32S SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [Soc 



exposed to its oxygenating and life-generating influence. It 

 is a well-established fact that, as the effect of isolation from 

 the stimulus of light, the fibrine, albumen, and red blood-cells 

 become diminished in quantity, and the serum or watery por- 

 tion of the vital fluid augmented in volume, thus inducing a 

 disease known to physicians and pathologists by the name of 

 leukaemia, an affection in which white instead of red blood-cells 

 are developed. This exclusion from the sun produces the sickly, 

 flabby, pale anaemic condition of the face, or exsanguined, ghost- 

 like forms so often seen among those not freely exposed to air 

 and light. The absence of these essential elements of health dete- 

 riorates by materially altering the physical composition of the 

 blood, thus seriously prostrating the vital strength, enfeebling 

 the nervous energy, and ultimately inducing organic changes in 

 the structure of the heart, brain, and muscular tissue. Now 

 that which the sun is to the body, friendship is to the soul. 

 Wherever you find a nature withdrawn from the genial influ- 

 ences of friendship you will observe traces of abnormal weakness 

 and melancholy. In the shadow of solitude man loses the ruddy 

 glow of joyousness, and a gloomy misanthropy and sometimes 

 mental decrepitude are apt to derange all his affections. True 

 friendship is the sun of the soul. It stimulates, strengthens, 

 and gladdens our whole being. I. L. : VIR. 



The Undercurrents of Social Life. 



The experiments in deep-sea soundings have thrown much 

 light upon the subject of under-currents. There is reason to 

 believe that they exist in all or almost all parts of the deep 

 sea, for never in any instance yet has the deep-sea line ceased 

 to run out even after the plummet has reached the bottom. If 

 the line be held fast in the boat, it invariably parts, showing, 

 when two or three miles of it are out, that the under-currents 

 are sweeping against the bight of it with what seamen call a 

 swigging force that no sounding-twine has yet proved strong 

 enough to withstand. To understand the sea, you must go 

 below its surface, just as in social life, if you would understand 

 the world, you must look below its conventionalities, its court 

 ceremonies, and its respectable acts of parliament. You must 



