500 
per cent. A French statistician, M. Gayot, in the Journal Pratique 
d Agriculture, contends that M. Zundel has understated the French 
standard, which has not degenerated, but still shows from 55 to 60 per 
cent. He claims as acharacteristic of French production that a step of 
progress once realized is never lost, and that every improvement there 
possesses a permanent character. He further contends that the English 
standard has been exaggerated by M. Zundel. The English market- 
animals being of essentially adipose tendencies, yield a larger propor- 
tion of fat than the more brawny breeds of other countries. French 
stock-raisers have fallen into the error of excessive fattening, and some 
of their adipose specimens lately exhibited at the Palace of Industry in 
Paris have called forth sharp criticisms in the French agricultural press. 
A writer in the Journal Pratique @ Agriculture contends that this policy 
is diminishing the volume and robust temperament of the choice breeds 
of England, and also depreciating their capacities for milk-production, 
as is shown by the increasing importation of butter and cheese. The 
Durham breed especially exhibits this degeneracy in temperament and. 
milking qualities. Fancy prices have stimulated the reproduction of 
fashionable forms and a specific embonpoint, while a pampering treat- 
ment in warm stables, with blanket-coverings, and a stimulating, fari- 
naceous diet have undermined the choice animals of this breed. The 
critic had before him an engraving of a type-specimen of the Durham 
cattle, executed in 1801, and representing their points at the begin- 
ning of this century. The inscription gave them the name of the 
Holderness breed, which subsequently was transmuted into the name 
Durham. The gigantic proportions of the animals represented contrast 
strongly with the delicate type-specimens which attract sentimental 
British breeders of to-day. Beauty of form but ill compensates the 
massive and brawny development which has disappeared in the modern 
Durham. Capacity to produce rapidly and abundantly a superior quality 
of marketable meat is not identical with that which brings out symmet- 
rical forms, for these may result from the packing of adipose matter 
under the skin, and the fat-forming tendency can govern only by de- 
pressing the flesh-forming principle. Excessive precocity combined with 
adipose tendencies renders the meat of less nutritive value, especially to 
the laboring-man, whose ration of consumption must be increased in 
order to secure the requisite amount of nitrogenous aliment. 
M. Zundel finds, after careful examination, that sanitary regulations 
in regard to the sale of flesh of diseased animals have lost force and 
efficiency of later years either through the failure to re-enact provisions 
of old laws in modern revisions or from the adverse tendencies of con- 
struction that have prevailed in judicial tribunals. In 1858 a law jour- 
nal in France declared that these repressive regulations had no founda- 
tion in the law as.carefully interpreted, and that tribunals enforcing it 
had recourse to strained interpretations of the legal text. This is a 
question which will probably attract attention both from a scientific and 
a legal stand-poiut. 
RAILROAD-MILEAGE OF THE WORLD.—The Moniteur Industriel Belge 
sums up the railway-mileage of the world as follows: 
In Europe, the British isles have 16,354 miles; France, 14,190; Bel- 
gium, 1,049; Switzerland, 1,018; Germany, 12,075; Denmark, 538; 
Sweden, 2,261; Norway, 275; Russia, 12,075; Austria, 6,104; Hungary, 
3,986; Roumania, 515; Turkey, 650; Greece, 7; Italy, 4,675; Spain, 
3,243; Portugal, 527—total 81,816. 
In Asia, Turkey has 205 miles, Caucasus, 186; British Indies, 6,371 ; 
Ceylon, 51; Java, 166, Japan, 17—total for Asia, 6,996. 
