566 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ancient springs now subsided. At one time 

 each of these cones was but tlie mere rim 

 or lip of a basin in which the hot water 

 bubbled as we sec it at the top of the cas- 

 cade. Thus the water continued to boil up- 

 ward ia jets, like the geysers, for centuries, 

 gradually, by the deposit of lime which fell 

 from it, raising its lip. At length the sub- 

 terranean force that impelled it vertically 

 weakened. The cone had attained its full 

 stature. According to the Arabs, however, 

 the cones arc deaf, dumb, <ind blind genii in 

 whose charge Solomon put the baths when 

 he is supposed to have created them for all 

 the world. The worthy guardians, who still 

 think King Solomon is alive, continue to 

 keep the baths warm as they did at the first 

 for the use of the king's subjects. It is 

 supposed to be a matter of great difficulty 

 to announce to these genii the fact that their 

 master is dead. The inference is, therefore, 

 that they will continue to warm the baths to 

 the end of time. Various other stories are 

 told to account for the origin of the baths. 



Lepers in the Middle Ages. — Leprosy was 

 common in England and continental Europe 

 some five hundred years ago, and those who 

 were afflicted with it were subjected to treat- 

 ment which would now be considered cruel. 

 Institutions for the segregation and treat- 

 ment of the diseased, erected by the Church 

 or by the aid of pious donors, were to be 

 found over all England ; and at one time 

 there was a leper hospital or village near ev- 

 ery town. According to Prof. Simpson, there 

 were in the year 1 226 two thousand lazar- 

 houses in the small kingdom of France. 

 " In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries," 

 says an English writer, " a leper was not al- 

 lowed to hold property, was deemed incapa- 

 ble of making a will, and lost all the privi- 

 leges of citizenship. He was hunted from 

 the towns and driven from the dwellings of 

 men ; he was forbidden to drink from the 

 running stream, lest he should defile it, and 

 it was unlawful for him to touch things that 

 were used for food by man. Anything was 

 deemed good enough for the leper." When 

 a man was supposed to have leprosy, he was 

 examined, and, if the disease was found upon 

 him, was banished from society, after endur- 

 ing a service at the church resembling the 

 funeral ritual, and sometimes embodying a 



part of it. If a man was wealthy, he might 

 buy himself an exemption from the extreme 

 disabilities, as did the abbot Richard de 

 Wallingford, who was able, with great diffi- 

 culty, to keep his position. The hospitals 

 maintained by the Church did much to alle- 

 viate the woes of lepers. The regulations 

 of the Hospital of St. Julian, which were 

 drawn up in 1344, have been preserved. 

 Though strict, they were not hard. Among 

 them was an exhortation to avoid slander 

 and cultivate brotherly love and true charity. 

 Each leper was allowed seven loaves of bread 

 a week, five of white and two of brown, made 

 from corn " just as it had been thrashed 

 from the sheaf." Every seventh month he 

 had fourteen gallons of ale or eight pence ; 

 on Christmas-day, forty gallons of ale or forty 

 pence, two quarters of pure and fine com, 

 and his share of fourteen shillings, to be ap- 

 plied to the purchase of mufflers. On St. Mar- 

 tin's day each one had a pig from the com- 

 mon herd, the patients taking choice in the 

 order of seniority of admission, or a money 

 equivalent m case pigs were scarce. Other 

 periodical allowances were a bushel of beans 

 01 peas every winter ; a quarter of oats on the 

 14th of February; two bushels of salt, and 

 four shillings for clothing, on the 24 th of 

 June ; a penny on St. Alban's, St. Julian's, 

 and Easter days ; a half-penny on Ascension- 

 day "for the taking away from themselves 

 of dirt " ; and flour for pancakes on Shrove 

 Tuesday. With these gifts they were com- 

 manded to be content. 



Offices of Forests. — A writer who nar- 

 rates the history of the woods and pastures of 

 Lynn, Mass., in the Transcript of that city, 

 says that the " Ljmn woods have had three 

 periods of usefulness. Down to 1706 they 

 furnished pasturage and timber and shelter 

 to the village. In their second period, cov- 

 ering the life of the town in its shifting 

 from the pastoral to mechanical pursuits, 

 they were still useful, although restricted to 

 furnishing fuel to the inhabitants. As time 

 went on, and cheap coal came in with the 

 ever-advancing density of population, it 

 seemed as if the slaughtering brick-maker 

 and fire-fiend would render the woods a des- 

 ert and a menace to our fair town." But 

 a period of greater usefulness, according to 

 Garden and Forest, has come. The inhab- 



