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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and where, as sometimes, though seldom, 

 happens, it must be sought in actual over- 

 work ; where alcohol or drugs have assist- 

 ed the decay of nervous force, and where 

 asceticism, tried as a remedy, has seriously 

 injured the resisting power, diminishing the 

 fuel, till every day threatens to empty the 

 store. They differ considerably, we are told, 

 in their practice, some having a lingering 

 faith in the milder narcotics, which others 

 have lost ; and some in sleep by itself, 

 which others think is only perfectly recu- 

 perative when it comes unsought, . . . but 

 they all agree in recommending perfect 

 4 rest.' Their patients, who have instinct to 

 guide them, and some memories of quick 

 recovery during accidental or incidental lulls 

 in life, always agree with them, but always 

 start the question, how the rest is to be ob- 

 tained." The distinguished patient can not 

 find it anywhere in the land, for he is pur- 

 sued wherever he goes by telegrams and 

 letters, and callers, and newspaper gossip ; 

 and the only remedy, which some have he- 

 roically tried, is to go out to sea, where one 

 can not be followed up ; but this is often 

 decidedly inconvenient. So, let the pro- 

 fession, and society, and the newspapers 

 establish the rule that, when a distinguished 

 man seeks rest for a period, he shall not be 

 interrupted in it. 



Room onongh in the World yet. Mr. 



R. Giffen, an English statist, has taken up 

 the Malthusian cry that the world is filling 

 up too fast, and has uttered his apprehen- 

 sion that all inhabitable countries will soon 

 have all the population they can hold and 

 then what will mankind do ? The " Spec- 

 tator" answers him with arguments very 

 like those which M. Fouill6e has used with 

 so much skill and effect in his articles on 

 " Scientific Philanthropy." The laws of in- 

 crease of population do not work as the 

 Malthusians fear they will, but have ways of 

 their own that it is hard to calculate upon. 

 There is still, and will be for a long time, 

 room enough in the world for all candidates 

 for the privilege of living upon it. The 

 United States still receives and finds homes 

 for all who come unless they come from 

 China and has a little room left. The 

 State of New York, with five millions of 

 population, has capacity, according to the 



standard that prevails in Suffolk, England, 

 for thirty millions. The Dominion of Can- 

 ada might hold fifty millions in comfort, 

 without neighbors ever visiting each other on 

 foot ; and British Columbia has room " for 

 twenty millions of happy people." Then, 

 when North America is filled up, South 

 America offers vast expanses that are not 

 only not occupied, but are in reality not ex- 

 plored, of which Brazil has room for all 

 Europe. Australia could support forty mill- 

 ions in its habitable belt ; and Africa who 

 yet can begin to guess at its capacity ? In 

 the mean time, the population of Ireland is 

 diminishing, and the failure of the French 

 to increase excites more apprehension than 

 any fact which is brought to the notice of 

 their economists. 



Amcrieanitis. Sir Charles W. Dilke, in 

 his " Greater Britain," thought he noticed a 

 tendency in the Caucasian native American 

 to acquire the red Indian type of physi- 

 ognomy. Mr. W. Mattieu Williams echoes 

 this opinion, and has cited several pieces of 

 evidence to show that a change in the direc- 

 tion mentioned is going on, and that it is a 

 process of desiccation produced by the dry- 

 ness of our climate. Mr. R. A. Proctor as- 

 serts that during his three visits to America 

 he lost about thirty pounds in weight, which 

 he recovered on returning home. Mr. Wil- 

 liams's own son, after residing for some 

 time in this country, became thin, lank- 

 jawed, and sallow, " displaying all the char- 

 acteristic symptoms of what I can not re- 

 frain from calling acute Americanitis," 1 but 

 began to recover immediately after return- 

 ing home. On one occasion, at the house 

 of the late George Combe, at Edinburgh, 

 some family portraits were brought out, in- 

 cluding those of members who had remained 

 at home, and photographs of members who 

 had emigrated to America a generation 

 before, and with them a portrait of Black 

 Hawk. " We placed the chief on one side, 

 the Edinburgh portraits on the other, and 

 those of the descendants of the American 

 emigrants between, and all agreed that the 

 deviations from the original family type 

 were in a direction toward that of the red 

 Indian. Mr. Combe maintains that this is 

 generally the case, and I agree with him in re- 

 garding the typical ' native American ' that 



