more ancient than even those of Babylon, M. Berthelot does not hesitate to promulgate the theory that an age of copper preceded the bronze and iron periods, especially as the examination of the component parts of a portion of a metallic sceptre which, it is alleged, belonged to a Pharaoh who reigned in Egypt some 3.500 years B.C., showed no signs of the presence of tin.-Iron, London, February 10. ASTRONOMY. A Remarkable Meteor.- December 9, 1892, about 9 o'clock, P.M., a remarkable and magnificent meteor shot out from the constellation Andromeda and moved slowly and majestically towards the northeastern point of the horizon. When first seen here it was about the size and color of an orange, but rapidly increased in brilliancy and size until before it disappeared below the horizon it was of the apparent size of the full Moon and was surrounded by a mass of glowing vapor which further increased its size to that of the head of a flour barrel. It soon became intensely brilliant, flashing at times a greenish blue light, throwing off sparks "fast and furiously," and leaving behind it a dense stream of vapor 30° to 40° in length. A gentleman who was at Jacksonville, N. C. (about 50 miles N. E. from Wilmington), and saw it, gave me the same description of the meteor in every particular. To-day I learned that the same meteor was observed at Washington, N. C. The writer says: "We saw the meteor, going in a northeastwardly direction. It did not seem to be very high, and was going at a rapid rate. It was about the size of a man's head with a tail of some length, and small pieces were flying off, and it was a beautiful sight." It must have passed to sea about the neighborhood of Norfolk, Va., and probably fell into the ocean. E. S. Martin, in Astronomy and Astro-Physics, Northfield, March. Planet Notes for April.-Mercury, having passed inferior conjunction on March 31st, will be morning planet during April. He will reach greatest elongation, west from the Sun, 26° 56′, April 28th, but will probably not be visible to the naked eye. Venus is approaching superior conjunction, and will be too nearly in line with the Sun, to be observed during April. Mars will be visible in the west during the early evening. His course during April will be eastward through Taurus, passing just north of the group of the Hyades. Jupiter will be behind the Sun during April. Saturn, having just passed opposition, is in its best position. for observation for this year. The planet is just a little east of the star y Virginis, and moving westward. Saturn will be in conjunction with the Moon, 50' north, April 27th, at 11h. 30m. P.M., central time. The rings of Saturn will make an angle of about 7° with the line of sight during this month, so that they may be well seen. Uranus also will be in good position for observation during April. He is about of the way on a direct line from the bright star a Libræ to the faint naked-eye star λ Virginis. A telescope of moderate power will reveal the light green disc of the planet. Neptune is past his best position for observation, but may be seen in the early evening. He is moving slowly eastward about half way between the two third-magnitude stars & and r Tauri. On the evening of April 12th Neptune will be 2° 35′, almost due south of Mars. HYGIENE. Constant Diminution in the Number of Births Throughout Europe. Everywhere in Europe there is a continuous and gradual diminution in the number of births. Thus, in England. in 1879, there were 34.7 births for each 1,000 inhabitants; but in 1890 the figures were 30.2 births for each 1,000 inhabitants, after having been successively 33.9 (1881), 32.5 (1885), 30.6 (1888). In Belgium, in 1879, the births were 31.5 for each 1,000 inhabitants; in 1890 the births were but 28.7. In the German Empire, in 1879, the number of births to each 1,000 inhabitants was 38.9. In 1890 this proportion had fallen to 36.7. In Prussia proper the proportion in 1879 was 39.2; it was but 36.6 in 1890. Thus, throughout Europe, there has been an increasing diminution in the number of children born. In France, however, this decrease is more marked than in other countries, because the proportion of births is lower than elsewhere. In 1879 there were 25 children born for each 1,000 inhabitants; in 1890 the proportion was but 21.8, or a diminution of nearly one-sixth. Yet, to form a just estimate of the effect of this decrease of births on each country, we must take into account the mortality of the country. The nations of Europe, for this purpose, may be divided into three groups: those of the south, Spain, Austria, Italy, even Germany, in which countries the number of deaths in 1890 varied from 32 to 25 for each 1,000 inhabitants; those of the centre, France, Belgium, Switzerland, of which the respective proportions were 22.01, 20.21, 20.82, for each 1,000 inhabitants; finally, the peoples of the north, England, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, where the respective proportions of deaths were 19.01, 17.91, 16.34, 16.14, for each 1,000 inhabitants. Thus it will be observed that while France has fewer births than any other country of Europe, in regard to mortality she occupies an intermediate position. The south of Europe, contrary to the general opinion, has a much higher mortality than the north, especially for children, of which the mortality comprises a considerable proportion of the number of deaths in each country. The mortality of children in France is frightful, although there is no increase, but rather a diminution, in the number of infants which die during their first year. If from 1806 to 1809 22 per cent. of the new-born children died, the percentage in 1860 was but 17.63, and it fell to 15.76 in 1888, to 14.82 in 1889, while in 1890, a year of epidemic which did not spare children, the percentage was 16.77. We have to admit that out of 1,100 children born in France, 167 die in their first year. and this number is altogether too large, notwithstanding that Bavaria loses 312 in every 1,100, Italy 212, Switzerland 190, Belgium 174. The public hygiene of a country which, out of 800,000 born, loses 167,000 in their first year, is manifestly inefficient, although enormous progress has been made in the last ten years.-M. Langlet, Deputy, in Annales d'Hygiène Publique et de Medecine Legale, for February. METALLURGY. Moissan's Discoveries.-The name of Henri Moissan has figured very prominently in the scientific world during the last few days, and not without reason, for the distinguished young French savant has lately made a series of experiments and discoveries whose interest is only equaled by the rapidity with which they have been successively placed before the public through the medium of the celebrated Paris Académie des Sciences. On February 6th Mons. Moissan read a paper according to which he claims that by means of the electrical furnace capable of generating the extraordinarily high temperature of 3,000° Cent. lately invented by him, he is able to manufacture the diamond; on February 13th he contributed one memorandum upon a Cañon Diablo diamondiferous meteorite, and another upon the presence of graphite, carbonado, and microscopic diamonds in the blue earth of Cape Colony; while on February 20th he utilized the furnace mentioned, for the purpose of obtaining within ten minutes an ingot of the rare metal uranium weighing 250 grammes. Upon this occasion he pointed out that he had ascertained that a combination of this metal with carbon ignites spontaneously in the atmosphere, yielding a white light; and, by way of practical illustration, he, much to the alarm of his select audience, slyly shook a bottle containing a preparation of this class, with the result that a slight explosion followed. When the tumult engendered by this terrifying episode had subsided, Mons. Moissan exhibited ingots of chrome and manganese prepared in a few minutes in the way the uranium bar had been, whereas the ordinary reduction processes, he observed, absorb a comparatively long time. All things considered, the French scientist believes that the use of higher temperatures, which can be developed by a dynamo-electric machine operated by natural waterpower, will become an important feature of the art of metallurgy.-Iron, London, March 3. OPTICS. Electric Signaling.-An American device for signaling by incandescent lights, shows the whole letter at once, in place of instalments as usual with the Morse code. The apparatus consists of a narrow box, open on one side, containing a row of 106 incandescent lamps. Two of these lamps represent a dot, and ten a dash. The signals, it is said, have been successfully read at a distance of ten miles at night, and four miles in daylight, but the plant seems somewhat cumbrous.-Engineering, London, March 3. Origin of Life.-An important meeting of the Victoria Institute, London, England, took place last month, when Mr. J. W. Slater, F.C.S., F.E.S., read a paper in which he traced the difference between life and the physical forces, and reviewed all those experiments and arguments by which some had sought to prove that a key to the origin of life had been obtained. Contributions to the discussion of the question were made by Sir George Stokes, Bart., V. P. R.S., who stated that Lord Kelvin's recently alluded to suggestion that the germs of life on this earth might have come from the bursting of a remote star, was only intended by him to refer to the possible transmission, from one part of the universe to another, of life germs, but that the first origin of life itself we must all refer to God. Professor Lionel Beale, F.R.S., in supporting Mr. Slater's views, said that an absolute line must be drawn between the living and the non-living. Living matter was distinguished from all other matter by a property, power, or agency, by which its elements were arranged, directed, and prepared to combine according to a prearranged plan for a definite purpose. There was no gradual transition from the non-living to the living. Life was a special position independent of and not in any way related to the physical forces, powers, or properties, and holding in the cosmos a remarkable and peculiar place. Professor Bernard, of Dublin, pointed out that all evidence went to show that vital forces are unique and not comparable with any other forms of energy. Dr. Rae, F.R.S., contributed some valuable remarks, as also did Dr. Biddle, the Revs. R. Collins, M.A., J. H. Clarke, and W. A. Pippet. Dr. F. Warner, M.D., F.R.C.P., made several valuable remarks on the question, which was also spoken on by Dr. Shettle of Reading, Dr. Schofield, and others. Dr. Schofield was very interesting in those remarks in which he pointed out what may be called the history of the controversy in regard to life and the physical forces, and in concluding he specially referred to the dictum of Professor Huxley, viz., “Life existed before organism and is its cause." What that cause was the Christian philosopher fully recognized.-Science, March 10. TELEPHONY. Music by Long-Distance Transmission.-The Zeitschrift f. Elek., Feb. 1, contains an illustrated description of the longdistance transmission of music from Munich to the city of Frankfort, during the recent electrical exhibition. The arrangement is that of Mr. Berliner; the distance is 270 miles; the circuit was entirely metallic; sixty Callaud cells were used in fifteen series of four each; the current from these passed through nine microphones in multiple arc, thence through the primary windings of six large induction coils in parallel. A very large number of experiments showed this to be the best arrangement, as the influence of the extra currents is said to be diminished, and as, with the present low resistance lines, transmission depends less on high voltage than on great current strength in order to overcome the leakage of current from the line; at low voltage the leakage will be proportionately less, and with high-current strength it will be relatively much less. He found, for instance, in a long line that an induction coil of fifty ohms resistance of the secondary and a wire .28 millimetres in diameter, gives as good results as a coil of 180 ohms resistance and a wire of .20 millimetres, the primary circuit and transmitter being the same. The nine microphones were placed in different parts of the OperaHouse, thus having the effect of a person listening in different parts of the auditorium at the same time.-Electrical World, New York, March 18. ASIATIC CHOLERA, ITS SOURCE AND TREATMENT. IN N the March number of the New Review (London), under the title “The Coming Cholera,” Ernest Hart, M.D., contributes a paper in which he emphasizes and adduces facts in support of his well-known theory that water polluted by cholera filth is the one sole method of diffusion of this dread disease. He says: "The demonstration which I obtained in 1866 was founded wholly, in the first instance, on the conviction arising out of the collected facts and inferences of Snow and Simon; but it went much further. It proved that my robust faith in the polluted water-supply, not merely as an adjuvant cause, but as the causa causans of Asiatic cholera in Europe was justified by an overwhelming series of facts. It led to the absolute identification of the cause of that great epidemic which slaughtered 6,000 people in a few weeks in a population of 600,000, a proportion closely resembling that of the present epidemic in Hamburg. have closely watched all the great epidemics in Europe since 1866, and I can assert, with proofs in hand, that wherever the epidemic has occurred on a large scale, and in a place where it can be adequately studied-such as the great epidemics of Naples, Genoa, Marseilles, Toulon, and Spain-I have never failed to ascertain that the distribution of specifically poisoned water was the one cause of every epidemic. Moreover, with the cessation of the cause the epidemic ceases. To quote in summary only an example or two: at Naples, shortly before cholera broke out, a correspondent of the Times wrote home in a little paragraph, that every body was frightened at the approach of cholera; not without cause, for beautiful Naples, as every one who has been there knows, is built on a porous tufa, sodden with the filth of crowded and successive generations. Its soil is riddled with cesspools and surface wells, and from the latter the chief water-supply of the town was obtained. This correspondent said 'Everyone is pouring carbolic acid in the cesspools; and strangely and disagreeably enough, all our drinking water is tasting of Later, cholera showed itself on the Italian and French frontiers, and presently we had the news of a severe outburst of cholera in Genoa. A resident physician, an old friend of mine, telegraphed to me from Genoa: Your water theory of cholera at fault. Genoa has a fine supply of water from carbolic acid !', a high mountain source. Cholera has broken out in districts so supplied, and we have already a hundred cases a day. What is to be done?' I replied by telegraph: 'Cannot be at fault; must be water; examine every foot of your water-pipes, and trace to supply-pipe's source.' Soon I received the comforting intelligence, that in spite of cordons, a group of cholera-stricken Italians had been discovered camping on one of the open channels through which the water flowed into the pipes, and soiling the water by washing their linen in it, and otherwise contaminating it with specific poison. "The Hamburg epidemic affords a fresh illustration. The Elbe, and the Elbe alone, was the cause of that epidemic. Our duty in India is plain: it is to purify everywhere the water supply. The positive evidence of Furnell, Renzy, McNamara, and Simpson, however, settles the question. The task that we really have to perform now is to lay aside the mystery of ignorance, to settle down to the ascertained facts of cholera, and to treat them scientifically and practically. Cholera travels just as fast as the people who convey it travel, and no faster. It has nothing to do with, and is not influenced by, whirlwinds, monsoons, storms, or air-waves. I have elsewhere, and before, pointed out that when it came on foot or on horseback with the caravans of pilgrims or of traders, and when intercourse was slow and travelers few, it took from six to nine years to reach Russia, to traverse it, and arrive at our ports. It took twenty years to go around the world. It reached us this time in three months from Cashmir. Steam and rail bring it to us now at express pace. We must expect a reoccurrence this year, no matter how elaborate our port-inspection. The main precautions will be those for the purification of water.” DR. HAFFKINE'S EXPERIMENTS IN VACCINATION. The writer passes hence to the consideration of the life history of the Cholera Bacillus, and of the researches and experiments in this department by M. Haffkine of the Pasteur Institute, who has recently been entrusted with a mission of investigation of the disease at its source in the Punjab; but as M. Haffkine has thoroughly elaborated the subject in a paper in the Fortnightly for March it will be more satisfactory to present an outline sketch of his investigations in his own words. The first part of M. Haffkine's paper is devoted to details of the character and conduct of the cholera bacillus in its normal state, and to the modifications it displays under the influence of artificial culture in media primarily unsuited to its healthy development. Among the animals which enjoy immunity against cholera is the guinea pig, and experiment showed that the blood of guinea pig was fatal to the cholera germ. It was found, however, that by injecting. the poison into the peritoneal cavity the conditions were fatal to both the animal and the microbe. This fact formed the basis of a series of experiments in the direction of artificially cultivating what M. Pasteur terms "an exalted virus," to be used in imparting immunity by vaccination. He says: "In order to procure living microbes from the body of the infected animal, which is clearly the first condition of the experiment, I inject a large quantity of the culture. The animal is killed very quickly, and hence, when I open the peritoneal cavity the microbes have not yet had! time to die. But they appear very enfeebled and are not in condition for reproduction in the animal body; for a second inoculation results in their complete extinction. But by exposure to the air for some hours the microbes regain their vigor to an astonishing degree, and after thus allowing them to win back their strength, I inject them into the peritoneal cavity of a second animal; and after its death there is a second exposure of the microbe to the air, and so on, up to the twenty-fifth or thirtieth animal, laying great stress on the following important precaution. If the liquid drawn from the peritoneum is small in quantity and densely stocked with microbes, the animal to be injected must be big; if the liquid is diluted, a small animal must be selected. "The liquid drawn off from the last passage is of a definite strength, and will promptly kill animals absolutely immune against normal virus. "This 'exalted' virus, as it is termed, is the basis of cholera vaccination. Inject a certain quantity of it, not into the peritoneal cavity, but into the subcutaneous cellular tissues of any animal as a rabbit, a guinea pig, or a pigeon-the microbe will die very quickly, while the animal will not contract any mortal disease. The result will simply be a necrosis or mortification of the tissues at the point of inoculation. An offensive deep wound will be formed which will heal in the space of two or three weeks. But long before it is healed the animal will have acquired perfect immunity in regard to every kind of choleraic contagion. You may inject virus even into its peritoneal cavity without producing more than a passing indisposition.” Further experiment resulted in the culture of an attenuated virus which proved efficacious as a protective against the virulent local action of the exalted virus. The animal is subjected to two successive vaccinations which confer perfect immunity, with only a slight local reaction. After being perfectly assured by long experiments on animals of very various species of the perfect harmlessness of the process, and of its absolute efficacy, this bold soldier of science experimented on himself, and he tells us that in all, up to date, about a hundred persons have been inoculated by the process. But on the theory that microbes act only by the products they create, he has latterly prepared vaccine in which the microbes have been killed. These vaccines are just as efficacious and the phenol, with which they are treated, protects them against any invasion of alien microbes. Thus fortified, Waldemar-Mardochée Haffkine looks forward to confronting, with the hope of exterminating, the grim foe in India, Siam, and the countries of its supposed origin. W DOES MUSCULAR VITALITY CEASE WITH DEATH? ARMAND GAUTIER AND LANDO LANDI. Translated and Condensed for THE LITERARY DIGEST from a Paper in Annales de Chimie et de Physique, Paris, January. 'HEN, in an animal in full health, the general functions are suddenly stopped by death, is each of the tissues in that animal definitely stopped in its evolution; or does each cell, living thenceforth on its own account, continue to perform its functions, exhausting by a species of residual or fermentative life the reserves at its disposal, vegetating after the fashion of yeast, and being able, like that, to pass from a life fed by the air to a life in which air is unnecessary to it? In a word, does the stoppage of the life of the individual stop the cellular life of the tissues? Several facts already known, but from which, it appears to us, all the legitimate conclusions have not been drawn, cause us to think that the tissues continue to perform their functions after the death of the individual of which they were a part, in this sense, that, thanks to their preëxisting organization, to their soluble ferments, to the persistent irritability of their protoplasm, they continue to transform their materials and to consume their reserves, replacing these by products lacking in nutrition, yet closely allied to those which are formed during life; and that this goes on until the moment when, these reserves being exhausted, the products lacking in nutrition, by accumulating, clog this residual function and alter the cell chemically. Of the persistence of life in the tissues after death and their performance of their functions we have numerous proofs. We know that muscle, after being taken from the animal, continues for some time to absorb oxygen, to give out carbonic acid, and to respond to electric stimulation. Dr. BrownSequard has demonstrated that, a long time after the rigor of death has reached the tissues, they are still the seat sometimes of sudden tremblings, sometimes of very slow contractions followed by elongations. Vulpian has observed that the caudal appendage of the young tadpole, after being separated from the animal, still lives for some time and may even grow in the water in which it is dwelling. In regard to what relates to the nervous tissue, it is known that Dr. Brown-Sequard has shown that stimulation and the life of the cerebro-spinal axis encourage the muscular contraction which follows the death of animals, a contraction which disappears as soon as the marrow is totally destroyed. Paul Bert has demonstrated that you can cut off the tail of a rat and graft it, more than ten days afterwards, on the back of an animal of the same species, the sole condition being that you keep the part cut off in a low temperature; the cold diminishing, and almost annulling, the exchanges which suffice to maintain its life. As for the glands, it is known that the sugar production of the liver goes on slowly after death, just as during life; and that in a pancreas torn from a living animal the fermentation goes on, and that the quantity of fermentation, next to nothing during the life of the animal, constantly increases for more than twenty-four hours after its death. As a result of our personal investigations, we have established that muscular tissue continues, after the death of the individual of which it is a part, to live in an autonomous performance of function, following one of the modes in which it performs them during the life of the organism of which it is a part. It is permissible to generalize and to think that the same is the case with the other tissues; the nervous tissue, the adipose tissue, the tissue of the glands, and so on, and even with the blood itself. A THE NEW HYPNOTISM: A REPLY. C. LLOYD TUCKEY, M.D. S one of the earliest writers on the new hypnotism in this country, and almost if not quite the first person to practise it, I feel called upon to make some reply to the article by Mr. Ernest Hart in the February number of the Nineteenth Century, entitled, "The Revival of Witchcraft.”* The so-called hypnotic phenomena described by him have nothing in common with the method of treatment by suggestion which is being successfully practised by a large number of highly qualified physicians in all parts of the world. Nothing is harder to contend against than a half truth, and Mr. Hart's articles are full of half truths and of false deductions drawn therefrom. By an unnecessary expenditure of energy he has but achieved the slaying of one who was already hors de combat. It is not pleasant to have to write thus of Dr. Luys, for his geniality and candor must win the esteem of all those who visit his hospital; but the truth must be spoken, and one can only say that he is not the first man of science who has allowed himself to be deceived by a too fervid imagination. So far the only fault I have to find with Mr. Hart is that he has entirely misrepresented Luys's position in the scientific world, but his wholesale denunciation of hypnotism is a different matter. His verdict, based on what he saw at La Charité, is extremely unfair. The greater part of his article is devoted to exposure of the frauds practised by Dr. Luys's mediums, but toward its close he attacks hypnotism, and trots out the old bogey about it producing a condition of mental thraldom or dependence of the subject on the operator. I am not an advocate for the indiscriminate employment of hypnotism, and I should regard any such consummation as a profound calamity, but I am speaking only in favor of its application for medical purposes by medical men. As the use of poisonous drugs is restricted to medical men, so I consider that hypnotism should be practised only by doctors. They may be trusted to exercise wisely and well the slightly increased influence hypnotism will enable them to wield. Mr. Hart seems to be quite sure that if hypnotism becomes a common method of treatment it will be abused, thereby showing a want of confidence in the members of his own profession, at which, I imagine, they will not feel highly flattered. No dis * THE LITERARY DIGEST, Vol. VI., No. 18, p. 478. See also Ibid., No. 19, p. 520, for another paper by Mr. Hart, entitled, " Dangers of Hypnotism." creet practitioner would administer an anæsthetic except in the presence of a third person, and the same will apply when hypnotism is used. The danger by neglect of this precaution is not always confined to the patient, as the reports of many a blackmailing case testify. I agree with Mr. Hart that, at any rate for so long as the present ignorance of the subject prevails, hypnotism should only be used after careful consideration, and when other methods of treatment have failed or are inadmissible. I should not employ it for the extraction of a tooth, not because of the terrible. consequences morally that Mr. Hart fears, but because nitrous oxid is so much more easily applied; nor should I care to employ it in a case of transient neuralgia or headache, for there are plenty of simple remedies available. But it is in cases where other remedies have failed, or perhaps done mischief, that the good effects of hypnotic treatment are seen. It is applicable in many cases of confirmed insomnia, inveterate neuralgia, exhaustion after severe illness, the results of nervous shock or profound worry, the pain and restlessness of incurable disease, such as cancer, and in some cases of mental impairment and perverted instincts; and we have not too many remedies for combating such conditions that we can afford to neglect so powerful an adjuvant as hypnotic suggestion places at our disposal. Mr. Hart speaks elsewhere of drugs being cheap, easily procured, certain in their action, safe, and free from the dangers which, he says, surround hypnotism, even when used by medical men. Many disagree with him in this complacent view of drug action; and if the dead could speak, what a host would rise up to denounce the insidious narcotic which had proved their ruin. Moreover, narcotics, of which Mr. Hart speaks with such approval, have an unfortunate way of leaving the sufferer in the lurch at the very time their services are most required, as every one who has nursed cases of painful chronic diseases can testify, and as those who have got into the habit of taking narcotics for insomnia have experienced. To cure an intractable neuralgia, or to sooth the last weeks. of a poor sufferer dying from a chronic disease, is a common and delightful experience with the physician who has added hypnotism to his armamentarium; but it is even more gratify-ing that he is often enabled by its means to reform the vicious and restore the drunkard to society. That hypnotism enables us to achieve this is a matter of daily experience, and is borne out by the testimony of eminent medical men in all parts of the world. It is certainly true, as Mr. Hart says, that most persons. could hypnotize if they tried, just as it is possible for anyone to give drugs; and that hypnotism may be so used as to induce a state of helplessness and automatism, so deprecated by Mr. Hart and every right-thinking person, and I have given some melancholy examples of this abuse of a beneficent power in a previous article in this Review,* but such an abuse is not likely to occur in medical practice. The art of the physician is called into play in determining when and where to use the appropriate remedy. What applies in the case of drugs applies with additional force to a psychical treatment, such as hypnotic suggestion. Professor Bernheim has shown that for a suggestion to act it is essential that it should be received by the mind as true. It is, therefore, of the greatest importance that the hypnotist should be a person of tact and experience as well as of good character. The personal equation cannot be entirely ignored, but there should be no undue dependence of the patient on the operator. It should rather be the object of the physician to develop the subject's own powers aud to make it clear that it is his own capabilities that are being evoked by suggestion. There are already too many people dependent on their medical adviser, and the action of hypnotism, properly used, will be rather to diminish than to increase their number. * THE LITERARY DIGEST, Vol. IV., No. 4, p. 98. RELIGIOUS. THE RELIGIOUS TRACT-LITERATURE OF THE CHINESE. PASTOR E. R. EICHLER, FORMERLY MISSIONARY IN CHINA. Translated and Condensed for THE Literary DigeST from a Paper in THA Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift, Gütersloh, Vol. XIX., No. 1I. HAT the Chinese are a book-making and a book-reading people is no news. But that they also write religious tracts and distribute these in great numbers, either gratis or at a nominal price, is known only to few. I purposely make use of the word “tracts" in this connection, for the term which the Chinese themselves employ to designate this class of literature shows their close connection with similar productions by Western peoples. They call them" Kuen-shi-wên.” i.e., literature having the purpose of admonishing the world. While the great classics, Shu and Shi King, Confucius, Mencius, and others take the place of the canonical sacred books of Christian nations, the "Kuen-shi-wên" constitute the popular moral and religious reading of the people, corresponding to a great extent to our ascetic literature. Many of these tracts are written by students on the occasion of their examination by the State officials, and are then distributed among the people. This fact explains the singular titles which some of these tracts bear. An example of these is, "Valuable Vessel to Cross Over the Examination and Secure a Literary Degree." The idea naturally suggesting itself is that such a pamphlet is an aid of some sort for the rigorism of the examinations, or a small compendium of one of the sciences. But such is not the case. This examination "vessel" is a religious tract filled with exhortations to honesty and virtue. Its contents have not the least connection with the examination itself. Notwithstanding the fact that the Chinese candidates for official positions are thoroughly grounded in their great classical writers, and have literally memorized the commentaries, yet, in view of the severity of the test, they are afraid to trust even their excellent memories, but believe that success in the ordeal depends upon the favor of the gods. To attain this is often the purpose of such a tract. Thus the candidate for civil examination seeks the assistance of the god of literature, the candidate for a position in the army the god of war, etc. We are accustomed to consider the Chinese as rationalists, and for this there is a certain justification. Yet it appears that the Chinese students are much more religiously inclined than the European. As the Chinese are exceedingly fond of literary work, and the examinations are many and very hard. the number of such tracts is literally legion. In regard to the size, the greatest difference prevails. Some are only a sheet or two, others are solid volumes, or a series of volumes. This class of literature can be divided into several classes. Prominent among them are the tracts in which the moral element predominates and the religious recedes. A second class lays special stress upon the religious factor. To this rubric belong prayer-books, litanies, descriptions of the Buddhistic and Taoistic hells, calendar of saints, etc. In general, the first class includes the genuine Chinese, e.g., orthodox-Confucian tracts. The second class, on the other hand, embraces chiefly the Buddhistic and Taoistic writings. With this, however, is not said that Confucianism is only a dry morality without a religious element. Prayers and ceremonies in reference to the worship of ancestors, the adoration of Chinese wise men and saints, child-like reverence, to which subject one tract is devoted, which is even regarded as a classic with the name " Holy Book," show that Confucianism is also strongly saturated with religious ideas. It often grasps virtue from the religious point of view-a matter that is often overlooked by students of the religion of the Chinese. It can be said that the primitive religion of China, which was neither established nor removed by Confucius, consists in "childlike adoration." This for them is the root not only of all worship, but also of all religion. This is the specific religion of the Chinese. All other religions, Buddhism, modern Taoism, Shamanism, and Fetichism have, to a greater or less extent, all been imported from abroad. The two elements have been mingled and mixed, and constitute a strange religious syncretism. As a result, there is also a third class of tracts, in which religious factors and data of all the three great religions of China, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, find their expression. Naturally in this great mass of tract-literature there are some popular favorites. One of these is entitled "Valuable Mirror for the Enlightenment of the Heart." It consists largely of extracts from the classical writers, and several years ago was translated into the German by Professor Plack, of Munich. A little book of this kind, still more popular, is entitled "Words of the Wise." This is the book of popular sayings for the village children, who can attend school only a few months during the year, and for that reason, by a popular witticism, are called "Spring Frogs." Nearly all Chinese whom I met, and who could not read or write, knew this book by heart. City children and the educated classes, however, are offended if asked whether they know this work or not. For them it is not enough of a classic. It is a great favorite especially in northern China. Many of its sayings are Chinese versions of similar sayings current in other literatures. Three of the most popular tracts, which are republished in many books, date from the Sung Dynasty (970-1127). One is called "The Book of Man's Deeds and Their Retribution by the Most High." Under the "Most High," is here understood Lao-tzu, the deified founder of Taoism. The second is called "A True Holy Book to Arouse the World by the Holy Ruler and Prince Kwan." Kwan is the Chinese god of war. The third is entitled "A Writing Concerning the Secret Law of Retribution, by the God of Literature." These three tracts appear in many editions, with and without commentary, appendices, etc. These tracts, written in the twelfth century, contain a strange mixture of ideas from various sources, but the retribution taught is that on this side of the grave. During the Middle Ages a complete eschatology was developed by the Chinese writers, to which Buddhism contributed the idea of hell and heaven, hades and purgatory. A Buddhist-Taoist tract, equally as popular as the three mentioned, is entitled Divine Panorama," which not only by its title reminds us of Dante's "Divina Comedia," but also by its contents. It is published in many illustrated editions, and has had a remarkable influence on the Chinese mind. They now hold that there are ten chief hells and one hundred auxiliary hells. It should yet be added that the majority of the authors claim that their tracts originated in the inspiration of the gods, and were revealed by their authority. Of some of these books not only the contents, but also the binding, is claimed to have been received from a god or a genius. THE SABBATH-REPOSE OF THE DAMNED. Translated and Condensed for THE LIterary DigeST from a Paper in Revue des Etudes Juives, Paris, December. VERY Jew, who has received any instruction in his religion, knows that at the end of the Sabbath it is customary to prolong the recitation of certain prayers, in order to lengthen the respite granted on that day to the damned, for as long as the faithful have not terminated the evening service the wicked are not obliged to return to Gehenna, in order to take up again the course of their punishments. The first casuist, who mentions the rite, is Rab Amram in the ninth century, who speaks of it as a popular usage. The casuists themselves have never taken as seriously as might be believed the motives alleged for this religious usage, for they have never tried to abolish the rule which prescribes the sup |