Tae gruesome advertisement which for monthd past has stared us in the face from every newspaper in the Far Enst, propounding, us if it were a conandram, the enquiry What is thie disease that is coming upon us?? varied by other, announcements of a simiing ature, would be even more suggestive if the substantive were in the plural number, Great as are the strides made during recent years i medical and surgical skill, they yet, arcely to keep pace with the increase those ills to which flesh is heir, The alleviation of suffering by the use of cocaine and other anssthetics, and the eventual diminution and perhaps amping-out of hydrophobia which we may some day vive to the discoveries of M. Pasteur, are, no doubt, blessings which can scarcely be over-estimated but at the same time there are ladies which baffle the very first physicians of the day, and even Sir William Jenner is quoted as having recently exclaimed, "The science of medicine is a barbarous jargon—o' dove of physic is a blind experiment We do not of course accept such a statement an pied de la lettre; but it euggeste, at any rate, that medical science muy still have a long way to travel before it can grapple on firm ground wil the forces arrayed against rideed the very growth of medical aoionce, instead of rendering more accurate our knowledge of specifies, tends rather to prove that there are no such things in nature as specifics at all, The most skilful treaty or lees empirical, has hitherto been regarded as a specific, an unfailing antidote to the fever-poison, is now believed to have no direct inflaence upon fever whatever: the most it does is to render the conditions of the better able to resist the next of the disease—to make them, leas favourable tothe fractification of the disease-producing germ, if germ there be. Whether such a phenomenon as a tone specific for anything-will ever be discovered is probably more than the most sanguine physician would care to assert even problematically. And yet medical science has made tremendous strides daring the past lauded and fifty yeara, 'T'o see how far it has travelled already one has only to recal to mind the barbarous methods of treatment in vogue two or three hundred years ago. Sword and gausliot wounds were seared with red-hot irons; fresh air was considered fatal to persons suffering from staallpox, fever, or plague; and up till comparatively recent times, bleeding was supposed to bea specific for nearly every accident or illness to which men were linble. "Medical a1 has progressed wonderfully But are there fewer diseases used to be? We know better how to treat diseases than our forefathers did bat have diseases themselves diminished in number? "We b that they have not, and that if ion brings with it more experience and more aptitude in battling with disease, it de-elops disease itself. We believe that a very Inrge proportion of the maladies to which men and women are liable are the direct product and result of civilisation, They form part of the price that must be paid for refinement, and laxary, and oultare, and are, we believe, unknown among barbarous peoples. There is probably no healthier being in the world than a stalwart gipsy, or a naked savage. the man who, untrammeled by the clothes of civilised life, ries his brain about the state of share-markets or the problems of theology, and depends for his dinner apon strong right arm, knows nothing ed portion of humanity.
are born to bim, strong and healthy, and with but little danger or ence to the mother. Skin. may, it is true, prevail among such folk, but only in the case of those ho neglect personal ablutions—whioh is not common among the denizens of warm climates. Drinking compara little of any intoxicating liquors, he not eubjeot to those miseries which afflict the poorer classes of large towns, for the tisanes of his body are not vitiated by alcohol. He oan undergo with absolute impunity hardship and exposure which would simply kill the more sensitive and he devours his primi food with a keenness of relish unknown to pampered palates, His limbs are strong and supple; he is the embodimout of perfect health. And he pro-serves his health simply and solely by taking no care of it, but just following his instincts and leading the life that Nature intends he should. It is well known that special care and training, brought to bear upon any particular organ, renders it unnaturally delicate. The throat of the singer, carefully edu. cated, as it were, wrapped up in wool. lon comforters, and then coaxed with tannin, or lemon-juice, or whatever the favourite specific of the artist may be, a infinitely more linble to take cold and be thrown out of gear than the throat of a plonghboy or a dairymaid, Who ever heard of a savage of respect. able and healthy habits suffering from bronobitie, or tooth-che, or gout, or liver-complaint? Sach tion are the outgrowth of ci the result of the body having been subjected to influences which make for its degeneracy. Themorenatural thelifeone leads, the less liable will one be to fall a prey to illness; a truism, no doubt, but one which is but seldom thought of, and still more rarely acted on. on sixpence day and earn it, is one of the best prescriptions ever given by a doctor; an was given by one of the most eminent. physicians: of this century. "Seldom," says a. writer of much wisdom and common-sense, "hall we seo in cities, courts, and rich families where men live plentifully and eat and drink freely, that perfect health, that athletic soundness and vigour of constitution, which is commonly seen in the country, in poor houses and cottages, where Nature is their cook and Necessity their caterer, and where they have no other doctor' but the cun and fresh air, and that euch a one as never sends them to the apothecary, The two enemies to health about whioh we hear most in Shanghai are probably overeliving and over-auxi the moral of it all is that the more simply we eat and drink, and the more coolly we take all the ups and downs of life, the likelier we are to enjoy both bodily and mental vigour.
REVIEW, 76, Me estnaghals Tis. For an out-of-the-way pro ously exclusive e1 Ytin: singularly often described by notable trae vollers, Barco Polo devotes som India has tempre solvers as the North-west Passage and the Pole, Th Colquhoun, Baber Wi tr official or unofficial, hi object in view. Buch of them, the me
cribed with more or less il the physical features of the country, its animal, vegetable, ies; but traveller passing through perforce content with hasty ger and trustworthy only in th his natural gift as an cours Mission, Ta-li Fu, the mystery is es ily ponatratod by, reference, to" Directory.
.W.C. isa writer who addresses his readers from a different standpoint from that oecus pied by the travellers above alluded to, A missionary resident in the provines, for tome yeats past we presume, though he does not tell us a0, he lias had opportunities for maturing his knowledge and correcting first impressions which cannot fail to enhance the value of the information he has to impart.
If, as seems probable, annexation of Upper Burma to the Britis mere matter of days, the definite opening of a trade-route between India and southwest China vid Bhamo cannot fail to be "bur question" in the course of the coming year. We have dilly-dallied too long as it is, and the labours of such men as Cooper, Colquhoun, and their fellows, must be made to find some practical inst The works already published by these travellers abound in useful information, gathered on the spot, but necessarily what crude. At pages 30 et seg. of 0, brochure will be found much valuable supplementary matter on the best routes to select, the most favourable season for
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.