Dec. 21, 1883.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



37i 



indirectly traced to flesh. Consumption has only a remote 

 connection with flesh, it being due chiefly to want of fresh 

 air. Vegetable food is cheap, contains an abundant supply 

 of nutriment at first cost, and our systems are so formed 

 as to use it with least expenditure of vital force. We use 

 no cruelty in obtaining our food, and can easily see if it be 

 wliolesome or in a rotten state. 



By means of our diet much disease is prevented, and 

 even most chronic cases of present disease can be alle- 

 viated by it. If we want a cheap dietary we have the 

 following foods to choose from : — Wheat, oats, barley, 

 maize, rice, sago, tapioca, semolina, hominy, peas, beans, 

 lentils, ifec, which are all concentrated foods, and very rich 

 in nutriment. Potatoes, parsnips, beets, carrots, turnips, 

 onions, cabbage, sprouts, &c., give variety, bulk, and 

 ilavour ; to these may be added the sweet herbs for 

 making savoury dishes. Apples, pears, currants, goose- 

 berries, plums, strawberries, rasps, blackberries, and 

 other fruits, with melons, peaches, grapes, ifcc, are 

 high-priced, but wholesome fruits. The dried fruits, 

 as dates, tigs, apple rings, currants, raisins, itc, are 

 cheap and good. To these may be added tinned goods. 

 Thus one can .see the immen.se variety of tasty things we 

 have, and these to suit all purses. We can add to these 

 milk, butter, cheese, eggs, and honey, which are got with- 

 out killing animals. But if we take animal food, then fish 

 is least injurious, then beef and mutton, while veal, pork, 

 game, &c., are very indigestible, and ought to be avoided. 



RECREATION 

 THROUGH UNCERTAINTY.* 



tF we look for the characteristics which may be found in 

 all good active recreations, and on which their utility 

 chiefly depends, we shall find that they all include one or 

 more of these three things ; namely, uncertainties, wonders, 

 and opportunities for the exercise of skill in something 

 different from the regular work. And the appropriateness 

 of these three things seems to 1)6, especially, in that they 

 provide pleasant changes which are in strong contrast with 

 the ordinary occupations of most working lives, and that 

 they give opportunity for the exercise of powers and good 

 dispositions which, being too little used in the daily busi- 

 ness of life, would become feeble or be lost. 



In their daily work — speaking generally and roughly — 

 most people become tired of routine and sameness ; they 

 know their business, and there is in it little to surprise 

 them ; they can reckon on what is coming ; they know how 

 and when each day's work will end. They get tired of all 

 this, and wish for something very unlike it ; and so tlioy 

 long for uncertainties ; they enjoy to watch something they 

 ire not sure of, to see the settlement of a doubt, the 

 unveiling of a mystery. 



Herein is a great part of the refreshing change, the 

 recreation, found in games of chance. The toss of a half- 

 penny brings refreshment to the routine of the school-boy 

 or the errand-boy in that every time he tosses he creates an 

 uncertainty, enjoys it for a moment, and then decides it. 

 To the eldiT man the deal at whist and every hand he plays 

 bring simil.ar pleasures in uncertainties ; and the counting of 

 the tricks decides thi-m ; and the pleasures and uncertainties 

 accumulate to the end of the rubVier or of the whole even- 

 ing's play. Other pleasures mingle with these ; the exer- 

 cise of skill, the reckoning of chances, and many more, 

 including, perhaps, the winning of money or repute ; but 



* From an article by Sir .lamps I'.ip;ot in the Nineteenth Century. 



with them all and under them is the occupation in uncer- 

 tainties, and its pleasure is the more refreshing the more it 

 is in contrast with sameness in the daily work. 



Doubtless there is much of the same pleasure in all 

 sports ; in fishing, shooting, and the like. Will the fish 

 bite 1 Will the bird fall ? There is the uncertainty ; and 

 then comes the decision ; and in any case, hitting or 

 missing, the mind which has been wearied in a dull 

 routine is refreshed. It is the same in cricket and lawn- 

 tennis, and all the like popular game,s. Mingling with 

 the other pleasures that they give, and the other good 

 they do, there is the refreshing plea-sure of a continuous 

 succession of uncertainties and decLsions, a pleasure 

 which seems to reach its acme in some of the amusements 

 that are attended with frequent risks of limbs or even 

 of life. The contrast with the ordinary occupations of va.st 

 crowds of all ranks and ages and occupations is complete.; 

 and from this contrast comes a great part of the true 

 recreation, the re-fitting for the work. Doubtless, some of 

 the refreshment of reading novels and romances, whether 

 real or in fiction, is of the same kind. Else, why should 

 nearly every r ne who reads them feel that his pleasure is 

 marred by hearing what the end of the story is, and by 

 thus having his uncertainty prematurely settled ? 



These may be examples enough. I believe that if any 

 one will think over the whole class of what are fairly called 

 active recreations, he will find that a chief part of nearly 

 every one is of this kind : the unveiling of a mystery, the 

 issue of some chance, the settlement of an uncertainty. 

 Every one who works enough to need or deserve refreshment 

 should see that some of his recreations have in them this 

 element ; and let him observe that of all the recreations of 

 this kind those are the best which, together with the element 

 of uncertainty or chance, offer the largest proportion of 

 that element of which I spoke— the opportunity of 

 exercising skill. In all games and sjiorts the more the 

 results depend on chance, and the less they depend on 

 the skill of the players, the more is the gambling. 

 Duly guarded, the love of recreation among uncertain- 

 ties may lead to the promotion of admirable skill, whether 

 of mind or limbs ; and if, on the one side, it may make itself 

 vile by gambling, on the other it may ennoble itself by 

 strengthening the mental disposition which moves men to 

 experiments in science, and even to the highest methods of 

 research. In all these a great part of the happiness is in 

 the watching and decision of uncertainties, in the unveiling 

 of hidden truth ; and all whose work gives them too little 

 opportunity for such happiness should have it in their play. 



THE AMATEUR ELECTRICIAN. 



BATTERIES VII. 



A HANDY form of bichromate battery, in which the 

 solution is kept in motion, is that constructed by Mr. 

 Higgins, of the Exchange Telegraph Company. Its dis- 

 tinctive feature is in the earthenware containing-jar, which 

 is supplied with a small lip on the upper edge. The cells 

 are arranged on a series of shallow steps, and are placed as 

 close together as possible. Above the highest cell is a 

 small tank or reservoir containing the solution, which is 

 discharged dro). by drop. As the drop falls into the cell, 

 a drop is expelled from it into the next cell below it, and 

 similarly the second cell discharges a drop into the third 

 cell. in this way there is accomplished a continuous 

 motion in each cell, and it is maintained that there is a 

 considerable increase in the constancy of the cell in conse- 



