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in the speech of educated Americans than of any other nation. It is true the American has much against which he or she must struggle. We are a conglomerate, composite people, and altho English pure and simple may be taught in the classroom, it is not always used at home. There are some people who, no matter how well educated they may be, have a certain inflection or accent which betrays bad breeding and a defective training. Men and women who graduate with honor, and who would write excellent English, frequently use bad grammar; they employ slang of the common street variety, and are absolutely without conscience when it comes to the proper or fit word or expression."

Mr. Albert Henry Smyth, writing in Book News (Philadelphia) for July, questions whether we are really untidy in our speech. The fault, says Mr. Smyth, lies rather with our American voice. We read :

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'If Mr. James would analyze more carefully his feeling with regard to American' untidiness,' he would probably find that it orig. inated in the revolt of his ear, acccustomed to the mellow music of English speech, against the strident clamor of the American voices. I not our English that is at fault, so much as our voices. The American, like the cuckoo, is known by his bad voice. Perhaps climatic conditions had something to do with flattening our vowels and imparting the hideous catarrhal twang to our voices; certainly the nervous, excitable American temperament has engendered the throaty tones and high, strident quality which 'get so upon the nerves' of Britons and foreigners."

To set against Mr. James's criticism of newspaper English we have the recent statement of Dr. Woodrow Wilson to a representative of the New York Herald, to the effect that the English of the newspapers is remarkably good, being "terse and clear and to the point."

AN INTERESTING DRAMATIC PROBLEM.

IN four countries an active discussion is proceeding on the sub

ject of the legitimate method of producing the dramas and comedies of the time when our scenic accessories and lavish expenditures on the external and decorative side of the stage were entirely unknown. In England, in the United States, in France, and in Germany, the presentation of old plays in the "Elizabethan manner" has given rise to considerable controversy. In Paris, Antoine, the famous independent manager, has given Shakespeare in that manner. In the United States the Ben Greet company's performances have been the object lessons in the same direction. The question is subdivided as follows: Should modern invention and mechanism be pressed into the service of the ancient drama? Is it legitimate to provide scenery and other accessories that were not originally contemplated? Should the old plays be given as they were written, without "acts," intermissions, and curtains"?

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The Elizabethan Stage Society of London having dissolved and passed into history, its creator, Mr. William Poel, has published in The Times a sort of apologia for its career and achievements. Its performances have been praised and appreciated, but the question to which it owed its existence is still open. Mr. Poel says, among other things:

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'Ben Jonson's rebuke to Inigo Jones, who valued his own inventions more than those of the poet, clearly indicates that Elizabethan audiences neither expected nor wanted scenic embellishments in a playhouse. The theater then was essentially a declamatory platform, in which the art of the dramatist consisted in the telling of an interesting story, full of varied incidents, together with bold characterization, and in satisfying the playgoer's imagination with poetic descriptions of the character's environment. Undoubtedly, one of the stimulating conditions of playgoing in those days was the opportunity afforded to criticize the dramatist's skill in bringing vividly before the mind's eye, by means of narration, not only a scene, but also a fight, a knock at the door, or an attitude.

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Elizabethan dramatist acknowledged, that action and elocution are coequal parts with dialogue in the making of drama, and that a play-book in the hands of the ordinary reader is as lifeless as a skeleton, rarely appreciated and more rarely understood until first seen acted. On the other hand, it must be admitted that many of Shakespeare's plays can be made attractive on the modern stage, and that popular judgment asserts that Shakespeare is most honored when his plays are given in the biggest theaters with the greatest number of accessories. But a closer acquaintance with the conditions under which Shakespeare wrote must convince the intelligent playgoer that to honor his genius is not to rearrange his plays, in order to suit modern conditions of stage representation, but to bring our own minds within reach of those influences from which the Elizabethan playgoer undoubtedly obtained the greatest enjoyment."

Plays, Mr. Poel continues, did not consist of four or five “acts"; this method of construction was not merely unknown, it would have been scouted and rejected as illegitimate and inartistic. Hence the "acting versions" of Shakespeare's plays are without an excuse, historically or artistically.

Mr. Walkly, the critic of the London Times, Max Beerbohm, the critic of The Saturday Review, and others, think all such arguments inconclusive. Alike in technic and in mechanical accessories, they urge, there has been great progress; and if the masters could see our modern resources they would but too gladly avail themselves of these. The great masters, says Mr. Walkly, are for all time, and should be given in accordance with the spirit and tastes of the period whenever they are produced. Whether the tree is on the stage, on a painting in the background, or merely in our imagination, can not affect any scene from Shakespeare in which a tree is part of the mise-en-scène.

A writer in Die Deutsche Rundschau welcomes the new-old manner of producing classics (which is but little known in Germany, notwithstanding the remarkable frequency with which Shakespeare is presented in every art center of the fatherland), and holds it to be conducive to the simplicity, sincerity, and dignity which are essential to art.

In Paris, curiously enough, the discussion has degenerated into a contest between those who favor long intermissions and those who favor short ones or none at all. The desire of the feminine auditors to display their costumes and jewels and headgear, and to convert the theater into a social and fashionable institution, figure prominently among the intermission pros.

NOTES.

BEGINNING with the September number, Leslie's Monthly Magazine will be known as The American Illustrated Magazine. The magazine will continue to be published by Mr. Colver, whose connection with the publication dates from May 1, 1889; and the firm name, for fifty years the Frank Leslie Publishing House, will become the Colver Publishing House. Most of the score of publications long ago started by Frank Leslie have passed out of existence. After September Leslie's Weekly will be the only one still carrying his name.

THE literary taste of the Japanese, remarks The World, is significantly shown in the report of the librarian of the Imperial Library at Tokyo. For fiction, it appears, there is little demand. We read further: "While 12,486 works relating to theology aud religion, or only 1.6 per cent. of the total number of books in the library, were asked for, according to the records of the past year, there were demanded by readers 166,677 volumes, or 21.6 per cent. classified under the head of mathematics, science, and medicine. Works on literature and language, to the number of 152,711-that is, 20 per cent. were asked for, while 18 per cent. of the applications were for books on history and geography. Works of art, industries, engineering, military and naval science figure prominently on the list of additions made in recent years to the shelves of the Imperial library."

PRESIDENT WILSON, of Princeton University, announces an interesting innovation in instruction. In Collier's Weekly we read: "A committee of the alumni has assured the university of additional income exceeding $100,000 a year. This money is to be spent in adding to the Princeton faculty fifty preceptors, who are to do, apparently, what tutors do in the older British universities. That is they will keep in constant touch with the students, 'as guides, advisers and testers of their learning.' Less reliance than formerly is to be placed at Princeton on recitations and examinations, and more on conferences of individuals and small groups of men with their instructors. Not only the new preceptors, but the older members of the faculty, are to take part in these conferences. Dr. Wilson proposes, it would seem, to have his young men taught by hand. They are not merely to be led to water. They must drink. It is a very interesting experiment in American college education, and its results will doubtless be closely watched by educators."

SCIENCE AND INVENTION.

RAY-CURES.

THE various cures by the application of light or other forms of

radiant energy excite, from time to time, a good deal of public interest, but concise accounts of their operation and results, viewing them as a whole, have not been available. Such a view is given by Dr. Leredde in a lecture before the French Association for the Advancement of Science, of which an abstract appears in Cosmos (Paris, April 29) from the pen of M. E. Hérichard. Dr. Leredde spoke chiefly of phototherapy and radiotherapy, the former term denoting Finsen's light-cure, and the latter the use of the x-ray. The use of radium he apparently did not touch uponperhaps because he did not consider it sufficiently developed as yet. Hérichard notes that all methods of cure based on the use of light or other kinds of radiation are of recent date, the earliest, that of Finsen, dating back only about ten years. In the case of light, both the heat and the chemical properties of the rays contribute to the result; if the chemical effects be suppressed, however, as when the light passes through red glass, the action is much less energetic. Says the writer:

"Finsen distinguishes two kinds of phototherapy, the positive in which the action of the light-rays is used; and the negative, in which it is suppressed. The latter does not act with much energy. Finsen has used it, nevertheless, in treatment of smallpox scars. . . . In Norway and Denmark this method appears to have given good results, but they have not been obtained in France..

The success of positive phototherapy is, on the contrary, indisputable; its germicidal action is important. When we concentrate the light-rays on certain parts of the human skin that are infested by parasites, some of these are destroyed.

"The chemical rays thus utilized may be taken from the sun, but recourse may also be had to a powerful arc-light (at least 100 ampères)."

The greatest feat performed by the Finsen light-treatment is undoubtedly the cure of lupus, or superficial tuberculosis, which it certainly accomplishes, without fear of any return of the dis

ease.

The writer passes next to "radiotherapy," or the use of the Roentgen rays in the treatment of disease. One of the earliest discoveries in relation to these rays was that they burn the skin in a peculiar and often dangerous way. For years, physicians were often afraid to use the x-ray on patients, because of these injurious effects, which formed the basis, in more than one case, of an action at law. At present, when they are used, their action is carefully localized by cutting them off with a lead screen from unaffected parts of the body. They give good results in nervous diseases on account of their anesthetic properties. Various skin diseases that do not yield to phototherapy do so to radiotherapy. We read further:

“The x-rays have one great advantage over light-rays—they traverse the body, making it possible to treat deep-seated lesions; thus they quiet neuralgia, their effects lasting for months. We should note also their good results in rheumatism and in affections of the stomach and intestines. The rays act on the pilar (or hairy) tissue; under their influence the hair falls out. They also act on the sebaceous glands, and on the white blood-corpuscles, which are altered by diseases of the spleen, and which are increased in number by the action of the rays, so that the blood-formula returns to the normal. They have an anti-inflammatory action; on the epithelial tissue their effects are energetic, altering and finally liquefying the epidermic cells, principally when they are in an unhealthy condition."

Will the x-ray cure cancer? Yes, if it affects the outer part of the body, M. Hérichard says; because in such a case the symptoms may be seen early in the stage of the disease; but if it has had time to spread deeply into the tissues, such cure is no longer possible, and it is of course equally impossible when internal organs are affected, such as the lungs or stomach, where the dis

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HE exhaustion of the world's supply of metals is foreseen by Prof. N. S. Shaler, who discusses the outlook in The International Quarterly (New York, July). He devotes most of his attention to iron and copper," the mainstays of our existing civilization." Of iron," the prime metal of civilization," the supply is visibly lessening, altho the time when we shall realize this practically is yet far off. Says Professor Shaler :

"The total amount of . . . minable iron ores, when their exploitation began, probably much exceeds all the other mineral deposits, excluding coal, that have been sought in the earth. The amount of these iron ores still available is very great, doubtless many times, perhaps twenty-fold, as great as has been won to use. Yet we see already that in the continent of Europe the fields long in service are beginning to be exhausted. Great Britain has practically consumed its store, which a century ago seemed ample. Practically all the supply for its furnaces is now imported. The supply from the Mediterranean, that promised to be inexhaustible, can not endure for many decades to come. The same is the condition of the ore districts of Central Europe; at the rate of the increasing demand they are not likely to meet the demands of a hundred years. There remain extensive deposits of rich ores in the Scandinavian peninsula and in fields in the confines of Belgium and France which have hardly begun to be drawn upon, yet it is evident that at anything like the present rate of increase in the consumption of metallic iron the European sources of supply are not likely to endure for a century."

In North America the outlook is better. Altho the East and the Pacific slope must now be both left out of account in any large reckoning of future supply, the central part of the continent has yet much ore, especially the central section of the Mississippi valley. All our iron fields, however, according to Professor Shaler, seem now to have been noted and mapped out; no new discoveries need be expected. The only other known country that "promises a yield of wide importance" is China, where coal and iron occur widely together-a most valuable combination. Here conditions of climate and labor are also favorable. Says the writer:

"This combination of resources is one of the several features which give the present struggle between Japan and Russia a worldwide meaning, for in their control depends in large measure the economic mastery of the Pacific Ocean. They are very soon to make China the manufacturing center of that realm. If Russia commands the mineral stores of that kingdom, she may find her way to master the world even more effectively than did Rome in her time."

As for copper, the status is similar, save that its sources are more restricted. Says Professor Shaler :

It appears that the supply of copper will be reduced to a point where its service to the arts will be seriously limited before there is a like reduction in the supply of iron. In the last-named metal there exists a considerable leeway in the saving that will be made in scrap material as soon as the price rises to, say, fifty dollars per ton; because of the present relatively high price, about two hundred dollars per ton, there is no savable loss in copper.

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ble. Save for this use, the economic world could soon adjust itself to the loss of this once indispensable metal."

What will take the place of the used-up iron and copper? Professor Shaler suggests aluminum. He says:

"In its qualities aluminum is admirably adapted to serve the greater part of the needs now served by iron and copper. It is relatively very light, but for its weight admirably strong, rigid, tough, and elastic; it is a good conductor of electricity; it does not oxidize or rust as readily as those metals. It meets practically all the uses of the constructive arts; it is better than steel for the greater number of them. In the hulls of ships it would spare a large part of the weight in the hulls and machinery, and would greatly increase the cargo-carrying power. We readily see that an aluminum age would carry us almost as far beyond that of iron as we advanced when that metal replaced bronze in the mechanic arts. Why, then, as we have learned how to separate this admirable substance from its union with oxygen, may we not extend its use, thereby dismissing all fears that our successors of the centuries to come are to lack a fit share of the metals necessary for economic success?"

The trouble about any such extension at present is one of cost. This has greatly decreased, having fallen no less than 90 per cent. in 50 years, yet it is still high, and Professor Shaler thinks that the metal will hardly fall below $200 a ton with any process of extraction now conceivable. His conclusion is, therefore, as follows:

"While aluminum is likely in time to take the dominant place now held by iron, it will do so at a cost in terms of labor far higher than what men now pay for their capital metal. Nevertheless, the difference is not likely to be so great that the mechanical foundations of our economic civilization will be endangered."

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Courtesy of "The Scientific American."

PROF. JACQUES LOEB.

Harvard Medical School. Dr. Maxwell states,

at the outset, Professor Loeb's belief that the more fundamental the problem attacked in a laboratory, the more fruitful is likely to be the result. This belief, together with the knowledge that the most fundamental problem in physiology, and perhaps in all science, is that of the origin of life, has determined Professor Loeb's work. Loeb holds that in time biologists will probably demonstrate some succession or continuity between dead and living matter, but he has not even tried to do this directly, endeavoring instead merely to enlarge our knowledge of the functions and origins of life as it exists. Says Dr. Maxwell:

"Thus he has carried on a remarkable series of experiments on the agencies which control the movements of animals, believing that in this way the biological explanation of the problem of animal instinct and will is to be secured. In a book entitled Comparative Physiology of the Brain and Comparative He has certainly not yet found' what life Psychology,' he has given a popular stateis,' but he is in a way to throw much light on ment of this line of study from his point of its intimate processes and origins." view. A second series of researches was concerned with the regeneration of lost parts of the animal body, with a view to determine the principles by which at will one organ could be made to grow in the place of another. Yet another line of investigations has been made upon the nature of fertilization."

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The other metals Professor Shaler dismisses in few words. Gold, he thinks, is doubtless depreciating in value, and will become so cheap that we shall have to use something else as our standard of value-not silver, however, for this once noble metal is now "forlorn," ," "a very pauper," valuable only from sentimental considerations. Lead is needed chiefly for projectiles, and Professor Shaler trusts that we may not need it much longer for this purpose. Tin is used mainly as a rust-proof coating for iron. Mercury is absolutely necessary for mirrors and in scientific instruments, and it is found in less than half-a-dozen places where its extraction pays. Its exhaustion seems imminent, and it would appear to be irreplaceable. The same may be said of platinum, whose resistance to acids makes it peculiarly valuable to the chemist. The writer concludes as follows:

"There are many other earth substances helpful to man in his present economic estate, and many others will find their place in the arts. The substances that have been mentioned in this incomplete review are, so far as we can discover, the most important for the continued success of human endeavors. Some of these, as, for instance, the radium group, come just now trooping out of the dark -out of the great mystery of this seemingly commonplace world. What share they are to have in human events is not clear; yet because of our considerable knowledge of the materials of the earth which exist in considerable quantities, we may fairly reckon that the discoveries which await us are of rare elements and combinations, not, in many instances, likely, because of their small quantity, to prove of great economic value.

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These last are the investigations of which much has been said of late. They simply bear out the theory that when an egg is fertilized the process is but the hastening of a natural growth that usually goes on so slowly that the egg. generally dies before it is completed, tho in lower organisms it may go on in the unfertilized egg until it "hatches." Taking the sea urchin, a creature in which this development of the unfertilized egg (" parthenogenesis") occasionally takes place, Professor Loeb has been able to determine it, to hasten it, and to control it by subjecting the egg to the chemical action of certain salts-for instance, those found in ordinary sea-water. In doing this he has not "created life." He has not even attempted to do so; but he has made the very important discovery that it is possible to initiate and control the development of life from the unfertilized egg, in a way never before suspected, and he has thrown light on the process of fertilization itself, at least under certain conditions. Another interesting phase of this investigation is that in which Professor Loeb has been led to attempt the crossing of widely differing species under the influence of the same salts used in the experiments just described. Of this Dr. Maxwell says:

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in a neutral solution fertilization took place perfectly, as also in the solutions containing a trace of alkali. When, however, the alkali added amounted to 0.4 of a cubic centimeter of a % molecular solution of sodium carbonate to 100 cubic centimeters of seawater, no fertilization of sea-urchin eggs by sperm of their own species was possible. Now when sea-urchin eggs were placed in sea-water of this degree of alkalinity they could be fertilized by the sperm of the starfish, and from 50 to So per cent. of the eggs began to develop."

In this way Loeb has been able also to cross the sea urchin with the starfish, the serpent star, the twenty-ray star, and a holothurian. The hybrids lived but a short time and were of course abnormal, but the experiments show at least that fertilization may be conditioned on the presence of a chemical substance. Professor Loeb has certainly not yet found "what life is," but he is in a way to throw much light on its intimate processes and origins.

NEW METHOD OF MEASURING MENTAL

PHENOMENA.

WHAT the author calls "another physical criterion for the

state of the human mind," is described in The Scientific American (New York, June 17) by Dr. Alfred Gradenwitz. It is the discovery of a Swiss engineer, E. K. Müller, of Zurich, and furnishes a means of measuring certain phenomena of the mind accurately by physical methods. That mental processes are always attended by alterations in the physical state of the body, which in many cases admit of measurement, has long been known. Excitement, for instance, raises the temperature of the blood, while nervous depression lowers it. Müller's discovery differs from such facts as these only in pointing out a correspondence in which the physical phenomenon concerned is electrical and hence susceptible of great accuracy of measurement. Says Dr. Gradenwitz:

"Mr. Müller noted an interesting connection between the conductivity of the human body and its psychical and physiological condition. This conductivity, in the first place, undergoes great variation, according to the hour of the day at which the experiment is made and according to the meals taken by the person experimented on. Accurately identical figures will occur very frequently in series of experiments lasting from 10 to 15 minutes, with the same minutes and the same person, even in the case of experiments separated by an interval of some days.

author observed some characteristic variations according to the character of the latter and the vivacity of the dreams.

"Any pain, either real or suggested, will modify the resistance, the feeling of pain being preceded and followed by an oscillation. The individual resistance of the human body depends also on the nervous susceptibility and on the conditions the person is living in. Nervous persons, as well as strong smokers and drinkers, show an extremely low clectrical resistance. The variability and temporary behavior of the resistance is also shown to depend on these factors."

In the Electromedical Institute in Zurich, rooms have been fitted up especially for the measurement of the bodily electrical resistance of patients in connection with Müller's discovery. The patient is placed in a so-called "isolation-room," where he is removed from outside noises or anything else likely to interfere with the results, while the measurement itself is carried on in another apartment connected with the first by wires. The results are said to show the value of the method for ascertaining the degree of nervous susceptibility of a patient, his mental activity, and the frequency and intensity of pain during the measurement. To quote further:

"The behavior of the resistance curve corresponds to the state of pain and excitation of the patient, the purely subjective state thus being ascertained objectively by the measuring outfit. "From the above the possibility is seen of ascertaining the ner

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Courtesy of "The Scientific American."

APPARATUS FOR MEASURING INDIVIDUAL RESISTANCE OF PATIENTS..

"The magnitude of the conductivity, as -well as the regularity in the behavior of the different series, are highly influenced by the presence of a third person; whenever anybody enters the room or a noise is produced, the resistance of the person experimented on is found to undergo a spontaneous variation of extraordinary magnitude. Outside of objective causes, any psychical influence, either internal or external, will result in an immediate oscillation of a sometimes enormous magnitude. Any sensation or psychical emotion of a certain intensity will reduce the resistance of the human body instantaneously to a value three to five times less.

"Whenever the person experimented on is talked to or caused to concentrate his attention in some way or other, oscillations of the resistance will be produced. Any effort made for hearing a distant noise, any volition, any effect of self-suggestion, will exert a material influence, the same being true of any excitation of the senses, any light rays striking the closed eye, any body the smell of which is perceived (even where the smell or the body is fictitious). Any physiological action of some intensity such as breathing, stopping the breath, etc., is found to exert an analogous effect.

"By making experiments both before and during the sleep, the

vous excitability of any given person and the alterations undergone by this factor under the most various conditions. It would seem possible also to find out from a number of investigations and measurements a given average resistance for what might be termed 'standard' men. On the other hand, the action of electricity with therapeutical applications might be verified objectively."

Warnings of Asphyxiation.-In our issue of July 1 appeared a digest of an article on the " Dangers of Illuminating Gas," in which the writer refers to coal-gas as comparatively non-toxic and says: "Its characteristic odor was a danger warning, while the modern water-gas . . . with its greater content of carbon monoxid and its comparative lack of odor is far more dangerous." Mr. Thomas D. Miller writes to us from New Orleans, that in his opinion the author has used the term "water-gas" ambiguously. Says Mr. Miller:

"Water-gas,' referred to, has practically no odor, and is therefore exceedingly dangerous. If, however, he refers to carbureted

water-gas, which is undoubtedly his meaning, his statement of 'its comparative lack of odor' is wholly without warrant or foundation. As one of years' experience in the manufacture and distribution of both kinds, coal-gas and carbureted water-gas, I have yet to meet one who is not ready to speak of the latter as having the more 'villainous' odor, so that it is unwarranted to inferentially state that carbureted water-gas has no warning odor. One reason for the abandonment of the manufacture and sale of 'straight' water-gas was its lack of odor and its consequent danger. Coal-gas contains from 8 to 13 per cent. by volume of carbonic oxid and the toxic effect is just as sure if sufficient quantity is inhaled as a gas containing 25 to 35 per cent. The increased frequency of accidental poisoning by gas is not due solely to the increase in its poisonous character or to any lack of odor by which its presence may be known, but principally to the more extended and almost universal use of it for numberless purposes, and perhaps to some extent to the almost total absence of any legislation regulating inspection of gas-piping and fixtures."

THE

PLANTS THAT GIVE LIGHT.

HE list of organisms, animals and plants that are reported to give off light occasionally is very large. Those that habitually and undoubtedly do so are not many, and the function is little understood. In Cosmos (Paris, June 10), M. A. Acloque, in an article entitled "Phosphorescent Mushrooms," writes of some recent observations on the subject, going to show that the emission of light is, in fungi at least, a vital function akin to respiration, and accompanied, like it, with oxidation of tissue and the giving off of carbonic acid. Writes M. Acloque:

sition of the fungus, or at least to the chemical phenomena accompanying its decay. . . . This way of looking at it is no longer regarded as admissible. Another discredited theory is that of Professor Fries, which attributes the luminescence of olive agaric to the presence of a filamentous moss. .. According to Léveillé and Tulasne this moss has nothing whatever to do with the phenomenon."

The latter of these two scientists has made observations in detail on the luminescence of the olive agaric. In the case of this fungus he finds that the emission of light is not confined to the fertile part of the organism, but takes place throughout the whole mass, as may be seen by tearing it into fragments. The only nonluminous part of the mushroom is the outside skin. The giving out of the light seems connected in some way with the presence of oxygen, as is the case with the marine bacteria, and Tulasne thinks it is. due to intense oxidation of the fleshy parts. Says M. Acloque :

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"It is a phenomenon of the same order as respiration, and is accompanied by a considerable emission of carbonic acid it disappears when the plant dies, and it is extinguished by hydrogen and carbonic acid. . . . It is a vital manifestation and must not be confused with the phosphorescence that takes place in the course of vegetable putrefaction, which is due to an invasion of luminous micro-organisms, probably bacteria.

"The light of the olive agaric is, according to M. Fabre's observations, soft, white, quiet, and similar to that given off by phosphorus dissolved in oil. It requires for its production, as in the case of the Rhizomorphs, certain physical conditions. Thus it ceases at 9° C. [48' F.] and is extinguished above 50° C. [122° F.]. Desiccation and immersion in water also extinguish it."-Translation made for THE LITERARY DIGEST.

"Phosphorescence, or the faculty of emitting a visible light in darkness, is found clearly in certain groups of the animal kingdom, especially in insects and myriapods; it is rarer and less characteristic in plants. Among phanerogams, only the Euphorbia phosphorea of Brazil would appear certainly to possess a juice that is phosphorescent at a high temperature. Linneus relates that his daughter saw intermittent flashes THE

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from [various] flowers of a yellow-orange tint. Treviranus doubts this observation and advances the hypothesis that orange color seen in half darkness may affect the eye in such a deceptive way as to give an illusion of fugitive gleams.

"If this be so, phosphorescence in the vegetable kingdom should be almost exclusively relegated to the mushrooms. Here,

A LUMINOUS MUSHROOM, THE OLIVE AGARIC (Agaricus olearius).

however, the phenomenon is very decided. Decayed wood is sometimes phosphorescent; ... this is attributed to the presence in the dead wood of the mycelium of a phosphorescent mushroom. Perhaps it must be referred to bacteria, living either on the wood or on this mycelium itself; or perhaps active decomposition is sufficient to engender light as it produces heat."

However this may be, the writer goes on to say, it is quite certain that the vegetative portion, or mycelium of certain fungi, whose full development has yet been imperfectly studied, can shine at night. In some cases a high temperature is necessary to bring out the luminosity, and it may usually be quenched by immersing the fungus in hydrogen, nitrous oxid, chlorin, and sometimes in nitrogen. Some mushrooms are phosphorescent in the complete state of growth, as is the case with the olive agaric of France, commonly reputed poisonous, tho some authorities say that it is harmless. To quote further:

"De Candolle attributed the emission of light to the decompo

STABILITY OF THE SKY-SCRAPER.

'HE doubts occasionally expressed of the durability of the steel-frame building usually arise from the layman; these structures are essentially engineering constructions, and the engineer commonly stands by them. The editor of The Engineering Magazine (New York, July), pooh-poohs all suggestions of decay through the invisible actions of corrosion, vibration, and general molecular degradation," and backs up his opinion with a fact or two that carry some weight. He says:

"The absurdity of these forebodings will be realized when it is appreciated that the demands upon the steel structure are far within its capabilities of resistance. So far as vibration is concerned, there is not a steel ship afloat which is not subjected to buffetings before which the slight tremblings of the tall building are microscopic; and the modern ocean liner is twice the length of the tallest building in existence, the Eiffel tower alone excepted. No one fears the failure of the metal in the steamship, because every one realizes that long before any appreciable deterioration can occur the great liner will have been relegated to the junk yard and the scrap heap, superseded by a swifter vessel, of a newer model, and greater capacity. The tall building is in a similar position. There now stands, in the city of New York, a modest structure of eleven stories in height called, since the time of its construction in 1888, the Tower Building, because it rose at that time like a tall watch-tower above the smaller houses in lower Broadway. This was the first of the modern tall buildings in which the weights were carried upon a structural skeleton, instead of requiring heavy walls of masonry to bear the burden and transmit it to a limited foundation area. To-day the Tower Building is lost amid the far greater structures between which it is sandwiched, and having outlived its usefulness, it is to be torn down to make way for a new structure of more than double the height. We have thus the interesting fact that the first tall building, regarded in its day as a marvel of engineering audacity, has lived its life in the short space of seventeen years, not because it is worn out, or unsafe, or in any way objectionable, but simply because it cumbereth the ground, so to speak, because it is not tall enough, because it has outlived its usefulness! The buildings of past ages which have remained are extremely few, and with the exception of a small number of monumental structures, the most massive erections of masonry have given place to newer buildings, better adapted to the require

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