POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



571 



a Moorish temple ; while, from the central 

 points to which the edges of these singnlar 

 desig;ns converged, a long single icicle hung 

 down, several inches in diameter at its base, 

 perfectly round, smooth, and as clear as 

 crystal, tapering off toward its end with a 

 point as sharp as a needle." Wherever the 

 water poured over the rocks it left a white 

 deposit, which, when tasted, produced a 

 marked astringent feeling upon the tongue, 

 with a strong impression of alum, sulphur, 

 and iron. 



Malaria-Factories la Manritins. — Refer- 

 ence having been made in a recent health- 

 lecture at the Society of Arts to an outbreak 

 — the first in the history of the island — of 

 malarial fever which occurred in Mauritius 

 in 1SG6, Mr. F. Guthrie, who was there at 

 the time, gives a statement of what he 

 found, upon examination, was the cause of 

 the outbreak. The embankments of the new 

 railroad had caused the accumulation of 

 water in ponds on either side of the track. 

 This became stagnant and impregnated with 

 the sewage that surged down from the 

 higher land, till it was strongly offensive to 

 the sight and the smell. In view of the ex- 

 istence of these cess-pools on a grand scale, 

 Mr. Guthrie does not believe that the out- 

 break was due to the " clearing of the for- 

 ests " or to the " upturning of the virgin 

 soil," but simply "to the infatuation of 

 those who did not know, and who, even 

 when it was pointed out to them, could not 

 see that, when lagocms of sewage and salt- 

 water are reeking beneath a semi-tropical 

 sun, fever is the rule rather than the excep- 

 tion." 



Dancing as Physical Training.— Dr. 



Crichton Browne has had a good word to 

 say for dancing. In a recent lecture before 

 the Birmingham (England) Teachers' Asso- 

 ciation, he insisted on the importance of a 

 timely training and discipline of all motor 

 centers, so that advantage may be taken of 

 the superior plasticity that characterizes 

 them during their period of growth. He 

 spoke of the value of the educational train- 

 ing in this way of the hand-centers of to-be 

 artisans, of the different kinds of muscle- 

 work, and in regard to dancing said that, 

 if taught at the proper time — that is, 



very early in life — it " may discipline large 

 groups of centers into harmonious action, 

 enlarge the dominion of the will, abolish 

 unseemly muscular tricks and antics, develop 

 the sense of equilibrium, and impart grace 

 and self-confidence. Every day," he con- 

 tinued, " we may detect in the conversation 

 or carriage of persons we meet painful evi- 

 dences of the neglect of dancing and deport- 

 ment in the rearing of the young." 



Mechanical Repetition and Intellcctnal 

 Knowledge. — It has sometimes been ob- 

 served that, when children of savages are 

 put to school, they exhibit great readiness, 

 and sometimes precocity, in learning the 

 elementary branches till they reach a cer- 

 tain age, when they all at once fall off. 

 Professor W. Mattieu Williams regards 

 this as a sign of their intellectual inferior- 

 ity, and a consequence of it. The earher 

 instruction of these children " mainly con- 

 sists in ' learning lessons,' mechanical prac- 

 tice in writing, and mechanical use of the 

 rote-leamed addition and multiplication ta- 

 bles. So far, mere verbal memory, finger- 

 moving, and repetition-gabble of numbers, 

 does all the work. The higher intelligence 

 of the child contributes little or no aid in 

 the performance of such tasks ; it rather 

 stands in the way by inducing thought, i. e., 

 distracting the child's attention from the 

 mechanical drudgery demanded. When 

 work demanding thought is required, wheth- 

 er it be higher school-work or the business 

 of practical life, the difference between the 

 Caucasian and the lower races comes out ; 

 not because there is an arrest of develop- 

 ment in the lower, but because the higher 

 demand displays the working of the higher 

 faculties. A glib aptitude for learning for- 

 eign languages is, generally speaking, an 

 indication of intellectual inferiority, a sim- 

 ple result of the lower intellectual faculties 

 being concentrated upon such mechanical 

 effort whhout the distracting influence of 

 the higher reasoning powers." 



M. de Mortillct on Tertiary Man.— M. 



G. de Mortillet read a paper before the An- 

 thropological Section of the French Associa- 

 tion on Tertiary "man," in which he said the 

 question was not one of knowing whether 

 man existed in the Tertiary epoch as he ex- 



