6 FROM AN EASY CHAIR 



cars like a tiled bath-room, so as to avoid the accumula- 

 tion of dirt. At present this is, and long has been, 

 neglected. 



Another serious and more recent danger is that aris- 

 ing from the crowding of passengers in underground 

 railway tubes. Both in Paris and London this has been 

 recognised as a real and pressing danger. Trouble has 

 been given by the dust raised in the Paris Tube, but the 

 danger caused by dust has been avoided in London. It 

 is a definitely-ascertained fact that many bacteria, 

 including disease-producing kinds, are rapidly killed by 

 exposure to strong sunlight. Hence underground tubes 

 and the chinks and recesses of railway carriages are 

 more liable to harbour disease-germs than the open-air 

 roadways and the carriages which ply on them. Great 

 cleanliness and the use of germicide washing fluids are 

 the obvious precautions to be taken in the absence of 

 sunlight. 



As to mammoths and elephants the former is a mis- 

 spelling of the word " mammont," the name given by 

 the natives of Northern Siberia to the extinct elephant, 

 hairy, but otherwise closely similar to the Indian 

 elephant, which within the period of prehistoric man 

 (50,000 to 150,000 years) was abundant over the whole 

 of the northern part of the Northern Hemisphere. 

 Mammoths 1 tusks (ivory) are still largely imported from 

 Siberia. The biggest African elephant may, perhaps, 

 stand 13ft. at the shoulder. No mammoth or other 

 extinct elephant seems to have exceeded this. The 

 stuffed African elephant in Cromwell road measures 

 lift. 2in. at the shoulder. Mr. Carnegie's great extinct 

 reptile Diplodocus is only 12ft. 9in. from the ground at 

 the highest part of its back. The biggest tusk of a 

 recent elephant ever seen was bought by me for the 

 Natural History Museum seven years ago. It weighs 

 2281b., and measures 10ft. 2in. along the curve. It was 

 recognised three years ago by Mr. Jephson (one of 



