ANOMALOUS GROWTH. 16] 



and young children in great cities were either red her- 

 rings and tea, or butcher's meat and beer. If it be so 

 in England, we have an explanation of juvenile mortal- 

 ity, for the checking of which we advise " parritch." 



Moreover, as " Frank T. Buckland, late Assistant- 

 surgeon Second Kegiment of Life -Guards," may be 

 reasonably supposed not to have had very ample op- 

 portunity of introducing babies into her Majesty's do- 

 minions, we should like to have the opinion of Dr 

 Simpson of Edinburgh on this question. Three young 

 salmon, known with certainty to be of the same age, 

 and to have been supplied with the same kind of food, 

 are found at the end of twelve months to be of the re- 

 spective length, 6J inches, 3f inches, 2J inches. In 

 any " human pond " with which you are acquainted 

 in Charlotte Square, Edinburgh, for example do you 

 know of like diversity among babies, born at the same 

 time, of healthy parents, and fed in the same way? 

 And is it consistent with your experience that, at the 

 usual age, fifty per cent of female children attain the 

 size of puberty, and the capacity to perform all its 

 functions, but that other fifty per cent do not attain 

 that size and capacity, and remain at home, saying, like 

 the sweetheart of " My boy Tammie," 



" We're ower young to marry yet, 

 We canna leave our mammy " ? 



Until Dr Simpson answers these questions in the 

 affirmative, we are confident that " Peter of the Pools/' 

 and his well-informed piscicultural coadjutor, Mr Brown, 

 will think that a shallow explanation of a deep mystery 

 has been all that they have got from the Zoological 

 Society. The truth is, Mr Buckland and his learned 

 friends have misapprehended the nature of the puzzle 

 submitted for their solution. He writes as if the ano- 

 malous growth of salmon only amounted to three per 

 cent ; whereas it is nearer fifty ! About a half of the 

 Stormontfield fry do not at the end of the year exhibit 



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