and where, as sometimes, though seldom, happens, it must be sought in actual overwork; where alcohol or drugs have assisted the decay of nervous force, and where asceticism, tried as a remedy, has seriously injured the resisting power, diminishing the fuel, till every day threatens to empty the store. They differ considerably, we are told, in their practice, some having a lingering faith in the milder narcotics, which others have lost; and some in sleep by itself, which others think is only perfectly recuperative when it comes unsought, . . . but they all agree in recommending perfect 4 rest.' Their patients, who have instinct to guide them, and some memories of quick recovery during accidental or incidental lulls in life, always agree with them, but always start the question, how the rest is to be obtained." The distinguished patient can not find it anywhere in the land, for he is pursued wherever he goes by telegrams and letters, and callers, and newspaper gossip; and the only remedy, which some have heroically tried, is to go out to sea, where one can not be followed up; but this is often decidedly inconvenient. So, let the profession, and society, and the newspapers establish the rule that, when a distinguished man seeks rest for a period, he shall not be interrupted in it.
Room enough in the World yet.—Mr. R. Giffen, an English statist, has taken up the Malthusian cry that the world is filling up too fast, and has uttered his apprehension that all inhabitable countries will soon have all the population they can hold—and then what will mankind do? The "Spectator" answers him with arguments very like those which M. Fouillée has used with so much skill and effect in his articles on "Scientific Philanthropy." The laws of increase of population do not work as the Malthusians fear they will, but have ways of their own that it is hard to calculate upon. There is still, and will be for a long time, room enough in the world for all candidates for the privilege of living upon it. The United States still receives and finds homes for all who come—unless they come from China—and has a little room left. The State of New York, with five millions of population, has capacity, according to the standard that prevails in Suffolk, England, for thirty millions. The Dominion of Canada might hold fifty millions in comfort, without neighbors ever visiting each other on foot; and British Columbia has room "for twenty millions of happy people." Then, when North America is filled up, South America offers vast expanses that are not only not occupied, but are in reality not explored, of which Brazil has room for all Europe. Australia could support forty millions in its habitable belt; and Africa—who yet can begin to guess at its capacity? In the mean time, the population of Ireland is diminishing, and the failure of the French to increase excites more apprehension than any fact which is brought to the notice of their economists.
Americanitis.—Sir Charles W. Dilke, in his "Greater Britain," thought he noticed a tendency in the Caucasian native American to acquire the red Indian type of physiognomy. Mr. W. Mattieu Williams echoes this opinion, and has cited several pieces of evidence to show that a change in the direction mentioned is going on, and that it is a process of desiccation produced by the dryness of our climate. Mr. R. A. Proctor asserts that during his three visits to America he lost about thirty pounds in weight, which he recovered on returning home. Mr. Williams's own son, after residing for some time in this country, became thin, lank jawed, and sallow, "displaying all the characteristic symptoms of what I can not refrain from calling acute Americanitis," 1 but began to recover immediately after returning home. On one occasion, at the house of the late George Combe, at Edinburgh, some family portraits were brought out, including those of members who had remained at home, and photographs of members who had emigrated to America a generation before, and with them a portrait of Black Hawk. "We placed the chief on one side, the Edinburgh portraits on the other, and those of the descendants of the American emigrants between, and all agreed that the deviations from the original family type were in a direction toward that of the red Indian. Mr. Combe maintains that this is generally the case, and I agree with him in regarding the typical 'native American'—that
