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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



mental phenomena; and "there is scarcely 

 any doubt but that our determinations meas- 

 ure at once the rate of change in the brain 

 and of change in consciousness." There is 

 also a general interest in the study. " Time, 

 like size, is relative. The time-sense, in- 

 volving the time-relations of perceptions and 

 our power of estimating intervals of time, is 

 to a considerable extent a physiological fact 

 due to inertia in the sense-organ. Stimuli 

 must be separated by a certain interval of 

 time in order that they may be recognized as 

 distinct. The experiments under this head 

 relate to the measurement of these intervals. 

 The experiments in attention, memory, and 

 the association of ideas are varied, and 

 cover some matters included under the 

 other heads. The highest degree of com- 

 plexity and the lowest degree of intensity 

 and interest which our consciousness can 

 grasp ; the number of things — lines, letters, 

 etc. ; the relative visibility of colors and 

 legibility of letters of the alphabet ; the in- 

 tervals between maxima of intensity and 

 sensation, or rhythm of sensation ; the time 

 it takes for an idea to suggest another ; and 

 many similar studies — are related to it. 



Inebriate Asylums and their Work. — 



Dr. T. D. Crothers remarks, as a curious 

 fact, that inebriety was recognized as a dis- 

 ease long before insanity was thought to be 

 other than spiritual madness and a posses- 

 sion of the devil. The first inebriate asy- 

 lum was opened at Binghamton, N. Y., under 

 Dr. J. E. Turner, after eight years of effort. 

 It was conducted with much success for a 

 time, but went down in the hands of trustees. 

 The Washingtonian Home of Boston, opened 

 in 1857, is now treating about four hundred 

 cases every year. The Kings County Home, 

 of Brooklyn, was opened in 1867, and is 

 crowded with patients. The Chicago Wash- 

 ington Home, opened in 1867, and the 

 Franklin Home, Philadelphia, opened in 1 872, 

 are in successful operation. The first two 

 institutions proceed on the theory of disease. 

 TheChicago Home and the PhiladelphiaHome 

 regard religion, education, and pledges as 

 sufficient to restore the patients, and con- 

 sider a short residence at the hospital better 

 than long treatment. More than fifty hos- 

 pitals for inebriates have been started in 

 America, over thirty of which are in success- 



ful operation. The others have been changed 

 into insane asylums, water-cures, etc. About 

 twenty asylums for inebriates are open in 

 England and Scotland. Others exist in 

 Melbourne, New Zealand, Germany, and 

 Switzerland, and new ones are projected in 

 Norway, Sweden, and France. The value of 

 the results of the asylum treatment has been 

 estimated from the answers to letters of in- 

 quiry addressed to friends of patients sev- 

 eral years after dismissal. Of one thousand 

 patients at Binghamton, sixty-eight and a 

 half per cent continued temperate after five 

 years ; of two thousand at the Boston Wash- 

 ingtonian Home, thirty-four per cent after 

 from ten to eighteen years ; of six hundred 

 at the Kings County Home, thirty-four per 

 cent after ten years. The most careful 

 authorities in the United States are agreed 

 that fully one third of all cases that come 

 under treatment are permanently cured. 



The Gnawers of the Selkirk Mountains. 



— The heaps of bowlders above the forest 

 region in the Selkirk Mountains of British 

 Columbia, says the Rev. W. S. Green, " form 

 a refuge for a variety of mammals — the 

 hoary marmot, measuring about three feet 

 long, being the commonest and most useful 

 from a commissariat point of view. This 

 creature gives a loud, shrill whistle; so 

 weird does it sound in these solitudes that 

 it returns to one's ears as an inseparable 

 memory of the Selkirk valleys. The ser- 

 rellel is a strange beast ; it too lives beneath 

 the bowlder-heaps, and it has the most won- 

 derful fancy for collecting flowers. One 

 day, when we were ascending a glacier mo- 

 raine, my cousin said to me, ' Some one has 

 been here before.' I said, ' Impossible ! ' 

 but was utterly puzzled by finding a bouquet 

 of flowers plucked, with their stems lying 

 neatly together, just as though some child had 

 laid them down. Soon afterward we found 

 similar bouquets at the burrows of these ani- 

 mals. What their particular object in col- 

 lecting flowers is, it is difficult to understand ; 

 making hay for winter use I hare seen sug- 

 gested. Mountain rats, chipmunks, little 

 chief hares, and other creatures are also 

 common in these regions, rendering caches 

 of provisions useless, unless tinned meats 

 alone are hidden. My Alpine rope was nib- 

 bled into little bits in one night, and on 



