718 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ical press in IBS'/, and wrote many papers 

 and editorial articles for several journals ; 

 and from ISe'? to 18*71 edited the Medical 

 Gazette. As editor he " labored industrious- 

 ly to raise the standard of medical morals 

 and of scientific essays. His reviews of 

 literary and scientific works are so many 

 pleas for thoroughness in research, accuracy 

 in statement, simplicity in diction, and good 

 taste in composition. . . . His dislike of 

 shams and of irrational methods is exhibit- 

 ed throughout his essays, both medical and 

 literary, in verse and in prose." With his 

 other qualities he had a keen wit, which was 

 used to good effect in his writings, and in 

 drawings and models satirizing follies, 

 abuses, exaggeration in fashions, and hygi- 

 enic improprieties. Retiring from the edit- 

 orship of the Medical Gazette in 1871, he 

 settled for practice in New Brighton, Staten 

 Island, till 1889, when he removed to New 

 York city. He was a member of the Coun- 

 cil of the New York State Medical Associa- 

 tion, and for three years edited its transac- 

 tions. His most important work was per- 

 formed in sanitary science. Dr. Gouley 

 names thirty-seven editorial articles on pub- 

 lic health, which he published while editor 

 of the Medical Gazette. He wrote for the 

 World a series of articles the Ollapod 

 Papers on hygiene, conveying useful infor- 

 mation respecting the prevention of disease 

 and the general care of the person, which 

 were widely read. During. his residence in 

 New Brighton he gave a series of free popu- 

 lar lectures on hygiene. His address on the 

 Philosophy of Health before the Alumni 

 Association of the University Medical Col- 

 lege of New York, and those on Public 

 Health before the New York State Medical 

 Association in 1885, and the American Med- 

 ical Association in 1890 were of high charac- 

 ter. In 1884 he became Secretary of the 

 New York State Board of Health, succeed- 

 ing Dr. Elisha Harris, deceased. In this 

 position he was much consulted with refer- 

 ence to health laws and general sanitation. 

 While in this office he delivered an accept- 

 able course of lectures on hygiene at the 

 Albany Medical College; and he gave 

 courses on the same subject at the Mott 

 Memorial Hall in 1890, and at the New York 

 College of Veterinary Surgeons in 1891. Dr. 

 Thudicum, of London, speaks of his later 



writings, with which only he is acquainted, 

 as " full of original observations, keen appli- 

 cation of the most progressive science, and 

 conclusions of the greatest practical value." 



Cheating Ancestors and Gods. A curi- 

 ous industry in some of the provinces of 

 China is the manufacture of mock money for 

 offering to the dead. Formerly sham paper 

 money was burned, but now mock dollars are 

 used. They are only half the size of real 

 dollars, but the dead are supposed not to 

 know the difference ; and, moreover, there is 

 no more harm in cheating the dead than there 

 is in cheating the living. To make them, tin, 

 hammered out till it is not thicker than the 

 thickest paper, is punched to the size of half 

 dollars and pasted on disks of cardboard. A 

 boy then takes the pieces, and with two dies, 

 one representing the one side and the other 

 the reverse, hammers impressions of dollars 

 upon them, and the money is ready for use. 

 Some districts of the Anhui province having 

 been ravaged by an epidemic, so that in many 

 places the people were not able to attend to 

 the harvesting of the crops, an attempt was 

 made to deceive the gods by playing at New- 

 Year's day. Every preparation burning 

 fire-crackers and pasting happy sentences in 

 red paper on the doors, and the rest was 

 made for celebrating the bogus New Year. 

 The object was to make the god of sickness 

 think he had made a mistake in the seasons, 

 and had erred in bringing an epidemic on the 

 people at a time when, in the course of Na- 

 ture, no epidemic should appear. As any ac- 

 tion contrary to Nature done by the gods is 

 liable to punishment by the King of Heaven, 

 the actors in this farce thought that the god 

 of sickness would gather his evil spirits back 

 to him for fear of the displeasure of his su- 

 perior divinity. This child's play received 

 the permif sion and co-operation of the local 

 authorities. 



The Fntnre of Geographical Exploration. 



In his recent annual address as President 

 of the Royal Geographical Society, Mr. Clem- 

 ents R. Markham said that the work of geo- 

 graphical discovery during living memory 

 had proceeded with such rapidity that many 

 had been half inclined to think that there 

 was little left to be done. There were still 

 wide tracts, however, in all the great divisions 



