572 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



being at the same time admitted. The met- 

 al begins to elongate gradually by gravity, 

 and its fall is regulated. When it has attained 

 the required length, the bloom is inclosed 

 within the two halves of the mold, and the 

 bottom of the mold is also placed in posi- 

 tion. At the same moment the air is fully 

 turned on, and the bottle is blown out to the 

 full shape of the mold. The result is a com- 

 plete bottle of the same thickness of glass 

 throughout, and of perfect form and accu- 

 racy in every part. A pair of these ma- 

 chines, with one youth and three boys to 

 serve them, are competent to turn out an 

 average of one hundred and twenty bottles 

 per minute per machine. The capacity of 

 the system is greatly increased in the repeat- 

 ing-machine, which is quadrupled, and oper- 

 ates in a continuous cycle, as follows : while 

 the first bottle is being automatically dis- 

 charged, the second bottle is being finished, 

 the third one is being punched, and the 

 fourth is being cast — that is, the metal is be- 

 ing filled into the mold by the "gatherer," 

 or server of molten metal. 



Do Squirrels play 'Possnm % — In a paper 

 on the intelligence of squirrels, with special 

 reference to feigning, communicated to the 

 Royal Society of Canada, Dr. T. Wesley 

 Mills gives two cases of the behavior called 

 feigning, by chickarees or red squirrels, and 

 then proceeds to discuss several views ad- 

 vanced in explanation of this habit. Feign- 

 ing death has been observed in many differ- 

 ent genera of insects, in snakes, fishes, nu- 

 merous birds, crustaceans, and several mam- 

 mals. In the case of insects, Preyer would 

 ascribe the so-called shamming death wholly 

 to cataplexy (hypnotism), which Dr. Mills 

 deems highly probable. Couch would ex- 

 plain certain behavior of wolves, foxes, and 

 some other animals, usually set down to de- 

 liberate feigning, also by an effect analogous 

 to cataplexy. He thinks their senses are 

 stupefied by surprise, terror, etc., so that they 

 are unable to escape. Dr. Clarke adds to 

 this explanation the idea that the quiet of 

 animals when restrained, in many cases is 

 due to an intelligent perception that struggle 

 is useless. Dr. Mills is convinced that Ro- 

 manes in discussing this subject has import- 

 ed difficulties into it which are not in the 

 nature of the case present. First, is it at all 



essential to " feigning " either death or in- 

 jury that an animal should have, as Romanes 

 supposes, the abstract idea of death at all ? 

 It is to be remembered that in these cases 

 the animal simply remains as quiet and as 

 passive as possible, which is in accord with 

 all an animal's experiences as to escape from 

 danger by any form of concealment. A 

 great part of the whole difficulty has proba- 

 bly arisen from the use of the expression 

 " feigning death." What is assumed is in- 

 activity and passivity, more or less complete. 

 This, of course, bears a certain degree of 

 resemblance to death itself. In regard to 

 the behavior of his red squirrels, Dr. Mills is 

 inclined to think that " by inherited instinct, 

 as well as by all those life experiences which 

 had taught them that quiet and concealment 

 of their usual activities were associated with 

 escape from threatened evils, these little 

 animals were naturally led, under the un- 

 wonted circumstances of their confinement, 

 to disguise in an extraordinary degree their 

 real condition, and even to imitate an unu- 

 sual and unreal one." He has reason to be- 

 lieve also that the hypnotic element may play 

 a part in the apparent feigning of death by 

 squirrels. " It thus becomes manifest," he 

 continues, " how varied and also how complex 

 these cases of so-called feigning may be. 

 The subject is all the more interesting, be- 

 cause it shows that there is much that is 

 common in the psychic life of human beings 

 and that of the lower animals. It places 

 the study of their habits and intelligence on 

 a higher plane, and furnishes new motives 

 for extending our inquiries and attempting 

 to give unity to our conception of nature in 

 this as in other domains." 



The Bronze Buddha of Kara.— The old 

 bronze images in Japan are remarkable alike 

 for their enormous proportions, the method 

 of their construction, and the excellent char- 

 acter of the alloy composing them. The 

 largest and most remarkable of them is at 

 Nara, some miles eastward of Kioto, which 

 was erected about a. d. 1100. It is fifty- 

 three feet six inches high and more than 

 twenty-eight feet broad across the shoul- 

 ders. On its head are 966 curls ; and the 

 image is surrounded by a glory or halo sev- 

 enty-eight feet in diameter, on which sixteen 

 images, each eight feet long, are cast. Two 



