EDITOR'S TABLE. 



^05 



ing-IIabits of Wood-Ant s," wherein occurs 

 the statement that, if the ants were im- 

 mersed in water and placed on the ant-hills, 

 they were invariably attacked by other ants 

 as enemies, etc. This action is so at vari- 

 ance with what I have observed, that I will 

 mention an incident which occurred while I 

 was botanizing in Wisconsin last summer. 

 In passing by a large stump I observed that 

 the top was covered with large wood-ants. 

 They were feeding on crumbs of bread left 

 by some school-children. On the stump 

 was a depression, where the ants were in 

 large numbers. Procuring some water from 

 a lake close by, I poured it into the depres- 

 sion, submerging several dozen ants. The 

 most of them swam to the margin ; others 

 were in danger of drowning. What was 



my astonishment to see those who had es- 

 caped riish into the water, seize their drown- 

 ing fellows, and drag them to the shore, 

 where they tenderly turned them over until 

 satisfied they were alive, when the rescuers 

 went back and tried to save others ! A few 

 were dragged out too late they were dead. 

 These were turned over, felt of by the an- 

 tennai of the rescuers, and left for dead. 

 In no instance was there any appearance 

 of violence to the wet ants by the dry ones. 

 The intelligence shown by these ants was 

 greater than I had ever dreamed they pos- 

 sessed, and since that time I have had a 

 most sincere respect for my lowly fellow- 

 laborers. 



E. M. Hale, M. D. 

 Chicago, February 24, 1877. 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



MENTAL OVERWORK UNDER THE COM- 

 PETITIVE PRIZE SYSTEM. 



THE death by suicide, not long ago, 

 of a brilliant student of Cornell 

 University, Eniil Schwerdtfeger, at the 

 age of nineteen, has a painful interest 

 in connection with the subject of edu- 

 cation. We are glad to see that the 

 case has elicited some wholesome com- 

 ment on the part of the press, in re- 

 gard to the influences to which he was 

 subjected, and the system of culture 

 that supplies them ; and we think the 

 lesson that has been drawn ought to be 

 enforced upon the public mind in the 

 most pointed and emphatic manner. 



It seems that the yoimg man had 

 fallen into a state of hopeless depres- 

 sion, after a course of successful study, 

 in which he had made the most re- 

 markable proficiency in the languages. 

 His mental condition reminds us of 

 that through which John Stuart Mill 

 passed, when about the same age, after 

 being subjected by his father to that 

 long and terrible discipline of acquisi- 

 tion which is so fully described in his 

 autobiography and has been curiously 

 confirmed by a letter lately discovered, 

 written by young Mill at the age of 

 thirteen to Sir Samuel Bentham. Af- 

 ter being crammed with knowledge in 



the most systematic way dead lan- 

 guages, classical literature, history, 

 mathematics, and political economy 

 from early childhood, by poring over 

 books, until he became a perfect prod- 

 igy of erudition, he passed into a cloud 

 of melancholy, in which his future life 

 seemed vacant and hopeless. All the 

 fountains of impulse that had previ- 

 ously incited him to effort seemed 

 dried up in his gloomy dejection. He 

 went on with his work mechanically, 

 but without interest, while this por- 

 tion of his life, or what he did in it, 

 was afterward hardly remembered. He 

 subsequently described his case in the 

 following lines from Coleridge : 



"A grief without a pang, void, dark, and 

 drear, 

 A drowsy, stifled, unimpassioned grief, 

 Which finds no natural outlet or relief 

 In word, or sigh, or tear." 



He was not free from suggestions 

 of self-destruction which arise in such 

 mental conditions, as we gather from 

 the following remarks : " I frequently 

 asked myself if I could, or if I was bound 

 to, go on living, when life must be 

 passed in this manner. I generally 

 answered to myself that I did not think 

 I could possibly bear it beyond a year." 

 It was unquestionably a case of brain- 



