484 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



When we survey the different kinds of water-provision among 

 the mosses, we are struck with the variety of ways of adaptation 

 that have been developed for the attainment of the same end. 

 In so small plants, the demands upon the efficiency of the water- 

 bearing apparatus are likewise quite small, and the choice among 

 them is only slightly limited. The larger the plant-forms become, 

 the greater the demands made upon the water-bearing system, the 

 more plainly appears the diversified efficiency of the adaptation 

 henceforth possible, till at last there remains to Nature a single 

 available model, which she applies with certain variations every- 

 where that large, stately plant-forms are produced. — Translated 

 for the Popular Scierice Monthly from Humboldt. 



♦«» 



INJURIOUS INFLUENCES OF CITY LIFE. 



Bt WALTEK B. PLATT, M. D., F. E. C. S. (Eng.). 



WE do not intend to discuss in this paper the subjects of bad 

 ventilation and impure air, imperfect drainage, damp cel- 

 lars, or insufficient nourishment. Residents of the country may 

 suffer from all these as well as dwellers in cities. There are, 

 however, certain injurious influences more insidious in their op- 

 eration, which are peculiar to cities, and affect the well-to-do as 

 well as the poor, although not in equal degree. I believe these 

 lead, sooner or later, to degeneration of the individual and his off- 

 spring, by producing progressive feebleness, and to ultimate ex- 

 tinction of such families as are long subjected to their force. I 

 refer to those which chiefly affect the stability of the nervous sys- 

 tem, rendering it less capable of sustained work, and, in a second- 

 ary way, only the circulation and general nutrition. The end- 

 result of all these influences is to lessen the producing power of 

 each man, and thus to depreciate his value as an economic factor. 

 They ought not to exist if their removal be possible, and if it can 

 be effected without greater expense than their ill effects warrant. 

 Their cause is to be found in faulty municipal arrangements 

 which can be largely corrected by intelligent action and super- 

 vision. They work by producing insomnia, aberrant forms of 

 mental action, singling out those who are less strong as subjects 

 of the so-called neurasthenia. 



These effects accumulate with each successive generation sub- 

 jected to their influence, until the final inheritor finds the load too 

 heavy to bear and do any useful work. The ne'er-do-wells and 

 idlers are often, not always, such, from actual inability for persist- 

 ent effort. Let us see if such influences exist, if they are injurious 



