574 



TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ness in spite of his violation of all the ac- 

 cepted rules of the trade. Latterly, he has 

 relaxed his rule, in consequence of repre- 

 sentations made to him from every side, 

 and allowed the trade a discount of from 

 ten to fifteen per cent ; so that now the 

 larger part of his business is done through 

 the shops. He also set his head against 

 advertising, and has consequently been boy- 

 cotted by the press, and made the victim of 

 a " complete conspiracy of silence " during 

 the last fifteen years. The " Times " is 

 glad to publish his stray letters now and 

 then, but ignores his books ; and the pro- 

 fessed literary journals " have not noticed 

 anything that one of the foremost literary 

 men of the time has written since 18'72. 

 The secret of Mr. Ruskin's success in spite 

 of his hostility is told by his publishing 

 agent : "In the long run a good article is 

 sure to fetch a good price. Mr. Ruskin is a 

 good writer, and the public has found out 

 the fact. As for my own part, I have simply 

 had to see that the ' get up ' was correspond- 

 ingly good." 



How to take a Turkish Bath. — Persons 

 who are timid about taking the Turkish 

 bath, or are afraid of exposing themselves 

 to extremes of temperature, may find se- 

 curity in observing a few simple rules. The 

 bather should first go to a room a little 

 above blood-heat, and remain there until the 

 surface of the body is moist and reddened. 

 If the skin does not begin to assume this 

 condition in about ten minutes, he should 

 have himself given a warm-water-and-towcl 

 rubbing. When perspiration has fairly be- 

 gun, and the skin is moist from head to 

 foot, the bather should have a little cold 

 water thrown upon the feet and legs, and 

 should afterward go into a room of some- 

 what higher temperature, where he should 

 lie or sit down, with his eyes closed, if that 

 is agreeable. But he should not remain in 

 any of the hot rooms longer than half an 

 hour, nor so long if the ventilation is im- 

 perfect or the air impure. He should be 

 " finished " with an affusion of slightly cold 

 water, and should exercise extreme caution 

 about taking the douche or plunge, which it 

 is always safe to omit. He may drink water, 

 soda-water, or lemonade in the bath, and a 

 small cup of coffee or tea in the cooling- 



room, where he should lie or sit down, 

 wrapped in towels, until the perspiration 

 has subsided ; but should not remain so 

 long as to become cold. He should after- 

 ward dry the skin briskly with a rough 

 towel, and dress quickly. A short, pleasant 

 walk, followed by a light meal with agree- 

 able conversation and cheerful surround- 

 ings, are desirable after the bath. 



Bonndabont Heating. — We often hear 

 of devices by which the application of force 

 is to be greatly simplified and cheapened ; 

 a favorite scheme of the present time is to 

 make the application in the shape of elec- 

 tricity. The projectors of such schemes 

 forget or do not know that the effect they 

 desire to produce must be obtained from 

 the consumption of force in some other form 

 equivalent to the power they will develop, 

 with a considerable excess that is destined 

 to go to waste. The real working of these 

 devices is illustrated by Professor W. M. 

 Williams in the case of a proposed foot- 

 warmer for railway-cars, which is to be heated 

 by applying the electric current to acetate 

 of soda. The foot-warmers of this substance 

 already in use are heated by immersing 

 them in hot water, when they m.ay be kept 

 warm for several hours. " Instead of such 

 direct heating, we are first to heat a boiler, 

 losing heat in the production of steam, los- 

 ing more in working the steam-engine, very 

 much more in the dynamo, and more again 

 in transmission. The cost of such electric 

 heating would be at least twenty times as 

 great as direct heating, not to mention cost 

 of apparatus." 



Oral and Text-Book Instrnction.— The 



difference between the oral and the so-called 

 text-book method has been defined by Dr. 

 William T. Harris in a paper on the 

 " Teaching of Natural Science in the Pub- 

 lic Schools," which is published in Bar- 

 deen's " School-Room Classics." In the oral 

 method the teacher is the general source of 

 information ; in the other, the pupil is sent 

 to the text-book. In neither is cramming 

 with mere words considered good teaching ; 

 and yet, with a poor teacher, it may happen 

 under either. The excellence of the oral 

 method should be its freedom from stiff- 

 ness and pedantry, and its drawing out of 



