Abolishing Slavery.—It is pleasant to learn that the movement in favor of abolishing slavery in Brazil is making excellent progress, despite some discouragements. Long ago the Legislature fixed the date by which every slave in the empire must be freed; but the chamber of deputies, acting in opposition to the senate, has lately put a strange interpretation upon certain of the clauses of the most recent law upon the subject, which will have the effect of delaying the latest day of enfranchisement a further 18 months. The Brazilian public has expressed great indignation at this ill-advised action; and, by way of protest, the recent progress of the emperor throughout the province of San Paulo was made the occasion of liberating many slaves at the cost of the local municipalities. When a prominent abolitionist, Senator Bonifacio, of Santos, died, recently, his native town honored his memory by enfranchising the whole of the slaves within its jurisdiction. Herein Santos was but following the example of the provinces of Ceara and the Amazons, in both of which the last slave was freed some years ago. It is, perhaps, wise to add that the slave-owners are being quite fairly treated in the way of compensation.—St. James Gazette.
Bokhara the noble, the richest, most enlightened, and most holy of all Mahommedan nations in Central Asia, and beyond it, has just officially declared the complete abolition of slavery. Up to the present this curse had not altogether disappeared, although it was generally assumed that, since Russia secured control over the Ameer’s country, it had quite ceased to exist.
Fourteen years ago, M. Eugene Schuyler, the author of “Turkestan,” in order to demonstrate to the Russian government that its prestige had not put a stop to the slave trade, as was then alleged, purchased a young boy slave for one hundred roubles, the average price of the human article in Bokhara, and brought him to St. Petersburg. The boy was subsequently apprenticed to a Tartar watchmaker, and later became a convert to the Russian church. According to a letter in the Russian Official Gazette, the young Ameer’s decree, finally freeing all the bondmen within his dominion, was promulgated Nov. 19, 1886.
Old Fogy Biography.—It seems that biography as well as history will have to be re-written in the light of modern progress. Appleton’s Cyclopedia of American Biography has sent out its first volume, edited by Gen. Wilson and Prof. John Fiske. The sources of this volume do not promise much liberality, and the first volume does not show it. While professing to record the lives of all who are eminent or noteworthy, it fulfils this promise by recording many who are not very eminent or noteworthy; indeed, Mr. Lowell says, by way of commendation, that he has hunted for obscure names and found them. What then is the reason of the omission of the Hon. Cassius M. Clay, our former minister to Russia, one of the most conspicuous figures for many years in American politics and par excellence, the lion of the struggle which ended in negro emancipation? His life, recently published is a volume of fascinating and romantic interest. Mr. Clay might treat this omission as the old Roman said of having a statue in the forum—that he would rather men should ask why he had no statue there, than to ask why his statue was there. Dr. Joseph Rodes Buchanan is briefly noticed, his name incorrectly spelled, a catalogue of his publications given, and a volume attributed to him which was written by the notorious Dr. John Buchanan of Philadelphia. But nothing is said of the new school of philosophy, or of the new sciences, established by Dr. Buchanan. Evidently this is old fogy biography. The editors have gathered their material with a scoop, unable to distinguish between dirt, pebbles and jewels. Nevertheless they have made a valuable record if not a fair one.
Legal Responsibility in Somnolent Conditions.—In the Academy of Medicine at Paris, Dr. Mesnet made a report of his experience in hypnotism, showing that somnambulic or mesmeric subjects were not accountable for their acts in that condition. In this case, the patient, a youth of nineteen years, had been subject to somnambulic attacks in which he acted strangely, and, on one occasion, had openly taken several articles of furniture from a shop, for which he was arrested, when he fell again into somnolence and was sent to the Hotel Dieu. Dr. Mesnet, for an experiment, gazed firmly at him, and got him in magnetic rapport and then ordered him to steal the watch of one of the students the next day. He manifested a great deal of repugnance to this command, but yielded, and the next day came with the student, with whom he talked. After a time he fixed his eyes on the student’s watch and appeared mentally agitated, his breathing hurried, and his limbs trembling, his face red in one part and pallid in another. In this condition, he put forth his hand in an indecisive manner, stole the watch, put it in his pantaloons pocket, and ran down the stairs, where he was arrested and wakened up. He indignantly denied the theft, and fell into such agitation it required a number to hold him. He fell again into the hypnotic state from which they could not rouse him then, as it was owing to a mental cause. Dr. M. concluded by showing the importance of this matter being understood by magistrates that they may not punish irresponsible parties.
Pasteur’s Cure for Hydrophobia.—I am by no means convinced that M. Pasteur has really discovered a remedy for hydrophobia, says Labouchére in the London Truth. The Anti-Vivisection Society has published a tabular statement, which shows that from March, 1885, to the present date, 63 persons who have been treated by his system have died. Against this, I should like to know how many persons really suffering from hydrophobia have been cured by it.
The immense interest of the medical profession and the public in Pasteur’s method of inoculation with hydrophobia virus is due mainly to the Stolid Skepticism of the medical profession. Other methods of cure have been far more successful, but they have been shamefully neglected, for medical colleges are always indifferent, if not hostile to improvements not originating in their own clique. The cures that have been effected by the use of Scutellaria (Skull-cap), and of Xanthium are far beyond anything achieved by inoculation. I recollect many reports published by farmers, about sixty years ago, of their cures of hydrophobia by skull-cap.
The latest statement concerning Pasteurism is that of Miss Frances Power Cobbe, who writes to the London Globe:
“Ramon was not the forty-fifth, but the seventy-sixth patient who had died after receiving the Pasteurian treatment for hydrophobia. Of these seventy-six victims thirty-nine were inoculated in Paris under the first method, seventeen in Russia and twenty in Paris under the second or ‘intensive’ method. For the verification of this statement I beg to enclose a complete list of all the patients, with dates of death, and authority for each record. Your readers who may be interested in the bursting of this huge medical bubble of Pasteurism will do well to procure the book just published in Paris, ‘M. Pasteur et la Rage’ by M. Zutand, editor of the Journal de Medecine. It proves pretty clearly that M. Pasteur does not cure rabies, but gives it by his inoculation in a new and no less deadly form, bearing the ominous title of ‘Rage de Laboratoire.’”
Lulu Hurst.—This wonderful medium who displayed such astonishing muscular powers has changed her name. Mrs. Buchanan psychometrically described and explained her wonderful powers, and predicted that they would soon cease. A Southern newspaper says: