STAR SATURDAY SUPPLEMENT

AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, JULY 29, 1882.

THE DOCTRINE OF EVOLUTION.

[By T. W. Leys.] IV.

KUDIMENTA.KY STRUCTURES. Is an atticle upon evolution contributed to the ninth edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, Mr Huxley says: "It is almost impossible to prove that any structure, however rudimentary, is useless —that is to say, that it plays no part what ever in the economy; and if it is in tbe slightest degree useful, there is no reason why, on the hypothesis of direct creation, it should not linve been created. Never theless, double-edged as is the argument from rudimentary organs, there is none ■which has produced a greater effect in pro moting the general acceptance of the theory of evolution." No one who has read much of the literature of evolution can doubt the force, at any rats, of the latter part of this passage. An article apou evolution in the " Fort nightly " for December, signed 6. J. Komaues, F.G.S , is a fair sample of the style of reasoning from such premises. The writer, in extravagant phraseology, literally casts all lingering doubts away before the shrine of the whale and the python (most suggestive combination). And astbuse creatures are relied upon by all JDarwinlan»,as the best proofs from mor phology, let us consider them. ■ The •whale suckles its young, and having, on that account; been rightly classed with mammalia by naturalists, it obviously be came a tempting subject for the evolution ists. " See," said they, " the whale luoks so like a fish that it was for a long tuuo classed as one, yet it is a true animal, and has only become habituated to aquatic habits by modification." Haeckel ex presses the views of Darwin on this subject, tully when he says :—" Some serpents, viz, the giant serpents (Boa-Python) have still in the hinder por . tion of the body some useless little bones which are the remains of lost hind-legs. In like rnaaner, mammals of the whale triba (Cetacea) whica have only fore-legs fully developed (breast fins) have further back in their body another pair of undeveloped hind-leg.". The same thing occurs in many genuine fishes, in which the hind-legs have In like.manner been lost." * ,*..... * "It is probable that the remarkable, legion ef whales (Cetacea) originated out of hoofid animals, which accustomed themselves to 'aquatic life, and thereby became trans formed into the shape of a fish.'1 This proposition, it will be observed, in volves a sort of evolution backwards. Tha* Natural Selectioa ehoald have taken all the pains to bring the prosenitors of the whale 3 forward to the dignity of hoofed ; animals, and then, finding somehow that & mistake had been made, worked them back iuto fishes, is no lesa • extraordinary than that, having succeeded in ridding the subject of its useless hind legs, it failed in rooting out the rudiments. Tne whole theory, however, on its very threshold prompts a somewhat pertinent inquiry. If all the. mammalia spraogfrom fishes, as evolutionists assert, why should it be necessary to pre-suppose that the whale has passed through the intermediary exist ence of a land animal ? The difficulty of accounting for the origin of the uniuherited instinct by which the first mammal learned to suckle, when all its ancestors had been cold-blooded and oviparous, may j ust as well be faced at one place as the other. But it is these awkward questions which the Darwi nians conveniently keep in the background. A few minutes' reflection upon the method by which the true fish propagates its species and the practice among birds and mammal] will suffice to convey to the mind of the reader an idea of the nut which remains to be cracked at the point of transmutation from one state to the o.her under a system dependent entirely upon inherited instinct. It is scarcely less awk ward than the earlier unexplained problem of a self-propagating life developing into that dual propagation by impregnation which we see around us as a law that is universal except in tho very lowest organisms. We need do no more than indicate these ob jections, which are only two out of the numberless barriers obstructing the path of the evolutionist at every stage of his progress, They are important enough, however, to receive more consideration from the. reader than it is desirable to give in this paper. Returning to the whale, in whose hißtory evolution has played such high fantastic tricltH, it U necessary to explain that, be sides the bones which are claimed as rudi mentary legs, there are in the embryo of some species of whale seventy teeth on each side of the jaw, which never cut the gum; their purpose being superseded by the growth of baleen (whalebone). Now, the theory advanced by the evolutionist runs something like this : That a hoofed animal having, through tbe operatian of causes un known, taken permanently to the water with a gullet of not more than an inch-and a-half in diameter, it had some trouble in getting a living. Hence, it sustained itself upon marine mollusca, and Nature oblig ingly extended its mouth to a length of sixteen feet, and provided it with two tons of baleen as a strainer, to meet the requirements of its altered condi tions of life — the teeth, being no longer required, became rudimentary. But here another obstacle arises—all the whales have not been treated alike. The Sperm Whale, which to a diet of fish adds large quantities of cephalopodon mollusks, has no whale bone whatever in its month, and it develops a set of terrible'teeth, about 48 on the lower jaw, and knows how to use them. Instead of teeth on the upper jaw, how ever, there is a groove into which the lower reeth fit. Now it is certain that the growth of baleen has not deprived this whale of its upper teeth, and it has to strain its food nnder difficulties, for to a mouth that is twenty or thirty.feet long it adds a gullet' of ample capacity for the admission of any man not addicted to corpulence. The Rorqual again—the largest of the whale family—possesses whalebone, and, like the Greenland whale, is devoid of teeth, but it consumes fi«h with great avidity. Upon opening One of these monsters, between five and six hundred large ro&t-cod have been found, besides a vast amount of smaller fry. In the Rorqual, therefore, Natural Selection has done a most im proper and inconvenient thing, by aborting its teeth and thereby dooming the wretched animal to consume cod-fish without any power of mastication,

The. treatment of whales with regard to the dorsal iiu has likewise followed no fixed rule. The cachelot (Physeter Tursio), which has teeth and no wha'ebone, possesses a very high dorsal liv; the rorqual has a fin and whalebone; and the hump-hack, which aleo has whale bone instead of teeth, possesses a rudiment ary dorsal fin in the shape of a hump on it* back. The Greenland whale is without dorsal fin. Now, if rudimentary legs be token descent from a hoofed animal, does a rudimentary dorsal liv indicate that the humpback has come up in the opposite direction from a fish, and where have the other two species got their fins from—the hoofed animal or the earlier ancestor ? The rudimentary legs, for which evolution is supposed to supply^ an explanation, beantiful in its simplicity, land us in a similar quandary. Tho whale is not the only representative of aquatic mammalia. The porpoise, the dolphin, the grampus, the lamnntin, the mauatus, and the dugong all come into the same class. The uugong is the most remarkable of all the fish-mammals; it is herbivorous, and holds its young above water with one flipper when Buckling, while swimming with the other. But U.irwin admits, and speaks of it as a " remarkable peculiarity," that in none of these uniiuuU is there even a rudiment of a hind limb. Yet Haeckel assures us that " many genuine tithes" have the rudimentary limbs, though they are absent from these fish-mammals. In like manner the boa constrictor is the only one of all tbe amike tribe in which the so-called "useless little bones," dignified as rudi mentary legs, appear, and in it there are no rudimentary tore-legs. It ia not, so far as we can discover, contended that the boa belongs to an order of reptiles different in its origin from all the rest of the snake tribe, therefore, these " use less little bones" mast do duty for the entire family, and serve besides as main pillars in the Darwinian system. The subject of rudimentary organs is too intricate and technical to discuss in an article like this, at the length that would be requisite to throw light on their occur rence. That in the majority of instances, if not invariably, tbey serve some purpose in the economy of tho animal is, however, infinitely more reasonable than that an animal should continue to propagate rudi mentary structures ages after the organs themselves had betyi discarded, and the animal has lost any conception of their use. It has been very cleverly argued by Mr A. W. Hall, that such structures are often attributable to the mental impressions of the mother in successive generations, pro duced by surroundings* of advanced animal Hie, in which well-developed organs are the all prevalent rale. This explanation, applied to the Greenland whale, which, through Maul; of teeth, has been rendered almost helpless against the fierce attacks of the grampus, is a simple and much more credible one than the theory that these rudiments are the pointers to aborted teeth inherited from a hoofed ancestor. Thgre are fair grounds for believing, however, that the embryonic teeth are of essential service to the yonng whale. The baleen hangs only from the roof of the mouth; it is of slow growth, and is valueless to the suckling calf, while the hardness imparted to the lower jaw by the dental pulp may be of essential service. The freak of a hoofed animal, aided by chance variations, is at best a poor explanation of the presence of a creature so well equipped as the whale ia for its work in seas where the water obtains a specific colouring from the myriads of rnolluaca that inhabit it. To any minor variation within particular species or families, little exception would be taken, because no one has ever seriously disputed the existence of extensive capabilities of adaptation to special modes of life. But ; anything like actual transmutation is, we contend, opposed to the entire teaching of zoology. An admirable review of this question is contained in that excellent little work by the Duke of Argyle entitled " The Reign of i,aw." The treatment of rudimentary organs by the Darwinians is characterised by that straining for evidence to support a pre-conceived theory, which was commented upon in our remarks upon embryology. If an organ cannot be well accounted for, it is useless; if, however, it approaches some animal type it becomes rudimentary and a "pointer." What are rudimentary and useless organs ? That arrangement of muscles which makes every inch of a man's external body movable, and more or less under control, may be objected to as largely superfluous wherever it is not either essen tial to existence oc useful in the struggle for life. In his lecture on the "Origin of Man,'' Mr Denton took an objection of this kind when citing as "a pointer" to an ancestral ape the power men have of moving the scalp and ears, If, however, before advancing this unique proposition he had put it to the teat by simply placing his hand at the back of his own skull when in dulging in that little art of arching the eye brows which is employed witti such charming effect in those lights and shades of expression reflected upon the human face, he would have dis covered the feat impracticable without imparting motion to the entire scalp and ears. To have escaped suspicion of slumber ing ancestral traits in these days, Mature must have endowed men with the sphinx like features of wooden dolls. Happily, however, for the universe, she has preferred to run the risk of superfluity in the elabora tion of a marvellous and infinite variety. Mr Darwin's Confession of Error. There ia a reverse side to arguments drawn from these sonrces. _ Superfluous organs have been among tbe chief stumbling blocks to natural selection, and absolutely compelled Mr Darwin to modify his appli cation of that law. What power can the straggle for life have had upon the amaz ingly beautiful plumage of birds, upon the exquisite forms and colours of shells, and a million other qualities which give the animal and vegetable kingdoms thekaleidos cope characters of boundless change. In his "Descent of Man," Vol. 1., Mr Darwin views certain classes of un used organs as a grave obstacle to the acceptance of his theory :" 1 now admit," he. says, " after reading the essay by Nageli on plants, and the remarks by various authors with respect to ani mats, more especially those recently made by Professor Broca, that in earlier editions of my • Urigia of Species,' I .probably at tributed too ranch to the action of natural selection, or the survival ef the fittest I had not formerly considered the existence of many structures which appear to be, as far as we can -judge, neither beneficial nor injurious, and this I believe to be one of

the greatest oversights as yet detected in my work." And again, "No doubt, man as well as every other animal, presents structures, which as far as we can judi;o with our little knowledge, are not now of any Bervico to him, nor have been so dur ing any former period of hia existence,either in relation to his general conditions of life, or of one sex to theother, Such strictures cannot be accounted for by any form of selection, oi by the inherited effects of the use and disuse of parts." "Oh, but," we hear from some one who loves to shelter hinnclf under ii great name rather than exorcise hi* own intelligence, "if the theory, instead of finding its evidences plainly written upon every page in the Book of Mature, has to depend upon a maze of vauue and contradictory specula latione, trivialities, itud arguments which, on the confession of evolutionists, tell ns much one way as the other, how comes it that any scientific man has accepted the doctrine?" Well, it is not altogether.a new discovery that there have always been men who would believe anything rather than admit the possibility of a direct intervention of a Deity in the go vernment of the Cosmos. If, however, the query is intended to imply that Dar winism has *ecured the general concurrence of the scientific world, we join issue at once. Cuvier, Agftssiz, and Yon Baer, each a giant iv the world of Ecience, have already been quoted writing with crushing force against it. We might add Dawaon, Ge^c Jeffreys, Oscar Peschel, Wyville Thomson, and a host ot others. But let Mr Darwin himself speak of the acceptance his views had secured after beiug twenty years before the public. Writing in 1579, little more than two year* before his death, he says (vide introduction to the "Descent of Man"): At least, a large number of naturalists must admit that species are the modified descendants of other specie?, and this especially holds good with the younger aud rising uaturalists. The greater number accept the agency of natural selection ; though some urge—whether with justice, the future must decide—that I have greatly overrated its importance. Of the older and honoured chiefs in natural science, many, unfortunately, arc still opposed to Evolution in every form." Even among the advocates of Darwinism there are two or three sects running widely different theories, and occasionally abusing each other in no measured term;. We have heard Darwin; now, what does Uaeckc.l, his chief apostle in Germany, «ay '! Lash ing out violently in reply to an attack which Professor Virchow made upon uuscien tilic theories in a recent address delivered before the German pathologists at Munich, Professor Haeckel states:—" In uo other city of uermany has evolution in general, and Darwinism in particular, been so little valued, so utterly misunderstood, and treated with such sovereign disdain as in Berlin. ... Of all conspicuous naturalists of Berlin, only one [Alexauder Bravo, a botanist] accepted the doctrine^ of transmutation from the beginning with sincere warmth nnd full conviction." The feeling in France was best attested by Mr Darwin's double rejection—in 1870 and IS72—when proposed as a member of the French Academy. In the uuxt paper wilt be advanced some remarks upon Darwinism refuted by the fauna of New Zealand.

Humourous

It is conqueror die with a good doctor ; but tho patient is expected to do the dying. Sea-side Views.—That visitors should be plundered unmercifully. The pugilist dots his "eyes," Tho grocer crosses his" teas, Tho billiavdist minds his "cues, And tho farmer minds his - poos. The size of the fans to be used at the sea side this summer is enormous. They will be used by the ladies of fashion to keep off the refreshing sea breezes. Pen-makers are a bad lot. They make' us ateel pens, and then they say they do write. Sporting item: " Confound it, you've shot the dog ! I thought you tola me you could hold a gun?" Pat—"Sure, and so I can, yer honour. It's the shot, sorr, I couldu't nowld!" A medical journal devote 3 a whole column to explaining what causes cold perspiration. Any one who has gone up a dark alley and stepped on a dog would be wasting valuable time in reading it. The Class Group.-Photographer: "Now, gentlemen, 1 must ask you not to look full at the camera. You will make a much better picture if you look in different directions. Now, you, sir, you are looking a little full 1" "My frens," said the oflioiatinK clergy man at the marriage of two coloured persons near Cincinnati a few Sundays ago," my fretis. it am a serous ting. to get married, specially when bofe parties is orphans an' hain't got no parents to fail back on, as am *de present case." When the Princess Louise arrived at Quebec a few days ago, a friend introduced her to Lord Lome, the Governor General of Canada, and iv a brief space of period they were chatting as pleasantly as if they had known each other for two years. A party who has just paid a big doctor s bill savshe wouldliketoseehiKhhealsgoout of fashion The present fashion of belt boqnets causes a great many flowers to be waisted !.."Rounds of aoplause" help an actor to the top of the ladder. —" Boston Commercial Bulletin." " I declare !" exclaimed Fogg at the dinner table to-day, " this is the most affectionate pie I ever saw." " Affectionate pie 2" cried every one at the table, including the landlady. ''Yes," said Fogg, "tho upper and lower crusts are so confounded affectiouate that you couldn't get anything between them." Seta Green says fish cannot shut their eyes. Fogg says this explains why they always succeed in keeping off his hook. Whenever he goes fishing the fish are all eye 3 and no mouth, and every eye wide open. He thought they kept their eyes open out of pure cussedncss ; but now that he knows that they can't help it he simply despises where he'hated them before. A St. Louis editor accidentally received in his morning mail proof-sheets intended for the employe's of a religious publication house.and, after glancing over them, rushed to»the city editor yelling, "Why in the world didn't you get a report of that big flood ? Even that slow, old religious news paper across the way is ahead ofyou. Send out your force for full particulars—only one family saved. Interview the old man, His name is JSoali.'

Attacked by Stowaways.

"AY, ay, shipmates, I know it is my turn now, so hold up while 1 get wind," said old Jack Caswcll, as we lay becalmed off St. Verne one sultry day in August, and to pass away the time that hung rather heavily on our hands, we engaged iv story telling. " Let's see," he began, after a moment's reflection, "it was in the season of '50 that I hired under old dipt. Wnrronton, who run a schooner on the const of the Gulf. She was a unall craft, of not more than a hundred and fifty tons burden, and on the trip I am speaking of was loaded at Mobile with a cargo for Now Orleans. " Besides the skipper and myself, then a lad of fifteen, there was hut one hand. As the craft was cosily handled, and the runs short, dipt. Wan onton seldom ever shipped more than four; and on this time, when we "Ot ready to sail, and one of the men couldn't bo found, lie concluded to btart with me and the other one, a sailor named Ned Allen, for there was a prospect of a quick and easy passage, " There was great excitement in Mobile at the time over tho escape of v couple of villains from the jail, who bad beeu recently captured and were waiting trial for murder. I don't believe a tougher pair of rascals were ever found in Alabama tlian Knell Victor and Dennis Lornc. They had killed as many as half-a-dozen persons,to say nothing of other crimes without number of which they were guilty. " You may guess that their escape created no little disturbance, and they wore more dreaded than ever. " The authorities did their best to recap ture them, but uo trace of the desperadoes sould be found, and the day we left port three thousand dollars reward was offered for them, one half tho sum fur either of them. " Well, we had a fair wind for a start, and [ ran down the hay standing oil" between the j Dauphin and the Point about six. " About that time I had occasion to go into tho fore-peak to get some rope-yarn. , Now, we had uo forecastle parted oil' from ' the hold, aa there was room enough for all in the cabin, and we hud this stowed in between tho bows, where we chucked away j our old trumpery. " I was hard at work unlaying a pieco of rope from tbo yarns, when I thought I heard a noiso among tlie boxes in the hold. Listen ing a moment, with my ear close to tho bulk head, I know some one was there. As the captain and Allea were above, I wondered who it could be, and kept perfectly still, to see if I could liud out. 11 was not kept in suspense long, for pretty soon X heard a inuu speak, and then another aoswored him. ' You may believe I was all attention then, and soon learned that our passengers were none others than ltuell Vititor and Dennis Lome, the desperadoes who had escaped from the Mobile jail 1 ' From what they said, I found that they had crawled into the hold aud stowed them selves away so well that we had not seen them when we had finished loading. They had got provisions enough to live on a day or two, aud were planning to come on deck at dark, overpower us and put to sea. They were armed, and, what frightened me the most (for you must remember I was only a boy, though nearly as Urge as I am now) they had hired Nod Allen to help them 1 This would make them three against the captaiu and myself. ' As they had been further aft when I lirst came down, and were getting back to their old rorner, I felt that they had not heard me, so I crept back to the deck as quietly as possible. " We wcie then leaving the light-house out of sight and it would soon be dark, so that I was anxious to tell the skipper what I had discovered. " As I came up from the fore-peak, he was at tlie helm, while Allen ( was at the main sheet. I guess I must have looked a little startled, though I tried to appear calm, far as 1 went aft he asked me what was up; but I only shook my .head, saying I dulu't feel very well, not daring to say any more for fear of arousing Allen. " I saw Captain Warreuton mistrusted something, for he seemed uneasy; and pretty aoon he sent Allcu into the cabiu for some thing, and asked me again what the trouble was, when I told him all. 11 The captain was a big, brave man, but he trembled when I told my story. " If we should put back to port it would arouse the villains and they would make short work of us, and, as it was, our show was a small one. " In a moment, however, the captain asked if I could carry a steady hand in a tight fix ; and telling him I could, for I knew our lives were depending on it, his eyes Hashed as he said : " Good, my boy ! If you don't fail me, we will fix the scoundrels, or my name isn't Joe Warrenton. Keep up your courage, do as I say, and fifteen hundred dollars are yours.' " The captain was a powerful mun, and now that he understood the game I kuew the desperadoes would have a hard fight to carry out their purpose. If Allen only had been all right, we should have stood an even chance, though we had no firearms aboard. " (Seeing Allen coming up the companion way at that moment, Watrenton motioned for me to take the helm, and hurried to meet the sailor just a9he ga'ned the deck. '' Before the traitor knew what was coming the captain seized him by the throat and bore the wretch to the deck, just as if he lud been a child, without any outcry escap ing his lips. " Getting a piece'of tarred rope and some bunting, we gagged and bound the ruffian in a few moments. "There," said Captain Warrenton, triumphantly, ' our way is clear. But these other scamps will be moving soon, so we must be ready for them.' " While the hatches were on we knew the villains' only way of escape was througk the fore-peak, and as the boards of the bulkhead were thin, they could easily force away through. The careo was so stowed that they oould not reach the cabin bulk head, and they could not force the hatches, to that we felt confident that that would be their course. " As it was then time that they mi<<ht be moving, and the wind was so that we had it on our beam, thus leaving but little to do tor the sails, the captain got a couple of heavy hand-spikes for our weapons, and we were ready for action on the part of our "Soon after dark the skipper said he heard them removing a. board, from the : bulkhead,

"CaptainWarrentoa had cautiously craw led forward by the bowsprit, weapon in baud, and now motioned to me to leave the helm and join him. The tiller was lushed, so all was safe in that quarter. " The night wab etarlight, and just light enough for our purpose. "Iliad barely tune to reach the bills, which I had done in silence, when iho Bcoumlrots were moving in the rubbish in the fore-peak. " Pretty soon a couple of human heads came into sight, and then the villains stood upon deck not fouifeet from where we were. "The captain touched me, and I kuew the time for action had come. | " While the rascals stood for ait instant as if trying to see where we were, we sprang upon them. " I seemed to possess ten times my ordi nary strength, 1 had nerved myself so, and you may believe 1 put all my power into a blow. Howover, the villain saw me in season to partially dodgo it, so that it fell upon his shoulder, and tut next 1 knew he had sprung upon me. "But my second clip, which 1 was not long in dealing, fetched him ; and us wo fell, Warrontuu turned to help me, hi: having lixed his man at a single s'ruke. "It was a good while before I could rea lise that we had really overcome the burly desperadoes ; but there they were, securely bound, and in spite of their threats and en. treaties, we put back to port and wave them up to the authorities, receiving Ihe reward of three thousand dollars, which the captain generously shared with mo. " Ned Allen received his just punishment, while both pf the others afterwards cxpi. ated their crimes on tnc gallows. " Readily procuring a couple of new hands, we again put to Bca,none ths worse for our little adventure.'' •

A Snake in his Stomach.

Onk of the most popular Consular-Generals to Franco was tlie hits General Torbttt, whoso .sad death awakened the deepest sympathy among his troops of frieudfl- The following anecdote ii related of him when in command of a brigade during the civil war:—While having a kindly lienrt for the trooper who was always ready for '"boots and saddlo," he hated a shirk, and had his own way of meetiug the complaints urged by shirkers to t{ct rid of duty. Just before breaking camp in the spring of 1865 ihe general attended a sick call to sou the state of health in his command. One after another of the boys came in for prescription, and by and by a strapping big trooper, who WOS a notorious shirk, entered the tout with his hands on his stomach, Toibett took him nil in at a glance, nnd thou thundered out, " What are you here for "'." " Sick," was the faint responce. '' What oils yon ? " "Snake in the stomach." "How long has it been there?" "Six months." "Sur geon," said the general, an he turned to the officer, "callill twomen.cut this man open, and remove the snake ! We are goiog to break camp in ten days, and we haven't time to coax the reptile up!" Fifteen minutes after that the man was out on the line grooming hia horse, and by noon he looked well enough to eat his way through a barrel of pork.

Do Dead Persons Turn in Their Coffins?

A CORRESPONDENT of a Bath newspaper stated the following singular circumstance

a few years ago : — Having occasion lust week to inspect a grave in one of the parishes in this city, in which two or three members of my family had bepn buried soma years siuce, and. which lay in very damp ground, I observed that the upper part of the coffin was rotted away, and had left the head and bones of the skull exposed to view. On enquiring of the grave-digger how it came to pass that I did not observe the usual sockets of the eyes in the skull, he replied that what I saw, was the hind part of the head, (called the occiput, I believe, by anato mists) and that the face was turned, as usual, to the earth ! Not exactly under standing the phrase " as usual," I enquired if the body had been buried with the face upwards, as in the ordinary way; to which he replied, to my astoni«lnucnt, in the affirmative, and adding that iv the course of decomposition the face of every indivi dual turns to the earth; and that in the experience of thrce-ind-twcuty years in. his situation, he had never known more than one instance to the contrary,

A writer in " Notes and, Queries," com* menting on this strange story, says that "notwithstanding his three-and-twenty years' experience, the| worthy gravodigger mjut have been mistaken, unless there is something peculiar in the bodies of Bath people. But if the face turns down in any instance, as asserted, it would be right to ascertain the cause, and why this change is not general.'

Fashion-plate Waists

Of modern "fashion-plate waists" Mary L. Griffiths writes in the " Woman's Jour nal " : " They are not after the model form« ed by the Creator, they do not represent the sculptured ideals of the old masters, which are supposed to be standards of beauty ; they do not keeppace with the genius of our century, which is forciug us to recognise and adopt the natural and the healthful an being also the most beautiful. No woman with such a waist can be anything but a dyspeptic, consumptive, distorted being. No woman with such a waist is fit for motherhood, if, indeed, it be possible to her It means martyrdom for her children and children's children. A lady whose name carries weight throughont the length and breadth of our land lias said : ' A faehion plate is to me more pathetic than an obitu ary : it stands so often to the Utter in the relation of cause to effect. The ?;mie philosophy applies to high heels and defor mities in general.' May we not ask fashion editors to use their potent influence in the direction we have indicated, and in all di rections which shall help woman to reach a better and higher ideal ?'}

Young ladies are opposed to the lele«' phones. They say they do not care to have a young fellow whispering in their ears with.hia mouth twenty mile* away, A Western editor says : " Communism doesn't take.". He has not seen the real thing. Genuine Communism takes every« thing that does not belong to it, A worthy deacon, in a town somewhere or other gave notice at a pray«r meeting of a church meeting that was to be held imme diately after, and unconsciously added,' " There is no objection to thu female bru *, , lircumuainiDg