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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

board, impress one very differently from the immense fields devoted to single crops and the commodious barns of the north. Other differences may be seen on the upper Rhine, where the inhabitants of both sides were originally the same people, but have been subjected to different influences in the course of their history. The French have made their marks all over the Alsatian territory and in the towns of quite another character from the native German aspects of the Baden side.

A Survival of Torture.—Although the practice of torture to extract evidence was formally abolished in 1789, the spirit of the Inquisition has not yet died out in the continental countries of Europe. This is shown now and again in criminal cases. But not the convicts only are treated with the utmost severity. The mere suspicion of crime is enough to make a man's life miserable. He practically loses all civil rights, and finds himself at the mercy of an interrogating magistrate with full power to extract a confession, by moral suasion if possible, by more forcible means if need be. Subjected to a prolonged and tortuous system of cross-questioning, the accused often completely break down mentally and confess at random whatever has been suggested to them, much in the manner of the trials for witchcraft in our own Puritan New England. A case creating quite a sensation in Paris some thirty years ago was that of a woman who under this fire of interrogation admitted having killed her newborn infant, two months even before the birth of the child. If the culprits are suspected of obstinacy in answering, all sorts of expedients are used to make them more compliant, such as making their diet unpalatable, or altogether withholding food and water, and penning up in close, dark quarters.

Prof. Cannizzaro's Jubilee.—The seventieth birthday of Prof. Stanislas Cannizzaro was celebrated on November 21, 1896, amid a concourse of the most distinguished scientists and other men of note of Rome. He was presented with a gold medal and a bust of himself in bronze, and received innumerable letters, telegrams, addresses, and pergamenas from the leading scientific societies of the world. Prof. Semeraro, Rector Magnificus of the Roman University, said in his address: "His greatest glory lies in the fact that most of the professors now teaching in Italian universities have been his pupils. The pressure of business as vice-president of the Senate and member of the Superior Council of Public Instruction, and many others, never were pretexts to him for overlooking the modest duty of a teacher." Hon. Galimberti, presenting him with the Grand Cordon of the Crown of Italy, said: "Your name is worthy of being joined with those of Galileo, Torricelli, Volta, and Galvani. To Emanuel Kant, who, in his absolute sentence, considered chemistry as a union of empirical knowledge, you replied half a century ago, pronouncing among the confusion of doctrines immovable ideas and true laws that render chemistry an exact science, for it lies now on mathematical truth." Cannizzaro replied in an interesting speech. Referring to the combination of the functions of teacher and investigator, he said: "Had I not been a teacher, my publications would not have appeared, and I should have continued to disseminate science of new carbon compounds. I bring here Lord Kelvin's example, who, in his last jubilee, spoke of the utility he had found by the continued conferences with his pupils."

Some Antipathies of Animals.—A number of very curious featuries in the antipathies of animals are pointed out in an article on the subject in the London Spectator. There are permanent hereditary antipathies, like those of cats against dogs, and purely instinctive, inexplicable antipathies, which are naturally the least common, but of which there are marked and definite examples. Of such is the disgust which the camel excites in horses. These animals "have been associated for centuries in the common service of man, and early training makes the horse acquiesce in the proximity of the creature which disgusts him. Otherwise, it is far more difficult to accustom horses to work with camels than with elephants, precisely because the repugnance is a natural antipathy and not a reasoned fear." They get used to the sight of an elephant, but the smell of a camel disgusts and frightens them. English horses that have never seen a camel