PHYSIOGNOMIC CURIOSITIES. 63 



The advantages of the electric light and of the distribution of 

 power by electricity have lately been recognized by the British Gov- 

 ernment, who have just passed a bill through Parliament to facilitate 

 the establishment of electrical conductors in towns, subject to certain 

 regulating clauses to protect the interests of the public and of local 

 authorities. Assuming the cost of electric light to be practically the 

 same as gas, the preference for one or other will in each application 

 be decided upon grounds of relative convenience, but I venture to 

 think that gas-lighting will hold its own as the poor man's friend. 



[To be continued.'] 



PHYSIOGNOMIC CUPJOSITIES. 



By FELIX L. OSWALD, M. D. 



BUT, besides these local ideals (referred to in the preceding num- 

 ber), there is an inteimational standard of beauty which has sur- 

 vived the mutations in other canons of taste. Athenseus mentions the 

 ingredients of a once-famous sea-fish sauce, and the attempt to try his 

 receipt nearly suffocated the courtiers of Queen Christina with nausea 

 and laughter. Petronius, surnamed the Arbiter of Elegance, would be 

 kicked out by any modern publisher of obscene literature. The Greeks 

 admired the knife-grinder music of the tree-cicada, and their own 

 melodies would probably rout an American audience, but we all can 

 appreciate the merits of their sculptured paragons ; their Venus would 

 bag the prize-committee of an Alaska squaw-fair, as she captured the 

 stout knight Tannhauser. 



" Beautiful features are the credentials by which Nature introduces 

 her representatives," says Wieland. Beauty is superior fitness, as a 

 Darwinian would say, and in this respect, too, the pre-eminence of the 

 ancient Greeks was probably the outcome of their general physical and 

 mental superiority to their fellow-men, though they themselves be- 

 lieved in the existence of a chemical pan-cosmetic. In the trial of the 

 arch-quack Cagliostro, it came out that, during the twelve years from 

 17G5-'?7, he had realized three million francs from the sale of his 

 "Recipe for Beauty," a recipe which has been more eagerly searched 

 for than the philosopher's stone, or the secret of longevity. Andreas 

 Cisalpinus made the notable discovery that an ointment of crushed 

 locusts and misletoe-juice would treble the charms of the fairest woman. 

 " What must I do to become very beautiful ? " the damsel in " Don 

 Quixote " asks the enchanted Moor's head. " Que seas muy honrada 

 be very continent," replies the head. Paracelsus recommends meadow- 

 dew, gathered in the morning while the May -moon is on the increase ; 

 and Montaigne inquires into the habits of the most well-favored tribes 



