FRAOMEXTS OF SCIENCE. 



731 



fragments ot Science. 



Religious Suicides. — Suicides from 

 relifjious fanaticism, which are still pre- 

 scribed by some sects, are compared, as 

 having a common origin, with propi- 

 tiatory or expiatory human sacrifices, 

 by Herr Lasch, in an article of which 

 we find a review in the Rlvista Italiana 

 di Sociolof/ia. Voluntary sacrifices, 

 which abound in the history of ancient 

 peoples, had nearlj' always in view the 

 removal of perils or the cessation of pub- 

 lic calamities by appeasing the anger 

 of the divinity through the offering of 

 a human victim. Thus Macaria, the 

 daughter of Herciiles, at Athens during 

 the Peloponnesian war, and Codrus and 

 the Athenian youth Cratinus volunta- 

 rily offered their lives to aid their coun- 

 try by the sacrifice. The consul Decius 

 gave himself up to assure victory to his 

 legions, and Adrian's favorite Antinous 

 to save his imperial protector. Spon- 

 taneous offerings of human victims to 

 appease offended divinities are men- 

 tioned in the traditions of the ancient 

 Germans, and it was usually their chief 

 or king who suffered for the good of 

 the people. Offerings of this sort are 

 far from infrequent among barbarous 

 and half-civilized peoples. Among some 

 tribes in China a man is sacrificed every 

 year for the public welfare. Such vol- 

 untary renunciations of life to acquire 

 merit with the divinity, to gain favors, 

 to atone for sins, and fulfill vows are 

 very common in India, particularly 

 where IJrahmanisra is most influential. 

 Special methods were pointed out in the 

 Hindu laws for performing such sacri- 

 fices as would be sinful for a Brahman, 

 but not for a Sutra, who, before aban- 

 doning life, should make gifts to the 

 Brahmans. A favorite method was to 

 drown one's self in the Ganges, and par- 

 ticular spots in the river were desig- 

 nated for this act. The sacred books 

 mention five methods of performing sac- 

 rifice to assure a better fortune in the 

 next life: Starving to death, being 

 burned alive, burial in snow, being 

 eaten by a crocodile, and cutting the 

 throat or being drowned at a particular 

 spot in the Ganges. In fulfillment of 

 fows, sons would sacrifice themselves 



for their mothers by jumping from a 

 rock. To keep up the courage of the vic- 

 tim, the Sivaitic rituals promised many 

 beatitudes to him who courageously 

 met death for his sins, and threat- 

 ened eternal punishment to one who 

 performed the sacrifice in a base man- 

 ner. And Avhen the suicide had been 

 decided upon they allowed no retreat or 

 repentance, but forced its consumma- 

 tion. A special apparatus for suicide 

 formerly existed in some of the villages 

 in central India, consisting of a guillo- 

 tine which the victim himself set in 

 action. Casting one's self under the 

 wheels of the car of Juggernaut was an- 

 other method of religious suicide. Some 

 philosophical schools prescribed subjec- 

 tion of the body to various pains for 

 the purification of the soul ; and the 

 books of Manu, which also impose the 

 destruction of human sensibility, have 

 contributed much to preserve this idea 

 in India and spread abroad, especially 

 in the Malay Archipelago, the usage of 

 voluntary sacrifice to the divinity. The 

 aborigines of the Canary Islands have 

 employed voluntary sacrifices on the 

 coming of an epidemic, and the ancient 

 Mexicans and Peruvians observed them 

 in honor of the divinity. 



"Manuring with Brains." — "New 

 Soil Science " is the name Mr. D. Young 

 gives, in the Nineteenth Century, to the 

 results of the studies of soil bacteriology 

 prosecuted by Mr. John Hunter and 

 Professor MeAlpine on Lord Roseberry's 

 estate of Ualmeny, and " manuring with 

 brains " to the application of them. At- 

 tention has been called to the value of 

 the bacteria in the soil as nitrifying 

 and fertilizing elements by the experi- 

 ments of Sir John I'cnnet Lawes and 

 Sir Joseph Henry Gilbert at Rotham- 

 sted, and more forcibly by experiments 

 coming after them but suggested by 

 them. It had also been found that caus- 

 tic lime used upon the soil is liable to 

 destroy the nitrifying and other advan- 

 tageous organisms, Avhile carbonate of 

 lime is surely useful, and a due propor- 

 tion of lime compounds is essential to 

 the best discharge of their functions. 



