Chapter I: Part 1

BUCHANAN'S
JOURNAL OF MAN.

VOL. I. NOVEMBER, 1887. NO. 10.

CONTENTS OF JOURNAL OF MAN.

The Slow Triumph of Truth
Old Industrial Education
An Incomparable "Medical Outlaw"
Educational.--Educational Reform in England; Dead Languages
Vanishing; Higher Education of Women; Bad Sunday-School Books;
Our Barbarous Orthography
Critical.--European Barbarism; Boston Civilization; Monopoly;
Woman's Drudgery; Christian Civilization; Walt Whitman;
Temperance
Scientific.--Extension of Astronomy; A New Basis for Chemistry;
Chloroform in Hydrophobia; The Water Question; Progress of
Homoeopathy; Round the World Quickly
Glances Round the World (concluded from August)
Rectification of Cerebral Science (illustrated)

THE SLOW TRIUMPH OF TRUTH.

THE JOURNAL OF MAN does not fear to perform its duty and use plain language in reference to the obstructionists who hinder the acceptance of demonstrable sciences and prevent all fair investigation, while they occupy positions of influence and control in all collegiate institutions.

It is not in scorn or bitterness that we should speak of this erring class, a large number of whom are the victims of mis-education--of the hereditary policy of the colleges, which is almost as difficult to change as a national church, or a national despotism. The young men who enter the maelstrom of college life are generally borne along as helpless as rowing boats in a whirlpool. It is impossible for even the strongest minds to be exposed for years, surrounded by the contaminating influence of falsehood, and come forth uninjured. But while we pity the victims of medical colleges and old-fashioned universities, let us seek for our young friends institutions that have imbibed the spirit of the present age.

Man is essentially a spiritual being, and, even in this life, he has many of the spiritual capacities which are to be unfolded in the higher life. Moreover, there are in every refined constitution a great number of delicate sensibilities, which no college has ever recognized.

There has been no concealment of these facts. They have always been open to observation,--more open than the facts of Geology and Chemistry. Ever since the earliest dawn of civilization in Egypt, India, and Greece the facts have been conspicuous before the world, and, in ancient times, have attracted the attention of imperial and republican governments. And yet, the literary guild, the _incorporated_ officials of education everywhere, have refused to investigate such truths, and shaped their policy in accordance with the lowest instincts of mammon,--in accordance with the policy of kings, of priests, of soldiers, and of plutocrats; and this policy has been so firmly maintained and transmitted, that there is not, to-day, a university anywhere to be found that possesses the spirit of progress, or is willing to open either its eyes or its ears to the illumination of nineteenth-century progress, and to the voice of Heaven, which is "the still small voice of reason."

"_Of the earth, earthy_" is the character of our colleges to-day as it was in the days when Prof. Horky and his colleagues refused to look through the telescope of Galileo. Is not this utter neglect of Psychometry for forty-five years (because it has not been _forced_ upon their attention) as great an evidence of perpetuated stolidity as was the conduct of the Professors of Padua 280 years ago in shunning the inspection of Galileo's telescope, when the demonstration has been so often repeated that Psychometry is a far greater addition than the telescope to the methods of science and promises a greater enlargement of science than the telescope and microscope combined.

"_Of the earth, earthy_" is a just description of institutions which confine their investigations and limit their ideas of science to that which is physical, when man's life, enjoyment, hopes and destiny are all above the plane on which they dwell and in which they burrow. Physical science is indeed a vast department of knowledge, but to limit ourselves to that when a far grander realm exists, one really more important to human welfare, is an attempt to perpetuate a semi-barbarism, and the time is not _very_ remote in this progressive age when the barbarism of the 19th century literature and education will become a familiar theme.

The efforts of intellectual rebels to break through the restrictions of collegiate despotism have not yet had much success, and my own labors would have been fruitless in that respect if I had not been able to combine with others in establishing a more liberal college, the _Eclectic Medical Institute_ of Cincinnati, which still retains something of the progressive spirit of its founders.

Simultaneously with the American rebellion against British authority, _Mesmer_ in France made an assault upon that Chinese wall of medical bigotry which Harvey found it so hard to overcome, but although he secured one favorable report from the Medical Academy at Paris, he was never admitted to an honorable recognition. Now, however, the baffled truth has entered the citadel of professional authority and the correspondent of the New York Tribune tells the story as follows:

CHARCOT AVENGES MESMER.

Under this heading the _New York Tribune_ published in September the letter of its regular correspondent at Paris, which is given below:

It shows that in the present state of imperfect civilization the narrow-minded men who generally lead society are perfectly able to suppress for a time any discovery which does not come from their own clique. And when they do yield to the force of evidence and accept extraordinary new discoveries, they either do it in a blundering and perverted manner, or they try to appropriate it as their own and continue to rob the pioneer thinker.

The psychometric experiments of Drs. Bourru and Burot, Dr. Luys and others have not been conducted in the scientific and satisfactory manner in which I introduced them in 1841, but in the hysterical and sensational manner which is now attracting attention.

LETTER FROM PARIS.

Mesmer has been well avenged by Charcot, the great professor
who fills the chair in the clinical ward of the Saltpetriere for
the nervous diseases of women. Not only, indeed, has this
illustrious physician shown that the charlatan whom the elder
Dumas introduced with such telling effect into his novels, "La
Comtesse de Charny" and "Le Docteur Balsamo," was no mere
charlatan, but a number of Charcot's disciples have proved the
truth of what Dumas seemed to draw from his rich imagination.
Dr. Charcot, who is a cautious man, has publicly admitted
hypnotic suggestion. He thinks extraordinary curative effects,
so far as the consciousness of pain goes, are to be derived from
hypnotism, which is Mesmerism with a new Greek name. But he
always exhorts laics not to dabble in it, and medical men to
keep their hypnotic lore to themselves. This is charming after
the way in which the profession of which Charcot is really a
bright light treated Mesmerism. Mesmer was an empiric. But he
nevertheless got at the truth.

Homoeopathy was tabooed because it was not orthodox, by that
Sanhedrim known as the Faculty of Medicine. Animal magnetism was
long ignored on the ground that charlatans had taken it up and
that no doctor who had self-respect could follow them. Mesmerism
was treated with no less contempt until a new name was given it,
and Charcot declared that there was not only something but a
good deal in it deserving the attention of scientists.

Dr. Luys last Tuesday made a communication to the Academy of
Medicine on this subject which electrified the members present.
It was on the action, both at a distance and by direct contact,
of certain medicated or fermented substances on hypnotic
subjects. The latter were all women who could not possibly have
got their cue beforehand, and were being observed, while Dr.
Luys operated, by a jury of scientists above all suspicion of
having lent themselves to any trickery. Alcohol when put to the
nape in a tube no larger than a homoeopathist's vial and
hermetically sealed produced exactly the same effect as if
imbibed at a bar. Absinthe, haschish, opium, morphine, beer,
champagne, tea and coffee were in succession tried with their
characteristic effects. But "the cup which cheers but not
inebriates" was found too exciting for French neuropaths.
Valerian caused the deepest sadness. The thoughts of the patient
were centred in a grave. She was impelled irresistibly to stoop
down and scratch the ground, and thought herself in a cemetery
exhuming a deceased relative whom she loved. Under the illusion
she fancied herself picking up bones belonging to his skeleton,
which she handled with tender reverence, and when there was an
imaginary mound of them formed she placed, with deep-drawn sighs
and tears and genuflections, a cross above them. Under the
influence of haschish everything looked rosy and gayety
prevailed. The subject was a young girl, very fond of the drama.
She fancied herself on the stage and playing a part which suited
her to perfection. It was in a bouffe opera and she sang her
score admirably. The sentiments were expressed with delicate
feeling. Dr. Luys can, according to the substances he uses, run
through the whole gamut of human passions and emotions.

What is most strange is that no trace of the fictitious world in
which the hypnotized subject has been wandering, remains when
real consciousness is restored. It is very rare for even the
idea of having been in dreamland to survive the awakening from
the hypnotic trance. Dr. Luys says that hypnotic suggestion
sometimes has periods of incubation more or less long. The
subject is at first gently drawn to do a certain thing or
things, and then the drawing becomes an irresistible impulse.
They are first as if tempted and then as if possessed. They can
no more help themselves than a man who had got to the verge of
Niagara Falls in a boat could help going over.

Dr. Roger moved that the Academy name a Commission to inquire
into hypnotic suggestion, near and at a distance. Dr. Bronardel
supported him. He said, "All that Dr. Luys has alleged and shown
cannot fail to make a noise throughout the world. Nobody save
MM. Burot and Bourru have gone so far as Dr. Luys. He not only
forces on the attention of the Academy the question of
hypnotism, but of persons being affected by poisonous substances
which do not penetrate, or it may be even touch, their bodies.
This is from a legal point of view a great danger. A great
social responsibility is involved in the matter. It is the duty
of the Academy to have the experiments of Dr. Luys repeated,
with others that bear upon them."

Hypnotism, or animal magnetism, has been a little more than a
hundred years despised and rejected by the doctors. It was
discovered by a Viennese, Mesmer, who belonged to that curious
branch of the Freemasons, the Illuminati. When he told Stoerck,
the head of the Faculty of Medicine at Vienna, of his discovery,
that learned owl begged him not to discredit that body by
talking of anything so absurd. He persisted. Sarcasm and then
persecution obliged him to go abroad, and he came to Paris in
1778. The world of fashion and the court went crazy about him.
He then set up in the Palais Royal, where, it must be said, in a
way that was worthy of a charlatan, he worked his discovery. M.
Le Roy, of the Academy of Medicine, thought him on the scent of
a great truth. But the other doctors were of the bats' eyes
sort, and hunted Mesmer down. He went to stay at Creteil, where
he applied his method and made his famous magnetic pail, which
interested M. d'Eslon, head doctor to the Comte d'Artois--later
Charles X. He wrote about the magnetic pail. The Academy of
Medicine warned him to be more cautious in speaking of quack
inventions, and threatened to expel him from membership if he
did not retract what he had written. That body even made a new
rule to this effect: "No doctor declaring himself in favor of
animal magnetism, either in theory or practice, can be a member
of this society."

Mesmer, hearing the police had their eye on him, went to Spa.
But the ladies took his part with such ardor that the king named
a commission to inquire into his discovery. Its members, too,
were owls. They reported that "the magnetic fluid of which
Mesmer speaks does not exist." Jussieu stood out against the
owls and he only. He said: "All your efforts will not prevent
this truth from making its way. They can only prevent this
generation from profiting by it."

I should add that the influence gained by the hypnotic operator
remains after the subject awakes from the trance. Its action
then reminds one of the characters in the legends of olden times
who sold their souls to Satan. The Emperor of Brazil is very
anxious to study hypnotism, or, at least, to dip into it when he
comes back to Paris.

The reader will observe in the foregoing letter and in all medical literature Mesmer is spoken of as a "charlatan" and "empiric." Charlatan is an opprobrious term, but "empiric" literally means one who follows experience instead of dogma, and should therefore be an honorable designation; but as the medical profession has always been dogmatic, and therefore hostile to empiricism, or fidelity to experience, it has made empiricism an opprobrious term. Dr. Mesmer was neither an ignoramus nor a quack, but a graduated physician, although his title is generally omitted. He had more enthusiasm than philosophy, but he was far in advance of his contemporaries, who had neither, and deserves to be honorably remembered.

OLD INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION.

The greatest triumph in the profession of education ever achieved by man was that of EZEKIEL RICH, of New Hampshire, born in 1784, whose successful experiments at Troy, New Hampshire, were fully reported in 1838 to the American Institute of Instruction, and were described in the last edition of the "_New Education_."

Mr. Rich demonstrated that a solid scientific, literary, moral, and industrial education, qualifying boys and girls for a successful business life, and greatly superior to the education now given, might be imparted to youth while they were also sufficiently occupied in the industrial way to _pay all their expenses_.

This is incomparably beyond anything that even the most famous teachers have ever done, for it brings the gospel of industrial salvation to all struggling laborers who dwell in poverty--not immediate salvation for themselves, but salvation for their class, by making education free for all, and giving to the children of the poorest laborer the opportunity of a career in which independence is sure, and wealth a possibility.

The profession of teaching, like all other professions, runs in its fixed grooves or, as popularly expressed, its "ruts," and it will be long ere the noble example of RICH will inspire a spirit of imitation. His exposition of his method lay almost half a century unnoticed, until I brought it before the National Educational Association.

Upon the subject of Industrial Training, Mr. Geo. P. Morris has resurrected an old treatise, published by Thomas Budd, in 1685, describing East and West Jersey, in which he lays down a system of practical education which he wished to see adopted in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

He wishes a thousand acres of land given to maintain each school, free for the poor, the rich, and the Indians--the _children being_ _maintained_ free of expense to parents from the profits of the school "_arising by the work of the scholars_." They are to be occupied in "learning to read and write true English, Latine and other useful speeches and languages, and fair writing, arithmatick and bookkeeping; and the boys to be taught and instructed in some mystery or trade, as the making of mathematical instruments, joynery, turnery, the making of blocks and watches, weaving, shoemaking, or any other useful trade or mystery that the school is capable of teaching; and the girls to be taught and instructed in spinning of flax and wool, and knitting of gloves and stockings, sewing and making of all sorts of useful needlework, and the making of straw-work, as hats, baskets, etc., or any other useful art or mystery that the school is capable of teaching.

"3. That the scholars be kept in the morning two hours, at
reading, writing, book-keeping, etc., and the other two hours at
work in that art, mystery, or trade that he or she _most
delighteth in_, and then let them have two hours to dine and for
recreation; and in the afternoon, two hours at reading, writing,
etc., and the other two hours at work at their several
imployments."

Budd quotes from a book by Andrew Yarenton an account of the spinning-schools in Germany, as follows: "In all towns there are schools for little girls, from six years old and upwards, to teach them to spin, and to bring their tender fingers by degrees to spin very fine; their wheels go all by the foot, made to go with much ease, whereby the action or motion is very easie and delightful. The way, method, rule, and order how they are governed is, 1st. There is a large room, and in the middle thereof a little box like a pulpit. 2ndly, There are benches built around about the room, as they are in playhouses; upon the benches sit about two hundred children spinning, and in the box in the middle of the room sits the grand mistress, with a long white wand in her hand," with which she designates the idle for punishment.

"They raise their children as they spin finer to the higher
benches. 2d. They sort and size all the threds, so that they can
apply them to make equal cloths; and after a young maid has been
three years in the spinning-school, that is taken in at six, and
then continues until nine years, she will get eight pence the
day, and, in these parts I speak of, a man that has most
children lives best."

Eight pence a day at that time was good wages for an artisan.

Thos. Budd was more than two hundred years ahead of the teachers of America, for they are just beginning to introduce Industrial Education, and they have not reached up to this idea of making the work of pupils pay their expenses, which Budd proposed, and which Rich realized.

In Yarenton's account of the spinning-schools, the reader will observe that the children are occupied solely in spinning, their minds being left without culture. How easy would it have been for the grand mistress, instead of merely watching their work, to have been instructing them orally in any species of knowledge, or leading them in singing, which would have made their time pass delightfully, and cultivated all the finer sentiments of the soul.

RICH has the honor of proving that this could be done, and that there was no fatigue, but continual pleasure all day long when the monotony of work was relieved by instruction, and the instruction that would have been monotonous by itself was made pleasant by being intermingled with hand work.

Man cannot be well trained or developed in fragments. Head, hand, and soul must all co-operate, and then each strengthens the other. When shall we have another RICH?

Boston is making progress in industrial education. At the exhibition of a school in Brookline, conducted by our worthy friend, Mr. Griffin, fine cabinet work, bureaus, desks, etc., were shown, equal to the work of the best mechanics, produced by boys of from twelve to sixteen years, after forty or fifty lessons of three hours each.

This is the true method of conquering poverty and putting an end to social discontent. When all youth of both sexes are trained in industrial skill and diversified employments, poverty will disappear.

AN INCOMPARABLE "MEDICAL OUTLAW."

London papers inform us that "all England is in mourning" over the death of Robert Howard Hutton, the renowned natural bone-setter, which recently occurred in that city. Judging from the large number of biographical notices, editorials, and communications which appear in English journals, he must have been one of the best known men in the British empire. It appears to be admitted that his fame greatly surpassed that of any physician or surgeon in the whole country. One lady of rank pronounces his death "a national calamity," and a gentleman, who speaks of England as "the most doctor-ridden nation under heaven," refers to more than a hundred cures effected by this remarkable man among his acquaintances after they had failed to derive any benefit from the regular practitioners, who were the most eminent in their profession. Years ago, George Moore, a distinguished philanthropist and millionaire of London, testified that Hutton treated him in the case of a displacement of a bone, which had baffled the skill of the most famous surgeons in the country for three years, and effected a complete cure in one minute. Hunters, cricket players, rowing men, and athletes in all parts of Great Britain consulted Hutton when they met with accidents. A sporting paper, in a notice of his career, says:

"He gradually broke down the wall of prejudice which had been
built up against bone-setters by the medical faculty on the
ground that they were merely quacks. His cures in cases of
displacements and sprains which had puzzled the most expert
surgeons, were so brilliant and undisputed that he was
frequently consulted by those who had previously reviled him.
His house in Queen Anne Street was thronged day after day by
persons, who in some instances had come hundreds of miles to
avail themselves of his skill."

Robert Howard Hutton was born in Westmoreland county, England, forty-seven years ago. He belonged to a family of "natural bone-setters," the most famous of whom was his uncle, who taught him all the mysteries of his craft. He practised surgery in Westmoreland and adjacent counties for several years, where he acquired such a reputation that he was induced to move to London. He appears to have made the change more from philanthropic than from monetary considerations. He loved the country and was very fond of hunting. Once in London and within reach by railroad of every portion of Great Britain, his patronage became so extensive that he had no time to gratify his inclination in regard to sports.

Men of the class to which Mr. Hutton belonged, were once quite common in this country. Men conducting large lumbering operations in Maine generally arranged to take a "natural bone-setter" into the woods every winter. The masters of whaling vessels endeavored to have one among their crews. The faith of ignorant people in "natural bone-setters" is profound.

They believe that they are possessed of inherent knowledge and skill. Some think that they are possessed of a natural gift, and others that they have acquired secrets that never become known to the members of the medical profession. The circumstance that they effect a cure in persons who had "suffered much from many physicians," though they never read a medical book, never attended college, never witnessed a clinic, and never received instruction from a preceptor, elevates them in the minds of the people far above the directors of hospitals.

It is fair to presume that men like Mr. Hutton are possessed of great skill and also of great knowledge. They may not know the scientific name of any bone, ligament, or muscle in the human body, but they may know the location and function of every one of them. Instead of being derided as "quacks," they should be classed as hereditary specialists. It is admitted that bees, ants, dogs and horses inherit knowledge and skill, and it is certainly fair to presume that human beings do the same. No person will be likely to practice surgery without having had a course of training, unless he has great confidence in himself, and self-confidence makes one resolute. Mr. Hutton, it is said, never administered an anæsthetic and never employed an assistant. He was very strong, quick, and active. He jerked a bone into place in an instant, while he was telling a story, and before the sufferer knew what was about to happen. He had a most extensive practice, and "practice makes perfect." It is likely that he put more dislocated bones in place than any ten regular practitioners in his country. He was an observant man, with remarkable keenness of sight and delicacy of touch. His great success caused him to undertake risks that many surgeons would shrink from. His success as well as that of others of his class, may be accounted for on scientific principles. It remains to be seen what medical journals will say of him. It is certain that the secular press regarded him as a most extraordinary man, and regret that the family of "natural bone-setters" died out with him.--_Chicago Times_.

It is for the suppression, imprisonment or banishment of such men as Hutton and the American bone-setter, Sweet, that American legislatures are besieged by medical monopolists. It is not long since that the gifted Italian woman, Rosa del Cin, was driven back to Italy by medical hostility in New York. No medical college allows its students to learn the healing power of gifted individuals.

EDUCATIONAL.

EDUCATIONAL REFORM IN ENGLAND.--Education, writes James Payn in the Independent, has for a long time, as regards the upper classes, been in the hands of impostors and coxcombs. Scotch schools for ten pounds a year have for generations turned out better educated men than in our public schools for two hundred pounds, and of late the school boards have shown how efficiency can be combined with low prices. This last development has put the great educational establishments upon their mettle, and induced them to consider whether a smattering of Greek obtained in twenty years, and forgotten in the twenty-first, is, after all, the highest form of intellectual culture. The head-masters of Harrow, Winchester and Marlbro' have come at last to the sage conclusion that twelve years of age is quite early enough to begin Greek, and that for a good many boys that tongue is a superfluity. The simple truth is that not one boy in ten understands Greek. Unhappily this act of tardy justice (and mercy) can have no retrospective effect. Think of the generations of unhappy children who have been tortured by that infernal language, and of the imprisonment in summer days of which it has been the cause. Who can give us back our lost time and liberties infringed? I don't wish to revive ancient customs of a vindictive nature, but I should like to see the Greek grammar burnt by the common hangman in every school yard.

Payn's indignant language might be reinforced by quoting De Quincey's description of the second Lord Shaftesbury, a man whose intellect was developed by classical studies alone, and who was practised daily in talking in Latin until he became "the most absolute and undistinguishing pedant that perhaps literature has to show. No thought, however beautiful, no image, however magnificent, could conciliate his praise as long as it was clothed in English, but present him with the most trivial commonplaces in Greek, and he unaffectedly fancied them divine." Hence he ridiculed Milton, Dryden, Locke, and Shakespeare. How much time and money have been spent in colleges to produce this pedantic perversion of the mind, to create that love of the ignorance of antiquity and indifference to modern enlightenment which are so common among the college-educated classes.

DEAD LANGUAGES VANISHING.--In the eighty higher grammar schools in Germany which are entitled to grant certificates of the proficiency requisite in order that military service may be reduced from three years to one, French and English are the only foreign languages taught, Latin being excluded.

HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN.--Women in Russia have for the last twenty-three years been permitted to obtain university degrees, and now they are permitted to enter the medical profession. Sweden and Norway have followed the example, so has Italy and even Portugal. De Castro, the Portuguese prime minister, says that the improvement of female education is the most urgent question of the day. In France, Mad. Kergomard has been elected a member of the Superior Council of Public Instruction by a large majority.

In the London University this year, there were 340 successful candidates, sixty-one of whom were ladies. They were rather more successful than the men in gaining honors.

Emily S. Bouton says, "In England a society has been formed of young women, some of them belonging to families of wealth and distinction. Each member binds herself upon entering to learn some one thing, whether art, profession or trade, so thoroughly, that if misfortune comes she will be able to maintain herself by its exercise. It is the beginning of a realization by women themselves, that for any work that demands wages, there must be, not a superficial knowledge which is sure to fail when the test is applied, but a training that will give the mastery of all the faculties, and enable the worker to labor to a definite purpose."

BAD SUNDAY-SCHOOL BOOKS.--An Eastern correspondent of the St. Louis Globe has been talking with a Sunday-school superintendent about the bad books in the Sunday-school library, as follows:

"But that isn't all or the worst of it," continued the
superintendent. "Not long ago one of the teachers came to me and
said her faith in orthodoxy had been very much shaken, and she
did not know that she could conscientiously remain longer in the
school. Several of her class were also losing their confidence
in the old creed. She said this result had been reached by
reading one of the books in the Sunday-school library. It was
'Bluffton,' and was the account of how a young Presbyterian
minister had gradually been converted to rationalism, and had
finally taken his congregation with him over to liberalism. I
hunted up the work and read it. The author is Rev. Minot J.
Savage, the prominent and eloquent Boston Unitarian clergyman.
The book is a remarkable one, and even made me feel
uncomfortable, as hide-bound in Calvinism as I supposed I was.
Investigation showed that a score of our older scholars and
several of the teachers had been very much impressed by the
story, and had been talking the subject over. The book is all
the more effective because it is a faithful portrayal, so I
understand, of Mr. Savage's experience. How the book got into
our library I don't know, but I suppose the selections were made
by some clerk in the publishing house of whom we purchased. He
saw the book was by a minister, and naturally presumed it was
eminently fit. Right in our own city I have learned that
'Bluffton' is in half a dozen libraries, and is doing deadly
work to orthodoxy. Of course this sort of thing must stop."

OUR BARBAROUS ORTHOGRAPHY.--An attempt was once made to introduce the English language in Japan, but their learned men decided that the irregularities of English spelling and grammar were a fatal objection. The best illustration of its barbarism is to attempt to carry it out uniformly,

For spelling is easy, although
We may not always knough
How to spell sough.

The attempt to form the past tense of verbs by analogy produces this amusing result from the pen of H. C. Dodge.

The teacher a lesson he taught;
The preacher a lesson he praught;
The stealer, he stole;
The healer, he hole;
And the screecher, he awfully scraught.

The long-winded speaker, he spoke;
The poor office seeker, he soke;
The runner, he ran;
The dunner, he dan;
And the shrieker, he horribly shroke.

The flyer to Canada flew;
The buyer, on credit he bew;
The doer, he did;
The suer, he sid;
And the liar (a fisherman) lew.

The writer, this nonsense he wrote;
The fighter (an editor) fote;
The swimmer, he swam;
The skimmer, he skam;
And the biter was hungry and bote.

CRITICAL.

EUROPEAN BARBARISM.--A German Major, of distinguished military career, brought a suit for libel securing an apology and retraction, but after this satisfactory result a caucus of army officers, called a court of honor, induced the war office to dismiss him from the army _because he had not challenged his opponent_. This appears to be the doctrine of the war office. America has outgrown such barbarism. Not only are duels forbidden, but Texas has passed a severe law against carrying pistols, the punishment being imprisonment.

BOSTON CIVILIZATION.--More space is given by our leading dailies to base ball, pugilism, races, games and crimes than to anything else. Of course Boston wants such reading. The Herald says, "It is not unusual to see 5000 people sitting in the hottest sun of the hottest summer days for more than two hours, and not even murmuring at the lack of liberality which fails to provide them the slightest awning for shelter. There is a grand stand for which the price of $1 for a reserved seat is charged. The character of these reserved seats would exceed belief on the part of those who have not been in them. And yet the management who deal in this manner with a long forbearing public find it not an unusual event to make $3000 clear profit from a single game of base ball!"

But Boston has religion as well as base ball and "_Sufferings of God's Mother_" was the heading of a piece of religious news in the Boston Herald.

On the other hand the temperance influence through high license has reduced the number of liquor saloons in Boston to 800 less than two years ago.

MONOPOLY.--The latest monopoly under the name of a trust is the "Salt Trust." Sixty-three companies unite to form it. The object is to freeze out competition and keep up the prices. These "trusts" which began with the Standard Oil, and are gradually extending over the whole field of production, are as much opposed to the genius of our institutions as Socialists or Nihilists. They are gigantic monopolies, and the purpose is to do by combinations of capital what could never be done under fair and honest competition.--_Herald_.

The remedy for this must be found in legislation. Boycotting is illegal, monopoly _should be_.

WOMEN'S DRUDGERY.--Why should all the washing, cooking, and sewing of each household be done by its women? We have laundries, ready-made clothing, and bakeries, and now it is proposed in Boston to furnish a complete supply of ready-cooked food. This _can be done_ cheaper than families can supply themselves, if we leave out the American propensity to speculate in exorbitant profits.

CHRISTIAN CIVILIZATION.--Wong Chin Foo may boast of the superiority of heathenism as long as pauperism shows itself to be a vast ulcer, as in the following despatch from London:

"Pauperism is on the increase in the metropolis. Last week
relief was given to 53,164 indoor, and 35,110 outdoor paupers.
The total shows an increase of 2011 over the corresponding week
last year. Trafalgar Square pavement is half covered nightly
with houseless vagrants, and church steps, benches, and doorways
in nearly all parts of London have their complements of
destitute people after midnight. Many resort to the parks in the
daytime to obtain on the grass the sleep which they are unable
to get on the stones by night, and begging cannot be suppressed
by the police."

WALT WHITMAN, the odd and original American poet, enjoys in his declining years and feeble health the admiration of a large number of literary friends, who are to build him a beautiful little cottage. His special admirers regard him as the greatest of American poets, and he has equally warm admirers among the foreign literati. A Walt Whitman club is to be established in his honor at Philadelphia. Yet it is not long since Mr. Whitman was made the target of the "prurient prudes," who carry on the Comstockian movement of the Vice Society, and was ordered to expunge some of his writings. Mr. Whitman defied them, and his literary prestige has sustained him; but Mrs. Elmina Drake Slenker, of Western Virginia, a woman of humble surroundings, has been pounced upon, arrested, and placed on trial for discussing in private correspondence physiological questions in reproduction which might have been discussed by physicians in medical journals with impunity. Her friends regard this as an outrage, considering her exemplary character and philanthropic motives. The Congressional law under which the prosecution of Mrs. Slenker has been instituted, is a specimen of hasty legislation, rushed through in the last hours of the 42d session, more than one-half of all the acts being passed on the last day and night amid the most disgraceful confusion and uproar.

A well-educated community will learn that the charge of obscenity in such cases expresses a quality which belongs neither to nature nor art, but to the foul minds in which such ideas rise. This was illustrated by an intelligent judge in Maine. _The Health Monthly_ says:

"Recently in Portland an art dealer was arrested for exhibiting
immoral pictures in his window. Mr. Stubbs, the artist, gathered
up samples of all the pictures that he had exhibited in his
windows and took them with him into court. He placed them about
the court room on chairs and benches. They were copies of
masterpieces of the Paris Salon of well-known subjects, and such
as are familiar to all art critics. As Judge Gould looked about
him and saw these pictures he thought it unnecessary to take
testimony, but descending from his desk he made a pilgrimage of
the room, carefully inspecting each picture. He exhibited much
appreciation, and after examining the last one, he complimented
the taste of the art dealer and dismissed the case. A sensible
judge."

This "prurient prudery" of the vulgar mind was once strongly exhibited in Baltimore. The millionaire Winans had imported from abroad quite a number of classical statues, which he erected in the beautiful grounds around his palatial residence. The ignorant vulgarity of the neighborhood made such a clamor against his statuary as to excite his indignation and contempt. He built a wall about his grounds fifteen feet high, to exclude the vulgar gaze. The City Council being thoroughly ashamed of the circumstances as a discredit to the city, passed a resolution requesting him to take down the wall, but Mr. W. had been too profoundly disgusted with the vulgarity of the people, and refused to remove it.

TEMPERANCE.--"For the first time in the history of Iowa, Fort Madison Penitentiary is short of a sufficient number of convicts to enable it to fill contracts made upon the basis of the usual supply. This and many similar instances go to prove that prohibition _does_ decrease crime."

Hon. W. D. Kelley, the oldest member of Congress, argues that the whiskey tax of ninety cents a gallon ought to be taken off because it amounts to little more than half a cent a drink, and therefore does not discourage intemperance. Temperance men would think this was an argument for increasing the tax. The best temperance measure would be to send every drunkard to a reformatory prison.

SCIENTIFIC.

EXTENSION OF ASTRONOMY.--An interesting and important announcement is made by an English scientist, Dr. Pritchard, of Oxford, which, if confirmed, will give a great deal of satisfaction to all who study the evening skies. He has succeeded in throwing out his measure-line to one of the fixed stars. Hitherto measurement has virtually stopped with our own solar system. The angles which form the basis of calculations for the remoter stellar spaces are so infinitesimal that human vision can take no certain and uniform cognizance of them. Until now science could only draw its great circle and say: Within this the millions of suns which shine upon the earth from all directions are not; how far they really are beyond, no one can tell, only conjecture. But now comes the camera, a veritable new eye for science, as sensitive as the optic nerve and a thousand times more steadfast and tireless, being able to hold its gaze upon the minutest object of search hour after hour, without blinking. It is with this new eye that Dr. Pritchard has succeeded, as he thinks, in reading the infinitesimal figures on the milestone of the star 61 Cygni. He gives the distance as fifty billions of miles, and reminds us that this star is probably the nearest to us of all the bodies in space outside our own planetary system.--_Home Journal_.

A NEW BASIS FOR CHEMISTRY has been published by Thos. Sterry Hunt, 165 pages, price, $2. Prof. Hunt dispenses entirely with the atomic theory, but that does not make the mystery of definite combinations any clearer. It is only "confusion worse confounded."

CHLOROFORM IN HYDROPHOBIA.--Dr. V. G. Miller, an old army surgeon of Osage Mission, Kansas, says that he once treated a terrible case of hydrophobia with chloroform, using altogether about three pounds. It conquered the spasms. A slimy, stringy secretion ran out of the man's mouth which probably carried off the poison, and for a long time he could not swallow, but in three weeks he entirely recovered. The salivary glands seem to have a close relation to hydrophobia. Many years ago reports were published from Russia on the authority of M. Marochetti, a hospital surgeon, of the cure of hydrophobia, by piercing with a red hot needle certain swellings that rose under the tongue, and giving a decoction of broom. Dr. M. said that fourteen were cured in this manner. This discovery seems to have been forgotten.

THE WATER QUESTION.--"It may naturally be asked, If Brooklyn has been so successfully supplied with water from driven wells, why has not New York adopted the same system? In answer to this it must be remembered that the drive-well is a new invention, and, before its application to Brooklyn, had only been used on a small scale. To this day no one can give satisfactory reasons why the water flows continuously from the earth through the pipe of a driven-well. Hence, to the public generally, this mode of obtaining water was new and little understood. At the time of its introduction to Brooklyn a water-famine was threatened. All the ordinary sources of supply had been exhausted by the ever-increasing population, and the authorities were puzzled what to do. In this extremity Andrews & Bro., a firm which had much experience in working drive-wells, offered _at their own expense_, to put down wells and supply the town with water. Had Andrews & Co. merely proposed to put down the wells and the town to pay the bill and run the risk of failure, the proposition would not have been entertained. Fortunately, Andrews & Co. offered to take the expense and risk of failure on their own shoulders. The city's chief engineer at the time, Robert Van Buren, seconded by Engineer Bergen, with the approval of Mayor Low and Commissioner Ropes, accepted the contract.

"Engineers and scientists, at the time, scouted the idea and raised all sorts of objections. The summer it was completed there was a five-months drought, with less than 2-1/2 inches of rain. This, however, did not affect the drive wells, and at the request of the town authorities, they increased the speed of their pumping engines, and supplied all demands, even beyond their contract. And there the wells still remain, a standing example, a pharos to enlighten the world.

"In the meantime, the neighboring city of New York, across the river, was alarmed for fear their Croton water should give out. Plans had been laid down and estimates made for enlarging their supply by bringing the whole Croton river to New York and building a new aqueduct. This involved an expenditure of fifty or sixty million dollars, and such a chance was not to be lightly given up by those who expected to be enriched by the job. To put down auxiliary driven wells would have required not one-twentieth the expense, and they would have furnished the town with water for all time, and moreover might have been put down within the city limits."--_J. Donbavand_.

PROGRESS OF HOMOEOPATHY.--Homoeopathy was first introduced into America in the year 1825 by Dr. Gram. It now numbers 11,000 practitioners, 14 medical colleges, 1,200 matriculants annually, 400 graduates annually, 57 hospitals with 4,500 beds, 3 insane asylums, 48 dispensaries, 150 societies, 23 journals, 33 pharmacies, 1 college of specialties.

ROUND THE WORLD QUICKLY.--A copy of the _London Times_, sent to Lord Huntly, Japan, went round the world, returning to London in 69 days.

GLANCES ROUND THE WORLD.

(_Continued and concluded from August No._)

In vain have I appealed to the educators of our country in "THE NEW EDUCATION." It will be half a century before our systems of education will be organized for the _elevation_ of society. Heretofore, our systems have had a positively demoralizing effect by inculcating a love of military glory, a love of ostentatious pedantry, a stubborn adherence to old opinions, and a scorn of useful industry. The gradual establishment of industrial schools, however, is the most hopeful sign in our educational system, and the establishment of ethical education will be the last and most glorious change. But that is a task for the next century which will understand how to save and reform criminals. The thought is already entertained, and the new _Princeton Review_ says, that in coming time "the world will look back with amazement upon the days when it let known, determined criminals run at large, only punishing them occasionally, by a temporary deprivation of their liberty in short and determinate sentences. We can see to-day that it is a thoroughly illogical proceeding. The man determined upon a life of crime is of no use to himself at large, and he is both a danger and expense in his community. He commonly gives evidence in his character and his acts of this determination--evidence sufficient for the court which tries and sentences him; but if that is too uncertain, then conviction for a second offence may be legally taken to define his position. After the second offence the criminal should be shut up, on an indeterminate sentence, where he will be compelled to labor to pay for his board and clothes and the expense of his safe-keeping."

AFRICAN POPULATION.

We have another disturbing element in the negro population, a large portion of which is unfitted for a republican government by ignorance and social debasement, but fortunately free from the violence and turbulence of the lower class of immigrants. This degradation is fast being removed by education and the ambition inspired by freedom. The latter is shown by the formation of the Afro-American League for the protection of the blacks, especially in the Southern States, and the advancement of their interests and influence. This idea originated with Mr. Fortune, the editor of the _New York Freeman_.

Few are aware of the progress of negro education. We have already 16,000 colored teachers. In the Southern States alone there are said to be 1,000,000 of pupils,--in the male and female high schools, 15,000. There are sixty normal schools, fifty colleges and universities, twenty-five theological seminaries, and in the churches 3,000,000 worshippers. The colored population pays taxes on from 150 to 200 millions of dollars.

The black race will be free from slavery at the close of this century. The Brazilian Parliament passed a law for gradual emancipation in 1871, when there were about 2,000,000 slaves. In 1885, the number was reduced to 1,200,000, and measures have been introduced to hasten the completion of emancipation.

In Cuba, slavery seems to be at an end. The queen regent of Spain has signed a decree freeing the Cuban slaves, some 300,000, from the remainder of their term of servitude. The work, thus consummated, began in 1869, which provided for the conditional emancipation of certain classes of slaves in Cuba, and for the payment of recompense to the owners of the men and women liberated. From the first, slave-owners have been paid for their slaves.

FOREIGN PROGRESS.

When we look abroad the most encouraging progress is in the race to which this republic owes its origin. In spite of the cruel oppression in Ireland, Great Britain has been prospering in the last twelve years. Mr. Mulhall, the able statistician, has shown in the contemporary _Review_ that in the United Kingdom, since 1875, the population has increased twelve per cent., the wealth twenty-two per cent., trade twenty-nine per cent., shipping sixty-seven per cent., and instruction sixty-eight per cent. Hence there is a marked increase of knowledge and wealth. During this period the natural increase of population has been 1200 daily and the immigration to the United States and Colonies has averaged 600 daily. In addition to the national increase, there has been an immigration of 1,317,000, consisting of foreign settlers and returned colonists. Two-thirds of the emigration went to the United States.

This healthy increase of population contrasts favorably with the condition in France. England had in 1883 a surplus of births over deaths of 367,000 in a population less than 27,000,000. In France the surplus of births in 1881 was but 108,229, in 1884 but 79,000, and in 1885, 85,464. The excessive militarism cultivated in France is adverse to national growth, and justly so; while the peaceful condition of America insures great national growth--a beneficent law. No nation has ever grown with the rapidity of ours, but our rate of growth has greatly diminished during the present century. Dr. Fonce's statistics show that twice as many children were born in proportion to population at the beginning of the century, as have been born since 1850. What is the reason?

PROGRESS IN FRANCE.

France has taken a very important step in emancipating education from the power of the church--completely secularizing education. Under the present law religious associations are no longer allowed, as such, to give instruction in public schools, and all schools taught by priests are to be superseded by public schools. The Ultramontanes are bitterly hostile to this law, and call it religious oppression, but it is firmly maintained. The Minister of Instruction says that in public instruction there cannot be two authorities, church and state, with equal sovereignty. There is but one sovereignty, that of the State.

Clerical studies do not now attract young men as formerly, either in America or France. The University of Paris last year had 11,000 alumni, but only thirty-five theological students. 3,786 studied for the legal profession, 3,696 for the medical, 1,767 attended to pharmacy, 928 to letters and 467 to science. There were 167 female students, 108 of them preparing for medicine, fifty-one in literary studies, seven in science and one preparing as a lawyer.

When France shall be sufficiently civilized to abolish duels and dismiss her standing army, she may have an opportunity of reaching the front rank in civilization and progress. Even at present France has many elements of the highest civilization in courtesy and refinement of manners, artistic skill, scientific progress and advancing wealth. The French might give some valuable lessons to Americans, especially in journalism. Mrs. J. C. Croly (Jennie June) in her recent address to the Women's Press Association in Boston, gave a pungent criticism on American journalism which, in justice it must be said, is not applicable to the press generally, although the immense space given to baseball, pugilism, races, and all species of crime, by our leading journals, is disgraceful. "If the tail were large enough," said Dundreary, "the tail would waggle the dog!" certainly the tail end of society wags its journals. Mrs. Croly said:--

"What the newspaper seems to be principally valued for, just
now, is for doing individual gossiping, scolding and backbiting
on a large scale, and in a way that relieves the individual from
responsibility. The old women of the past have been royally
revenged for all the sneers and slights put upon their
spectacled talks, and tea parties; for back-door tittle-tattle
of the meanest, most reckless sort, has been made a business,
has become the staple of some journals. That people read such
stuff does not seem to me reason enough for printing it. Shall
we not have a daily paper some time, that is at once bright,
clear, pure, honest and strong; one that works upward, instead
of downward; that has its hold upon the best things, and
inspires us with new faith in them, and in their power to work
out race redemption."

Such criticisms do not apply to the Parisian press, which employs and pays liberally the ablest writers.

The French have at last begun the publication of cheap literature for the people. A firm in Paris "have begun the issue of what is termed the Nouvelle Bibliotheque Populaire (the New Popular Library), at ten centimes, or two cents, an issue, this to be a collection of the most remarkable works of all literature, histories voyages, romances, plays, religious and philosophical treatises, and poetry, etc. Each volume is to be complete, and is to have thirty-two pages, printed in clear text, the equivalent in its entirety to one hundred pages of an ordinary French book. These volumes are to be published one each week, at a subscription price of seven francs, or a little less than $1.40 per year."