426 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



taincd from the most efficient form of at- 

 mospheric burners. Under the influence of 

 such temperatures it glows with a brilliant 

 incandescence, very white and steady. The 

 light emitted is, at a distance, hardly distin- 

 guishable from that of a twenty-candle in- 

 candescent lamp, while a yellower light may 

 be obtained by modifying the composition 

 of the impregnating liquid. A saving of 

 from fifty to seventy-five per cent of gas is 

 made with this light, and it is, moreover, 

 smokeless. 



The " Racket » of Society " The Spec- 

 tator," discussing the "wear and tear" or 

 " racket " of London society, observes that 

 " wear and tear " implies not regular and 

 natural use and tension of the powers, but 

 a dragging in opposite directions, "such as 

 is produced, for example, by the attempt 

 to combine intellectual effort with a per- 

 fectly inconsistent amount of social effort ; 

 to carry off grave anxieties with a display 

 of vivacity ; to unite an unconstrained man- 

 ner which implies a mind at ease with a 

 concentration of effort implying a mind al- 

 ways vigilantly preparing for its next step." 

 It means " the simultaneousness of a strain 

 which is comparatively easy in cases of 

 fully concentrated effort with that inter- 

 change of feeling which is natural only 

 when there is no prior claim on the atten- 

 tion ; the interference of social duties with 

 professional duties ; the making time for one 

 thing, when all the time there is is really 

 pre-engaged for another thing ; the squeez- 

 ing of gaycty out of a preoccupied mind, or 

 of severe but reluctant thought out of pre- 

 occupied feeling." This " tear " could be 

 easily avoided by taking the natural pre- 

 cautions. " For nothing is easier than for 

 the busy to claim and to insist on a certain 

 amount of seclusion sufficient for the pur- 

 poses of their work, if they would but rec- 

 ognize fairly that a great deal of what is 

 called amusement doubles and trebles the 

 tension of men's work." Regarding con- 

 versational intercourse with people, " A per- 

 son of any mind will get more out of two 

 or three conversations in a week or a month 

 with the right people than he could get out 

 of twenty or thirty." If people only real- 

 ized how little pleasure their company can 

 give when they are exhausted by the me- 



chanical friction of the " racket " of society, 

 they would, even from self-respect, forbear. 

 The best evidence that persistent society- 

 haunting is useless or mischievous is the re- 

 lief with which those are received who have 

 been long kept by any good reason out of 

 the vortex of society, and return to the 

 world with a little of the clearness of mind 

 and confidence of view which the social 

 racket saps and ultimately destroys. Social 

 stimulants do the same kind of mischief 

 that alcoholic stimulants do, though in a 

 different region ; and, " like an intoxicating 

 drink, the racket of society becomes most 

 indispensable to the very people whom it 

 most seriously injures." 



The Brocken and its Mist-Effects.— The 



Brocken is the culminating point of the 

 Harz Mountains, and in its general form 

 represents an oval slightly inclined from 

 northwest to southeast. Its highest eleva- 

 tion is 1,141 metres above the sea. In con' 

 sequence of its isolation in the midst of a 

 lowland region, it is immediately exposed 

 to the moist winds from the North Sea, and 

 presents some very remarkable meteoro- 

 logical phenomena. The mean annual tem- 

 perature at the top of the Brcckcn is about 

 36° C, and nearly the same as that of 

 Tromso in Norway, in 70° of latitude ; but 

 while Tromso enjoys a summer in which 

 potatoes and barley may be grown and 

 fruits will fully ripen, no efforts to cultivate 

 such plants on this range have succeeded. 

 dear days arc rare on the Brcckcn, and the 

 summit of the mountain is veiled by clouds 

 nearly every morning ; but the topmost peak 

 may often be seen above the vapors which 

 cover the slopes below ; and it is not rare 

 for the fogs to be so thick and so sharply 

 defined that a man of the ordinary stature 

 standing among them will have his head 

 above the vapor while the lower part of his 

 body is still densely involved. It is under 

 such conditions as these that the " specter 

 of the Brocken," a celebrated attraction to 

 travelers, may be seen at the rising and 

 setting of the sun, particularly in winter. 

 The spectators view their silhouettes pro- 

 jected, in exaggerated proportions, upon the 

 surface of the mist, which seems to rise 

 like nn immense curtain from out of the 

 clouds. Their heads appear to be surrounded 



