600 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



any shape, be taken for education, still refuse the grant that the cen- 

 tral department offers as a bribe for the acceptance of its mischievous 

 interference. Until individual self-reliance has grown among us, let 

 each town administer education in its own way. So, at least, we shall 

 get local life and energy and variety thrown into the work, not the 

 mere mechanical carrying out of regulations of two or three gentlemen 

 sitting at their desks at Whitehall. But do not believe that you will 

 get the highest results in this way. More freedom for action and ex- 

 periment is wanted than you can get under any local board. Accus- 

 tom yourselves to the idea that men will act better in voluntary groups 

 than if forced into union by external power. Many boards acting 

 freely in a town, and learning gradually to cooperate together to some 

 extent and for some purposes, is what we should look forward to. 

 Perhaps the best step in advance, and in preparation for a purely free 

 system, is to obtain powers from Parliament under which any consid- 

 erable number of electors, say from one sixth to one tenth, according 

 to the size of the town, might elect, and pay their rate to, their own 

 board. Under such a plan there would be imperfections and possible 

 evasions ; but it would cast off the swaddling-clothes imposed by the 

 Privy Council, and would give a life to the work which would far 

 more than compensate for the loss of mechanical regularity. It is 

 always difficult to introduce freedom into a system that is founded on 

 authority and officialism. You can only escape from anomalies and 

 contradictions by being either rigidly despotic or completely free. But 

 a little life and light are worth getting at almost any price, and will 

 make us wish for more. The final step will be to render the rate pure- 

 ly voluntary, and to give full freedom and responsibility of action, for 

 which the people will never be fit as long as they are persuaded to 

 subject each other to official regulations under the much-abused name 

 of self-government. Fortnightly Review. 



HOW ANIMALS DIGEST. 



By HEKMAN L. FAIECHILD. 



IN reception of food, animals have been compared to plants turned 

 outside in. The plant absorbs nourishment by pores in the foliage 

 and rootlets. Higher animals absorb food by similar closed tubes 

 which line a cavity of the body. This interior cavity, the food-tract 

 or alimentary canal, is the most important and the most nearly univer- 

 sal organ of the animal structure. Its purpose is threefold that of a 

 reservoir, as animals can not always procure their proper food and 

 can not, like plants, be ever eating ; a liquefier, as all food, both for 

 plants and animals, must be in the fluid state; and, thirdly, a chemical 



