830 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



One of the finest specimens of its kind in the United States is a 

 magnificent six-by-four slab of luraachelle (" fire-marble ") of fossil 

 origin, in which the color of the original shells is so deepened and 

 intensified that it rivals the finest fire-opal. This comes from the old, 

 exhausted locality of Carinthia, Germany. Of alabaster, we have 

 white, yellow, and cinnamon-gray slabs ; of fossil coral, a fine slab 

 from Iowa City. The oolite limestone from Bristol, England, is curi- 

 ous ; the surface is highly polished, presenting a white field flecked 

 with dark-red. Beads of gypsum satin spar and a three-inch egg of 

 the same material are from Bideford, England. 



The collection ends with an eight-by-three slab of catlinite (Indian 

 pipe-stone), from Coteau du Prairie, Pipestone County, Minnesota. 

 The head delineated on it was carved by a Washington sculptor, and 

 came into the museum with the Abert collection, which was given 

 to the museum. 



To the energy of Professor F. W. Clarke is due the credit of form- 

 ing this most interesting series of gems. 



THE WHIPPmG-POST. 



By lewis HOCHHEIMER. 



WHEN men, under the impetus of the indignation and horror 

 that are occasioned by the commission of crimes that bear the 

 stamp of deliberate cruelty or atrocity, undertake to apply what are 

 popularly deemed adequately severe remedies, their action generally 

 embodies results that, to the mind of those versed in matters of social 

 or governmental science, are as mischievous in their tendency as the 

 evils sought to be remedied. It not infrequently happens, in cases of 

 crimes of deep atrocity, that citizens resolve to avenge the wrong im- 

 mediately, by lynching the offender. The folly and wrong of this 

 method of meting out punishment in a civilized community are now 

 universally conceded by calm-thinking and intelligent men. Again, 

 it will happen that this same spirit of impatience at the slow processes 

 of law and of distrust in the ordinary legal methods of punishment 

 for crime will find its expression in an equally wrong and illogical 

 method, to wit, the adoption of legislation providing cruel methods 

 of punishment for certain crimes, in the belief that the evil of their 

 frequent perpetration may be remedied in that way. Upon reflection, 

 it will be found that both methods have their origin in the same erro- 

 neous conception of the scope and object oi 2mnishment for crime. 



Under the designation " cruel punishments," I include all such pen- 

 alties for crimes as are designed to inflict direct physical suffering, 

 accompanied by circumstances of ignominy. The whipping-post is 



