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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



ests is not to be classed with the stories 

 wliich tliiew a strange glamour about 

 those inaccessible regions in the early 

 dajs of the discovery. There were many 

 of these, for I am speaking of the part 

 of the map where was located the El 

 Dorado, the golden city of Manoa, the 

 home of the warlike Amazons; where 

 dwelt the men with tails and the myste- 

 rious Oyacotdets, warriors with white 

 skin, blue eyes, and long, blond beards. 

 All have vanished from history but the 

 pygmies, and their turn will probably 

 soon come." 



Relief and Pension Funds of 

 Railroad Men. — In instituting a pen- 

 sion fund for the men in its employ the 

 Pennsylvania Railroad established, in 

 addition and supplementary to the re- 

 lief fund of which they enjoy the privi- 

 lege, a special fund for those who are 

 retired or superannuated, which is ad- 

 justed according to their length of serv- 

 ice and the pay they have been receiv- 

 ing. The relief fund afl'ords every man 

 employed an opportunity to provide for 

 himself in case of sickness or disability. 

 It is co-operative, and is supported joint- 

 ly by the employed men, its members, 

 and the company, the expenses of opera- 

 tion and the deficiencies in it being met 

 by the company. The additional pension 

 is the company's own undertaking. Be- 

 sides the manifestly humane purpose of 

 this arrangement — to care for the present 

 and future interests of its men — it prom- 

 ises to work to increase and improve the 

 effectiveness of the company's service. 

 Its tendency will be to give the men 

 greater heart in their work, and to cause 

 them to identify themselves more fully 

 with it. Decent provision being made 

 for the retirement of old hands, the serv- 

 ice can be kept manned by a younger 

 and more robust class. The new fund 

 will effect the entire force on the lines of 

 the Pennsylvania system east of Pitts- 

 burg and Erie, extending over a track- 

 age of more than forty-one hundred 

 miles. 



The Broom as a Spreader of Dis- 

 ease. — Dust being now generally recog- 

 nized as one of the most edicient ve- 

 hicles of the germs of disease, Dr. Max 

 Girsdansky finds the broom to be one 

 of the most active agents in sending 

 them into air, where it is dilTu.sed by 



whatever breezes may be blowing there. 

 The housewife digs the dust out of her 

 carpets and stirs it out of the quiet 

 corners where it has accumulated, wear- 

 ing an old dress and covering her head 

 while she leaves her lungs exposed, then 

 shakes her rugs in the yard, and the 

 street sweeper transfers the dust he has 

 charge of from the pavement to the at- 

 mosphere, where we can breathe our 

 lill of consumption from day to day. 

 Therefore, the author holds, the broom, 

 " far from serving any hygienic pur- 

 pose, is the cause of the maintenance of 

 organic dust in the atmosphere of the 

 large cities of the world, and as such is 

 the most important cause of the exist- 

 ence and spread of txiberculosis." Fur- 

 ther, the carpet is pronounced " an un- 

 hygienic article, serving as a fine breed- 

 ing ground for vegetable parasites, 

 necessitating the use of the broom and 

 the duster, and thereby becoming a rea- 

 son for the existence of organic dust." 

 As the only proper and safe way of 

 procuring the cleanliness of the floors 

 and streets of our large cities. Dr. Girs- 

 dansky advises the free use of water in 

 the shape of showers, or with sprinkling 

 wagons, hoes, mops, etc., and that all 

 floors and floor coverings of the house 

 and the street be so constructed as to 

 facilitate the free use of water in these 

 Nsays. 



Alkali Soils in Montana. — Mr. F. 



VV. Traphagen, of the Montana Agricul- 

 tural Experiment Station, ascribes the 

 origin of the alkali soil in the arid re- 

 gions to the failure of the elements to 

 remove the soda salts set free on the 

 disintegration of the rocks, which in 

 humid regions are taken up and washed 

 away by the rains. The soluble salts 

 are dissolved by the water that falls on 

 the surface, and are carried down when 

 it soaks through the ground, to form an 

 element in the ground water. They re- 

 turn thence to the soil when water is 

 brought up by capillary action to 

 supply the place of that lost by sur- 

 face evaporation, and accumulate there. 

 Then, as the water evaporates they are 

 left on the surface, forming, when in 

 sudicient quantity, the white crusts 

 seen in badly alkalied places. The most 

 efTective remedy for alkali might prob- 

 ably be Jound in undordrainage, which 

 would prevent the ground water rising 



