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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



agent both in attack and defense, and a 

 special development of the mind began. As 

 a culmination of the whole, we have man, 

 in whom mentality has replaced all other 

 agents in the struggle for existence. But, 

 side by side with man all the other types ex- 

 ist, the soft-bodied, the armored, the swift- 

 moving, and those in which cunning pre- 

 cedes the higher mentality. In the existing 

 conditions of life upon the earth we have 

 an epitome of the whole long course of evo- 

 lution." 



Acclimatization of Door. — Viscount 

 Towerscourt has communicated to the Zoo- 

 logical Society of London the results of his 

 experiments in acclimatization, conducted 

 since 1858 and 1859, on his estate in Ire- 

 land, of foreign deer. He had at one time 

 alive in a park of one hundred acres, about 

 two thirds of which was open paeture and 

 one third wood, red deer, Sambur deer, Nyl- 

 ghaies, axis deer, llamas, elands, wapiti 

 deer, and moufflons, or wild sheep. The 

 red deer increased and the wapiti bred, but 

 the Nylghaiea died while still apparently in 

 good health. Accidents interfered with the 

 success of the experiments with the wapi- 

 tis, but the results, taken in connection with 

 experiments made elsewhere, indicated that 

 the acclimatization of these deer will be 

 entirely practicable. The Samburs declined, 

 and died in the course of three or four years, 

 because, apparently, they insisted on stay- 

 ing in the shade. The elands, axis, and lla- 

 mas died, or proved so delicate that they 

 had to be taken away. The most favorable 

 results were obtained with Japanese deer 

 (Ccrvus sika), which throve excellently and 

 multiplied without requiring other than the 

 ordinary winter feeding. They are pro- 

 nounced, after twenty-four years of breed- 

 ing and increase, "a most satisfactory little 

 deer ; the venison when dressed is about the 

 size of a Welsh mutton, and well flavored." 



Longevity of Great Men.— In a paper 

 ihe American Association, on " The 

 I i'y of Great Men," Mr. J. Jastrow 



observed thai all that the usual method of 

 attempting to answer the question whether 

 great men are longer lived than others can 

 prove i- that it takes long to become great. 

 It neglects to consider that a select class of 



men is dealt with, and that to become po- 

 tentially included in this class one must have 

 lived a certain number of years. A review 

 of a list of greatest men appeared to show 

 that, on the average, a man must be thirty- 

 seven years old in order to be a candidate 

 for a place in this list. Comparing the asres 

 to which such men live with the average 

 expectation of life of men at thirty-seven, 

 the author inferred that men of thought 

 live three years longer, while the lives of 

 men of feeling are three years, and those of 

 men of action five years shorter than those 

 of ordinary men — a conclusion which is 

 somewhat different from the commonly ac- 

 cepted view on the subject. The question 

 of longevity becomes important when we con- 

 sider that through it the leaders of thought 

 are allowed to exercise their important func- 

 tion here a few years longer, so that more 

 great men arc enabled to be alive at the 

 same time. By the rule of heredity also, 

 the children of great men will begin life 

 with a better chance of reaching maturity 

 and an age when they may become impor- 

 tant to the world. 



Evils of I'ndiscriminating Charity. — It 



is asserted by a clergyman residing in one 

 of the districts where the most good was 

 attempted to be done by its distribution, 

 that the Mansion House charitable fund of 

 London has done a vast amount of mischief 

 in those very districts. This clergyman, Mr. 

 Barnctt, Vicar of St. Jude's, treats the fund 

 as a calamity which has befallen London, 

 not less, perhaps even greater, than the dis- 

 tress for which it was supposed to be the 

 remedy. The evil arises from the failure to 

 exercise discrimination in the administration 

 of a bounty which, properly applied to the 

 proper persons, might be made of great 

 benefit. The failure in this case to accom- 

 plish an object designed to be good leads 

 the " Spectator " to indulge in some re- 

 marks on the mischievousness of undis- 

 criminating good feeling in general. There 

 is hardly a single good feeling, it says, 

 however just and praiseworthy in its kind, 

 which men can simply indulge without 

 incurring the greatest danger of doing 

 harm. There is, for instance, the lavish 

 habit of bestowing praise and blame in 

 unmeasured volume, under the dictation of 



