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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



teresting periodicity, as it brings into 

 the arena a new race of fighting young 

 men. So it seems that for each fresh 

 generation of our j'outh the temple gates 

 of Janus have to be opened, that the 

 furies there confined may rush fortli 

 and devastate the earth. It looks al- 

 most like the operation of a natural 

 law." General Barnes's theory of the 

 origin of the war that the United States 

 is still engaged in is the simple one that 

 we were " spoiling for a fight." 



Expert Opinions respecting Food 

 Preservatives. — At a recent hearing 

 before an English Ollicial Committee on 

 Preservatives and Coloring Matters in 

 Food, the representative of an eminent 

 firm of preservers said that preserva- 

 tives were not very generally used with 

 fruits and jams. His firm regarded 

 them as quite unnecessary, but he 

 would not say they ought to be prohib- 

 ited if used in moderate quantity. Be- 

 sides coloring matter in vegetables, the 

 only article used by his firm for color- 

 ing was an extract of cochineal. Mr. 

 John Tubb 'J'hornas, a medical officer, 

 told of cliildren who were injured by 

 milk containing boracic acid, and said 

 that in his experiments upon himself 

 about fifteen grains of that substance a 

 day had upset his digestive organs and 

 produced sickness, Avith diarrhoea and 

 headache. The use of the acid, he said, 

 should certainly be prohibited in new 

 milk, which was so largely the food of 

 invalids and infants. Dr. W. H. Cor- 

 field said he had found salicylic acid in 

 the lighter wines and beers. It was 

 a slightly acrid, irritating substance, 

 wliich was used externally for the re- 

 moval of corns and warts, and was a 

 most undesirable article to put in food. 

 Mr. Walter CoUingwood Williams, a 

 public analyst, had found salicylic acid 

 in a number of temperance, non-alco- 

 holic drinks. Dr. Kaye, a medical offi- 

 cer of health, showed that the number 

 of infant deaths was increasing, while 

 the general death rate was decreasing, 

 and attributed the fact, partly at least, 

 to the growing and excessive use of 

 preservatives. 



Pawnshops in Germany. — Between 

 half a dozen and a dozen of the state 

 pawnshops which were common in Ger- 

 many in the seventeenth and eighteentli 



centuries still exist. The United States 

 vice-consul at Cologne has given a con- 

 siderable list of municipal pawnshops in 

 the more important cities of all parts 

 of Germany. On the whole, the num- 

 ber of these institutions is larger in Ger- 

 many than in France, but smaller than 

 in Belgium, Holland, and Italy. The 

 business of pawnshops appears, at least 

 more recently, to depend less upon gen- 

 eral economic than on special, local 

 causes. The German law has usually 

 required private persons doing a pawn- 

 broking business to take out special 

 licenses, and has exercised a more or 

 less strict supervision over them. The 

 supervision practically lacked efficiency, 

 and more stringent regulations were im- 

 posed by a statute enacted in 187J), 

 which is now the basis of the existing 

 law of the German Empire. Under this 

 law license is refused to persons who 

 are unfitted for the business, and is not 

 issued at any rate unless a necessity is 

 shown for the institution. The imperial 

 law is supplemented by special laws of 

 the various German states. 



Animals of the Ocean Depths. — • 

 \Vhile plant life in the ocean is limited 

 to shallow waters. Sir John Murray 

 says fishes and members of all the in- 

 vertebrate groups are distributed over 

 the floor of the ocean at all depths. The 

 majority of these deep-sea animals live 

 by eating the mud, clay, or ooze, or by 

 catching the minute particles of organic 

 inatter which fall from the surface. It 

 is probably not far from the truth to 

 say that three fourths of the deposits 

 now covering the floor of the ocean have 

 passed through the alimentary canals 

 of marine animals. These mud-eating 

 species, many of which are of gigantic 

 size when compared with their allies 

 living in the shallow coastal waters, 

 become in turn the prey of numerous 

 rapacious animals armed with peculiar 

 prehensile and tactile organs. Many 

 deep-sea animals present archaic charac- 

 ters; still, the deep sea can not be said 

 to contain more remnants of fauna 

 which flourished in remote geological pe- 

 riods than the shallow and fresh waters 

 of the continents. 



The Site of Ophir. — Dr. Carl Pe- 

 ters, an African explorer recently re- 

 turned to London, believes that he has 



