ORIGINALITY OF MAN
If we mean by individuality differences in character and disposition, then is there a fair measure of individuality among the animals. No two animals are just alike, any more than any two trees are just alike. But if we mean the possession of striking original traits, unique powers and capacities, as among men, then there is very little. Animals do not differ in the degree that men differ. What one does all of its kind will sooner or later do. Anything you can learn of one bird or beast that is not true of every member of its species is unimportant.
I, myself, like to dwell upon what seems like individual differences in the manners and characters of the birds and the mammals. We all love the specific and characteristic; but we are aware of these differences mainly because we have a few birds or mammals under observation and not the whole class. Some day we shall observe the same trait or habit in another of the same class. We see something in the eye or the face of a member of one’s own family and think it peculiar and original; then, in the face of an Eskimo or a Cossack, we see the same look.—John Burroughs, The Independent.
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Origins, Unknown—See [Unknown Realities].
OSSIFICATION
The London Mail reports this sad case:
An honored guest at most of the London hospitals is a tall, slim man, with a thin face, who has to move about with extreme care, because if he happened to fall down he might break in several places.
He is literally a fragile man, who has to walk with something of the stiffness of “La Poupée.” A violent fall would be disastrous to him. He is suffering from a rare and painless disease which, in the words of one of the doctors who has seen him, turns him into “a porcelain man.” Alban Rushbrook, aged thirty-five, has for seven years been suffering from myositis ossificans; his muscles are turning into bone. He can walk, but he can not sit in a chair, and it is difficult for him to turn his head far to the right or left. The muscles of his chest, back and thighs are all turning to bone. He lies flat in bed. When he desires to rise he is shifted to the edge of the bed, and his rigid body is tipped up till his feet touch the floor. A stick is placed in his hand, and he can then make his way in a straight line ahead.