ever, and the myths are told but little changed from the original, except as to the locality and language. The wit is subtle and often brilliant, and, with the exception of an occasional lapse into coarseness, Mr. Metcalfe is very entertaining. This quotation from "Echo and Narcissus" gives one an idea of the author's style: "Poor Echo wandered through the hills day after day and night after night, her only companion the wild. beasts and men who were engaged in painting 'S. T.-1860-X' in conspicuous and inaccessible places. She became, as thin as the civil-service reform promises of the Republican party, and at last faded away entirely, so that there was nothing lett of her but voice. She should not, on this acount, be confounded with Colonel W. J. Bryan, who is afflicted in the same way. Echo still lives, and today she may be heard among the hills, if any one calls her. Ever true to her sex, she always gets in the last word."

Humor is often used to illustrate facts or history, and has been found effective. It is an old joke about the boy who could not remember his Sunday school lesson, but had no trouble in repeating page after page of "Mother Goose." Even adults might forget that in common law it was not permissible to try a man twice for the same offense, but when one reads in the "Comic Blackstone" that it would not be right to hang a man the second time for the same crime, it becomes firmly fixed in his memory.

The book is artistically illustrated in the classical style by Gibson, "Chip," Herford, Johnson and others.

THE GREATEST GIFT.

By A. W. Marchmont.

F. M. Buckles & Co., New York.

The author has opened the story with a startling tragedy, and having set the pace feels bound to keep it up until near the finish. There are a succession of events of such intensity of interst that one's breath is almost taken away in trying to keep up with them.

The plot rests upon the dutiful obedience of the heroine, who, from a sense of gratitude to her uncle is about to marry her cousin, a being deformed in

1

body and mind, and but for his infirmity and helplessness would incite one to almost hope for his "elimination." How Mr. Marchmont solves the difficult problems presented in his volume of nearly four hundred and fifty pages, is best found out by the reading of it, where the patient or impatient reader will find enough plot and incident to keep him occupied until the end is reached.

There is a sudden letting-down of the author's high-strung diction toward the close and one wishes he had written like this all through. Some passages of the book show careful workmanship and skill, but on the whole it is too hurried and over-drawn, reminding one of a mixture of Bertha M. Clay and Archibald C. Gunter. This defect in style is due not so much to the lack of ability as it is to Mr. Marchmont's estimate of what the reading public demands. He may have had in his mind, however, the singer in one of Hood's poems, who, when remonstrated with for raising the roof and the neighborhood with his stentorian voice, retorted that he was "singing for the million."

SOME PEOPLE WE MEET.
By Charles F. Rideal.
The Abbey Press, New York.

*

The tendency of the American publishers of today is toward attractive and artistic bookbindings, and this little book from the new firm named above is a gem in the way of elegance, with its heavy calendered paper, clear-cut type and fine ilustrations.

The author, who, by the way, is one of the firm as well, has here given us some character sketches of the "great metropolis which will be recognized as very true to life and not exaggerated in the least. "The Saleslady," "The Man 'Wot' Golfs," "Mr. Levi Vindermenderheimer" and "Mrs. Whirlinggay Whiz,” are brought vividly before us and one has the impression that these types can be found nearer home than New York; perhaps a little modified by climate and environment, but essentially the same.

Miss Jessie A. Walker has furnished the drawings, which are admirable.

If the phenomenal speed of the wheel of progress increases as it has in the recent past, the revolutionary forces at work must needs, ere long, have made their power felt through every nerve fibre of every institution. And dizzy And dizzy as the speed is, problematic as is its outcome to our race, we can but welcome it from whatever standpoint we are disposed to view it. The speed of progress, however, has not been one of general harmony so far. Its vantage ground it has evidently found to be in the field of scientific discovery and of practical inventions, while in sociology and in a general application of scientific truths it is yet comparatively sadly in the rear. The wheel of progress has yet many a turn to make before the last powers of darkness have been made to yield up their strongholds, and light and truth and right have been lifted to the throneseat of universal reign. Let progress hasten on its winged mission, then, for it is a mission of mercy and of justice in the end.

From the shores where heavy fetters compelled their feet to walk in the narrow grooves of unjust laws and foolish customs, those of independent spirit fled to seek a place of refuge beneath the friendly outstretched wings of the American Eagle, and they sought it not in vain, all but in one thing. For also here, in this beloved land of freedom, traces of despotism are sometimes found. There is one phase of our social life that, perhaps, more conspicuously than any other, bears the semblance of the "Old World" despotism, and on its sinister, ignoble brow displays the mark of "old time" ignorance more glaringly than any other. This ugly

blemish on the fair face of liberty is compulsory vaccination.

The little vicious point with virus on it followed the strangers who fled to our gates for refuge from the bondage of their native lands, followed them on board the steamer and across the sea, on board the cars and every where they went like a menacing shadow of the evils they left behind. If this is not a trace of despotism, nay more, an ignoble brand of slavery that tyranny is forcing on free men, what is it? If the welfare of the commonwealth avowedly demanded such a sacrifice as this of individual conscience and liberty the situation would wear a less grotesque appearance. But so far from there being a rationally demonstrated necessity for the legal enforcement of this strange rite, the fact in the case is that authorities have differed from the first till now as to whether vaccination is, indeed, a boon to mankind, or whether it is not rather one of the greatest curses inflicted on our race in modern times.

After a century of heated controversy on this point, the bone of contention is present with us still. The black cloud of doubt is hanging yet over the practice of vaccination and the questioning minority. of mankind that always refuses to accept as truth anything so long as it is not proved beyond a doubt, has rallied its forces against this practice, convinced from diligent research in the disputed field of the pernicious nature of it, and their avowed purpose is to rout it, root and branch, from our land. It is an earnest and strong minority, adding to its forces men of scientific standing and physicians of honest names and able brains everywhere its bugles blow. "It

is not likely to stop its fire until the day is won, and the little vicious point with virus on it has been brought into general contempt and relegated to the region of oblivion to keep company with its kin and predecessor, the pernicious practice of small-pox inoculation.

Inoculation of small-pox virus, previous to vaccination, was brought from Turkey by Lady Worthley Montagu, in 1721. But after this inoculation became the fashion, the ravages of small-pox increased, often showing great virulence. For nearly a century and a half this practice flourished in spite of its disastrous effects, until in 1840 it was made a penal offence to practice it in England. In 1798, Jenner invented vaccination as a substitute. for inoculation with smallpox. He made great claims for it, and won royalty and nobility for his supporters. That settled it in England. In spite of the medical profession, with whom Dr. Jenner did stand particularly high, vaccination became an established practice. In gratifications of the king's wish Jenner was awarded £30,000 out of the public purse for his invention. In this wise was the birth of the practice of vaccinationdespotic monarchy was its god-father and an over-awed scared-into-acquiescence medical profession stood sponsor as god-mother to the babe.

not

For seventy-five years or so the armto-arm vaccination was the mode of operation commonly in vogue until the outcry against it became so great that at last it was practically discarded and bovine virus, as a rule, made to take its place. It is to get rid of this last phase of this unspeakable abomination. that the fortresses of vaccination are now assailed with heavy fires all along the line of battle.

Virus is animal corruption. It is broken-down tissue-pus. When pus

has entered into the stage of putrefaction it becomes the most deadly of poisons. To poison their arrows, the savages used to thrust them into dead bodies and the least scratch with such an arrow was sure death. If the vaccine virus was not taken from the cow before it reached the putrid stage, it would produce wholesale and immediate

slaughter of those who are subjected to its inoculation. "Pharmacal Notes" says: "Vaccine virus is a most delicate and perishable product-in warm weather it deteriorates very fast." That is, it becomes putrid, and, as such, poisonous in the extreme. Jenner declared that in order to be a prevention for small-pox, cow-pox had to be horse-grease cowpox; that is, the virus with which the cow, from which the vaccine virus was obtained, was inoculated, had to be virus taken from the corrupt exudations of sore horse heels. "Grease" of "farcy" in the horse is in the nature of mange, and is allied to "glanders." Glanders is a filthy, contagious disease of the mucous membranes of the horse, and is of a scrofulous character. Horse grease sores on the cow is called cow-pox, from their allied appearance to the classical pox in man, and the sores and general symptoms in man, when he takes the disease direct from this first source, bears so strong a resemblance to those of the pox proper that even the ablest specialists have found it all but impossible to distinguish between the two. It is proven conclusively that the bovine race does not have pox except the disease be inoculated in them from a foreign source. Virus obtained from calves inoculated with small-pox virus is liable to start epidemic outbreaks of genuine small-pox-has been known to do so. Virus a la the horse-grease route, is liable to cause epidemic outbreaks of zymotic diseases of the most loathsome and horrible character-often does so. Swine-pox cow-pox, sheep-pox cow-pox and different other pox cow-pox have been tried in the search for some kind of pox that would surely prevent smallpox in man and do him as little harm as possible alongside of the preventive. Whence the first source of this virus that comes from the cow at present no one has been able to discover. It is a secret with those who produce it.

Tuberculosis is a scrofulous manifestation. Cows have it frequently. Before a calf is chosen for the use of producing vaccine virus, it is subjected to the tuberculin test. That is done to prove whether it has tuberculosis or not. If it does not have it before the test, it is

bound to have it after, for the tuberculin test consists in implanting into a living animal system the germ of tuberculosis. Thus vaccine virus is a mixture of scrofula from various animal sources when it is not something worse. Vaccine virus is preserved in glycerin and glycerin is a highly poisonous and detrimental article in itself when inoculated into the animal system.

It is supposed that when people have been made duly sick with the inoculation of this compound poison and corruption, and properly dented with the scars of the sores it makes, then they are immune from small-pox, but a careful survey of the statistics in the aggregate convey a very different impression. Thus there were more small-pox in England in 1860 than in 1850, and more in 1870 than in 1860. In 1863, 1864 and 1865, after compulsory vaccination had been introduced, England, France, Germany and Sweden suffered from small-pox to an unusual extent. In Upper Bavaria 1346 persons had the disease in its malignant form, 90 per cent of whom had been vaccinated. In the great small-pox epidemic of 187172, the same phenomena prevailed of the small-pox's evident preference for vaccinated people-to prey on them. It often attacks them first when it visits a place and handles them the roughest. You can prove this for yourself by a moderate amount of unbiased investigation. There is not space in the present article to enlarge upon any particular phase of the question.

The Great Creator made man of a higher order than any created being below the heavens. But man, always busy seeking out inventions for his own de

struction, and not content to lower the standard of his superiority by mixing his life-blood with the blood of created orders lower than his own, must needs vilify himself to the extent of impairing his bodily integrity by inoculating into his veins the decayed tissues of diseased beasts. For shame on such indignity! It is nothing short of a beastly blot on our humanity. Therefore, let the wheel of progress swiftly turn, let the forgotten and obscured light of the infinitely wise. hygenic laws of Leviticus be focussed on this masterpiece of medical and social nonsense to show its ignoble visage and to teach us how to escape the ravages of a disease of a zymotic character, at least. It is a genuine marvel that a practice with such a history as vaccination has, has been able to survive the numerous and bitter assaults that those who saw its fallacy have directed against it for so many decades of time. In order to understand such a measure of vitality in a false principle it is necessary to remember that

"Faith, fanatic faith once wedded fast, To some dear falsehood, hugs it to the last."

As a matter of fact, when custom once has lent authority to a practice, be that practice what it may, it is almost impossible to get rid of it again. It matters not what the field of its propagation is, or how ridiculous or how mischievous an error it may be, it is there to stay, unless vigorous and tireless warfare is waged against it to the bitter end by those who know its real value.

For references, see Dr. Crookshank's, Dr. Creighton's, Dr. G. W. Winterburn's, Dr. Alexander Wilder's works on vaccination, and the works of many others besides them.

We breathe into the Universal Ear,
When e'er we think, or utter speech,
Who hears our thoughts we may not know,
Or gauge its bounds, or utmost reach.

Thought spans the ages, knows no bar,
And reaches those to whom 'tis kin,
Who, hearing it, with reverence whisper.
"A heavenly voice that speaks within."

Thought is spirit, words its symbols, Impotent to express the whole'Tis the inner ear that listens

To the language of the soul.

Oh, mighty power of human thought,
Embracing time, and distance far-
Truly we are the "Sons of God,"
We know not how divine we are.

Delphine Johnson.