820 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



are in every respect agreeable to the hygienic exigencies of 

 children. 



These conclusions, we know, will raise numerous protests, both 

 from specialists whose convictions they may wound and whose 

 interests they may conflict with, and among amateurs of gymnas- 

 tics to whom those exercises are dear, because they are agreeable 

 to their abilities and tastes. They are, on the other hand, in har- 

 mony with the opinion of the most eminent men who have occu- 

 pied themselves with education, hygiene, and physiology. Her- 

 bert Spencer gives preference, among all the methods of physical 

 exercise, to " free play " ; and M. Marey, in his report on the work 

 of the Commission of Gymnastics, of which he is president, points 

 out to the Minister of Public Instruction the inconveniences of 

 gymnastics, which is, in his opinion, " only a makeshift to be 

 kept up till the time when we can find a practicable means of 

 substituting exercises really adapted to the abilities and hygienic 

 needs of the child — that is, open-air games." 



It is, however, very far from our thought to suggest that me- 

 thodical gymnastics should be wholly discontinued. That form 

 of exercise, which is not adapted to children or to very young 

 persons, is excellent for those who have completed their growth, 

 and who have time and taste for developing their muscles to the 

 extreme. Gymnastics is an excellent preparation for the military 

 service, and may be of great aid to those who desire to harden 

 themselves by training to the life of the regiment. But it is early 

 enough to begin it in the eighteenth year — that is, after school 

 studies are over. 



In short, artificial and difficult exercises are to natural exer- 

 cises what, in mental education, the higher instruction is to pri- 

 mary and secondary instruction. Physical education has its 

 " grades " as well as mental education, and we commit an error 

 when we reverse them. — Translated for The Popular Science 

 Monthly from the Revue des Deux Mondes. 



The Abors, of Burma, have great faith in pig's liver as an oracle. Colonel 

 Dalton, of the English East Indian service, says that, finding that some members 

 of the tribe desired to ascertain by this test the reason of his visiting them, he 

 suggested that a simple plan would be to judge by his words and looks; to which 

 they retorted that the words and faces of men were fallacious, but pig's liver 

 never deceived them. 



"Bog Butter" was the subject of a recent paper by the Rev. J. O'Laverty 

 before the Royal Society of Antiquaries in London. The author said that a roll 

 in his possession found at the depth of twelve feet in a bog, wrapped in a coarse 

 cloth still retaining the print of fingers, had a taste of cheese. The property of 

 bog-burying conveying a cheesy flavor to butter, or making it rancid, has been 

 mentioned by other w T riters, and is referred to in an old couplet. 



