POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



573 



short, and two exceeding it, while a vast ma- 

 jority came within a few hundred of it. It 

 was 2,551. Many terminated their guesses 

 with the figure 7 ; then 3, then 9 came in 

 the order of preference. Odd numbers oc- 

 curred three fourths of the time; and the 

 number of the year was frequently chosen. 



Electric Tractive Adiiesion. — Mr. Elias 

 E. Rics exhibited, in the American Associa- 

 tion, his method of using the electric cur- 

 rent for increasing the tractive adhesion of 

 railway-motors and other rolling contacts. 

 The electric conductors are connected with 

 the driving-wheels of the motor-car by means 

 of contact-brushes in such a manner that the 

 rails situated between two pairs of wheels 

 complete the electric circuit. This circuit 

 moves along with the motor-car, which also 

 carries the source of current, and the amount 

 of current flowing through the circuit is di- 

 rectly under the control of the driver. The 

 track-rails in front and rear of the car are 

 at all times free from current which is con- 

 fined to that part of the track between the 

 driving-wheels. The author claims that the 

 tractive force can be increased by this sys- 

 tem nearly two hundred per cent, and the 

 motor can be made capable of propelling 

 itself with ease up a forty-per-cent grade. 



Origin of Bright's Disease.— The cause 

 of Bright's disease, according to Dr. J. 

 Milner Fothergill, is a tendency of the sys- 

 tem to revert to the excretion of solid uric 

 acid, after the manner of the cold-blooded 

 animals and birds, instead of the soluble 

 urea, which is the characteristic excretion of 

 the higher animals. When the uric-acid 

 formation is established, the substance is 

 cither gradually deposited in the body — in 

 the articular cartilages by preference — or is 

 cast out by the kidneys, with irritation of 

 those organs. With this effect are often 

 associated " insufficient " liver and migrain- 

 ous neurotic affections which are growing 

 more common among town populations. 

 " With an insufficient liver, a meat dietary, 

 and insufficient oxidation, the town dweller 

 is the subject, more than all others, of the 

 uric-acid formation, with all its varied con- 

 sequences. . . . The effect of town life is to 

 produce a distinct retrogression to a smaller, 

 darker, precocious race of less potentialities 



than the rustic population. Precocity is 

 seen in early puberty, but reproduction is 

 impaired. . . . The rctrocedent race per- 

 ishes either by sterility in the females, or 

 their sparse progeny succumb to the dis- 

 eases of childhood. . . . This rctrocedent 

 race are the possessors of congenitally in- 

 sufficient livers, and as a consequence are 

 the victims of the uric-acid formation." 

 And Bright's disease is especially their 

 disease. 



Plants with Insect-gnards. — W. J. Beale 



and C. E. St. John presented, in the Amer- 

 ican Association, a study of the hairs in 

 Silphium perfoliatum and Depsocus lacinotus 

 in relation to insects. The upper surface 

 of the leaf in these plants, near the apex, 

 is thickly set with small hairs, all of which 

 point toward the tip. Similar hairs were 

 found all along the mid-veins, side-veins, 

 and veinlets of the upper surfaces of the leaf. 

 The cavities formed by the perfoliate leaves 

 are very small and hold but little water. 

 They are very full after any rain or heavy 

 dew. These cups do not seem to serve any 

 purpose as insect-catchers, as only a few 

 insects were caught during two weeks in 

 which the plants were watched, and they 

 could afford but little nutrition. It seems 

 more probable to the authors that the object 

 of the cups with their water is to protect 

 the plant from crawling insects, and this is 

 done most effectually. 



His own Pnblislier. — Mr. Ruskin has 

 adopted a plan of his own for producing his 

 books. lie is his own publisher, having 

 simply an agent to attend to the business, 

 who works for a commission, and charges 

 fixed prices for books sold, to all buyers 

 alike. His " Establishment " is, as the 

 angry booksellers once contemptuously as- 

 serted, " in the middle of a country field " — 

 that is, in a retired country house, " Sunny- 

 side," at Orpington. At first, he would al- 

 low of no discount or abatement to the trade, 

 but charged them the same as private pur- 

 chasers, expecting them to add their profit 

 openly. This set the booksellers against 

 him, and they refused to handle his works. 

 The public, nevertheless, found him out, 

 came to him and bought his books, and he 

 enjoyed a good income and a growing busi- 



