420 PEOSB HAIIEUTICS. 



know better, these little cacodemons seem to consider it 

 not at aU 



' A shameful sight, 

 For squall of one famUy to snarl, and snap, and bite,' 



but commit the most cold-blooded fratricideSj and even 

 eat one another (proh pudor !) without any remorse ; be- 

 sides whichj when grown-up relations come on a visitj 

 the younglings are not secure from ' battle, murder, and 

 sudden death,' for a single moment, save when directly ' 

 under the paternal nose; so that as a natural conse- 

 quence, few of the nefarious brood survive childhood, or 

 ever attain to their full maturity of size and malice. Of 

 such as escape these infantine dangers, many in after- 

 life fall victims in hostile encounters with several larger 

 congeners ; in particular, with the white shark. 



The average length of the S. zygsena is only eight or 

 nine feet, but he does not fear to confront the powerful 



' Sudden there rose along the Stygian coasts 

 The sadly wailing cry of infant ghosts ; 

 From warm and milky bosoms rudely torn, ' 

 And life's young hopes, they wander here forlorn ; 

 Nipt in their prime, the day of darkness came, 

 And gave their slender bodies to the flame.' 



JifS. Tramslation. 

 In Virgil's time there were no statistical reports, and the per- 

 centage of infant mortality was, doubtless, far greater than in our 

 own ; yet, even now, the reader will be startled to learn, that fdl 

 thirty-five per cent, of all that are born die under ten yeaxs of age. 

 Well, then, may society bless the efforts of those useful and phi- 

 lanthropic men who have at length succeeded in establishing a 

 hospital' in London expressly for sick children, and are now 

 looking to the public for fonds to support and maintain it. May 

 their pious labours prosper I may some who read our trifling 

 work not forget this seriously suggestive note and indirect call 

 on their beneficent interposifibn in its behalf. 



' Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond-street. 



