134 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9 :5— May, 1913 



of the fact that his chances of escape from the hen house are 

 good, the more so if he is threatened with obhteration by means 

 of a revolver held in the hands of an excited woman by flickering 

 lantern light, amid squawking, flying hens. 



When captured the possum is usually in the "p^^-y dead" 

 stage. In this condition he is rolled more or less into a ball, head 

 pulled under, eyes half closed, mouth slightly open, rows of sharp, 

 white teeth much in evidence and the corners of the mouth are 

 pulled back into a grin. When touched his only response is to 

 widen the grin. As a rule when he isn't playing dead he is in a 

 state of strenuous activity, and he oscillates between these two 

 extremes. The majority of possums play dead readily, but I 

 remember one that would not play dead at all ; it was al- 

 ways in fighting spirit. When carrying one by the tail on the 

 hunts at night he sometimes indicates that he has come out of the 

 former stage by trying to gorge himself on his captor's leg. He 

 clings to brush as one goes along occasionally getting away and 

 disappearing at surprising speed for such short legs. 



The fur of the possum is a silvery gray in color, white short 

 hair underneath with longer black ones on the surface. But I 

 remember when a small boy of looking into the depths of a 

 barrel at an entirely white possum, with several young ones, that 

 was caught in the neighborhood. 



Hygiene as Nature Study 



VI — A Study of Tobacco. 



F. M. Gregg. 

 Peru (Neb.) State Normal. 



The subject upon which we venture a study this month is 

 one that presents many difficulties as a public school subject. 

 Perhaps chief among these is the risk that the teacher runs in 

 providing suggestion that may result in greater harm than good. 

 Then there is the impossibility of making a school-room study of 

 the physiological eflfects of the substance under consideration. 



Still again, the subject of the use of tobacco is one about 

 which so many extravagant things have been said on both sides 

 of the question, that it is difficult to select the middle ground of 

 truth upon which one feels that one can stand with confidence 

 and certainty. 



Upon one point however, all writers are agreed, namely, 

 that the use of tobacco by the young is undesirable and positive- 



