, the shock was so se- 

 vere as to alarm some of the occupants of 

 brick houses. Along the Missouri from 

 Glasgow to Lexington the shock was also 

 severe, awakening many families, who 

 thought a heavy wind-storm was in prog- 

 ress. The shock appears to have been felt 

 first at Glasgow at 11 h. 23 m. (St. Louis 

 time). The shock traveled rapidly along the 

 axis of the ellipse, reaching Cairo at 11 h. 

 48 m., and Memphis at 11 h. 50 m. At Lit- 

 tle Rock it was distinctly felt, although not 

 observed at Clarksville, which is thirty 

 miles farther up the river. 



Physiological Effects of Arsenic. The 



physiological effects of arsenic have lately 

 been studied anew by Gies, who adminis- 

 tered minute doses of the poison daily for 

 four months to pigs, rabbits, and fowls. 

 The daily dose for a rabbit was 00005 to 

 0-0007 of a gramme, for a pig 0005 to 0-05, 

 and for a fowl 0-001 to 0"008. In all these 

 animals the weight of the body increased, 

 and the subcutaneous fat was augmented. 

 In young growing animals the bones de- 

 veloped considerably, both in length and in 

 girth, and they presented the peculiarity 

 that, wherever in the normal state spongy 

 tissue exists, it was superseded by compact 

 bone. Moreover, just as Weigner found to 

 be the case in animals supplied with small 

 doses of phosphorus in their food, a com- 

 pact layer of bone was found immediately 

 beneath the epiphyseal cartilages of the long 

 bones. This effect was apparent after the 

 arsenic had been given for nineteen days, 

 and where only 002 to 0"035 gramme had 

 been taken. It was observed that animals 

 fed in the same stable presented the same 

 appearances in the bones, which Gies refers 

 to the air being laden with the arsenic elimi- 



