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♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Nov. 30, 1S33. 



' h -t and peppery A-ufhen ' I presume he glances at its 

 urticating properties, for there is no pungency in its taste." 



Dr. Johnston (" History of Brit Zoophytes," vol. i. 

 p. l'jG) asserts that sea anemones are so very sensible to 

 utiiiuspheric changes that they foretell the weather as 

 certainly as a barometer. 



^^'hen they remain naturally closed there is reason to 

 fear a storm, high winds, and a troubled sea ; but a fair 

 and calm season is to be anticipated when they lie relaxed 

 with spread out tentacula. The observations of Dioquemare 

 are the foundation for these conclusions, which are as 

 follows : — 



" My very earliest observation showed that the sea anemones 

 i'of'l and prognosticate, within doors, the different ciian2:es of teinpe- 

 r,^tu^e in the atmosphere. I had not leisure at that time to form 

 tables of their various indications, but I have since done it. This 

 fact, if applied to practice, might be of use in the formation of a sea 

 barometer — an object of no small importance, which several in- 

 genious men have hitherto endeavoured in vain to furni.sh us with. 



" If my anemones be at any time shut or contracted, I have reason 

 to apprehend an approaching storm — that is, high winds and an 

 iigitated sea. When they are all shut, but not remarkably con- 

 t ricted, they forebode a weather somewhat less boisterous, but still 

 attended with gales and a rough sea. If they appear in the least 

 open, or alternately and frequently opening and closing, they indicate 

 :i mean state of both winds and waves ; when they are quite open 

 I expect tolerably fine weather and a smooth sea ; and lastly, when 

 their bodies are considerably extended and their limbs divergent, 

 tiicy surely prognosticate fixed fair weather and a calm sea. There 

 are times when some are open and others shut. The number mast 

 tlienbe consulted — the question is decided by the majority. The 

 anemones used as barometers should not be fed, for then the 

 rpiautity of nourishment might influence their predictions " 



The E.ktinctiov of the M.\STODoy. — Professor John 

 Oollett's Geological Report of Indiana for the year 1880 

 .states that the mastodon was in e.xistence in North America 

 much more recently than is generally supposed. Thirty 

 individual specimens have been discovered in Indiana, 

 almost always in marshes, ponds, or other miry places, 

 indicating at once the cause of the death of the animal and 

 the preservation of the bones from decay. Spots of ground 

 in this condition are found at the summit of the glacial 

 drift or in old beds of rivers which have adopted a 

 .shorter route and lower level ; consequently, their date 

 does not reach beyond the most recent changes of the 

 earth's surface. A skeleton has been discovered in 

 e.Kcavating the bed of the canal a few miles north 

 of Covington, Fountain county, in wet peat. The teeth 

 are in go*d preservation, and it is stated that when the 

 larger bones were cut open the marrow, still preserved, 

 was utilised by the bog-cutters to grease their boots, and 

 that pieces of sperm-like substance, 2h in. to 3 in. in 

 diameter {adijioren^) occupied the place of the kidney fat 

 of the monster. During the summer of 18S0, an almost 

 complete skeleton of a mastodon was found six miles north- 

 west from Hoopston, Iroqouis county, Illinois, which prac- 

 tically settles the question not only that it was a recent 

 animal, but that it survived until the life and vegetation 

 of to-day prevailed. The tusks formed each a full quarter 

 of a circle, were 9 ft. long, 22 in. in circumference at the 

 base, and in their water-soaked condition, weighed 175 1b. 

 In the same bed of miry clay, a multitude of molluscs 

 was collected. These molluscs prevail all over the States 

 of Illinois and Indiana, and parts of Michiijan, and show 

 conclusively, says Professor Collett, that the animal and 

 vegetable life, and consequently climate, are the same 

 now as when this mastodon sank in his grave of mire and 

 clav. 



THE OCCUPATIONS OF THE PEOPLE 



IN ENGLAND AND WALES IN 1881. 

 (From the last Census.) 

 B V Percy Russell. 



BEARING in mind the many momentous problems 

 before us political, social, and industrial, the third 

 volume of the Census of England and Wales for 1881, 

 relating, inlm- alia, to the occnpations of the people, cer- 

 tainly possesses extraordinary interest, and necessarily 

 throws considerable light on what may be called the dis- 

 cipline of the nation. To properly examine such an 

 enormous mass of tabulated matter would be impractic- 

 able within reasonable limits of space ; but I propose to 

 extract a few salient results from these valuable returns, 

 and contrast them with those of the 1871 Census. 



It appears, then, that in 1881 the total population 

 was 12,039,902 males, and 1.3,.3.34,.^37 females, against 

 11,0.58,934 males and 11,0.5.3,332 in 1871. Taking the 

 six great groups into which the nation is here di%aded, we 

 find that whereas in 1871 the total population of 22,712,266 

 was divided thus : — Professional class, 681,102 (including 

 197,984 females) ; domestic class, .5,905,171 (including 

 .5,660,443 females) ; commercial class, 815,424 (including 

 57,237 females) ; agricultural class, 1,657,138 (including 

 186,696 females) ; industrial class, 5,137,725 (including 

 1,521,908 females) : and finally indefinite and non- 

 productive class, 8,512,706 (including 4,028,974 females). 

 The corre.sponding figures for 1881 are : — Profes- 

 sional class, 647,075 (including 196,120 females) ; 

 domestic class, 1,803,810 (including 1,545,302 females) ; 

 commercial class, 980,128 (including 19,467 females); 

 agricultural class, 1,383,184 (including 64,840 females); 

 industrial class, 6,373,367 (including 1,578,189 females); 

 and indefinite and non-productive classes, 14,786,875 (in- 

 cluding 9,930,619 females), and this with a total popu- 

 lation of 25,974,439. It will be seen that the "profes- 

 sional class " is considerably reduced in numbers, no doubt 

 owing to a very strict classification, although there is but 

 a small dift'erence in those of the females thus returned. 

 The domestic class has evidently been differently compiled, 

 wives and children beins; carried over to the sixth t-ible of 

 the present returns. The commercial class exhibits a 

 marked increase from 815,424 to 980,128, but as the 

 females are put at only 19,467, it may be supposed that 

 a more rigorous interpretation has been put on the 

 term than in 1871, when 57,237 females were returned 

 under that head. The agricultural cla.'-s, as everybody 

 anticipated, shows an enormous reduction from 1,657,138 

 in 1871 to 1,383,184 ; while the industrial class has ad- 

 vanced from 5,137,725 in the former period to 6,373,367 

 in 1881. The dift'erence in the returns under indefinite and 

 unproductive indicates a change of classification, being 

 8,512,706 in 1871, against 14,786,875 in 1881. This and 

 some other alterations, rendering precise comparative 

 analyses of the two groups of statistics diflScult and in- 

 tricate, scarcely enhance the value for popular exposition 

 of the new, and in other respects valuable and excellently- 

 arranged, records. 



Passing from the great classes to orders, it is note- 

 worthy that whereas in 1871 the Government of the 

 country absorbed the ser-s-ices of 106,286 persons, including 

 6,394 females, in 1881 the corresponding figures were 

 104,592, including 7,370 females, a reduction on the gross 

 total, but a significant increase in the number of females. 

 Defence in 1871 occupied 136,491 persons, against only 



