i2o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ing the winter lie rides every day many miles in the country 

 around Baltimore, and sits his horse like a Centaur. He especially 

 enjoys a fox-hunt of the old-fashioned sort, for which Maryland 

 has been famous for a century, the first requisite of which is such 

 perfect horsemanship that seven- rail fences and deep ditches are 

 not considered obstacles to the chase. A " paper chase " he would 

 probably regard with as much contempt as he does the pamphlets 

 in his " crank library," a collection of so-called scientific papers 

 written by people who know nothing of science. He intends to 

 deliver a lecture soon on the contents of this " crank library." 



His vacation is usually spent in his native New England. He 

 cruises along the coast in a small yacht of his own design, in 

 whose seagoing capacity he has great confidence. It is said by 

 some of his students, who assume to know more of nautical sci- 

 ence than of physics, that this yacht does not " ride the waves " 

 properly, and that some day they expect to hear that their teacher 

 has been drowned in a rough sea off the Atlantic coast. These 

 critics are not aware of the fact that during his boyhood a 

 part of Prof. Rowland's vacations were spent in New York city, 

 and that his favorite pastime was rowing or sailing his own boat 

 in New York harbor. A glance at the shipping in that port, 

 with steamships and sailing vessels coming from and going to all 

 parts of the world, with ferryboats constantly passing from pier 

 to pier, and the shrill whistle of the omnipresent tugboat con- 

 stantly rising above the roar of commerce, ought to convince the 

 most skeptical that even as a boy he was a seaman who knew his 

 business. 



This sketch of Prof. Rowland's life should be read with pride 

 and interest by every one of his fellow-citizens. It should en- 

 courage every ambitious and gifted American youth to persevere 

 in an effort to overcome obstacles which prejudice and ignorance 

 often interpose to obstruct the career of those who are born with 

 mental powers too great to be trammeled by ancient traditions or 

 to be made pliant to an uncongenial routine. 



The thumb is regarded by Mr. B. Whitehead as one of the most impor- 

 tant factors of civilization. Without it, or with only a rudimentary and 

 imperfect thumb such as the monkeys have, men could never have made 

 or used arms of offense or defense, and would never have been able to 

 exercise a number of industrial arts by means of which they have improved 

 the conditions of their existence. No monkey can throw a harpoon or 

 draw an arrow with any precision, turn a spindle or twist a cord. This 

 importance of the thumb has been observed by primitive peoples. Sir John 

 Lubbock mentions savages in Australia and Africa who are accustomed to 

 cut off the thumbs of dead enemies to disable them from making reprisals 

 upon them. 



