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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



names, as official and non-official. Those of 

 the latter class have only their name and sur- 

 name, unless they have acquired a nickname, 

 like Chang-dog's-eye, Wang the gimlet, etc. 

 Persons of the official class have three names : 

 the family name ; the official name, used only 

 officially; and the private name, used by 

 friends. On the death of an official person- 

 age, the emperor will, if he thinks best, 

 confer upon him a posthumous name. 



Improved Gas Heating Appliances. — A 



new gas heating appliance has been devised 

 by Mr. Thomas Fletcher, F. C. S., of War- 

 rington, England, who, in exhibiting it at 

 Liverpool, fused a large hole in a plate of 

 quartcr-inch-thick wrought-iron in a few sec- 

 ends, without preparation, and with appara- 

 tus which could be carried by a man up a 

 ladder and used in any position. There is, 

 therefore, no longer such a thing as a burg- 

 lar-proof safe, for with this invention it is 

 simply a question of minutes to fuse a hole 

 large enough for a man to enter in any 

 wrought-iron or steel door in existence. The 

 professional burglar is always ready to util- 

 ize the latest applications of science, and 

 may be expected to take this apparatus in 

 hand. In fact, Mr. Fletcher's furnaces, de- 

 signed to assist in chemical research, are used 

 by receivers of stolen goods to reduce plate 

 and jewelry to ingots. The form of this 

 blow-pipe which Mr. Fletcher exhibited was 

 noisy in action, but he stated that burglars 

 would probably succeed in making it silent. 

 A serious obstacle to their doing this, how- 

 ever, is that the machinery necessary for 

 producing the noiseless form is both costly 

 and large. The matter is one to which bank- 

 ers and safe-makers should give their atten- 

 tion. 



Forestry In Switzerland.— The present 

 forestry law of Switzerland was enacted in 

 1876, and is applied to the mountain districts 

 and the hills on the plains, covering about 

 60 per cent of the country, of which 15-8 

 per cent is forest-land. The rights of pri- 

 vate owners are not affected except where 

 their woods are "protecting" woods, or 

 might have an influence on the climate, ava- 

 lanches, land-slips, etc. All woods under 

 official supervision have to be deraarkated, 

 clearings planted afresh, and new forests 



created where necessary, the Government 

 bearing a just share of the expense. All 

 servitudes or easements in " protecting " 

 woods were to be redeemed in ten years, and 

 no new ones were allowed to be created. 

 Anything that might endanger the utility of 

 the forests was forbidden. Cattle were not 

 allowed to graze, and leaves could not be col- 

 lected, except in fixed spots. A two months' 

 course of education is prescribed to be given 

 to each student of forestry by the canton to 

 entitle it to the federal subsidy. It includes 

 forest surveying and measurement in detail ; 

 road -making, and safeguards against ava- 

 lanches ; study of the different kinds of tim- 

 ber and of noxious plants ; elementary knowl- 

 edge of soils and of their component parts ; 

 fundamental notions of the laws of climate 

 and meteorology ; cultivation and care of 

 forests ; and book-keeping and other general 

 branches of instruction valuable for under- 

 foresters. These provisions were put in op- 

 eration very slowly, waiting the compliance 

 of the cantons ; and even yet each canton pos- 

 sesses in a measure its own scheme of for- 

 estry organization. 



An Aged Spider. — In the summer of 188Y 

 an American tarantula died, which had been 

 in the possession of Mr. H. C. McCook over 

 five years, and which he estimates was at 

 least seven and perhaps eight years old. 

 This spider, which Mr. McCook had named 

 " Leidy," after Dr. Joseph Leidy, from whom 

 he had received it, thus attained the distinc- 

 tion of having reached the greatest age of 

 any spider known to science. The fragments 

 of a cast skin were found near the carcass 

 of the tarantula, indicating that it had died 

 shortly after molting. " Leidy " had shed its 

 skin several times during its confinement. 

 Mr. McCook has had best success in keeping 

 large spiders alive by feeding them a gener- 

 ous supply of living insects during the sum- 

 mer and early autumn, and withholding food 

 almost entirely during the remainder of the 

 year. Spiders require water quite as much 

 as other animals. They do not become tor- 

 pid in winter, if kept in a room heated to 

 a moderate temperature. " Leidy " kept a 

 rug-like web spread on the ground in the 

 box which it inhabited, and when this be- 

 came soiled, by earth or food debris, it was 

 soon overspread with a clean layer. In this 



