slightest circumstance surrounding the lives of the aged was taken as an unfailing indication. that those circumstances were the occasion of the long life of the individual. We are told that Clodius Hermippus, "who lived one hundred and fifteen years and five days by the breath of young maids," erected a tablet dedicated "to Esculapius and Health," in commemoration of his discovery. Hufeland states that "one Dr. Cohausen endeavors to prove that Hermippus was the master of a training school, or teacher of female children at Rome, who by continually living amidst a circle of young maids had been enabled to prolong his life to so great an age. He advises people, therefore, with much benevolence, to expose themselves every evening and morning to the breath of young innocent maidens," that they may "strengthen and preserve the vital power," as the "first matter is contained purest in the breath of innocence." But the study of the art of prolonging life was not, after a time,

confined to the seedy professor, or to the monk lazily mouldering in the seclusion of his cloister. Princes, knights, and soldiers became deeply interested in its study. The "Flos Medicinæ "-the Flower of Medicine-the famous code of health of the School of Salernum, was written at the instigation and for the benefit of Count Robert of Normandy, while that illustrious knight lay sick of a wound received from the Saracens ; and still later the shores of the western world echoed to the tramp of the soldiers of Ponce de Leon in search of the fountain of everlasting youth.

LONGEVITY.

The stoical philosophy which taught that neither pain nor suffering, nor emotion of fear or joy, nor inordinate pleasure ought to be regarded, has been forgotten by Americans. We are indeed outwardly impassive, but inwardly the fires kindled by the emotions rage. This is manifested by the worn and anxious faces which Europeans pronounce characteristic of Americans. Compare, for instance, the emotional play apparent on the face of one of our belles with the placid calm of the moon-eyed Celestial, or the sluggish stolidity of the north German peasant. The lightning flash and the glimmering candle light are not more widely distinct. Unfortunately the relative duration of the vital spark is in inverse ratio to its brightness. The more vivid the beam the sooner it burns out and exhausts itself. The more rapid the growth and maturity of the plant. the more speedy the decay. It is thus in a state

of nature with human life and the vital force. Zeno, in recognition of this principle, founded the stoic faith, practiced it himself, and was rewarded by reaching the ripe old age of ninetyeight.

It is frequently asserted by our English cousins, with that singular reticence that always characterizes them when speaking of America, that the Americans would soon die out if immigration were entirely stopped for a single decade. Although not flattering to national pride, it must be admitted that there are some facts which seem to bear out the conclusion. The New England States, it appears, gain but little except by immigration; some towns are smaller than they were fifty years ago, and it is very rare to find a family of natives where there are more than two children. On "the Cape" the people have intermarried until the entire region is peopled with citizens in varying but constant degrees of consanguinity, and as

there are no immigrants there is a visible deterioration. But when our amiable English cousins speak of American degeneration, it is from such facts as these that they gather their knowledge; they carefully ignore the central, growing West, where may be found the highest type of physical excellence in America. The intermingling of the races the enterprising and energetic sons of New England (the drones stay at home with the Scotch, English, Dutch and Irish immigrantshas in three generations produced a race whose physique is unexceptionable, and but a few years more are required to bring up the mental training to a point of such self-control that a majority may die with their boots off, in the meek and spiritless manner peculiar to the East.

The question of marriage from the stand-point of the biologist is a very different one than when viewed from a purely sentimental basis. Racelovers have long mourned the lack of attention