Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/879

Rh Hygienic Living.—Some independent opinions on health and disease are expressed in Dr. Allinson's book, "Hygienic Medicine." Our civilization is held to be the cause of many of our diseases; thus, the close confinement of our homes is chargeable for diseases of the breathing apparatus; the artificial warmth produced by fires, clothes, and hot foods and fluids is injurious. Many suffer from want of exercise, others from not keeping their skins clean. Reasoning from their structure, men should live on fruit, grain, and vegetable products, especially fruit; food and fluids should be taken lukewarm and not hot. All diseases being regarded as but one, with different names according to the locality where they manifest themselves, the author prescribes as the one remedy for all, hygienic living—consisting of proper food at proper intervals, pure air always, regular exercise, and clean skins. Drugs are good only to kill parasites on the skin or expel them from the intestines, and to produce anæsthesia during surgical operations and insensibility to unbearable pains; otherwise they do harm rather than good.

Profits of Forest Cultivation.—The history of forestry in India shows, according to the presentment of Mr. George Cadell, in "Macmillan's Magazine," how a revenue which, in the year 1886-'87, returned a surplus of 41,017,000 Rupees, was built up, under systematic management, "from not only an entire absence of income, but from a rapidly diminishing capital." The means by which this gain was drawn in were, "restraining the destruction of the forests by the wood-merchants, who felled for the sake only of personal aggrandizement, . . . by guiding, without checking, the cutting of trees by the peasantry for their agricultural and building necessities," and by steering "an arduous course" between the necessity for restraining reckless waste, and the obligation for meeting legitimate demand. The returns of three years' forest administration in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland—1884, 1885, and 1886—show that the 24,500 acres of forest-land gave an average revenue of more than five shillings per acre. The French forest budget for 1886-'87 shows a surplus of 13,400,000 francs, or 5'25 francs per acre. The Prussian forests return a surplus of 23,900,000 marks, which is equivalent to a net income of 3·6 marks per acre. Lands in Great Britain are told of, the agricultural value of which is no more than twelve or fourteen shillings per acre, that bear larches which, when sold, realize from one shilling to one shilling and threepence for each cubic foot. A certain crop of Scotch fir seventy-five years old, standing on ground the annual value of which does not exceed ten shillings, is valued for transfer at £132 per acre. Generally, a crop of larch standing within reasonable distance of a railroad station ought to be worth £50 or $250 an acre when fifty years of age. It should be remembered, too, that while ordinary agricultural operations exhaust the soil, trees enrich it.

Walloon Superstitions.—The "Walloons of Belgium believe in all kinds of omens, including most of those which are common in other countries. Among their superstitions is one that to meet a priest, when about to undertake anything unusual, is a certain sign of failure, and puts a stop to further proceedings. Few will throw reeds into the fire, because they are of service to oxen; and an ox having been present at the Saviour's birth, it ought to be regarded as sacred. The bed of a dying person must be placed in such a position that the rafters can not run in a contrary direction to it; for, unless they are parallel, the agonies of death would inevitably be protracted. When linen is washed, the water is never said "to boil," but "to play"; otherwise, the clothes would be destroyed. Precious stones are supposed to possess virtues more valuable than their intrinsic worth. An aërolite is said to be unsurpassed as a means for discovering a thief. The metal must be ground to powder, then mixed with flour and made into bread, of which no genuine thief can swallow the smallest portion. On Easter-Sunday it was the custom to breakfast off of two eggs that had been laid on Good-Friday, in order to render the eater proof against fever. To abstain from meat after Lent was a cure for toothache. In taking a dead body to the church-yard, if they come to four cross-roads, the bearers put down the coffin, and all kneel to repeat a short prayer. The idea la