Dr. Wells then forcibly illustrated the dangerous and pestilential results of our system of burying the dead, planting the germs of diseases in the ground to come forth again, and corrupting the water supply. London alone uses 2,200 acres of land for cemeteries, and England and Wales have 11,000 cemeteries, costing for the land over $600 per acre, all dangerous to health, while about $25,000,000 are annually expended on funerals. For all this cremation was the remedy.
A distinguished English physician, addressing the International Hygiene Society at Vienna, said that the gain to England in the last fifty years from improvement in health was equal to $1,500,000,000.
Quinine.—This famous drug, which was once as high as $5 an ounce, has become very cheap by preserving the trees which were formerly destroyed in gathering “Peruvian Bark.” The drug may now be purchased in quantities at half a dollar an ounce. The trees now yield a crop of bark every year. The fashionable sulphate of quinine, which is most extensively used, I consider the most objectionable form of the drug. My favorite form is the dextro-quinine, made by Keasby & Matteson, Philadelphia. But quinine is not at all a necessity. It could be satisfactorily replaced by Declat’s syrup of Phenic Acid, a French preparation, which is free from the objectionable qualities of quinine. But even that is not necessary, for we have in the willow, the dogwood, and the apple tree, three American barks, which might well replace Peruvian bark by their fluid extracts and alkaloids. To these we may add Gnaphalium (or Life Everlasting), an admirable remedy in fever, and other medicines and combinations of value. Our slavish dependence on Peruvian bark has been due to our ignorance.
Life and Death.—Perilous is the fisherman’s life. In the past year, ending October, 1887, Gloucester, Mass., has lost 17 vessels and 127 lives of fishermen, leaving 60 widows and 61 fatherless children.
The Mayville family of Wakefield, Mass., begin small. Mrs. Mayville weighed but two pounds when born. Her son of 17 years, weighing 160 pounds, weighed but 24 ounces when born, and she has lately had a male baby, weighing only eight ounces. It was born Nov. 13, and appeared dead, but was revived. It was ten inches long and measured eight inches round the head and was perfectly formed. It died in two weeks, from irritation of the bowels.
Mrs. Charlotte Tubbs of Caroline County, Md., recently gave birth to four babies, all of whom are alive. This addition to her family makes her the mother of nine children, all of whom were born within five years. Among the older children are two pairs of twins.—Cin. Enq.
Mrs. Wm. Wright, of New Castle, Ind., recently gave birth to four children, making in all a family of fourteen children, including five pairs of twins. Who was it said that he’d rather be Wright than be President? We wouldn’t.—Norristown Herald.
Dorothea L. Dix.—This noted philanthropist, whose labors in establishing asylums for the insane in America and Europe were never equalled, died last summer in New Jersey. An interesting tribute to her memory was delivered in Boston by the Rev. James Freeman Clarke, and I regret that the limited space of the Journal forbids its full republication. I can only quote this. “Being asked how she achieved such noble results in her work, she answered that she went to those whose duty it was to aid in any particular work, and was always sure that though at first they might refuse to do what they were asked, they would gradually become interested and end by doing whatever was needed.” May her example in this be followed by all friends of progress.
The Drift Of Catholicism.—The purpose of the Catholic party to break up our unsectarian school system has been realized in Stearns Co., Minnesota, where their church property exceeds a million of dollars. The Catholic catechism is taught daily in nearly three-fourths of the public schools. Many of the schools are conducted in the German language, and some of the schools taught by the Benedictine sisters.
Juggernaut.—It is a singular fact that at the late procession of the idol Juggernaut in India, instead of the thousand devotees who used to drag at the ropes to haul his chariot from the temple to the river, hired coolies had to be substituted, and the victims who willingly threw themselves under the ponderous wheels to be crushed to death, were entirely wanting.—Commonwealth.