EDITOR'S TABLE. 



125 



mon salmon that have died from exhaus- 

 tion while endeavoring to force themselves 

 to the head-waters of the river for spawning 

 purposes ; and in the fall of 1883 our canine 

 camp-followers partook voraciously of this 

 free salmon-feast, with the result that all of 

 them, with one single exception, died with 

 every indication of being poisoned. The 

 single exception was the young dog that 

 had suffered from the rattlesnake-bite. He 

 apparently experienced no discomfort from 

 his meal ; and, strangest of all, from that 

 day he became a well dog ! He regained 

 his youthful elasticity of spirit, became ro- 

 bust, and, when I last saw him, was as play- 

 ful and intelligent a dog as I have ever seen. 

 There is no exaggeration in any of these 



lines, and what I have here stated can be 

 verified by at least a dozen witnesses. 



To my mind this incident seems to point 

 to the conclusion that there is developed in 

 salmon, and possibly in other decaying fish, 

 an organic principle, in itself poisonous, but 

 which may prove to be a counter-agent for 

 the poison of the rattlesnake and of other 

 venomous serpents. I am therefore inclined 

 to believe that an examination of this mat- 

 ter might result in the production of an an- 

 tidote to the terrible venom of the poisonous 

 snakes ; and, in the hope that such may be 

 the case, I remain, respectfully yours, 



Bernard Bienenfeld. 



1018 Post Street, San Francisco, | 

 November 29, 1885. j 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



CHARITY AND SENTIMENTALITY. 



AN apostle once wrote, "Let love 

 be without dissimulation." Had 

 he lived in our day, he might have 

 thought it quite as important to say, 

 "Let love be without sentimentality." 

 In looking over the reports of charita- 

 ble institutions especially purely vol- 

 untary ones we are frequently struck 

 by the utter absence of any attempt to 

 deal in what might be called a scientific 

 manner with the facts that come within 

 their scope. Instead of this, we have 

 any amount of sentimentality and gush, 

 pious ascriptions of thanks to Provi- 

 dence, considerable laudation of the 

 officers engaged in the work of the in- 

 stitution, and long lists of donations, 

 with the names of the donors, of 

 course. Now, we would cheerfully 

 exchange all this for a little informa- 

 tion likely to be servicable in a scien- 

 tific point of view. Say it is an "or- 

 phans' home." What we should like 

 to know in connection with the opera- 

 tions of such an institution may be 

 roughly indicated under the following 

 heads: 1. In regard to each inmate, 

 whether he or she is really an orphan 

 or not. 2. If so, how the condition of 

 orphanage and dependence arose. 3. 

 How it happened that private aid from 

 friends or relatives was not forthcom- 



ing whether, for example, the exist- 

 ence of a convenient asylum into which 

 the orphan could be put had anything 

 te do with the child's being placed 

 there rather than otherwise provided 

 for. 4. What moral effects seem to 

 flow from the absence of parental af- 

 fection and influence. 5. What the 

 special influences of the home or asylum 

 seem to be in different classes of cases. 

 6. What the subsequent course in life 

 of children released from the home has 

 been. 



It is too much the habit of the 

 present day to think that, if things are 

 done from a right motive, they must 

 be done well. One evil effect of this 

 is to discourage criticism of motives 

 apparently good; yet the interests of 

 society as a whole call for nothing 

 more strongly than for a stringent criti- 

 cism of motives as well as of actions. 

 Take the case of our orphan asylum 

 again. In some small town, a lot of 

 benevolent people, chiefly of the more 

 emotional sex, will decide that an or- 

 phan asylum is wanted. There may 

 be only three or four cases within their 

 knowledge at the time that in any way 

 call for such an institution ; and proba- 

 bly no very great amount of private 

 effort would be required to dispose of 

 these satisfactorily in a private way. 



