P OP ULAR MIS CELL ANY 



425 



to make all the parts interchangeable. After 

 two years' effort the thing was accomplished. 

 Lettering and numbering were abolished ; 

 all the component parts, even of the lock, 

 were got out in large numbers, and thrown 

 together indiscriminately. Thus was inaugu- 

 rated the ' uniformity system ' so called. . . . 

 It is not claimed that the whole credit of 

 the 'uniformity system' should be given to 

 Blanchard. . . . But to Blanchard belongs 

 the credit of being its forerunner and sug- 

 gester." And in a letter from Mr. Waters 

 to us this system is declared to be " wholly 

 of American origin," and he adds that in 

 Europe it is known as " the American sys- 

 tem." 



Now, that the practical execution of the 

 uniformity system was facilitated by Blan- 

 chard's invention is readily admitted ; but 

 the idea itself, and the execution of it, on a 

 small scale, belong to an earlier period, and 

 to another country. The all-sufficient proof 

 of this is found in the following letter, 

 written from Paris, under the date of Au- 

 gust 30, 1785. The writer of this letter, 

 Thomas Jefferson, addressing John Jay, 

 says : " An improvement is made here in 

 the construction of muskets. ... It con- 

 sists in making every part of them so ex- 

 actly alike that what belongs to any one 

 may be used for every other musket in the 

 magazine. The Government .... is estab- 

 lishing a large manufactory for the purpose 

 of putting it into execution. As yet the 

 inventor has only completed the lock of the 

 musket on this plan. He will proceed im- 

 mediately to have the barrel, stock, and 

 other parts, executed in the same way. 

 The workman .... presented me the parts 

 of fifty locks taken to pieces and arranged 

 in compartments. I put several together 

 myself, taking pieces at hazard as they 

 came to hand, and they fitted in the most 

 perfect manner." The letter will be found 

 in the " Writings of Thomas Jefferson." 



Insanity in Russia. The ratio of insane 

 persons to the whole population is extraor- 

 dinarily high in Russia, namely, as 1 to 450. 

 The causes of this have been investigated 

 by Dr. Finkelburg, member of the Public 

 Health Commission, and he has made it the 

 subject of a lecture. Among the working 

 classes he observes that the lack of physical 



and intellectual education, insufficient food, 

 unhealthy dwellings, and a certain indolence 

 of mind, contribute partly to the evil. But 

 it is chiefly the abuse of alcoholic liquors 

 that fills the lunatic asylums as well as the 

 prisons. In the former drunkards figure to 

 the extent of a fifth ; in the prisons they 

 constitute two fifths. With regard to edu- 

 cated people, the causes of their insanity 

 are naturally very different, and they often 

 date from the' earliest education. Children 

 do not, in general, get as much rest as they 

 absolutely need. That a child work dili- 

 gently, keep its place in class, or quickly 

 advance in the school grades, is all that is 

 demanded, and people do not trouble them- 

 selves in the least as to whether the young 

 and tender brain, kept in incessant activity, 

 may not suddenly stop in its functions or 

 its growth. Rousseau insisted on a purely 

 negative education till twelve years of age, 

 and in this he was wiser than our school- 

 masters. The child that has lived in the 

 open air to this age without contracting bad 

 habits will have greater force of apprehen- 

 sion and will progress more rapidly than 

 another who has been fatigued by premature 

 work. Among adults, Professor Finkelburg 

 distinguishes two great classes men of 

 work and men of pleasure. Continual activ- 

 ity and the suitable exercise of all the fac- 

 ulties are necessary to the preservation of 

 intellectual and physical health, for it is the 

 idlers that furnish the greatest number of 

 hypochondriacs. But there is the excess of 

 the overworked man, who is liable to mental 

 maladies arising from fatigue of mind, joined 

 with material cares, absence of sleep, emo- 

 tions and agitations caused by a goal always 

 imagined but never reached. Professor Fin- 

 kelburg concluded by urging that every man 

 should try as much as possible to vary his 

 occupations, whatever they be, to give his 

 tired mind agreeable recreation, to take 

 walks regularly in the open air, etc., in order 

 to restore the equilibrium of functions of 

 body and mind. 



Survival of Snperststions Beliefs. Here 



are a few illustrations of the persistence of 

 superstitious beliefs. They are taken from 

 a paper in " All the Year Round," entitled 

 " Some Popular Cures." Many, if not all 

 of these beliefs, doubtless survive even on 



