256 



. KNOWLEDGE • 



[Sept. 15, 1882. 



Dunkirk, with 37, ."2S, incroasp -2,647 : Boulogne, 44,842, 

 inoivas«» 4.767; Havre, 10.\8G7, increase l;?,799. The 

 naval stations have tlcclinod, showing a curtailment of 

 outlay— >-iz., Cherbourg, :?.'',G!)1, decrease 1,49"); Toulon, 

 70.103, decrease 40G iBrest, GO, 110, decrease 71^!. As a 

 ruie, the textile centres, sucli as Rouen, Lille, and Rouliaix, 

 show the most satisfactory rates of increase. 



A vF.RV large number of both men and women [among 

 the patients at Hanwell] are the victims of alcohol. One 

 poor woman, who, after being at Hanwell for several year.s, 

 was sent out, four years ago, perfectly cured, was back at 

 the institution within ten days, and her case is now con- 

 sidered liopeless. When discharged she went back to her 

 old trade of bookbinding, at the back of Fleet-street 

 Some of her old gin-drinking cronies enticed her into a 

 t.avem, and in less than a week she was a raging maniac. 

 This is an old storj-. Scores of both sexes are confined at 

 Hanwell whose lunacy is directly traceable to alcohol, but 

 these by no means represent the number of its victims. 

 Dr. Ric'hards's estimate is that the lunacy of a full half of 

 all his patients is the result of hereditary taint, and that a 

 very considerable percentage of this may be credited to 

 intoxicated parents. — Weekly Tinws. 



Sea Bibds.— In a letter to the Timei, " Fenime du 

 Monde" says: — Sir, — I beg of you to continue the cam- 

 paign so well commenced in favour of the sea birds. The 

 bcautv they lend to the coast should alone suffice to protect 

 them,' without counting the value your correspondent justly 

 claims for them as aids to the fishei-s and to the seamen. 

 As it is quite certain that even good shots wo\ind nineteen 

 of these gulls to one that they kill, and lose very often even 

 the rare few they do kill, it would lie a million times better 

 for all sea birds to be protected through all seasons. As it 

 is for any birds the August days are far too early for the 

 close-time to cease. Ajiropos, I cannot forbear from urging 

 at this moment upon all -women the necessity of setting 

 their faces against the employment of birds in costumes and 

 in lx)nnets. I am myself accused of being too devoted to 

 the art of dress, and I go to the great Paris couluricres and 

 mo'Iigtts, to whom one cannot, as a rule, dictate. But I 

 make it at all times clearly understood, even by these, that 

 I will not have birds put upon anything that I wear, and, 

 of course, none are ever sent to me. It would be so easy 

 for all women of tlie world to do the same, and the use of 

 bird* in costumes would then be left to the vulgar, who 

 would in turn abandon it I see in reports from America 

 and Africa that those exquisite creatures, the liumming- 

 birds, are rapidly becomings© scarce from the millions that 

 are caught and killed, that their total extinction is to be 

 dreaded. Yet, despite this grievous fact, one continues to 

 srp cr.=tumes trimmed with whole fringes of these fairy- 

 '.\\:- ■ l-ildren of the sun. It is in these things that women, 

 • ; . '.-.■ women of fiosition, can do so much if they will 

 •:'.<tand exert themsfrlves. The rougli potting the 



..i.Mil Btrirrn swallow or the ocean gull, and the great 

 ■ ' firing fringes of humming-birds are at the extremes 

 ' ! ti ■ -ocial scale ; but they are on one level in coarseness 

 01 111. re and cruelty of act 



The STixoiNC-TnEE. — The "stinging-tree" of Queens- 

 land, Australia, is a luxurious shrub, jileasing to the eye, 

 )>ut dangerous to the tcuclt It grows from two or three 

 irichf'i! to ten or fift*>en feet in lieight, and emits a dis- 

 -ii'T' > .■.'.1<- odour. Hays a traveller : " Sometimes, while 

 -' "•:,;: turkeys in the thnjlffi, I have entirely forgotten 

 •; ■ ••.;i ^'ing-trtc till 1 was warned of its close proximity 



by its smell, and have often found myself in a little forest 

 of them. I was only once stung, and that very lightly. Its 

 eflV'cts are curious. It leaves no mark, but the pain is 

 maddening, and for months afterwards the part, when 

 touched, is tender in rainy weather, or when it gets wet 

 in washing, iVc. I have seen a man who treats ordinary 

 pain lightly, roll on the ground in agony after being stung, 

 and I have known a liorse so completely mad after getting 

 into a grove of the trees, that he rushed open-mouthed at 

 every one who approached him, and had to be shot. Dogs, 

 when stung, will rush about whining pitcously, biting pieces 

 from the ati'ected part." 



How TO See the Attitudes of Animals i\ Motion. 

 — A correspondent of the Scientijic American writes as 

 follows : — While experimenting in photography, 1 devised 

 a kind of quick moving shutter, which I could operate 

 with my fingers by mo\ing a lever outside the tube. It 

 occurred to me to look at aninials in motion by merely 

 putting the tube to my eye without any lens and operate 

 the shutter. Immediately I had before mc a series of 

 in.stantaneous views without the costly appliances, and at 

 will I could verify tlie strange attitudes set before us by 

 the photographs of Muybridge. One who has not tried it 

 will be surprised and pleased at the perfection and instan, 

 taneous character of the sights he will get of a moving 

 object It takes but a very short "exposure" to make 

 the picture on our eye complete. The moving object is 

 catight and shown to us just as it happens for the instant 

 to be. Any device for opening the field of view quickly 

 will answer, and in this way artists and scientific men con 

 study the curious attitudes which any animal presents, and 

 may reconsider, as Muybridge and others are doing, tho 

 conventional methods of representing a moving animal. 



Benzine will answer much better to exterminate roaches, 

 moths, itc, than anything else. It will not hurt furniture 

 in the least, and can easily be applied. 



i 



Improved Rui.rk. — Mr. George L. Knox, Secretary of 

 Col well Lead Company, f)3, Center-street, New York, has re- 

 cently patented a ruler, by which the ink that may pass from 

 the pen to the ruler is absorbed and eflectually prevented 

 from running down upon the paper to be ruled. This is 

 an ordinary ruler having in one of its edges a deep groove 

 extending its entire length, and in this groove is placed a 

 folded plate of slieet metal. In the recess of the folded 

 metal plate a strip of blotting paper or other absorbing 



material is placed, the outer edge of whi. h reaches to near 

 the outer edge of the ruler, as shown in the annexed en- 

 graving. The metal of the folded jilate has some elas- 

 ticity, 80 that whei) removed from the groove the sides will 

 open slightly to receive the absorbing strip, and when 

 placed in tlie groove it acts as a spring against tho walls 

 for holding itself securely in place. The metal plato may 

 be removed at pleasure for renewing the absorbing strip 

 and for adjusting its edge at a proper distance from the 

 edge of the ruler. 



