4 2 4 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



pans of some Edentata. Pp. 5. On the Gustatory 

 Organs of the Mammalia. Pp. 12. 



University Extension Movement in England. 

 Report. Philadelphia : Society for the Extension 

 of University Teaching. Pp. 32. 



White, Charles A. Geography and Physiography 

 of a Portion of Northwestern Colorado and Adjacent 

 1'arts of Utah and Wyoming. Washington : United 

 States Geological Survey. Pp. 38. 



POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



Intelligence in Plants. Mr. T. D. Inger- 

 soll, of Erie, Pa., describes, in Garden and 

 Forest, a Madeira vine which seemed to ex- 

 hibit intelligence in its growth. When it 

 had become eighteen inches high it began, 

 from top-heaviness, to fall away from the 

 pot, which stood upon a table, toward the 

 floor. " This was done gradually, and ap- 

 parently with conscious care. It seemed to 

 feel at times that it was letting itself down 

 too fast, when it would stop with a jerk, 

 like a nodding child half asleep." When 

 near the floor it began describing ellipses 

 about three inches in diameter with its up- 

 turned extremity. When twenty - seven 

 inches long it would describe a crescent- 

 shaped loop seventeen inches long by six 

 inches broad in about two hours. As it 

 grew longer, its revolutions were accom- 

 plished with less regularity, " and at times 

 it drooped as if weary or discouraged in try- 

 ing to find something upon which it might 

 entwine itself." On one day the track of 

 the tip of the vine was traced and measured, 

 and found to be six feet nine inches in 

 length. Finally, a support was provided for 

 the plant, and it shortly afterward " began 

 growing again as if it had recovered from 

 what had been for six days a condition near 

 the point of death." Another vine, during 

 several days of cloudy weather, uncoiled it- 

 self from the stick and reached away toward 

 the light at an angle with the horizon of 

 some forty-five degrees. It was brought 

 back to its support several times and coiled 

 about the stick, but invariably left it during 

 the continuance of the cloudy weather. Then 

 bright weather came on, and it showed no 

 disposition to escape from the stick or stop 

 its twining growth. Attempts to make 

 plants twine in a direction contrary to their 

 natural one were firmly resisted. " All the 

 experiments seemed to show how much like 

 an animal was the plant in its sensitiveness, 

 not only to changes of light and tempera- 



ture, but to harsh treatment. Whenever 

 restrained or forced, no matter how tender- 

 ly, out of its natural method of growth, all 

 progress was retarded and the health of the 

 vine disturbed to a marked degree. Plants 

 seem to be creatures of feeling, and the 

 similarity of movement and of apparent 

 purpose between them and the lower ani- 

 mals are used to strengthen their theory by 

 those who hold to the doctrine of the iden- 

 tity of life in the two kingdoms." 



Modern Views of Consumption. Two 



things are now believed to be necessary for 

 the production of consumption : the tubercle 

 bacillus and a disordered state of the body, 

 such as to favor its growth in other words, 

 seed and a fertile soil ; and if either is want- 

 ing, the disease is not produced. We Dever 

 know when we may take in the germs on our 

 food or in the air, hence we should see to it 

 that we do not give them a fertile soil. " It 

 is of primal consequence," says Dr. S. S. 

 Burt, in a paper recently published in the New 

 York Medical Record, " to elevate the tone 

 of the tissues and the fluids that bathe them 

 to a sanitary pitch, where they themselves 

 are the best of germicides. Bacteria do not 

 thrive upon such nourishment." While it is 

 almost certain that the disease itself is not 

 inherited, it is well established that a debased 

 quality of blood and tissue, in which the 

 germs of consumption find their proper food, 

 is transmitted from parent to child. If 

 both parents come from consumptive families 

 their children have little chance of escaping 

 the disease, but " a child with good blood for 

 a legacy, even from one parent," says Dr. 

 Burt, " has every reason to expect immunity 

 from the disease, if he is reared intelligently. 

 Such children must be properly clothed, very 

 carefully fed, and encouraged to spend the 

 greater part of their daily life in the open 

 air." 



Palm-wine. Palm-wine is largely used 

 as an alcoholic drink in India and other 

 parts of Asia, the islands of the Pacific 

 Ocean, Africa, and some parts of America. 

 Most trees of the palm tribe contain a sap 

 which is rich in supar and is readily con- 

 vertible into wine. This juice is collected 

 by making cuts in the spathe or under the 

 crown of leaves of the tree, and catching it 



