152 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [Hos 



Emblems of the Horrible very Arbitrarily Chosen. 



Painters always represent their imps as upborne by bats' 

 wings, furnished with several supplementary hooks ; and 

 sculptors follow the same principle. In consequence, all bats 

 and objects connected with bats are viewed with great 

 horror. It is said that the African negroes depict and describe 

 their evil spirits as white ; and that, in consequence, the negro 

 children fly in consternation if perchance a white man comes 

 into their territory. Yet the white man is not so horrid an 

 object after all if one only dare look at him; and the same 

 remark holds good with the bats. o. o. 



A Test for Hospitality. 



If the two hands be plunged, one in water at the tempera- 

 ture of 200, and the other in snow, and being held there for 

 a certain time are transferred to water of the intermediate tem- 

 perature of 1 00, this water will appear warm to one hand and 

 cold to the other warm to the hand which has been plugged 

 in the snow, and cold to the hand which has been plunged in 

 the water at 200. The anomaly is easily explained. The 

 sensation of heat is relative. When the body has been exposed 

 to a high temperature, a medium which has a lower tempera- 

 ture will feel cold, and when it has been exposed to a low 

 temperature, it will feel warm. Now this fact will suggest, by 

 analogy, a way for testing hospitality. It is not uncommon to 

 hear a man speak about " the warmth " of somebody's hospi- 

 tality. Perhaps that same " warmth " seemed very much like 

 coldness to us. How are we to explain the difference in the 

 sensations of our friend and ourselves ? Simply by remember- 

 ing that hospitality, like heat, is a relative thing. A man who 

 has just come out of the cold house of Mrs. Niggard will feel 

 the tepid house of Mrs. Moderate to be quite a warm, hospi- 

 table place. On the other hand, a man who goes to Mrs. 

 Moderate's house after a prolonged stay at the genial mansion 

 of the generous Lady Bountiful, will feel that establishment to 

 be rather chilly in its hospitality. When your friend talks of 

 " warm " hospitality, you cannot accurately gauge his meaning 



