PREVENTION OF CRUELTY.--In Congress, Feb. 14, Mr. Collins, for the judiciary committee, has given a favorable report on the bill and memorial of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, asking the passage of a law to protect dumb animals in the various territories from unnecessary cruelty. In the report Mr. Collins says: "This body occupies the foremost place among the organizations of men and women who in our time have done so much to repress and punish human cruelty, abuse, and neglect in dealing with dumb animals. In all the States, we believe, laws now exist to prevent and punish unnecessary exposure, neglect, or cruel treatment of beasts of burden and other animals. To bring the federal legislation into co-operation and harmony with the laws of the States on the subject, and provide a uniform rule for the District of Columbia and the Territories, your committee recommend the passage of the bill." VALUE OF BIRDS.--Maurice Thompson contends that the failure of orchards in this country is largely or mainly due to the war upon birds. The mocking bird he considers the most valuable of all. "No Scuppernong vine," he says, "should be without its mocking bird to defend it." Let ladies think of this who patronize cruelty by wearing birds' plumage on their bonnets. HOUSE PLANTS.--Dr. J. M. Anders has decided after eight years' investigation that house plants are very sanitary agents, and even thinks that they help to ward off consumption and other diseases. THE LARGEST TUNNEL IN THE WORLD has been completed at Schemnitz in Hungary. It was begun in 1782, and is ten and a quarter miles long, nine feet ten inches high, and five feet three inches wide, costing nearly $5,000,000. Its purpose is to drain the water of the Schemnitz mines, which is worth $75,000 a year. "WESTWARD THE STAR OF EMPIRE," ETC.--"The Fall River (Mass.,) iron works, which have been in operation for fifty years, have shut down permanently and all the hands have been discharged. It was found impossible to compete with western works that are situated near the base of natural gas and iron supplies." STRUCTURE OF THE BRAIN. (_Continued from page 32._) Nevertheless, in men and animals killed in full health there is very little serum in any part of the brain, the blood requiring all the space there is for fluids; and as the blood distends one part of the brain more than another in consequence of local excitement, the other portions of the brain, which are in a passive state, are compressed and deprived of their full supply of blood, so that they are of less nourished and their development declines.