Pugilism and Longevity.

The following words from the National Popular Review so entirely coincide with our own firm convictions in reference to physical culture that we cannot refrain from reproducing them:

"It is a noticeable fact that no pugilist ever reached the age to which many early saints, clergymen, scientists, philosophers, pensioners, or paupers have so easily attained. We have no centenarian pugilists. Neither has the training nor the physique, or constitutional conditions resulting from that training, proved a specific against the inroads of consumption or a preventive in rheumatism or the gout,-diseases which seem to be the main enemies of the past generation of British pugilists.

"I have only been able to look up the data regarding the lives of some 60 noted pugilists. Of these 60, only 29 passed their fiftieth year. Of the 31 who did not, 2 only reached their twentyeighth year; 2 died in their thirtieth, and 3 in their thirty-second year; I died in the thirty-third year, and 2 passed out in their thirty-fourth year; only I died during his thirty-fifth year, and 2 died during their thirty-sixth year; 2 more passed out in their thirty-seventh, and 2 died in their thirty-eighth. The age of thirty-nine seems to be particularly fatal to pugilism, as it is claimed 4, making a total of 21 who never reached their fortieth year. Had these giants and modern Achilleses and Hectors gone into the clergy or the law, and never gone beyond any more physical training than that required to play lawn tennis or to gesticulate before a half-asleep jury, it is safe to say that most of the 21 would not only have passed their fortieth year, but that in all probability have all reached even their eightieth,-if the stock of vitality at the beginning is to be taken into account. Young ministers hardly ever die between their twenty-seventh and fortieth years, and most assuredly will they live to eighty if endowed with the physique of a Belcher or that of an Evans, or of a Curtis."

Nineteenth Century Olympic Games.

The international committee that is now preparing for the games at Athens is as thoroughly representative as one could well desire. With a Greek for president, and two Frenchmen in the offices of secretary and treasurer, the committee includes General de Boutowski, of the Russian Military School at St. Petersburg;

Dr. J. Guth, who is an eminent professor in Bohemia; Commandant Balck, head professor in the Central Institute of Gymnastics in Stockholm, Sweden; Leonard A. Cuff, of the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association; Professor William M. Sloane, of Princeton; Dr. Zubiaur, rector of the National College of Uruguay; C. Herbert, secretary of the Amateur Athletic Association of England; Lord Ampthill, also representing England; Franz Kémény, director of a Royal School in Hungary ; the Duc d'Andria Carata, of Naples; and the Count de Bousies, of Brussels.

The Athenians are not only enthusiastic over the proposed revival on Greek soil of the ancient Olympian games, but they are already preparing in a practical way to meet all possible expectations. For some of the feats and contests they are intending to make use of the very spots where Athenians of old were accustomed to assemble to witness dramatic representations and other entertainments. The harbor of the Piræus will lend itself to rowing contents and other kinds of nautical sports. While modern games of recognized standing will all be represented, there will also be an interesting attempt, as a matter of special entertainment, to present in antique fashion many of the very same feats of skill and contests of strength and endurance that formed the chief attraction of the games of the classical Greeks. The American and other schools of archæology in Athens are giving very active co-operation, the king and the government will lend full official sanction to the occasion, and there can be no doubt of its very unique and brilliant success.-Albert Shaw, in the December Review of Reviews.

Malaria.

In the course of a paper on "Malaria," read before the American Climatological Association by Dr. William H. Daly, of Pittsburg, we find the author stating what we believe to be some very valuable facts. Dr. Daly deems the malarial germ one of the infusoria got in impure water in lowlands and swamps. He cited cases in his practice where the malaria was due to drinking well-water in the lowlands. Some believe that malaria is most dangerous at night; that the poison is breathed into the system. He believes the disease originates only in impure water, and thinks

that the habitat of the germ is in the soil. Water in malarial districts always contained the germ. He referred to Lavaran's book. So-called malaria is a water-borne disease. Malarial fever in the United States is clearly a preventable disease. He said that in malarial districts all escaped who drank pure cistern water; they were healthy and ruddy. Malaria gets into the body through the food channels.

Medical Director Gihon, of Washington, while accepting part of Dr. Daly's statements, did not agree with him in thinking that aqueous vapor in such localities was harmless.

Dr. Wolfred Nelson spoke of malaria in the island of Cuba, where he had spent nearly six months. The Juraguay mines are near Santiago de Cuba. His friend, the late Dr. John Hartmann, a graduate of Philadelphia, was surgeon to the Juraguay Mining Company. Hundreds of Spaniards were employed. They work in gangs by day and by night as well. The night gang, who slept by day and went to work on a full stomach, never developed a single case of malaria in any form, while the day gang, who slept by night, while fog and vapors were rife, had malarial fever, bilious remittents, and the multiple malarial manifestations so familiar to all practitioners in the tropics.

Dr. Daly closed the discussion. He said that he believed that in the next five years his views would be accepted by the profession.

Athletics and Education.

The revival of interest in athletic sports, out-of-door recreations, and physical culture is one of the most hopeful signs of the day. Experience has shown that athleticism and sports can be made to minister to almost everything that is pernicious and degrading on the one hand, or can, if properly controlled and directed, minister powerfully to everything that is wholesome and ennobling. The drift a very few years ago was almost wholly in the direction of extreme professionalism. A reaction has set in, and a better atmosphere begins to pervade the world of sport and recreation. In our own country no better thing for legitimate sports has ever happened than the success of the no gambling, no-pool-selling amendment to the constitution of New York, adopted by a large majority on November 6. Race-track gambling is not a necessary concomitant of the development of speed in

horses. The adoption of the amendment, coupled with the overthrow of the race-track gamblers in New Jersey, is destined not only to improve the morals of the turf, but also to promote the interests of legitimate sport of all kinds, whether professional or amateur. The great international yacht races of the past season have stimulated an unwonted interest in nautical sports of an honorable and wholly amateur character. In our American colleges strenuous and generally successful efforts have been made to eliminate the taint of professionalism. Intercollegiate contests have been brought under better regulations, and the game of football in particular has been improved by new rules, which do away with very much of its alleged brutality.

Educators everywhere have begun to appreciate the fact that physical culture is as truly a part of the business of the schools as mental and moral culture. The truth that character to a very great extent is dependent upon the development of a sound and well-disciplined body has come like a new revelation to the world of professional educators; and, as a consequence, in our best schools some kind and degree of physical training is now assuming the position of the one indispensable branch of instruction. Greek, or Calculus, or Chemistry may be optional; but proper care, discipline, and development of the physical man, in the judgment of the chief educators, should be uniformly required of every student. The relation between gymnastic exercises, athletic sports, and great national games is so intimate that there is reason enough for associating them together.-Albert Shaw, in the December Review of Reviews.

Keep Your Mouth Shut.

Dr. A. W. Davis thus writes in The Healthy Home: "Four or five hundred years ago," says Science Siftings, "there was a superstition common to Europe that the devil was always lying in wait to enter a man's body and take possession of him. Satan generally went in by the mouth, but when he had waited a reasonable length of time and the man did not open his mouth, the devil made him yawn, and when his mouth was open jumped down his throat. So many cases of this kind occurred that the people learned to make the sign of the cross over their mouths whenever they yawned, in order to scare away the devil.

"The peasantry in Italy and Spain still adhere to this method, but most other people have dispensed with the cross sign, and keep out the devil by simply placing the hand before the lips. It is a remarkable survival of a practice after the significance has perished."

As we pass people in the street, watch them at their work, in church, and in society, probably half of them have their mouths open. The old superstition was probably well grounded,-the devil of ill-health is very likely to enter at the mouth. Particularly is this true when the season advances towards winter, and the difference between the outside air and the bodily temperature becomes steadily greater.

The sinuous nose passage, with its fringe of hair, is meant to warm and strain the air before it enters the sensitive lungs. No wonder the mouth-breathers are liable to colds and pneumonia, especially when they keep up the practice, as a rule, both day and night. In fact, many who are innocent during their waking hours are determined sinners against good taste and good health by defiantly opening the mouth in sleep. It is more than an annoyance to be a snorer; it is a serious misfortune.

This popular journal enters upon its third volume with the current number, and the number begins with a subject very dear to the average heart. The American girl has been our most important national characteristic since James expounded that abnormal specimen, Daisy Miller. Since then the variety and number of American girl types have been limited only by the number of authors to write about them. Under the title of "The Origin of a Type of the American Girl," Richard Harding Davis tells with his judiciously injudicious levity of how Charles Dana Gibson became the originator of a popular type. Harry C. Jones, Editor and Publisher, 92, 94 and 96 Fifth Avenue, New York.