POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



717 



to him. In China the population lives al- 

 most entirely on vegetables. Opium-smok- 

 ing slows the processes of digestion, and, 

 in fact, has the same effect as long intes- 

 tines, and consequently is highly beneficial." 

 Again, the Chinese live in low, undraincd 

 grounds, and are consequently liable to at- 

 tacks of fever and ague. Under similar cir- 

 cumstances the lowlanders of Lincolnshire 

 took to laudanum ; the Chinese take opium 

 in another form. Residents in China are 

 struck with the comparative freedom of the 

 people from pulmonary diseases. " That 

 this immunity is not due to chmatic influ- 

 ences is clearly proved by the fact that Euro- 

 peans and Americans are not more free from 

 the scourge in China than they are in their 

 own countries." Morphia is an anaesthetic, 

 and rarefied as smoke probably an antiseptic. 

 " In this form it would tend to arrest the sup- 

 puration of the lungs that takes place in 

 consumption," 



Oscillations of Alpine Glaciers. — About 

 thirty years ago, according to Herr von E. 

 Richter, the glaciers of the Alps began a 

 precipitate retreat. In 1870 the ti-aveler 

 often found a stone-strewn plain or an un- 

 dulating slope of polibhed rock where ten 

 years before he had scrambled over crevassed 

 ice. About five years later, a slight, tran- 

 sitory forward movement was perceptible, 

 while now the indications of an advance are 

 becoming more marked. Similar changes, 

 at earlier dates, are on record, and their his- 

 tory has been studied by Prof. Forel, Ilerr 

 von Richter, and others. The historical 

 period of the oscillations of the glaciers ex- 

 tends back about three centuries, while prior 

 to this the notices are too sparse and vague 

 to be of any real use. In this period eight 

 marked epochs of glacier growth are on rec- 

 ord. The first began in 1592, and the last, ex- 

 cluding the slight one of 1875, in 1835. Each 

 was followed by a period of diminution. 

 The intervals between the epochs vary from 

 twenty to forty-seven years. The observa- 

 tions are not numerous enough to give trust- 

 worthy indication of a law, but are supposed 

 to hint at one. The changes are connected 

 with climatic variations, but effects are pro- 

 duced more quickly than is generally sup- 

 posed. In the present century the curves 

 representing the oscillations of the glacier 



and those of the annual temperature nearly 

 correspond. Some traditions assert that in 

 the middle ages the glaciers had almost 

 melted away from many parts of the Alps, 

 and passes were then crossed by women and 

 children which are now left to experienced 

 mountaineers. Their evidence relates to the 

 cultivation of vines, cereals, etc., in locali- 

 ties where they are no longer grown, and to 

 the former use of passes which are now 

 practically closed. To the former evidence, 

 as Herr Richter shows, little weight can be 

 given. Man and Nature are in constant con- 

 flict in the Alps, and the position of the 

 frontier line between their territories is de- 

 termined by the convenience of the former. 

 If a particular form of cultivation ceases to 

 be remunerative all the advanced posts are 

 abandoned. Herr Richter, likewise, does not 

 give much force to evidence based on the 

 disuse of passes. This is more than likely 

 to have been brought about by the discov- 

 ery of better ways or the making of new 

 roads. In short, says the Saturday Review, 

 under this author's treatment, " the tradi- 

 tions, not the glaciers, become unsubstantial, 

 and the warm epoch in the mediseval history 

 of the Alps goes the way of many other 

 legends." 



Origin of tlie Colors of Flowers. — Any 



one, says Mr. E. Williams Hervey, in Garden 

 and Forest, can solve the problem as to the 

 primitive color of flowers by a study of the 

 native wild plants growing by the roadside 

 or in the fields and woods. Two methods, 

 he says, are employed by Nature in the de- 

 velopment of colors, one of which he calls 

 the imperfect or foliar development, and the 

 other the normal floral process. In the 

 former, the colors are apparently evolved 

 directly from the green chlorophyl, as the 

 reds, purples, and yellows of autumn leaves ; 

 for from some green-colored flowers a rather 

 limited number of dull reds, purples, and 

 yellows are produced. The reds and reddish 

 purples are, however, rare, and appear mostly 

 on the scales of involucres, where they are 

 common, on the spathes of several of the 

 Aracece, in Salicornia of the salt marshes, 

 which turns red in the fall, and in the castor- 

 oil plant of gardens, which turns a reddish 

 purple in all its parts. The author does not 

 find a satisfactory example of yellow evolved 



