Chapter 2

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 anaesthetic 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_.