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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and does not extend to the whole area of 

 the gulf. Having reached one of these 

 patches, Dr. Streets had a bucket of the 

 water taken on board the steamer, but it 

 was found to be perfectly transparent. But, 

 on sinking the bucket half a fathom or more 

 below the surface, water was brought up 

 which contained the coloring - matter in 

 abundance. " When first drawn up," writes 

 Dr. Streets in the American Naturalist, " and 

 viewed in a glass vessel, by the unaided eye, 

 the water had a faint reddish tinge. When 

 allowed to stand for half an hour, the color- 

 ing-matter settled to the bottom of the ves- 

 sel as a greenish-yellow precipitate ; and 

 when some of this was taken up by a pi- 

 pette and examined under the microscope, 

 it was seen to be composed of minute 

 roundish bodies," the remains of ciliate 

 infusoria, as they were proved to be after 

 much laborious investigation. Under the 

 microscope certain small objects were seen 

 repeatedly darting across the field of vision, 

 when the water was placed fresh upon the 

 glass slide, but they disappeared as quickly 

 as they came, and for a long time it was 

 impossible to tell what had become of them. 

 But at length one of the little bodies stopped 

 directly in the centre of the field of vision 

 and commenced a rapid rotatory movement, 

 which presently ceased, and the animal was 

 quiescent for a second or two; then rupt- 

 ure occurred, the molecular contents oozed 

 out, and the transparent envelope of the 

 organism became invisible. The observa- 

 tion was again and again repeated. The 

 author quotes from Darwin's " Naturalist's 

 Voyage around the World " a passage in 

 which a similar observation is recorded 

 with regard to certain patches of discolored 

 water encountered off the coast of Peru. 



Grapc-Cultnre. To determine the influ- 

 ence of girdling grape-vines on the growth 

 and composition of the grapes, Prof. C. A. 

 Goessmann last year made a series of ex- 

 periments which are described in the " Pro- 

 ceedings of the American Chemical Society." 

 He had a number of vines girdled during the 

 first week of August, about the time when 

 in the berries of the Concord grape the free 

 acid had attained its highest development, 

 and the grape-sugar was beginning slowly 

 to increase. Entire vines as well as large 



branches served for the trial. Two inci- 

 sions from one-eighth to one-quarter of an 

 inch apart were made through the bark 

 and the cambium layer, and the mass be- 

 tween these cuts down to the wood care- 

 fully removed. A marked difference in the 

 degree of growth was soon perceived, which 

 persisted during the entire season, until the 

 grapes on the girdled branches had just be- 

 come ripe. The tests made at this point 

 with both the grapes of the girdled and of 

 the ungirdled branches, grown on the same 

 vine, showed a remarkable difference in the 

 quality of the entire grape and in its rela- 

 tive degree of development. In some in- 

 stances the girdled branches were two to 

 three weeks in advance of the others. At 

 the close of the season the girdled vines 

 did not show the slightest difference from 

 the ungirdled ones, the place where the 

 bark had been removed being grown over. 



Disadvantages of the Health-Lift. The 



use of the "health-lift," so called, was un- 

 der discussion recently in the Philadelphia 

 County Medical Society, and Dr. Benjamin 

 Lee read a paper on the subject, in which 

 he condemned the practice as being neither 

 rational, scientific, nor safe. The paper has 

 been published in the Medical and Surgical 

 Reporter, from which journal we select a few 

 of the objections brought by Dr. Lee against 

 the " health-lift." Exercise, according to Dr. 

 Lee, in order to produce beneficial effects, 

 must extend over a considerable length of 

 time each day, and must be so moderate in 

 its character that such continuance shall not 

 render it exhausting. But it is claimed as 

 the distinctive merit of the "health-lift" 

 that it accomplishes a maximum of exercise 

 in a minimum of time : " Ten minutes a day 

 only is required." That is, " ten minutes a 

 day" to fill the lungs up to their utmost 

 capacity with pure, fresh, oxygenated air, 

 so that every cell may do its duty. " Ten 

 minutes a day " to set in full activity the 

 thousand ducts of the sweat-glands, and to 

 carry off noxious matters out of the blood ; 

 to recreate the weary brain-cells ; to provoke 

 absorption of the effete materials lying out- 

 side of the vessels throughout all the vessels 

 of the body. In the next place, the first 

 requirement of rational exercise is to call 

 into play as far as possible all the muscles ; 



