Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 24.djvu/127

Rh happy, and thrifty, as that enjoyed by the most fortunate of the nurslings of our domestic animals or household pets.

If in order, I would also venture to cite a case of gastric cramps similar to that mentioned by Dr. Black, but more "naturally" cured. I was called one day during the past summer to the bedside of an old lady friend, who is sixty-six years of age, and very frail. She was suffering intensely from acute dyspepsia. "Well, doctor," she moaned, between the spasms, "you—will—have—to—give—me—some—medicine—this-time!" "Very good," I replied, "here it is." (Having obtained a hint from the nurse as to the state of affairs, I had ordered up a pitcher each of hot and cold water.) "Just drink this cupful of warm water. Take it right down, please, as if it were a delicious draught, and you were feeling very thirsty." This she did, and then another and another, and so on until she had, within twenty minutes, taken eight full cups. Then I asked her to make a slight exploration to see if she could touch that warm water with her forefinger! She made the attempt and succeeded—the water meeting her more than half-way. Along with the water came the cause of the cramps, in the shape of undigested food. Directly after this she swallowed, though under protest, seven cupfuls more of the same safe remedy, which had just the effect I anticipated. She soon became entirely at ease, rested quietly for the balance of the afternoon, slept soundly that night, and awoke next morning to laugh over the experience of the day before. There was no poison taken to tax the organism. The water did its perfect work—washing the stomach, diluting the blood, and aiding in the elimination of impurities, instead of adding to them in the least degree.



RESIDENT PORTER has replied to Mr. Adams on the Greek question. The President of Yale College, we need not say, is a very strong man—an eminent scholar, an experienced educator, a keen controversialist, and thoroughly familiar with this subject; and so in the "Princeton Review" for September, in the opening article, entitled "A College Fetich," lie has given what must be virtually accepted as the official answer to Mr. Adams's argument. Assuming, then, that President Porter has made out the best. case possible, let us see whether Mr. Adams's main position has been successfully assailed or remains undisturbed.

It will be remembered that in his Phi Beta Kappa address Mr. Adams arraigned the system of classical study in Harvard College, and more emphatically that of Greek, as a failure; and he appealed to his own experience, and to that of three generations of his ancestors, in proof of the charge. He alleged that the time spent upon classical languages was wasted, first, because he did not master them, and, second, because the time spent upon them ought to have been given to more valuable acquisitions in preparation for the duties and responsibilities of modern life.

President Porter takes issue with Mr. Adams on the main points of his argument. He holds to "the perfection of the Greek language as an instrument for the perpetual training of the mind of the later generations"; and maintains that "the ancient languages, in their structure, their thoughts, also in the imagery which their literature embodies, are better fitted than any modern languages can be for the single office of training the intellect, and the feelings, and the taste; and in every one of these advantages the Greek is preeminently superior to the Latin." As a consequence, he maintains that "the old classical training" is the best preparation for the intellectual work of modern life, the best corrective of its injurious influences, and therefore not an educational failure.

But Mr. Adams had condemned the system after trial of it. He had diligently pursued the classics as prescribed 