From The Lamp.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
BY BESSIE RAYNER PARKES.
Christmas comes, Christmas comes.
Blessing wheresoe'er he roams;
And he calls the little children
Cluster'd in a thousand homes.
"Stand you still, my little children,
For a moment while I sing,
Wreath'd together in a ring,
With your tiny hands embracing
In a snowy interlacing.
And your rich curls dropping down—
Golden, black, and auburn-brown—
Over bluest little eyes;
Toss them back in sweet surprise
While my pretty song I sing.
I have apples, I have cakes,
Icicles, and snowy flakes.
Hanging on each naked bough;
Sugar strawberries and cherries,
Mistletoe and holly-berries,
Nail'd above the glorious show.
I have presents rich and rare.
Beauties which I do not spare,
For my little children dear;
At my steps the casements lighten,
Sourest human faces brighten.
And the carols—music strange—
Float in their melodious change
On the night-wind cold and drear.
Listen now, my little children:
All these things I give to you,
And you love me, dearly love me
(Witness'd in your welcome true).
Why do I thus yearly scatter.
With retreating of the sun.
Sweetmeats, holiday, and fun?
There must be something much the matter
Where my wine-streams do not run.
Once I was no more than might be
Any season of the year;
No kind tapers shone to light me
On my way advancing here;
No small children rush'd to meet me,
Happy human smiles to greet me.
True, it was a while ago;
But I mind me it was so,
Then believe me, children dear.
Till one foggy cold December,
Eighteen hoary centuries past
(Thereabouts as I remember),
Came a voice upon the blast.
And a strange star in the heaven;
One said that unto us was given
A Saviour and a Brother kind;
The star upon my head shed down
Of golden beams this living crown.
The birthday gift of Jesus Christ,
Whereby my glory might be known.
You all keep your little birthdays;
Keep likewise your fathers', mothers',
Little sisters', little brothers';
To commemorate this birth,
Sings aloud the exulting earth!
Every age and all professions,
In all distance—parted nations,
Meet together at this time
In spirit, while the church-bells chime.
Little children, dance and play,—
We will join,—but likewise pray
At morning, thinking of the day
I have told you I remember
In a bleak and cold December,
Long ago and far away."
From The Popular Science Review.
EPIDEMICS, PAST AND PRESENT—
THEIR ORIGIN AND DISTRIBUTION.
Epidemics, derived from the two Greek words
, among, and
, people are those diseases which for a time prevail widely among the people of any country or locality, and then, for a longer or shorter period, either entirely, or for the most part, disappear. There are few diseases to which the human race is liable that may not, under favorable circumstances, take on the epidemic form. For example, diseases of the organs of respiration are very apt to become epidemic in seasons characterized by extreme coldness or dampness of the atmosphere, or by great and sudden alternations of temperature. In a strict sense, however, the term [{421}] epidemics is not usually employed in reference to the diseases of individual organs of the body, but is restricted to those derangements of the entire system depending upon the absorption of some poison, or the action of some "influence," from without. In the latter class of maladies the individual organs may become diseased, and the derangement of their functions may modify the symptoms resulting from the primary poison or "influence;" but then the local diseases are the secondary result of the general disorder of the constitution, and not the source and origin of all the mischief.
Some epidemic diseases possess the power of self-propagation; that is to say, the poison or influence may be communicated by infected persons to persons in health, and the disease is then said to be contagious, [Footnote 63] while others are entirely destitute of any such property. Scarlet-fever and small-pox are familiar examples of the former class; ague and influenza of the latter.