Januaby 14, 1887.] 



8GIEWCE. 



25 



lyn, Newark, and the neighboring towns and vil- 

 lages, established a benevolent bureau for the re- 

 lief of their sick and disabled employees. Physi- 

 cians are appointed, whose duty it is to attend the 

 sick members of the bureau, and a record is kept 

 of all cases of sickness and death which occur. 

 The number of deaths which took place among 

 960 brewery workmen in five years was 36, — an 

 average of 7.2 per annum, or a death-rate per 

 1,000 of 7.5. The United States census gives the 

 rate per 1,000 of the urban population of the same 

 ages, as 12.5 ; or, in other words, the risks in- 

 curred in insuring the lives of habitual beer- 

 drinkers are less by forty per cent than the ordi- 

 nary risks of such transactions. The death-rate 

 per 1,000 in the regular army of the United States 

 in 1885 was 10.9 ; so that, even as compared with 

 the soldier in peace time, we find that the brewery 

 worknaen have a great advantage in point of low 

 rate of mortality. 



Mr. Thomann gives us a number of interesting 

 facts connected with the breweries and the work- 

 men engaged therein. In every brewery is a room, 

 called the ' Sternenwirth,' in which beer is con- 

 stantly on tap, to be used by every one at pleas- 

 ure and without cost. Every one drinks as much 

 beer as he thirsts for, without asking, or being 

 asked any questions as to his right to do so. The 

 average daily consumption of malt-liquors for 

 each individual is 25.73 glasses, or about ten 

 pints. In the statistics which are given we find 

 that a considerable number of the men consume 

 forty and fifty glasses a day, and two are reported 

 as drinking, on an average, seventy glasses daily. 

 With a view to ascertaining, in the most reliable 

 manner possible, the effects of the use of malt- 

 liquors, the physicians of the benevolent bureau 

 examined one thousand of the brewery workmen 

 as to general state of health, condition of liver, 

 condition of kidneys, and condition of heart. In 

 addition to this, they weighed and measured each 

 man, and tested his strength by the dynamome- 

 ter. These examinations showed that there were, in 

 aU, twenty -five men whose physical condition was 

 in some respect defective ; and the remaining nine 

 hundred and seventy-five enjoyed exceptionally 

 good health, and were of splendid physique. 

 There were 300 men who had been engaged in 

 brewing from five to ten years, 189 from ten to 

 fifteen, 122 from fifteen to twenty, and 46 more 

 than twenty-five years. One special case referred 

 to is that of a man fifty-six years of age, uninter- 

 ruptedly at work in breweries during thirty-two 

 years, who drank beer throughout this time at the 

 rate of fifty glasses per day, yet has never been 

 sick, and to-day is perfectly healthy, vigorous, and 

 active. 



The statistics are, to say the least, very surpris- 

 ing, and, unless refuted, will result in modifying 

 to a considerable degree the generally accepted 

 views of the influence of malt-liquors on the 

 health of those who drink them habitually. Mr. 

 Thomann has boldly thrown down the gauntlet, 

 and we shall watch with interest to see who will 

 take it up. 



THE ABORIGINAL MILLER. 



Doubtless it has occurred to many archeolo- 

 gists that the stone arrow-heads, knife-blades, 

 pestles, axes, etc., in their collections are exam- 

 ples of but a small part of the articles once used 

 by prehistoric peoples, the more perishable articles 

 of wood, hide, or bone having long since disap- 

 peared. A study of the present arts of savage 

 life — the surest safeguard in speculating about 

 the arts Of ancient times —proves this view to be 

 correct, for the number and variety of imple- 

 ments of animal and vegetal origin now used in 

 the camps of savage tribes greatly exceed those 

 of stone. In the present article the implements 

 of the aboriginal miller are introduced in illustra- 

 tion of what has been said above. 



The tribes from which the illustrations are 

 drawn are, the Hupa, of northern California (1), 

 from the collection of Lieut. P. H. Ray, U.S.A. ; 

 the Pima and the Yuma stock, around the mouth 

 of the Colorado River (2), from the collections of 

 Edward Palmer ; the tribes formerly east of the 

 Mississippi (3) ; and the Utes of the great interior 

 basin (4), from the collections of Major Powell 

 and other officers ; with glimpses of the Sioux 

 and the Pueblo miller. It must be remembered 

 that the active agent in all the varied operations of 

 milling, among the savage tribes, — as well as of 

 tanning, shoemaking, tailoring, weaving, the 

 manufacture of pottery, and other peaceful in- 

 dustries, — is always a woman. 



In describing the illustrations, I shall first refer 

 to the sketches in plate 1. The Hupa, like all 

 other primitive millers, has to gather the grist be- 

 fore she grinds it. For this purpose she uses a 

 light but strong carrying-basket (fig. 5), made 

 with warp of osier, and weft of the same material 

 split and twined. A soft buckskin strap surrounds 

 the basket, and passes around her forehead, which 

 is protected by an ingenious pad (fig. 7). Her 

 basket being filled with acorns, she trudges to her 

 camp, and deposits them in a granary of closely 

 woven, twined basketry (fig. 6). Her mill is both 

 novel and ingenious, consisting of a pestle, a hop- 

 per, a mortar -stone, and a receiving basket-tray 

 (fig. 9). The pestle is like its congeners all the 

 world over ; and the hopper has no bottom, its 

 lower margin merely resting upon the mortar- 



