HAMLYN'S MENAGERIE MAGAZINE. 



11 



nor to ask the reason why, but simply accept the 

 fact that "crosses and colours" reveal their pres- 

 ence in life-histories of human and brute alike, 

 manifestly at times contradictor}' to' the causes as- 

 signed by assumed authorities thereon. 



As already stated, tihe general health of the 

 inmates of the farm was excellent. In the sick 

 ward, however, several specimens were isolated, 

 which upon investigation, were found victims of 

 autogenous tumours, which were ultimately con- 

 firmed by cultures and sections to be malignant 

 in type, cancerous variants. Finding these speci- 

 mens "on a farm" added an increased interest 

 to our visit. It being so persistently urged by 

 certain "Scientists" to-day that germs are "sim- 

 ply resultants of holding unmoral thoughts." 

 \Vith this pronouncement ringing in our earSj, and 

 the undoubted demonstrations of "the white 

 man's burden" in evidence, we confess, that after- 

 noon, to be a bit staggered, ,lest we, through mere 

 conventional unbelief, had denied to the lower 

 creation, and especially to the inmates who were 

 so interestingly entertaining us, a mentalitv which 

 they might possess and which, by concentrated 

 emphasis, they could imbue with a weird potency 

 whereby they could transform health into disease 

 and life into death. Reluctant indeed to do in- 

 justice to the mentality of either the "Scientist" 

 or of our hosts, we finally relieved our own anxiety 

 by conceding to our second thoukhts that for us 

 the theory in acceptance was still afar off. 



On leaving the farm, it was perhaps not ill- 

 timed to recall, in just recognition, in a measure, 

 at least, the services rendered by these domesti- 

 cated rodents in their sacrifice to' the researches 

 of the investigator, or as valuable aids in the 

 clinical wards, and further, t-e part, as allies, 

 under control, they may continue to contribute. 

 Associated with the present activities of Zoologi- 

 cal Societies, Board of Agriculture, Local Gov- 

 ernment Boards in America, Great Britain, and 

 other countries in a campaign against rats and 

 mice as destructive agents, as carriers and trans- 

 mitters of pestilence, we have, however, to admit 

 a sinister countercharge against the rodents at 

 large. So universal is their general relationship 

 of malevolence to human welfare, that the claimed 

 atonement of the "beneficent martyrs in the cause 

 of research" fails to be at all significant, and the 

 compelling conclusion is that their destruction 

 should be followed up in all countries as persis- 

 tently and as systematically as are other recog- 

 nized endemic and epidemic scourges of human 

 welfare and safety. 



DR. FREDERICK W. D'EVELYN. 

 San Francisco, California. 

 May. 1919. 



THINGS WE DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT 

 THE GREAT WAR. 



-WHEN THE BIRDS AND THE BEASTS 

 WERE SET TO DOING THEIR BIT. 



Attractive? 



Indeed it was attractive; so very, very at- 

 tractive, in fact that when Visitor Number One 

 had ascended the trail, which winds the hills only 

 so far as where the deer were coming to nibble 

 such tit-bits as she might have along for them, 

 she deserted the rather well-marked path for an- 

 other, leading to the next-nearest telephone, and 

 thence sped the good word on, telling dubious 

 Numbers II. and III. and IV. what each simply 

 must do ! • 



As result, these doubteds came, and, on their 

 ways, bade others still; and each, before she'd 

 left, had emptied well-filled purse, and resolved 

 to come again, with husband, brother, sweetheart, 

 after tea; really now that these, too, might enjoy 

 the prospect of the birds and the beasts doing 

 their bits, thus, in the world-war; and then, almost 

 as if but incidentally, doing their own shares in 

 the helping of the fatherless war-orphans of 

 France ! 



All of which meant that through all the years 

 there were still to come, when the little orphaned 

 folk of war-times would need to be helped on in 

 their growth to manhood and to womanhood, the 

 birds and the beasts and the big out-of-doors will 

 be impanelled again and again, and yet once 

 again, to do their several bits toward the helping 

 the fatherless children of France ! This, though 

 the site of the doing be the American Mid-West 

 — 3,000 miles and more from a French shore. 



Cincinnati, since the early '40's of the cen- 

 tury past, has been a notable French centire, and 

 when the brave French came to their war-time 

 flight, lo'Val kin-folk in the Mid-West rallied to 

 their aid. One benefit on another was given for 

 the orphaned of war-time; none, however, prob- 

 ably more attractive, dr yielding more worth-the- 

 while example to other communities able to imi- 

 tate at present or in future, than the big fete for 

 the fatherless held out in wood and stream. 



Out in the hills which encircle the commer- 

 cial heart of Cincinnati, the city, like so many 

 another, is possessed of a great public Zoo. The 

 committee in charge — "The Comitie" for the 

 Fatherless Children of France, it is called — pre- 

 empted this, so to speak, for the day, and ar- 

 ranging it's booths, French fashion, where the 

 wild things might come almost in reach of them, 

 and deploying it's daintily-costumed helpers where 



