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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



they are, and give the real feelings of hon- 

 orable men and women toward the actions 

 and occurrences which make up the story. 

 Bad novels, on the contrary, make their 

 readers believe themselves and others to be 

 what they are not, disturb their judgments, 

 and fill them with false hopes as to what 

 they may expect at the hands of destiny. 

 Novels impel their readers to pursue the 

 thoughts and foster the emotions of the ac- 

 complished or smart heroes and heroines 

 whom they have been led to admire. When 

 these thoughts and emotions are pure, gener- 

 ous, and elevated, fiction becomes an agent 

 for good ; but when its model characters are 

 willful, pompous, immoral, and impossibly 

 successful withal, its effect is deplorably de- 

 grading. 



Sanitary Entombment. Entombment, or 

 deposition in a mausoleum, is represented, 

 by the Rev. Charles R. Treat, as the mode 

 of disposing of the dead to which the hu- 

 man race, as a whole, has shown the most 

 evident preference. Sanitary entombment 

 is described by him as comprising this feat- 

 ure combined with desiccation, a process 

 which is performed naturally in some atmos- 

 pheres, and which the author believes can 

 be made artificially practicable, with en- 

 tombment, everywhere. He proposes, there- 

 fore, the arrangement, in buildings like the 

 " Campo Santo " of Pisa, of sepulchres " so 

 constructed that anhydrous air could enter or 

 be made to enter, and withdraw, laden with 

 moisture and morbific matter, which it would 

 convey to a separate structure, where a fur- 

 nace would complete the sanitary work that 

 the anhydrous air had begun, and return to 

 the external atmosphere nothing that would 

 be noxious." This would retain the form 

 and much of the substance of the body, and 

 subject the noxious, volatile particles to cre- 

 mation. 



Conditions of Vigorous Old Age. The 



present greater proportion than formerly 

 existed of men who pass the age of seventy 

 years, reach fourscore, or are active at nine- 

 ty years, points to one of the brighter phases 

 of our civilization. The association of this 

 vigor with different physical types is sug- 

 gestive of a certain generality of origin, and 

 encourages the hope that it may be partly 



dependent on personal conduct. As a first 

 condition toward obtaining effective longev- 

 ity, Dr. B. W. Richardson advises parents 

 to begin for their children by saving them 

 the infliction of mental shocks and unneces- 

 sary grief, and making everything as happy 

 for them as they can. The persons them- 

 selves, when older, should avoid grief and 

 eschew hate, jealousy, unchastity, and in- 

 temperance, all of which hasten the coming 

 of old age. When old age has really begun, 

 its march may be delayed by rules securing 

 the least friction and the least waste : sub- 

 sistence on light but nutritious food, vary- 

 ing according to the season, and moderate 

 in quantity; dressing warmly, but lightly, 

 so as to enable the body to maintain its 

 even temperature ; keeping the body in fair 

 exercise and the mind active and cheerful ; 

 maintaining an interest in what is going on 

 in the world, and participating in reasonable 

 labors and pleasures ; securing plenty of 

 sleep during sleeping hours, in a room kept 

 at a moderate temperature ; and avoiding 

 passion, excitement, and luxury. The weak- 

 er man may thus sometimes show himself 

 the more tenacious of life. 



The Chartreuse Liqnor. The Chartreuse 

 liquor is made under the direction of the 

 monks of the abbey of the Grand Chartreuse, 

 in the high Alps of Dauphiny. This abbey 

 is the headquarters of the Carthusian order, 

 which has some fifteen houses in France, 

 Italy, Switzerland, and Austria. The manu- 

 facture is carried on by paid operatives, 

 under the supervision of the abbey steward, 

 while the rest of the monks have no concern 

 with it. The population of the village are 

 employed in collecting the herbs, which, 

 mixed with eau-de-vie, are distilled along 

 with the spirit. This brandy is purchased, 

 not made at the abbey. Only one of the 

 operations the mixture of the herbs is a 

 secret. The manufacture of Chartreuse as 

 a market product has grown up since 1835. 

 Previous to that time it was made only on 

 a small scale as a remedy. There were for- 

 merly three kinds of Chartreuse made, the 

 white, yellow, and green ; but the white has 

 been abandoned. The green is the strongest 

 and most expensive ; and the monks rec- 

 ommend a mixture of one third green and two 

 thirds yellow as the best. A Chartreuse is 



