9 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



nose at will with a sphincter muscle. Go and look at the seal in the 

 Zoological. The valve which works the blow-hole of the whale and 

 porpoise is of an analogous character. Strange to say, we find an ani- 

 mal that is not amphibious has his nostrils protected by this curious 

 and beautiful valve. But you will probably never guess what animal 

 this is. Well, it is the camel the " ship of the desert." In the des- 

 ert, where the camel lives, there are often " sand-storms," and the 

 Creator has provided the poor camel with this wonderful structure to 

 save him from suffocation when these terrible sand-storms occur. 



Shortly after the little hippopotamus was born in the Zoological, a 

 young rhinoceros was born on board a ship in the Victoria Docks, and 

 this poor little animal, whose value was very great, unfortunately died 

 his mother lay on him and crushed him with her great carcass. 

 Never mind, better luck next time. Leisure Hour. 



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EUTHANASIA. 



THERE is a small knot of thinkers in Birmingham who come to- 

 gether to discuss philosophical topics, and call themselves The 

 Speculative Club. In 1870 they published a volume of seven essays, 

 which were written with much ability, and some of them with great 

 boldness. The sixth article of this volume is by Samuel D. Williams, 

 and is entitled " Euthanasia," which being interpreted means an easy 

 or desirable mode of death. The writer begins by referring to the op- 

 position which was made to the administration of chloroform for relief 

 of pain, and more especially in cases of childbirth, which was regard- 

 ed as a revolt against the divine decree, " In sorrow shalt thou brinsr 

 forth." This prejudice having passed away, the writer raises the ques- 

 tion of the application of chloroform to a relief of the sufferings which 

 often attend the approach of death, and observes : " It is difficult to 

 understand why chloroform should be rightly recurred to, to render 

 less painful the natural painful passage into life ; and yet, that it should 

 be almost an offence to so much as suggest a like recurrence to it in 

 the still more painful passage out of life." Why, he asks, should the 

 patient about to be operated upon by the surgeon always have a refuge 

 from suffering open to him, and yet the patient about to suffer at the 

 hands of Nature the worst she has to inflict, be left without help or 

 hope of help ? Mr. Williams lays down and defends the following 

 proposition : " That in all cases of hopeless and painful illness it 

 should be the recognized duty of the medical attendant, whenever so 

 desired by the patient, to administer chloroform, or such other anaes- 

 thetic as may by-and-by supersede chloroform, so as to destroy con- 

 sciousness at once, and put the sufferer at once to a quick and painless 



