POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



8S9 



birds were plainly fitted for a predatory life ; 

 and the lowest and earliest forms among 

 mammals are decidedly zoophagous. It may 

 even be ijermissible to ask if among mam- 

 mals the purely plant-eating forms have not 

 been developed from a zoophagous or at 

 least from an omnivorous stock. The oniy 

 large group which contains no zoophagous 

 or omnivorous members, that of the rumi- 

 nants, is characterized by its complicated 

 and highly specialized digestive organs, 

 " evidently modified from the normal mam- 

 malian type, so as to be adapted to a purely 

 vegetable diet," Numerous animals are 

 zoophagous at one period of their lives and 

 plant-eating at another, and experience a 

 natural and normal change. Thus all mam- 

 mals begin life as milk-eaters. Likewise 

 all birds begin with a diet of insects and 

 worms or of half-digested food disgorged 

 from the crop of their parents. Changes 

 arising from scarcity of food, or from ca- 

 price, are also on record. Domesticated dogs 

 and cats often partake of vegetable matter. 

 Among wild animals the change in diet when 

 it occurs is most generally from vegetable 

 to animal. Curiously, when any species has 

 adopted a new diet, it shows a great dis- 

 inclination to return to its former food. 

 The majority of warm-blooded animals may, 

 however, be regarded as omnivorous, in so 

 far that they consume both animal and veg- 

 etable food. Apes and monkeys, generally 

 classed with vegetarians, "never omit an 

 opportunity of robbing a bird's nest, and 

 feed with avidity upon a great variety of in- 

 sects." The bears and their allies, except 

 the so-called polar bear, carnivores, seem to 

 prefer fruits, roots, honey, insects, and even 

 grain before it is ripened and hardened, 

 " There is no satisfactory evidence that any 

 of the cats in a wild state will consume veg- 

 etable matter, but at least two groups of 

 the Canidce — the foxes and the jackals — are 

 not averse to fruit." Among the rodents 

 an omnivorous character is becoming more 

 and more fully established. The Solidun- 

 ffula, or horse kind, and the ruminants are, 

 so far as is known, strictly vegetarians ; but 

 the other sub-order of the Ungulata, that of 

 the pachyderms, includes the swine, the 

 most typically omnivorous animals. Among 

 the birds, the number of purely plant-eating 

 species is relatively smaller, that of the ex- 



clusively zoophagous larger, and that of the 

 forms recognized as omnivorous is increas- 

 ing as our knowledge of their habits extends. 

 Thus the animal-eating and plant-eating 

 forms of animal life are not separated from 

 each other by any sharply marked characters, 

 but are connected by a multitude of crea- 

 tures intermediate in their organization, and 

 consequently adapted for a mixed diet. 



Health and Density of Popalation. — 



Professor de Chaumont recently illustrated 

 the influence of density of population on 

 health, by comparing London and Paris. In 

 Paris every individual had an area of about 

 forty square metres, while in London he had 

 eighty. The result of the difference was 

 clearly shown, not only in the lower death-rate 

 in a larger population, but in the character 

 of the diseases, while some diseases — scarlet 

 fever, for instance — were more severe in 

 London than on the Continent ; others, such 

 as typhoid fever and diphtheria, were much 

 more common and fatal in the large cities 

 of the Continent than they were in England. 

 In London, the streets were filthy and the 

 sewers abominable, but the houses were the 

 perfection of cleanliness ; whereas, in Paris, 

 one might give a dinner-party in the sewers, 

 and the streets were perfectly clean, but the 

 houses were abominably filthy. In Paris, 

 all the filth was kept in or under thehousesj 

 while in London it was all sent away. Tho 

 result was shown in the differences in the 

 health of the two cities, particularly in diph- 

 theria, which was described by French sani- 

 tarians as the scourge of their country, while 

 in London it took a comparatively low posi- 

 tion in the class of zymotic diseases. 



Cliinese Aenpnnctnre.— The " North Chi- 

 na Herald " gives some curious illustrations 

 of the skill of Chinese doctors in cauteriza- 

 tion and acupuncture. With two copper 

 coins as his only tools a Mantchoo peasant 

 produced an effectual counter-irritation in 

 a case of slight sunstroke. Acupuncture is 

 performed first in the hollow of the elbow 

 of each arm, and is regarded as successful 

 if blood flows from the wound. If the blood 

 does not appear, the case is regarded as 

 grave, and the operation is repeated in the 

 abdomen, with drawing back and forth of 

 the needle. If the patient shows signs of 



