THE STUDY OF GREEK. 255 
ous matter does not find lodgment in the system. The best authorities say that 
the prime factor in the spread of the disease is the transmission from one locaUty 
to another of the specific infecting matter. This is brought about, so far as it is 
positively known, only by the migration of infected persons. Cholera moves 
along great lines of travel. Hence its sudden leap from Cairo to London. No 
matter how violently cholera may rage, he who drinks no water, eats no food 
and breathes no air polluted by cholera patients is reasonably certain of escape. 
Every precaution of course ought to be taken against the disarrangement of any 
function of the body by eating unripe or decayed fruit, breathing sewer-gas, or 
neglecting obvious sanitary requirements. But in the case of healthy and pru- 
dent persons the chief danger lies in the use of impure water. 
Inasmuch as the plague is known to be approaching the United States every 
family and every community obviously ought to prepare itself to meet it. It is of 
the utmost importance to cleanse outhouses and back yards, to dispose of every 
scrap of decaying vegetable and animal matter, to pour sunlight and air into 
damp, dark cellars, and above all, to see to it that there is absolutely no drainage 
from cesspools into cisterns and wells. Every householder must look out for 
these things for himself, bearing in mind that in making ready to ward off cholera 
he is also averting diphtheria, scarlet fever and other scourges. Towns and cities, 
moreover, have warning of the impending pestilence in time to improve their 
sewerage and water connections where they are defective, and to put their streets 
into proper shape. And, finally, preparations should be made at once by the 
proper authorities to enforce the most rigid inspection of vessels coming from 
parts where cholera exists, together with a perfect quarantine when the disease 
appears. — Globe-Democrat. 
THE STUDY OF GREEK. 
Inasmuch as the number of people who know Greek is very small, while the 
number of those who are ignorant of it is very great, it is not to be wondered at 
that the recent counterblast of the Adams family against the study of the Greek 
language has been widely approved. But it will hardly do to consider ignorance 
of any subject as a qualification for sound criticism on that subject, and the grand 
and wondrous tongue which for more than two thousand years has stood forth 
as the perfection of intellectual achievement, will probably survive the new objec- 
tion to it that none of the Adams family had been able to master it. If the 
world is put to it and is compelled to choose between the wisdom of the Greeks 
and the wisdom of the Adamses, we are very certain that the Greek language and 
Greek literature will still be a living influence in ages when the Adamses will 
be forgotten. ^ 
Merely as an intellectual exercise the study of Greek stands highest and 
chiefest in the scheme of mental training. The range of mathematical training 
is limited and its influence is limiting ; the study of the natural sciences widens 
