696 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



WHAT KNOWLEDGE IS OF MOST WORTH. 

 Messrs. Editors : 



WHILE this discussion about the great 

 ascendency given the study of the 

 classics in all of our institutions of learning 

 is going on, we beg to offer the following 

 facts : ilere we have the great University 

 of Michigan, the pride of the State, with its 

 fourteen hundred students, and schools of 

 literature, science, and the arts, dentistry, 

 law, pharmacy, music, medicine, political and 

 sanitary science, and one can graduate and 

 take the coveted degree of A. B., receive 

 the commendation of his teachers, then study 

 in a post-graduate course and receive the 

 degrees of A. M. and Ph. D., and be an edu- 

 cated fool so far as knowing anything of 

 elocution is concerned, or having acquired 

 any knowledge of the structure and compo- 

 sition of his own body or of the laws of 

 health. 



To the credit of the university, it may be 

 said that many courses of study are offered 

 and a wide latitude given for choice ; but, 

 while four years of study in Latin and two in 

 Greek are required in the preparatory schools 

 and about one and a half year each in Latin 

 and Greek in the university, nothing is re- 

 quired in the fitting schools or university in 

 either elocution or physiology and hygiene, 

 and there is absolutely no provision made 

 in any department for teaching the former, 

 and nothing in the latter is required or of- 

 fered candidates for the degree of A. B. 

 worthy of the name. It still seems to be con- 

 sidered of vastly more importance to have a 

 smattering of Latin and Greek than to know 

 anything about one's own body and how to 

 care for it, or to speak well our own tongue. 



Observer. 

 Ann Arbok, Michigan, May 23, 1S84. 



themselves for their work as much as com- 

 mon-school teachers do now. 



J. G. Malcolm. 

 ToPEKA, EIansas, July 1, 18S4. 



THE QUALIFICATIONS OF LEGISLATORS. 

 Messrs. Editors : 



After reading what Herbert Spencer says 

 of the " Sins of Legislators," I am impressed 

 with the idea that it would be a step in the 

 right direction to make it a necessary quali- 

 fication for a member of Congress or State 

 Legislature that he shall pass a satisfactory 

 examination before some university board, 

 and get a certificate showing his attainments 

 in the studies of political economy and civil 

 government. This would at least compel 

 candidates for those positions to devote some 

 time to the study of those branches — a thing 

 they now seldom do. I see no reason why 

 they should not be compelled to prepare 



"AN EXPERIMENT IN PROHIBITION" 

 FROM ANOTHER POINT OF VIEW. 



Messrs. Editors : 



The May number of " The Popular Sci- 

 ence Monthly " contained an article entitled 

 "An Experiment in Prohibition," some of 

 the statements in which were so one-sided 

 and inaccurate that they can not be allowed 

 to pass without challenge. Among those 

 statements were assertions that in the State 

 of Vermont the prohibitory law is " an ab- 

 solute dead letter " ; that the returns of the 

 United States revenue officers show that 

 there are in that State /ovr hundred and 

 forty-six places where intoxicating liquors are 

 sold ; that " in the city of Burlington there 

 are about threescore places where liquor is 

 sold ; and in Rutland, St. Albans, and all the 

 larger towns, a proportional number, and 

 in every village in the State, with the excep- 

 tion of a few inconsiderable hamlets, at 

 least one such place " ; that " a large pro- 

 portion of the dram-shops are located upon 

 the principal streets and there is no conceal- 

 ment or attempted concealment of the ille- 

 gal traffic conducted within them " ; and 

 that prosecutions of liquor-sellers, on whom 

 persons arrested for intoxication have dis- 

 closed, are "very common," but are con- 

 fined to " the lowest class of liquoi'-dealers " 

 and are " invariably for a first offense." 



Two of these statements contradict each 

 other. If prosecutions, though only for first 

 offenses and of the lowest class of liquor- 

 dealers, are " very common," it can not be 

 correct to say that the law is an absolute 

 dead letter. Most certainly it is not an ab- 

 solute dead letter. 



The statement of the number of places 

 in Vermont where intoxicating liquors are 

 sold was obtained from a newspaper com- 

 pilation, from the returns of the United 

 States Collector of Internal Revenue for the 

 year ending April, 1883. The same returns 

 show that, of the 446 persons paying the 

 United States tax as dealers in intoxicating 

 liquors, about three hundred were druggists, 

 who must use, and keep, and sell, alcohol 

 and spirits for purposes recognized as legiti- 

 mate. While some of these undoubtedly 

 sell liquors to a greater or less extent for 

 other than " medicinal, mechanical, and 

 chemical pnrposes," their shops can not, as 

 a class, be called " dram-shops "—and many 



