POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



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mere studied the quadrature of the circle; 

 Mesian went to Guiana and published an im- 

 portant book on the insects of Surinam. 

 Maria Mitchell and Yvon Yillarceau were 

 well-known astronomers ; and among con- 

 temporary women of science in different na- 

 tions the names of Agnes Clarke and Clem- 

 ence Royer are those of foreign workers best 

 known to our readers. 



College ithletics and Health. Speaking, 

 in an address on the Influence of College 

 Life on Health, of College Athletes, Dr. Ed- 

 win Farnham says that " they are, as com- 

 pared with the whole number of students, 

 but few, and must always be so ; for the 

 true athlete, like every real artist, is born, 

 not made. Much has been written about 

 training, as if by some mysterious process an 

 athlete could be developed out of any sort of 

 material. As I understand training, it is a 

 process by which a man is put into a condi- 

 tion which enables him to make the greatest 

 skilled muscular effort of which he is capa- 

 ble, in a certain way, for a certain time. It 

 may be beneficial to health, but that is not 

 its object. You must have the proper ma- 

 terial to work upon, or all the training in the 

 world will be of no avail. At many colleges 

 large sums of money have been spent on the 

 various preparations necessary for athletic 

 contests, and a great deal of time and labor 

 devoted to them. At some colleges special 

 privileges have been granted to the men 

 composing the athletic teams. Has an equal 

 amount of attention been given to the care 

 of the health of the students, considered in 

 the light of a subject in no way connected 

 with muscular development ? What I know 

 about this matter relates mainly to Harvard 

 University, but I am disposed to think that 

 other colleges would not be found superior 

 to Harvard in this respect. I am, and for 

 more than thirty years have been, intevested 

 in athletic sports, but I hold it true that the 

 first duty of a great educational institution 

 is to the scholar not to his intellectual 

 needs alone, but to everything that makes for 

 the preservation and improvement of health 

 as well. None can know better than the body 

 of physicians here assembled that the use 

 which a man may be able to make in his life 

 work of the knowledge acquired during his 

 school and college days will depend largely 



on the condition of his health. Physical ex- 

 ercise has been a mania for some time, and 

 much nonsense has been written about it. 

 Even so great an authority as Dr. Parkes 

 says, in his Practical Hjgiene, 'Exercise is 

 a paramount condition of health, and the 

 healthiest persons are those who have most 

 of it.' Exercise in the proper amount is 

 indeed one of the means conducive to the 

 preservation and improvement of health, 

 but there are others as important, and some 

 more so. The scholar should always bear in 

 mind that in his case exercise is intended as 

 a means to health which shall enable him to 

 do his proper work in the best manner. He 

 should never try to combine great mental 

 with great bodily labor. I feel sure, from 

 personal experience and from what promi- 

 nent athletes have told me, that this can 

 not be done with safety." 



Archaeology at the University of Penn- 

 sylvania. The purposes of the department 

 of Archeology and Paleontology of the Uni- 

 versity of Pennsylvania are to provide in- 

 struction in those subjects and in ethnology, 

 and to extend scientific inquiry by means of 

 oi'iginal investigation in them. It will ac- 

 complish this by means of a library, courses 

 of lectures, and the sending out of exploring 

 expeditions. In the section of Babylonian an- 

 tiquities excavations have been continuously 

 carried on at Niffur, Mesopotamia ; the Tem- 

 ple of Bel there has been nearly uncovered, 

 many inscribed stones, cuneiform tablets, 

 etc., of 4000 years b. c. have been obtained, 

 and a collection of inscriptions published ; 

 and Dr. H. V. Hilprecht has spent five weeks 

 in examining the cuneiform inscriptions 

 collected at Constantinople. In the Egyp- 

 tian section lectures have been delivered by 

 Mr. Cornelius Stevenson ; an exhibition of 

 the Graf collection of rare Graeco-Egyptian 

 portraits and other objects has been secured. 

 In the section of Glyptology special pro- 

 vision has been made for the Summerville 

 collection of gems and talismans and it has 

 been considerably increased ; while no op- 

 portunity has been neglected that might 

 afford new acquisitions. A section of casts 

 has been established, and arrangements 

 have been made for filling it. A collection 

 of photographs illustrating archaeological ob- 

 jects at Copan, Honduras, has been obtained. 



