well-and it is sad to think of it-that many sick people change only as a last re source, and it becomes the last. In estimating the death-rate, then, of any given place, I would rigidly exclude the comers and goers. Another thing to be well considered before making up one's mind to go anywhere, is the season. Every health-resort has its season; and depend upon it, those seasons are well chosen by medical men who know what they are about. I mentioned the word "acclimatised;" and there is a great deal more in that than, it seems to me, most people think of, or trouble themselves to think about. I will give an example that must be familiar to many. Take an inhabitant of inland Ross-shire, of fairly good health, and send him in spring to one of the Southern counties of England; he will hardly be here a fortnight before he will be found wrapping up against the east winds--perhaps even wearing a top-coat and underclothing; when spring gives place to summer, he gets no harder in muscle, no stronger in nerve, though he sleeps longer of a night than he ever did in Scotland; the heat annoys him, too, and makes him languid and inactive. He gets through the summer, and perhaps a very hard winter comes. "Richard is himself again!" the sky is clear and frosty, there is an honest foot of snow on the ground; he throws aside the top-coat; the blood once more mantles in his cheeks; he will have his cold bath every morning; and should the ice be an inch thick, he will smash it with his brawny fist or with the hard-frozen sponge, but have the bath he will, and is happy in consequence; all his hardiness returns, and his very footsteps ring on the ground as he marches along. Two extreme cases illustrative of the danger of a too sudden and extreme change of climate might be thus supposed: Let an Eskimo Indian change places with a native of Zanzibar; it could not be done all at once, but for hypothesis' sake we will suppose the change effected within a week. In less than another fortnight your Eskimo would be sleeping in his sea-laved grave on the beach, and the Zanzibarite would have gone to his long home under the snow. cided sedative influence on the mucous membranes of the stomach. The thymol, J. W. Horsley, chaplain of a London prison, is authority for the statement that The air of most of our large towns and cities is very impure, and loaded with poisonous gases, sulphuretted and carburetted hydrogen, carbonic acid gas, the emanations from sewers and from polluted rivers. Can we wonder, then, at the inhabitants being, as a rule, puny, pale, and sickly? "We live in air," says a recent writer, "and this air flows continually into our blood. No marvel, then, that we are influenced by climate, which means the condition of the air. In tem. perature, however, citizens have some advantage over dwellers in the country. In villages the air is, as a rule, very pure. Around these there may be even marshy lands, but the emanation therefrom is diluted, and even neutralized or blown away altogether, by the fresh pure winds of heaven. The higher these villages are situated, the more pure is the air; the more dry and bracing it is, and more laden with health-giving ozone. Villages by the banks of large rivers are subject to various influences that are by no means very conducive to health; notably, exhalations from the river itself, from decaying animal and vegetable matter on its banks, from the malaria of low-lying adjacent lands, and from haze and fogs. These are worse in the heat of summer and in autumn. Houses or villages built near to fens or swampy moors are not to be desired, and the inhabitants are liable to ague or typhus fever or both. The same is to be said about dwellings near wet, unwhol some, or swampy woods. We hear great talk of night air. "A land of meadows," says a reliable authority," and parks and ponds and rivers and woods is a thousand times more hazardous than all the nights of all the winters that ever were. the real night air to be dreaded, even though the gray mist should not rise or the dew should not fall. To take a pleasant evening walk by the banks of the river or lake, to watch the trout rise at the evening flies; to saunter among wet groves till the moon rises, listening to the nightingale; these, and more of such rural amusements and delights, are the true night air-the malaria and fever." Well, I have to add to this, that though the strong and robust may withstand any amount of malarious darts aimed at their life through the medium of this true night air, invalids who frequent such districts ought to be cautious. Yet, is this not a mistake most commonly made an invalid or delicate person wrapping up and going out at night, thinking it is the cold alone he or she has to avoid? This is Gravel soils are most healthy, and next comes chalk. Let me conclude by remarking that thousands of city folks, business and professional men (except medical men, who must remain in town), would be consulting their own interests by living at night out of the city altogether. In these days of hourly fast trains, how very speedily one can get whirled away from the emanation laden atmosphere of town to pure and salubrious air! If any one thinks of acting on my advice, he will do well to consider what part of the country around town will suit his constitution best; which an interview with his own medical man will the more easily enable him to do.-A Family Doctor in Cassell's Family Magazine, July. of New Haven, has given $5,000 to the New Haven hospital to endow a free bed, NOTES. A physician, referring to the custom of traveling on sleeping-cars with the berths made up with their heads toward the engine, said: "It is certainly bad for the brain of the sleeper, as it is not natural; and it is no wonder that so many travelers, especially those who have been on the road extensively, experience bad effects from it. Take infants in baby carriages, and no sane woman will think of trundling the vehicle along so the child goes head first. They always-except the young and inexperienced mother-push them along feet first. Physicians invariably advise such locomotion. It is the same thing on the cars, and no one should hesitate about having his berth made up so as to move along feet first. It is much better for the brain.". -Skin from the back of a frog has been used by Dr. O. Petersen for hastening the healing of wounds. Grafts of the size of the thumbnail were caused to adhere firmly in two days, and in two days more the pigmentation of the transplanted skin had almost disappeared. The resulting cicatrice is of great softness and elasticity. Some of the London hospitals are now beginning to employ frog's skin as grafts in place or other skin. The following is condensed from a recent number of the Kansas Medical Index: "In the large class of summer diarrhoeas of children and adults, with griping in the bowels and flatulence, the use of Listerine, in doses varying from ten drops to a teaspoonful (with or without water), has a most salutary and pleasing effect. It can be administered at short intervals after eating, as soon as regurgitation, distension, or acidity occurs. Its action in arresting excessive fermentation is prompt; besides, it exercises a de RAILROADS. RAILROAD EARNINGS.-From the monthly statements of railroad earnings pub. lished by the Financial Chronicle interesting comparisons and deductions as to railway progress are capable of being made. The tables referred to contain from year to year a class of roads that indicate a fair approximation of the state of traffic and earnings. The roads making regular monthly reports since 1880 include from 35 to 40 per cent. of the total miles in operation. These reports are unquestionably fairly representative of the ratio of earnings per mile of road in use. Accepting these statements as a fair criterion of progress and as a basis of estimate, it is seen the mileage earnings of railroads have steadily decreased since 1880. Taking the gross earnings of these roads in each month for the first five months of the year, it is seen that the decrease has been almost as regular as the downward steps of stairs. Two months out of the past five months of the current year show an increase over the corresponding months of 1885, but the total from January 1 to May 31, 1886, shows a decline below the same period last year, and the smallest total amount of six years. The following shows the gross earnings per mile of the roads alluded to above in each month from January to May, inclusive, and the totals for this period in each year from 1880 to 1886: Year. 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 342 330 331 417 394 1,814 328 307 299 391 366 355 1,747 325 365 360 360 1,709 The decline in mileage earnings for the first five months of 1886, as compared with last year, is equal to 2.2 per cent., and, as compared with 1880, no less than 24.8 per cent. This decline is not without an important meaning. The falling off in earnings has already affected the dividend capacity of several roads, and has brought upon many an inconvenient floating debt, while others have been forced to receiverships for protection from creditors. The deplorable financial condition in which many roads are found, and toward which others are inevitably tending, is not caused by a decline in traffic, nor is it fully accounted for by the trade depression of the past two years. Since 1880 the tonnage movement of all the roads of the United States has increased from about 35,000 billion tons to about 45 billion tons one mile in 1884. The increase was nearly 33 per cent., while the aggre. gate gross earnings from freight for the same period show an increase in amount of less than 9 per cent. The aggregate net earnings from traffic of all the roads for 1884 showed an increase over 1880 of less than $1,500,000. The decline in earnings compared with the increase in traffic would be of less significance were it not that railway capitalization had not, as it necessarily must, continue to increase. In 1880 the aggregate bonded debts of the 93,659 miles of road then in existence was about $2,392,000,000, or about $25,500 per mile; in 1884, according to Poor, the funded debts had increased to $3,669,000,000, or to more than $29,300 per mile, the increase being equal to nearly 15 per cent. Fixed charges may not have grown in an equal ratio, as many new issues of bonds bear a lower rate of interest than was formerly placed upon this class of securities; but, admitting the increase in interest charges to be 10 per cent., the cause for anxiety over decreasing earnings is still apparent.-The Stockholder. NOTES.-The Chicago, Burlington & Northern is laying tracks at the rate of four miles a day between Savannah, Ill., and St. Paul, Minn.- -The Mississippi railroad commissioner has adopted a tariff reducing passenger rates to 3 cents per mile for that State.-Philip J. Cullen and Emil Topp, who several months ago succeeded in securing passes over different railways, which they sold to scalpers, by forging the name of the secretary of the Young Men's Christian Association, of Chicago, have been found guilty of conspiracy to defraud, and have been sentenced to one year's imprisonment each in the penitentiary.- -The Louisville & Nashville railroad takes the palm in regard to the extent of mileage changed from five feet to the new southern standard gauge in one day. The large mileage of 1,593 miles main line, and 213 miles of side track, making a total of 1,806 miles, were changed on the 30th; beside which, 312 miles of branch lines, and 16 miles of sidings were changed on the two previous days. The force employed on the 30th averaged four men to each mile of main line and siding, and five men for each mile in the terminal yards, making a total of 8,763 men employed in changing the tracks. -The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul is about to build a bridge across the Missouri river, at Kansas City, to cost at least $1,200,000, and promises to have trains running to that city within a year.- -The opening of the Canadian Pacific as a through line to the Pacific coast is to take place June 28, and the distance between Montreal and Vancouver will be run in 130 hours.- -The Minnesota rail. ways have now all reduced their rates on round-trip tickets to the basis of 11⁄2 of the one way rate, making the rate in no case over three cents per mile.The bill to prohibit members of Congress from acting as attorney for any of the Government grant railway companies has passed the Senate by a vote of 37 to II. Louis is to have an electric elevated railway 41⁄2 miles long. It is said that work will be commenced as soon as the franchise has been obtained.- -An English journal says: "A large railway bridge was needed in Australia and the competition for its supply was open to the world.' An American engineer's design was selected, and the tender was placed in America. There was much heart-burning and anxiety amongst the engineers and bridge-builders of Europe, and there was a good deal of disappointment at the 'result.'"- -It is said that the Shah of Persia has granted such concessions as make the construction of several railroads probable.- -It appears that in China the determination to construct one or more railroads has been considered, and the matter indefinitely postponed.—It is rumored that locomotive works are to be built at or near Birmingham, Ala.- -It is reported that the Texas & St. Louis railroad will build $100,000 machine shops at Pine Bluff, Ark.- -The fare on the Second and Ninth avenue elevated roads, New York, has been reduced to five cents for the entire day. The result is that travel on these roads between commission hours has more than doubled. FINANCE AND COMMERCE. THE BUSINESS SITUATION. St. "GOOD TIMES" HERE.-There is no mistaking the buoyant confidence apparent through much, if not all, the business world. Good bonds were scarcely ever higher, and a new railroad loan was never placed at a lower rate than last weeknetting investors at the price bid 2% per cent. The stock market is rising. General business demands 36 per cent. more exchanges than it did a year ago—for the last week reported $870,211,218 in 1886, against $638,217,247 in 1885. When the question comes up as to the reason for all this, it is answered by the circumstance that in New York city, which furnishes two-thirds of these exchanges, the business of the stock exchange is now just twice what it was a year ago. The aggregate loans of the banks in New York, Boston and Philadelphia June 12 were $580,000,000; a year before they were $519,000,000. This advance of an eighth simply measures a still larger increase in the movement of merchandise. To date one-fifth more shoes have been sold in this country than in last year to the same date; since September our cotton mills have taken an eighth more cotton, and stocks of cotton cloth are only one-third as large; our blast furnaces are in current weeks turning out from a fifth to a fourth more pig iron; the trunk lines which carry trade to and from these cities to May 31 made approximately $1,962,000 from through grain, against $1,722,000 in the same time last year, and this is only one item in railroad business out of many. The business and the sales of the first six months of the current year are certain to be exceeded by those of the last six months The harvests of 1886, it is now certain, will be larger than in 1885, and they will be marketed at prices which will not be lower and in all probability will be higher than for the last twelvemonth. Wool, one great staple, after reaching very nearly the lowest average prices on record last spring, has begun an advance, on the basis of the London wool sales, of from 10 to 20 per cent., which cannot fail to increase the profits of the producer in this country. This advance is noteworthy, also, as the first which has taken place in any of the great staple raw materials and its influence upon the future price of manufactures in wool must be considerable. Carpet wools, for instance, have advanced more heavily than others, and the finished product can scarcely escape the effect of this rise. A year ago also, it must not be forgotten, most careful observers of our currency were in a good deal of a panic over the silver question, a panic which, we are glad to say, the Press did not share. But at present the risks of the demonetization of silver bulk are larger in India, and by consequence in England, than here. The limit of the absorption of the silver surplus of the old world by India seems to have been almost reached. When the crash comes there, as come it will in due time, some international agreement to restore or increase the coinage value of silver seems inevitable, and this will add to the strength of our own currency. Meanwhile, both our circulating medium and our banking system appear well able to meet all the nearer perils of the day, which is more than can be said of most European countries. For the signs of prosperity which appear here are not to be seen in Europe. If we are using more cotton and making more iron, they are using and making less in England and on the ContiThe bulk of business is not larger than in 1885, but smaller. Wages are not stationary or rising, but falling. And the defeat of the Morrison bill gives every hope that the beginnings of prosperity will go on to a flood.-Philadelphia Press, June 21, nent. IRON-REMARKABLE PROGRESS.-The iron furnaces of the country were producing more iron June 1 than at any previous time in the history of the United States. The number of furnaces in blast was 308, and the capacity weekly 119,770 tons. It is to be noticed that, as to a part of the furnaces, the capacity reported is a little in excess of the actual output, while for the other furnaces the returns represent the quantity actually produced. Of the aggregate output, 74,750 tons were of bituminous or coke iron, 35,136 tons of anthracite or anthracite mixed with coke, and 9,884 tons of charcoal iron. The increase in capacity of furnaces in blast during the month was about 9,500 tons, and since January 1, 22,719 tons, or about 23 per cent., a most remarkable change. During the past year the increase in output of anthracite furnaces has been nearly 80 per cent., and in bituminous furnaces about 75 per cent. This remarkable increase naturally suggests the question whether the output is not at this time much in excess of the demand for consumption, and the monthly statement of The American Manufacturer, from which these figures are taken, gives some information on this point. Though the returns, it is stated, do not give the necessary data for an accurate account of stock on hand, it is believed that stocks "are increasing rapidly in per cent., though at the present time they are by no means as great as they have been at certain periods in the past. The important feature in the increase is that its percentage is large." It is much to be regretted that the iron interest does not yet enjoy the advantage of a correct and reliable statement of stocks on hand monthly, which would be of invaluable service at times in guiding the operations of producers. Thus far, though the increase in stocks must have been relatively large, the actual quantity on hand does not appear to have become so great that prices have been materially affected, though there are some indications of weakness in the Philadelphia market, where Southern iron is offered freely at prices below that of Pennsylvania furnaces.-New York Tribune. THE VOLUME OF GERMAN MONEY.-Professor Soetbeer has just published an estimate of the quantity of money in circulation in Germany at the beginning of the current year. Converted into sterling the amounts of each description are as follows: £157,750,000 In 1871 Germany had, according to the same statistician's figures, only £4,500,ooo in gold, the amount of legal-tender silver at that time being £75,000,000, and the total amount of metallic money of all kinds £87,600,000. The amount of government paper was then £9,700,000, and the amount of uncovered banknotes was £17,950,000. The increase in the quantity of gold held is, it will be seen, very considerable, and it will be observed that this increase does not merely represent the diminution in the silver stock, as Germany now holds £46,200,000 more metallic currency of all kinds than she held in 1871.-Bradstreet's. NEGRO THRIFT.-The Charleston News says that the five savings banks of that city have 1,057 colored depositors, whose aggregate deposits amount to $124,936.35. The largest single deposit is $2,000 and the smallest $2. In Richmond, according to the State, the negro fights shy of the savings banks, the experience he had with the Freedmen's bank having prejudiced him, very naturally. In the national banks of Richmond there is less than $2,000 to the credit of colored people, and the savings bank there has but 125 depositors, whose deposits aggregate $9,300. The national banks have declined to take further deposits from colored people, which are made in the names of societies which the negro is so fond of forming. Every few days or few weeks the whole board of trustees presents itself at the bank with the information that a new treasurer has been appointed and that Matilda Joslyn Brown is no longer authorized to check out the society's funds. This is more trouble to the banks than the deposits are worth. But while the Richmond negro has little confidence in the savings banks, he is growing fonder of saving money, which he invests in real estate. In this Richmond is scarcely an exception, for a similar movement has been noted in nearly all the Southern cities. This turn of affairs is far better for the colored man than depositing his savings in a bank. He is participating in the growth and upbuilding of the towns, in a humble way, to be sure, but still he is one of the elements in the general advancement, a fact which cannot escape his own attention, and which should and undoubtedly does have an elevating influence, as well as being an example for the encouragement of thrift in his neighbors and acquaintances. Besides this and the fact that his investment is perfectly safe he is, if happily located in one of the thrifty cities of the South, get ting in the general advance of property as good interest as the savings banks can afford to pay.-Rochester Herald. BUSINESS AT THE SOUTH.-The surpassing progress of the South must be a surprise even to herself. Since 1880 she has added over 10,400 miles to her railroad system, the construction of which, added to investments in old roads and their improvements, foots up nearly $575,000,000. Her cotton mills have increased from 180 to 353, almost one hundred per cent., and in spindles and looms the per cent. is almost the same. In 1880, cotton-seed oil mills numbered forty. Now 146, with a capital of nearly $11,000,000, or more than three times the amount five years ago. In 1880 the South made 397,301 tons of pig-iron, and in 1884, 657,599 tons, a gain of 260,298 tons in four years. Coal, phosphate rock, and other mineral products have developed in almost equal ratio. Now turn to agriculture. The corn crop has increased from 334,000,000 bushels in 1879, to 499,000,000 in 1885, a gain of 165,000,000 bushels. Oats have nearly doubled in production, and the same is practically true of tobacco, fruit, vegetables, grasses, etc. In 1880 the live stock of the South was worth $439,900,000. At present its value is $599,000,ooo, or a gain of $159,000,000. So that, taking a general resume of the increasement of interests in the South, we find that she produced, in 1885, $300,700,000 more of agricultural, manufacturing, and mining products than in 1880, and is now enjoying the full momentum of the splendid impulse that she has acquired. This is a little more than the average value of the cotton crop, and $25,000,000 more than the total value of the wheat crop of the whole country for the past year. During 1885 the amount of capital, including capital stock of incorporated companies represented by the new mining and manufacturing enterprises at the South, and the enlargement of plants and rebuilding of mills destroyed by firé, aggregated nearly $67,000,000.-Planter's Journal. THE WORLD'S WHEAT CROP.-The Acting Commissioner of Agriculture, in reply to a resolution of the House making inquiries concerning stocks of corn and wheat in this and other countries, the demands of consumption, and the prospects of production throughout the world, has transmitted an exhaustive compilation of statistics by the statistician of the Department of Agriculture. The tables show that the world's product of wheat in 1885 was 2,110,000,000 bushels, the requirements of consumption 2,165,000,000 bushels, presenting a deficiency of 55,000,000 bushels, drawn from the previous year's surplus of 125,000,000 bushels. They find the product of Europe a medium, those of India and Australia large, and a heavy reduction in the United States. For the supply of the coming year the crops of Australia, India, and South America already harvested are probably about 32,000,000 bushels less than those of last year, while those of the United States promise fully 100,000,000 bushels more than the harvest of 1885. The wheat in the United States on May 1st, last, was 104,000,000 bushels, against 152,000,000 in 1885. The crop of corn in 1885-'86 was 1,617,000,000 bushels; the stock, 687,000,000 bushels, and the exportation, 42,000,000 bushels. The estimated acreage of winter wheat now growing is 24,727,087; spring wheat, 11,800,000; total, 36,527,087.-The Stockholder. $5,000 for greatest yield of lint cotton from I acre, $2,000; for greatest yield of THE EARLIEST BANK.-The term "bank" is derived from the Italian banco, a seat or bench, because the early custodians and dealers in money in Italy were accustomed to sit on benches in the market-places of the principal towns. The earliest public bank established in modern Europe was that of Venice, which was founded in 1157. About the year 1350 the cloth merchants of Barcelona, then a wealthy body, added the business of banking to their other commercial pursuits; being authorized so to do by an ordinance of the King of Aragon, which contained the important stipulation that they should be restricted from acting as bankers until they should have given sufficient security for the liquidation of their engagements. In 1401, a bank was opened by the functionaries of the city, the first of the kind ever established in Europe.-Jewish Messenger. ENGLISH NEWS ON AMERICAN PAPER.-It is possible that we have done a very rash thing in printing our journal on paper made in America. It has been proved to us, by all the canons of paper-making art, that the paper is rubbish. It has been analyzed, wetted, pulled, stretched, and torn, with results that were dubious and unsatisfactory. Our own paper-making experience impels us to the opinion that the Yankee sheet is a fraud. It is heavily loaded; it has no backbone; a rattle can hardly be extracted from it, and yet it prints better and looks better than any paper we have come across within the shores of this isle.--English Paper. NOTES. The Agricultural Department at Washington has just sent out large quantities of the eggs of the silk worm by mail to all parts of the country. It has now been satisfactorily demonstrated that the leaf of the Osage orange makes as good silk as that of the mulberry, and that the worms will feed upon it and thrive, The Department is in receipt of letters from girls in various parts of the country saying that they have made from $20 to $100 by raising silk in this way.- -The yearly exports of umbrellas from England are valued at £581,000.- -The statement of the Bureau of Statistics shows that the exports of cotton for the month of May reached a total of 139,538,942 pounds, valued at $13,698,926, against 51,070,240 pounds, valued at $5,527,789 for the corresponding month last year. For the nine months ended May 31 the exports of this product were 1,879,417,085, pounds, valued at $186,677,808, against 1,748,328,132 pounds, valued at $185,805,635, for the previous corresponding period.- -The Cotton Planters' Association of America, whose headquarters are at Vicksburg, Miss., offer the following prizes: Models of farm residences, with plan specifications, $2,000; models of gin houses, with plan specifications, from $1,000 to $3,000; models of barns and stables, with plan specifications, $2,000; models of cottages for laborers, with plan specifications, $1,000; for best general crop, so as to make the cotton a surplus money crop, SCIENTIFIC. THE TREASURES OF THE ALBATROSS.-The collections made in the Bahama Islands by the naturalists of the fish-commission steamer Albatross contains several Centurus, from the islands of Abaco and Watlings, or San Salvador, and two new new species of birds and reptiles. There are two new woodpeckers of the genus warblers of the genus Geothlypis from Abaco and New Providence, while there are possibly some new races to be described also. Kirthland's warbler (Dendroeca Kirtlandi) was found on Watlings, Abaco and Green Cay. Probably not more than half a dozen specimens of this species have hitherto been known. Another rarity was the Bahama cuckoo (Saurathera bahamensis), of which four specimens were obtained on New Providence Island. An apparently new species of blind worm (a peculiar family of snakes resembling worms, and covered with fish-like scales) is interesting as coming from a more northerly latitude than animals of this kind have yet been found in, having never before been taken in the Bahamas. The aguana was found in limited numbers on San Salvador. It is not known to exist on any other island of this group except Andross. There are several valuable snakes in the collection, one being a very rare boa, five or six feet long, from New Providence. There are many new species of lizards from Abaco and elsewhere. These shore collections were gathered at such times as the vessel anchored at suitable places, and are quite distinct from the dredging of fishes and marine invertebrates, the usual work of the vessel. There is the usual variety of undescribed and interesting material of the latter class, which appears to be inexhaustible. The winter cruises of the Albatross are undertaken with the co-operaion of the fish commission and the hydrographic office, on account of the exten sive series of deep-sea soundings that are taken for the latter department, and have proved of great value to this service.-Science. THE SENSOPHONE.-A new telegraph instrument, called the “Sensophone," has been brought out. It derives its name from the fact that the message is received on the finger by the sense of touch, instead of by the ear as in the well-known "Sounder." Otherwise the apparatus is similar to a "Sounder," and consists of of an electro-magnet, which is traversed by the signal currents from the telegraph line, and attracts an armature. The armature operates a small probe or style, which rests against the finger with its point, and presses into it so as to be felt by the receiver. The attraction of the armature actuating the probe is interpreted by the receiver, and written down as the message. Of course, the advantage of the plan is that no sound is heard, and therefore the telegraph is a silent one. A person may also write down the message with one hand while receiving it on the other.-Cassell's Family Magazine. which would give a rate of movement for the meteor of thirty-five and a half miles per minute. -The New York Times has fitted out an Alaska exploring expedition under the direction of Lieutenant Schwatka, with Professor Libby in charge of the scientific work. Rome Catane Venise Amsterdam Groningen Lisbonne NOTES. According to the calculations made by a scientific writer lately, it requires a prodigious amount of vegetable matter to form a layer of coal, the estimate being that it would really take a million years to form a coal-bed 100 feet thick. The United States has an area of between 300,000 and 400,000 square miles of coal fields, 100,000,000 tons of coal being mined from these fields in one year, or enough to run a ring around the earth at the equator five and one-half feet wide and five and one-half feet thick; the quantity being sufficient to supply the whole world for a period of 1,500 to 2,000 years.-Attention is called to two races of men which must soon become extinct-the Maoris, of New Zealand, now reduced to less than 45,000, and the Laplanders, who number 30,000.Yale College is making special arrangements for courses in political and social science, to commence in the Autumn.. -The new scientific building of Smith College, Northampton, Mass., was dedicated June 22. Prof. J. Peter Lesley delivered an address.An English naturalist remarks that it is a sad reflection that, while the turbot lays fourteen million eggs, not more than one, on an average, ever lives to reach maturity. In fish, generally, it takes yearly at least a hundred thousand eggs for each individual to keep up the average of its species. In frogs and amphibians, a few hundred are amply sufficient. Reptiles often lay only a much smaller number. In birds, which hatch their own eggs and feed their young, from two to ten eggs per annum are quite sufficient to replenish the earth. Among mammals, three or four at a birth is a rare number, and many of the larger Luxemburg sorts produce one calf or foal at a time only. In the human race at large, a total of five or six children for each married couple during a whole life-time makes up sufficiently for infant mortality and all other sources of loss, though among savages a far higher rate is usually necessary. In England, an average of four and a half children per family suffices to keep the population stationary.- -The statement lately made in Science that Prof. C. U. Shepard presented his cabinets to Amherst College was not strictly accurate. In accordance with an agreement of long standing, the college purchased his collections, and paid forty thousand dollars for them.- -The extreme delicacy of the sense of smell in man has been shown by a series of experiments by Messrs. Fischer and Penzoldt. In an empty room of 230 cubic metres capacity, and tightly closed, a small quantity of the substance to be detected was thoroughly mixed with the air, and the observer then admitted. Among different substances it was found that the smallest amount recognizable was .01 of a milligram of mercaptan. This quantity diffused through the room sufficed to make its distinctive character appreciable in the small volume of air coming in contact with the nerves of the nose, from which it was estimated that the 1-460,000,000 part of a milligram of this substance was recognizable. Hitherto the spectroscope has been considered the most delicate of all means of analysis, indicating less than the millionth part of a milligram of sodium; but the sense of smell, in the case of mercaptan, at least, is seen to be at least two hundred times more delicate.- -Captain Anderson, of the British bark Siddatha, which lately arrived in New York, reported a peculiar thunderstorm on April 27, while on the northern edge of the Gulf Stream. The day was quite clear at the time and the sun shining brightly, although there appeared to be a thin mist about the ship. Suddenly there appeared a vivid flash of lightning, accompanied by violent thunder. The compass was caused to vibrate perceptibly for a period of fifteen minutes.- -Arrangements are being made by the officers of several French societies for holding an International Congress at Biarritz for discussing papers upon climatology, mineral and thermal springs, and allied subjects. Mr. Reginald Stuart Poole read a very able paper at the late meeting of the Anthropological Institute on the ancient Egyptian classification of the races of man. This was defined by the famous subject of the four races in the tombs of the kings at Thebes (B. C. 1400-1200). The types were (1) Egyptian, red; (2) Shemite, yellow; (3) Libyan, white; (4) Negro, black. By comparison with monuments of the same period and of a somewhat earlier date, the first race, clearly an intermediate type, was seen to comprehend the Phoenicians, the Egyptians, and the people of Arabia Felix with the opposite coast. The Libyan race included an aquiline type, with marked supra-orbital ridges and receding foreheads, as well as a straight-nosed type. These two types inhabited the south coast of the Mediterranean, and some of the islands. The Negro race included the Negro and Nubian types. The Hittites and Hyksos, or shepherds, were as yet unclassed. Professor Flower pointed out the resemblance of the aquiline Libyan type to that of the Neanderthal crania, and the oldest European type, and saw in the Hyksos head distinctly Mongolian charac ters. These two points are of the highest consequence in historical anthropology. -The Times of India raises a curious question about a certain meteor of unusual brilliancy which was seen in India on a certain night in January last. Curiously enough, a meteor which was described by eye-witnesses in almost the same language which was used by the Indian observers, passed over London on the same evening. It was traveling in an easterly direction, and appeared about two hours and a half before the meteor noted in India. The question raised by this double appearance is: Are these two meteors really one and the same? The distance between the two points of observation is between five and six thousand miles, Towns. STATISTICAL. EUROPEAN TELEPHONE STATISTICS. Italy. Genes 915 180,000 197 160 Naples 840 500,000 595 200 Turin. 758 252,832 334 186 Florence 686 163,112 238 140 Palermo 440 234,000 532 200 BARBADOES.-The Island of Barbadoes is the most densely-populated part of the earth. This island, with an area of 106,600 acres, contains a population of over 175,000 souls, that is to say, an average of no less than 1,054 people to each of its 166 square miles of territory. The Chinese province of Keang-su, which was at one time ignorantly imagined to be the most uncomfortably-crowded district under the sun, contains but 850 moon-eyed Celestials to the square mile, while East Flanders, in Belgium, the most thickly-populated neighborhood in Europe, can boast of only 705 inhabitants to the square mile. Coming nearer home, Westchester county, New York, with a territory three times as large, has only four-sevenths as many people as are packed upon this thronged, man-ridden Caribbee island. If the Empire State were as thickly settled as Barbadoes, it would boast a population of 60,000,000. Of the 175,000 souls in this island, 9 per cent. are whites and 91 per cent. are blacks, or of mixed blood.-The Catholic Columbian. MUSIC. NOTES. Mr. Rathbun, the teacher of music at Hampton Institute, said recently, in reply to the question, "Are Indians reasonably apt at music?" "I think they are remarkably apt. They make fully as rapid progress on the parlor organ as my white pupils; and among the large number I. have taught, I have found only two or three who could not learn to play. There are several who have an excellent touch. Angel, who has been taking lessons about a year, can play through the usual church service. The Indians are more docile in learning to sing by note than the colored students. The negroes will persist in singing by ear, while the Indians are bent on understanding every step, and will not leave it till they do understand it.- -The North German Gazette writes of the "Mikado" in Berlin: "At the very outset we were surprised by the pretty scenery and the truly blinding splendor of the dresses, as well as by the easy grace of all who took part in the play. Not only are the solo singers excellent performers, but the inferior members of the choir do their work artistically. We are conscious of entertaining a very pronounced predilection for all our home products, but we scruple not to confess that, as a performance, the Mikado surpasses all our operettas. And were it not for the fact that the English dialogue after all must remain unintelligible to the bulk of the audience, and thus hamper their appreciation of the piece, their delight in the treat that is offered them would be greater still. The music is touching all through, and even comprises some delicate masterpieces. Every one must go and see the Mikado." The Deutsches Tageblatt remarks: "The Mikado achieved a great success. How much of this must be put down to the account of the English colony, which naturally mustered in strong force, we will not consider; but this singular piece, it must be confessed, contains much that can deeply interest other people as well."- -A Russian, Count von Medem, who is making a tour through Europe, is at present at Nice, accompanied by an orchestra of fifteen gipsy musicians, whose sole business is to provide their master, who pays $100 a day for their services, with sweet music and dancing performances during his meals. No one is allowed to hear this band excepting such friends as the Count may make on his travels, and who are invited by him to partake of his hospitality.The cables rumor that Rubenstein is coming to this country under the management of the American Opera Company. ART. many motives of a solemn character all joining to induce me to go, and that these ARTISTS' MODELS IN PARIS.-In Paris there is an official list kept of artists' NOTES. Mr. Daniel Fanshaw, who won the prize of one hundred dollars ART AND CHRISTIANITY.-The well-known painter of " The Light of the World," in his concluding article of which the subtitle is "A Fight for Art," tells us that, although he had met "many persons and many books, and not a few pic tures bearing testimony that familiarity with the surroundings of holy history have encouraged a lower conception of that history than before," no such effect was produced by them on his own mind. At an early period, Mr. Hunt developed an earnest desire to illustrate the greatest of all histories. Writing of his youthful reading, he says, Volney and Voltaire, with Byron and Shelley, and the "Vestiges of Creation" later, had quite converted him to materialism. "Had I been wiser," he said to his friend Egg, "I should have gained the good and not the evil from the independent study of these thinkers and poets. Now I am a freethinker more than when I dubbed myself specially so, because I am free from bondage to incredulous as much as to conventional dictators. There are arguments in Materialism itself which are convincing to me of future life, and therefore of future purpose, and of the service of souls made perfect by previous training. I am satisfied that the Father of all has not left us-made as we are with infinite care and thought, with intelligence to understand this with the carefully stored-up inheritance of all our predecessors in faculties, hopes, and higher love, advancing so slowly to the dream of heavenly perfection from such a remote beginning, bewildering in its infinity-only to disappear in the black abyss. What an impotent conclusion! For me, this would be aimless mockery! The inheritance that the greatest of the sons of God has won for us has its welcome in my soul. I want now to carry out my purpose of travel in Palestine, to prove, so far as my painting can, that Christianity is a living faith; that the fullest realization of its wondrous story cannot unspiritualise it; that, followed up, new lessons and fresh interests may present themselves by the teaching of art; it was used to teach, not only to divert, in the days when it was at its highest. The mere conventional treatment of the eternal story is altogether doomed. Its claims are too momentous to be triffled with. Adverse criticism is directed against Revelation as a whole, and against the doctrine of the Resurrection as taught by Christ in particular. Such honest and open attacks are less dangerous than the retention of mere disproved and dead adjuncts to its history, retained reverently but unthinkingly by traditionalists. I am not afraid of the full truth, and I wish to help in propagating it. So you will see that I have too the British Museum. DRAMA. PRESENT ENGLISH PLAYS. I can not “THE PICKPOCKET” is called a farcical comedy, but it is simply one of the flimsiest farces ever put upon the stage, and there is not a trace of the comedy element in it. The story runs in this wise: Mr. Frederick Hope, a jealous husband, follows his wife down to Southbourne-on-Sea, because he suspects a young man, Osmond Hewett, has gone after her. In order to watch her unobserved, Mr. Hope disguises himself and takes the name of Johnson, and that happens to be the desig nation of a lunatic, who, with his keeper, is expected at the watering-place. What more natural than that Mr. Hope should be taken for the maniac, for his jealousy makes him very irritable, and much more fun might be obtained from this misunderstanding than is managed for us. Hewett has come down in chase of Freda Grumbledon, a young lady who is staying at Southburne with her uncle, Gregory Grumbledon, who imagines himself a great invalid. Here the crowning joke of the piece comes in, for Mr. Hewett persuades Grumbledon that he can cure him by massage, puts him on two chairs, and proceeds to knead him like bread.-H. Saville Clarke. "THE CENCI." The most repulsive play that has been produced this century "To excite pity and terror" is doubtless a laudable ambition on the part of a poet, but it is not the all in all of a tragedy. Tragedy should ennoble; it should purify |