Jdne 1, 1883.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



329 



returning from a walk asked me what was the matter with 

 the big fellow he had just met in tlie hay-fiekl. The man 

 ■was crying like a child and mopping his tears with a dirty 

 handkerchief. I was able to explain that he had walked 

 from his cottage at Leeswond (four miles away o\er the 

 Hope Mountain) to bid his master good-bye, as he was 

 about to emigrate. I£e was simply one of my rough, 

 poorly-paid labouring pit-sinkers. 



W. MaTTIEU WlLLI.^MS. 



RATIONAL DRESS. 



THE following suggestive letter, signed "A Woman," 

 appeared in the Times of Tliursday, May 22: — "Men 

 have their say on women's dress, and decide autocratically 

 what is or is not ' rational dress ; ' will you permit a lady 

 to represent that men's costume is by no means perfect, and 

 admits of much improvement as regards health, conve- 

 nience, and grace 1 It is rather dilficult to speak out 

 plainly enough to substantiate my assertion as to the first 

 point ; but doctors will testify that there has l)een a great 

 increase of late among joung men of liver and kidney 

 disease, not to speak of other delicate parts. This 

 is owing, I believe, to the fashion which has pre- 

 vailed of small cut - away coats, leaving loins and 

 stomach unwrapt, save by the tight and often thin 

 trousers. Older men frequently sutler from chill taken 

 from sitting on damp seats, or cold stone, from which a 

 ■woman would be protected by her more voluminous gar- 

 ments. The absurdity of the open coat and waistcoat, 

 turned back just where the throat and chest needs covering, 

 is more generally recognised. The practice of wearing, in 

 winter, waiscoats cut very high, and the constant argu- 

 ments for wearing a beard ' to protect my throat,' show 

 that it is felt, though not often acknowledged in speech. 

 The large expanse of starched shirt front, held together, 

 perhaps, with but one small stud, is ridiculous in every 

 way. It is a sham, for most, if not all, wearers supplement 

 its deficiency by a warm vest below, which cannot, how- 

 ever, quite exclude a searching wind, or keen night air, 

 after leaving a warm room, from reaching the lungs. It 

 is not beautiful in itself, it becomes easily soiled, needs 

 frequent repair, costly washing, and seldom sets as it 

 should. The stiff collar, rasping chin, cheeks, and throat, 

 is most inconvenient in every way. A far more rational 

 dress for man was the doublet fastening to the throat, and 

 covering the thighs with soft band or turn down collar. 

 We come now to the crucial garment so recommended for 

 women's imitation — trousers If these be so adapted to 

 allow the free use of the limbs, how is it that men ■\\ear 

 knickerbockers for bicycling, rowing, running, and climb- 

 ing 1 I once heard a gentleman, who had been to a fancy 

 ball in hose and silk stockings, exclaim, 'How jolly it is 

 to dance without trousers.' I suppose he found they 

 fettered freedom of action. The chief difference between 

 man's dress and woman's is the principle of suspensioiL The 

 former uses braces, and hangs all the weight on the 

 shoulders, the latter uses corsets, and suspends from the 

 waist. Braces would not do for women — they would cut 

 and pain the delicate llesh of tlie breasts. Do they suit 

 men ! Is it not curious that in all active exercise they 

 are discarded, and a belt substituted t I can easily imagine 

 many inconveniences att<;nding their use ; but content 

 myself with suggesting the question. I have said nothing 

 about the grace of men's dress — every one must allow it 

 might be more ornamental. No one who has ever seen a 

 stout, elderly man without his coat can help shuddering at 

 the thought of a matron, stout and elderly, clad in the 



dual garment, with only a frill round the waistband of the 

 victorious trousers, valuable to the morphologist as show- 

 ing the course of evolution. Men and women are 

 structurally different in make and physical constitution. 

 I am so benighted as to think their dress should also differ 

 to suit their needs. I could say somewhat in defence of 

 the use (not the abuse) of the abhorred corset ; but I 

 prefer begging men to perfect their own costume before 

 attacking the dress worn by one still calling herself 



A Woman. 



The Abundance of Gold. — The future supply of gold, 

 even for coining purposes, is beginning to be one of more 

 than common interest. Ancient history is resplendent 

 with the prodigal display of gold by the barbaric peoples 

 of the Orient. Arabia, Egypt, and Africa, according to 

 the same authority, were prolific in their production of 

 this precious metal. Pliny states that Cyrus returned from 

 his conquest with ;54,000 poundsof gold(about $10,000,000). 

 Alexander the Great brought 8100,000,000 in gold from 

 Persia. But at the present time these great fields, so re- 

 nowned in history, are barren so far as the production of 

 gold is concerned, and it is evident that Europe can be no 

 longer depended upon to perform any appreciable part in 

 furnishing a supply of gold to meet the demands of the 

 future. Even in this country the statistics of production 

 show a constant and marked decline in gold, although the 

 field is largely extended, and mining is more thoroughly 

 prosecuted than ever before. — Mining Revieio (American). 



The Eegistrar-Gexeral's Annual Summ.\ry. — In the 

 Annual Summary for 1882, just issued by the Registrar- 

 General, in respect to London and other great towns, the 

 number of large towns included in the list of weekly varia- 

 tions has been raised, in accordance with the change made 

 in the beginning of the year, from twenty to twenty-eight. 

 The additional towns are Derby, Birkenhead, Bolton, 

 Blackburn, Preston, Huddersfield, Halifax, and Cardiff'. 

 The population dealt with in this return is 9,4GG,292, or 

 more than one-third of the total for England and Wales. 

 In this population the deaths reached to 205,235, or 21-8 

 per 1,()00, Derby being lowest, with a rate of 18^7, and 

 Preston highest with 27-6 per 1,000 ; London and Brighton 

 were 21 ■! and 21-7 respectively. It is interesting to know 

 that with the exception of the years 1850 (21 0) and 1881 

 (21-2) the death-rate for last year is the lowest recorded, that 

 for 1872 having exactly equalled it. Of the whole number 

 of deaths 1G^3 per cent, or 13,553 were registered as due 

 to zymotic diseases, the aggregate rate thus reaching 3 49 

 per 1,000. As recorded in the report, the most remark- 

 able fact in this connection was the subsidence of the 

 smallpox outbreak. In ISSl, 2,3G7 deaths took place 

 from this disease, in 1882 only 431. Of these 431 persons 

 who died, 108 were certified to have been vaccinated, 184 

 unvaccinated, while 139 were doubtful. These figures, 

 therefore, show that, while the deaths among vaccinated 

 persons were 37 per cent., of the unvaccinated G3 per 

 cent, died.* Another curious point in connection with 

 the same figures is that of the vaccinated 23 per cent, 

 were under 20, and 77 per cent, over 20 years of age ; 

 while among the unvaccinated the proportions were 

 nearly reversed, ■viz., 674 and 39'6 per cent, respectively. 

 — .Medical Press. 



* This is incorrectly expressed. The ■writer means that excluding 

 the doubtful cases 37'0 per cent of those who died were certified to 

 hare boon vaceinatod. As only a small proportion of the population 

 are nnTaooinated, the evidence in favour of the protective effects of 

 vaccination is very strong. — R.P. 



