The bearers of the coffin-palls, ete., are reported to be getting rich, as some of them have had a dozen funerals a day. but the risk is undoubtedly great, and there must have been some loss of life in this way. The paternal magistrates issue proclamations interdicting the use but not the sale of melons of all sorts, but they are all sold, albeit some villages will not allow the vendors to enter the village. But the Chinese is an adaptable creature. and if he can not eat melons and cucumbers raw he can have them cooked, which is done at all the funerals. Many who go to these funerals return with well-marked symptoms of the disease.
A Novel Remedy The only truly prophylactic measure adopted in this region has been the frequent: but not the general celebration of 'a New Year with its accompanying testi vities.. The current explanation often is that since we are about to die we might as well have one more good time first. But the real inwardness is undoubtedly that of deceiving the god of the plague into a belief that he has mistaken the time of year, and that as it is really mid-winter it is time to cry quits! The trial of these demons in court, reported in your columns, shows this to be the real underlying motive.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.