242 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



heard of the old laws ; the women drank just as heavily as the 

 men. All the writers Pliny, Juvenal, Seneca, Tacitus, Athenajus, 

 and many more are full of bitter complaints against the prevail- 

 ing habits. No order, no decency, was observed at their feasts. 

 They rapidly became regular drinking bouts, where not only host 

 and guests, but even the freedmen and slaves, drank themselves 

 to unconsciousness. 



Prizes were commonly offered, at these, to the heaviest 

 drinkers, and it was customary to use drugs to increase the 

 normal capacity for liquor. A separate chamber adjoining the 

 dining room bore the suggestive name of vomitorium. The 

 emperors themselves did not disdain to encourage these orgies. 

 Under Claudius a certain Caius Piso was promoted at court for 

 drinking consecutively for two days and nights. One man, 

 Torquatus, was actually knighted under the name of Tricongius, 

 or " Three-gallon Man," for taking that quantum of wine, so it 

 was said, at a single draught. The populace, the home army, and 

 the court were all equally intemperate ; and it is no wonder that, 

 when once the outer defenses of the empire were broken through, 

 the rest collapsed and fell to pieces before the onslaughts of the 

 hardier, even if no less intemperate, Northern races. 



THE PUBLIC AND ITS PUBLIC LIBRARY. 



Bt JOHN COTTON DANA. 



THE opponents of the system of free, tax-supported public 

 schools never have been answered. That they are wrong in 

 their position is not proved, as so many seem to think, by a sim- 

 ple reference to the great growth and seeming success of the free 

 public- school system and its attendant free public library system 

 in this country. An institution may thrive, may apparently ful- 

 fill the purpose for which it was designed, and may at the same 

 time be working great harm to the people who have adopted it 

 and maintain it and trust in it a harm which may become appar- 

 ent only after a long series of years, and apparent at first, even 

 then, only to the most careful observer. It is a familiar fact that 

 a great change in governmental policy may not produce its full 

 effect for many decades. We are still in the dark as to what will 

 be the final outcome, and especially the final effect on character, 

 of the free public educational system. 



The individualist opponent of that system says that the indi- 

 vidual is the important thing. He contends that the individual 

 is happiest when he has the maximum of freedom ; that he best 

 develops when he most fully reaps the rewards of his own exer- 



