THE YOUNG 
THE 
Young Scientist. 
A Practical Journal for Amateurs. 
{With which are incorporated "The Technolo- 
gist," "The Industkial Monthly," 
and " Home Akts.") 
PUBLISHED MONTRLY AT $1.00 PER YEAR. 
EDITOllS. 
JOHN PHIN. FEED, T. HODGSON. 
Advertisements.— The Young Scientist has 
found its way into the very best lionies, and its 
subscribers are as a general rule, of the buying 
class. It therefore offei's special inducements to 
those who have anything good to offer. 
Rates: 30 cents per line, agate measure. Lib- 
eral discounts on large and continued advertise- 
ments. 1^ No Humbugs, Patent Medicines, or 
"Blind " advertisements inserted at any price. 
Published by 
THE INDUSTRIAL PUBLICATION CO., 
49 Maiden Lane. New York. 
The extraordinary demand which has 
been made for the "Amateur's Hand- 
book," during the past few weeks, has en- 
tirely exhausted the second edition. We 
will go to press with a new edition in a 
few days. 
Will those of our subscribers who re- 
ceive two copies of the Young Scientist, 
kindly hand the duplicate to some friend 
interested in such matters, and thus per- 
haps aid us in securing a new subscriber ? 
Eemember that every additional name 
•enables us to improve the Journal, so 
that all have an interest in adding to the 
number of our subscribers. 
It is not uncommon to hear boys and 
girls complain that they have no time to 
do this, that, or the other or to play. The 
very name of play or pleasure has a mag- 
ical power. That name makes the most 
toilsome and laborious pastime a delight ; 
while, if it was called work, it would be- 
come irksome and oppressive. Boys and 
girls should have play and enough of it ; 
there is wisdom in proper recreation and 
diversion— they harden the muscles, ex- 
pand the chest, and give that rosy hue to 
the face that betokens cheerfulness, 
strength, and a freedom from disease 
SCIENTIST. 123 
that the inactive youth can never enjoy. 
After a period of study, the young mind 
should rest, and a i:)eriod of diversion and 
play should succeed. One of the draw- 
backs of our advanced civilization is the 
continual strain the youthful minds are 
put to, to fit them for positions they may 
never fill. To distort the mind by cram- 
ming at the expense of the body is un- 
natural, and can only end in exhaustion 
sooner or later. Give the boys and girls a 
sufficiency of good healthy play ; let them 
romp in innocent gaiety. Give them 
healthy bodies, and true nobleness will 
surely follow. 
We call the attention of our readers to 
the articles on amateur wood-carving 
now being published in the Young Scien- 
tist, and trust that many of them will be 
able to follow the instructions given, and 
profit by them. There is no reason why 
many of our young readers— boys and girls 
—may not be able to acquire sufficient ex- 
pertness in wood-carving to make many 
things that would have a commercial 
value of considerable magnitude. In Cin- 
cinnati, Philadelphia, and other cities, 
many young people are engaged in carving 
ornamental match-stands, cigar-holders, 
watch-stands, ink-stands, pen-holders, 
and a hundred other similar articles that 
readily find a market, if they possess any 
artistic merit. In Switzerland, thousands 
of young people find constant and lucra- 
tive employment at this work the whole 
year round, and hundreds of thousands of 
dollars' worth of the finished work is 
yearly exported to this country, England, 
and France, and is known in the " notion 
trade "as " Swiss carvings." The work- 
men, or artists, as they should be styled, 
are allowed to follow their inclination as 
to the character of subjects they treat; 
some cut groups of animals, others orna- 
mental caskets, work-boxes, paper-cut- 
ters, salad spoons and forks, while others 
cut the pieces from which still others 
build the chalets so commonly seen even 
in this country as parlor ornaments. 
The tools required for this work are not 
very expensive; and as a pleasing and 
useful amusement, the art of wood-carv- 
ing stands at the head of the list, with 
