the Black Sea reaching to Vienna, Linz, and even to the Lake of Constance. Towards the end of the Pliocene, or beginning of the Quaternary period, owing to considerable depressions, the Straits of the Bosphorus were formed, and the water of the Mediterranean pressed into a basin formerly connected with the Arctic Ocean. Thus the passage of a new fauna waș made possible, which gradually, under favorable conditions, displaced the older. The Caspian was separated before the new forms had spread so far, and we find in it fifty-four species of fishes which are neither in the Sea of Aral nor the Black Sea, and only six species which it has in common with those two others.

PATHOLOGY.

Cholera. From the accounts that have been received from Russia, Austria, and France there cannot, we fear, be any doubt as to cholera having reappeared, in obedience to those influences of the seasons which tend to call forth, revitalize, and develop it into activity. Cholera, all the world over, comports itself in much the same way, and its epidemic manifestations occur in obedience to some natural laws which cannot fail to be recognized eventually. A recrudescence of the disease-in the shape of localized outbreaks and sporadic cases at different places-during this season is the frequent precursor of its epidemic prevalence later on. From Russia we learn that it has broken out in the St. Petersburg district and in the Western provinces. It is said to be raging in Russian Podolia, whence, according to reports from Vienna, it has been introduced into two villages in Galicia-at Zalucze and Kudrynce on the Russian frontier—by individuals who have lately been in Podolia. Both villages have been isolated to prevent the inhabitants from carrying it elsewhere. A later telegram from Vienna states that cholera has been imported from Russia into another Austrian frontier village, and caused five cases and two deaths. Fears are very naturally entertained that the epidemic in the interior of Russia will manifest itself with renewed intensity when the warm weather sets in. At Lorient, on the French coast, between Brest and Nantes, it has caused nearly seventy deaths in the course of the last fortnight, and the epidemic is still extending. The type of the disease in France is stated to have been milder than in Russia and Germany, but it is estimated that there have been about two hundred cases of cholera in Lorient during the last two weeks.— Lancet, London, April 3.

PHYSIOLOGY.

A New Use for Photography.-Thirty years ago, my friend Chaveau and I made known to the Academy of Sciences some experiments intended to establish the mechanism of the heart and the succession of movements in that organ. Our researches were made by an indirect method, which consisted of recording by special apparatus the variations in the pressure of blood in the auricles, the ventricles, and the aorta, as well as the changes in the force with which the ventricles at any moment pressed against the wall of the breast which covers them. These experiments, of which some were controlled by others, showed the effects of the movements of the heart, but did not make known either the displacement or the changes in form in the auricles and ventricles which in turn are filled and emptied. So that, in order to obtain a complete knowledge of the physiology of the heart, it was necessary to observe that organ exposed on some large animal in order to see the displacement and changes of form in its cavities, and it was also necessary to hold the heart in your hands to appreciate the periodical changes in its consistency. These last are no longer necessary. By means of what is called chronophotography, that is, photographs taken at very short intervals, I have been able to obtain during one cardiac revolution a series of successive images, by which you can follow the phases of movement and the changes of aspect in the different parts of the heart. Still further, chronophotography enables you to follow with your eyes the mechanism of the pulsation of the heart. In this we have a precious complement of the graphic method. Photography furnishes documents of another order and enables us to know the changes of aspect which the eye would not have time to follow.-M. Marey, of the Institute, in Bulletin de la Société Française de Photographie, Paris.

IS ORGANIC SUBSTANCE ETERNAL?
H. ZUKAL.

Translated and Condensed for THE LITERARY DIGEST from a Paper in

TH

Die Natur, Halle, April 8.

HE more childish man's views of Nature are, the less he knows of her, the less difficulty he has in bridging the gap between the inorganic and the organiç, between inert and living matter. This want of appreciation of the fundamental distinction between inert and living matter is the condition in which fetichism has its roots.

Even the great minds of classic antiquity, Aristotle and others, held that frogs and eels were generated in wet mud, and gadflies in decaying flesh; and in comparatively modern times, when the fallacy of these theories had been demonstrated, it was still held that spontaneous generation might occur in organic infusions. The first to attack the great problem of the transition from the inorganic to the organic scientifically was Schwann. Twenty years later, Nägeli published his micellar theory, and many years later (1884) he expanded it in his "Mechanical-Physiological Theory of Heredity." Nägeli was not only a believer in spontaneous generation, but in evolution also; but he differed essentially from Darwin and Haeckel in respect that he did not believe in the survival of the fittest in the struggle for existence as the law of organic evolution, but, on the contrary, held that the diversity of existing life-types to-day is due to development along lines predetermined by inherent law of the organism, and in no way by the modifying influence of environing conditions, which may produce a measurable lateral variation without prejudice to the predetermined type.

Nägeli's system was received by the scientific world with profound respect, but it is now pronounced fallacious, not only in matters of detail but fundamentally. His prime assailant was J. Wiesner. This distinguished physiologist pointed out that in the first place the theory of spontaneous generation is a mere hypothesis, unsupported by experience, and that every effort to generate life in devitalized media, had proved a failure. All experience upholds Virchow's saying: Omnis cellula e cellula. Moreover, through the admirable and painstaking researches of numerous investigators, it has been further determined, not only that every cell springs from a cell, but every nucleus from an antecedent nucleus, every starch grain from an antecedent starch grain, and so on, every living individuality of the cell springing only from its like, by 'division."

On this system of division, Wiesner bases his theory not only of the evolution of the organism from the egg, of its growth and development, but also of its phylogenic character. In the course of his researches Wiesner was guided to the discovery of the smallest élementary organ of the organism, the 'plasom," and further to the conclusion that the individual cell, the nucleus, the protoplasm, the cromatophore, and cellwall, severally consist not of an aggregate of inert molecules, but of vital organized structures. The plasom, too, is not to be regarded as only a crystalline aggregate, but as an an elementary organ, chemically and mechanically active. The plasom, like every more complex organ, absorbs nutrition and is capable of division. The growth and division of the plasom is the fundamental condition of growth and division of the several cells, and also of the whole organism. When an animal grows from the egg, or a plant from the seed, the plasoms increase and group themselves continually; by which process a portion of them lose their divisibility, as for example in horns and bone, in timber and in bark, etc. Another portion retains its power of division under all circumstances and constitutes in its entirety the seed-plasma. On this latter depends the regenerative power of the individual, and every cell or cell-complex which contains a sufficiency of seed-plasma

is capable, under favorable conditions, of reproducing the whole organism, either sexually or otherwise.

The inheritance of individual characteristics is due simply to the fact that the new individual originates in divisions of the plasoms of the seed-plasma, and it follows, of course, that the new plasoms have the same organization as those from which they sprang. This organization is not, however, rigid, immutable; it possesses, on the contrary, a certain capacity of adaptation to external conditions of environment. On the modifiability of the plasoms in the course of phylogenic evolution depends the possibility of the origination of new races and species by adaptation and survival of the fittest. In addition to the capacity for assimilation, growth, and propagation, we must also ascribe to the plasom sensation and thought, that the whole capacities of the perfect organism may exist in nuce in its smallest part.

Thus apprehended, Wiesner's plasoms are something immeasurably greater than Nägeli's Micellæ or crystalline molecular aggregates, or, as Wiesner puts it, the difference is that between an organism and unorganized matter.

According to Wiesner, the idea of a plasom being evolved spontaneously from inorganic matter, is simply unthinkable; for, he says, the most complicated grouping of molecules and their movements, or in other words, the most complicated mechanism could never produce any combination that lives and feels.

Confronted with this logical conclusion, we have no other course with regard to the problem of the origin of life than to give it up, and to regard the plasom as equally as old as the atoms of inorganic matter.

NOTE.—According to our experience, living matter is incapable of existing under all conditions. There is, for example, a maximum and minimum limit of temperature beyond which, on either side, the capacity of existence ceases. This fact alone is a sufficient reply to the theory that the plasoms are as old as the atoms of inorganic inatter. The problem of the origin of life.is no nearer its solution than before.-Editor Die Natur.

RELIGIOUS.

RUSSIA, ROME, AND THE OLD CATHOLICS. "O. K." (OLGA Novikoff).

Condensed for THE LITERARY DIGEST from a Paper in
New Review, London, April.

S Credo quia impossibile. seems to be the favourite watchword of many Englishmen when Russia is concerned, so Baron Münchausen, who seems to have come to life again with additional deformities under the alias " E. B. Lanin," naturally selected my country as the field of his sickening romances. The clever French saying, "A beau conter qui vient de loin,' ought to be put in place of his initials. However, I am not writing of Münchausen, but of a much more distinguished writer, who possesses the somewhat rare capacity of occasionally speaking the truth. I refer to Monsignor Vanutelli, a Roman ecclesiastic of some eminence, who recently traveled from Odessa to St. Petersburg to persuade the Russian nation to submit to the yoke of the Bishop of Rome. It was a wildgoose chase," no doubt; but it was not much more mad than the visit which my ingenuous friend, Mr. Stead, paid to the Vatican to convert the Pope to the Salvation Army. Vanutelli did not convert Russia, but his observations led him to pen the following significant sentences:

Nowhere is the title of 'Holy' so true an expression of the realty as in speaking of Russia. In that country Christianity is not simply tolerated or permitted; but it is official and dominant, and bound up in the very heart of the people. In Russia, Orthodoxy (Pravoslavie) forms as it were the very essence of their being, their highest ideal in the past as in the future, and their greatest glory in the present.

"I cannot understand how it is that so many persons who visit Russia, write about it afterwards without alluding to the main

characteristic of the people. Without an appreciation of their religious aspect any description of Russia must be only incomplete. The Christian idea is predominant everywhere, and nowhere does Christ reign to such an extent as in Russia."

But this distinguished Roman observer endeavors to assuage his grief that this most Christian nation in Europe could not be annexed to the Holy See, by reflecting that the schism of the Russians was due solely to political considerations, and never was formally sanctioned by the people or the Church. Of course not. You cannot sanction, formally or otherwise, what does not exist. There is no schism in Russia. The schism is elsewhere. But as Mons. Vanutelli comes from that elsewhere," he cannot admit the orthodoxy of our Church. To give some kind of substance to his fantastic delusion, the distinguished prelate prints what he professes to be a report of his conversation with Mr. Pobédonostzeff, but which is one of the biggest canards I ever met with, even in this country, and which indicates that nothing is too absurd for Western credulity. Thus the Procurator of the Holy Synod (often described, by way of oratorical embellishment, as the great Inquisitor of the Greek Church) is made to say:

"There is no doubt that the Russian Church would unite herself to the See of Rome, without the smallest difficulty, if such union were desired by the Government.”

Such grotesque assertions do not deserve long refutations. Neither Mr. Pobédonostzeff, nor any Greek Orthodox, could ever by any possibility express such monstrous views as those quoted-not even for the sake of sarcastic response or bitter irony. Greek Orthodoxy is the soul of our Government and the great link between the Government and the people. Devotion to our faith is immeasurably superior to any worldly consideration. Russia is more of a Church than a State, more of a religion than a nationality. Our religion is our nationality. We are first Greek Orthodox, then Slavs or Russians. Our tenacity is proverbial, and there are millions of us who know how to die, without phrases or self-advertisements, rather then to betray our Orthodox faith.

Besides, as there can be no head of the Christian Church but Jesus Christ, the Bishop of Rome is obviously schismatic and heretic. If there were some of us who doubted this before the dogma of infallibility, no one can doubt it to-day. The promulgation of that decree of the Vatican Council made manifest the schismatical and heretical condition of the Roman Church. Nor can any Russian Orthodox even discuss the possibility of any union with Rome until Rome has returned to the primitive Orthodox Catholic faith, from which she has degenerated to her present deplorable condition. It is the fashion in some quarters to speak of Russia as despotic, merely because our form of Government is autocratic. In the wider field of the Church, Russia stands as the defender of liberty against the arbitrary pretensions of the Roman Curia.

Englishmen who love liberty may well rejoice that there exists in Eastern Europe a nation, which Mons. Vanutelli describes as the greatest, strongest, and most solid power in the world; where the largest portion of the people are profoundly attached to the Government which represents to them their nationality in all its strength and glory; whose people have not been touched by the revolutionary principles which Even are wrecking by degrees all the kingdoms of Europe. Vanutelli can see that Russia has a great mission before her; first, the destruction of the Ottoman Empire in Europe, and with it Mohammedanism; secondly, the crushing of the revolutionary spirit which is invading all other European countries; and thirdly, the arresting of the extension of Jewish influence, which is making ever-increasing progress elsewhere. Our autocratic Czar, wielding, with the effective decisiveness of a single will, the combined forces of a hundred millions of Orthodox believers, is the protector of religious liberty against the enslaving influences of the autocratic Pope.

As the recent Conference of Lucerne has reminded Europe,

there are other than Roman Ultramontanes in Western Catholicism, and with these others the Russian Church may, I hope, with God's help, establish a hearty and deep sympathy and understanding. Mons. Vanutelli's mission will at least have done some service by reminding us that our moral support, which Rome craves in vain, may be an invaluable reinforcement to the Old Catholics.

IN

THE WORSHIP OF VISHNU IN INDIA.
THE REVEREND CHARLES MERK, PH.D.
Condensed for THE LITERARY DIGEST from Papers in
Sunday at Home, London, April.

N order to understand modern Hindoo worship we have to go back to the origin of Indian religion, and to consult the earliest records which are still extant. Comparing the various documents which state at successive periods the beliefs of the people, we can trace the course in which the faith in a certain deity took shape and grew into a set tradition, in which it seemed to crumble away for ages, but reappeared again outwardly transformed, yet essentially the same it had been in the beginning. We behold the face of a god in boyhood and in old age. The one has the complexion of the morning, the other is gray and wan. The features are different, but the eyes are the same. They have the same expression and light in them. Such is the history of Vishnu.

Through all the transformations which Vishnu undergoes, through all the new attributes and functions with which he has been invested, there remains the recollection of his having been originally "the lord of the sun." The name of the god is characteristic of his activity; for Vishnu comes from the root vish, and vish means to pervade. Whether in the clouds, where vapors fill the air, or in the sun, where rays pierce the atmosphere, this divine power permeates all, is diffused in all things.

In the law-book of Manu, which in its present form was drawn up about five centuries B. C., attributes of the supreme god are ascribed to Vishnu. The century in which the great law-book received its final shape, saw also the rise of the Buddhist religion. This became the religion of the State, under the patronage of princes. It flourished for a thousand years, when, about the middle of the Seventh Century of our era, a reaction took place. Buddhism fell from its high estate as an established Church, and the full revival of the ancient worship of the Gods set in. It was from the beginning of the Eighth Century that Hindooism received the mould and cast in which it subsists to this day.

No better emblem exists of its central doctrines than the mighty bust of one head with three faces, which we find in the caves of Elephanta. In this Tri-murti, Brahma is in the middle, to his left is Shiva, to his right Vishnu. The three are revelations of the infinite spirit; each can take the place of the two others, and each can be raised to the place of the supreme god. In former days there have been wranglings between the rival theological factions. To this day, walking through a bazaar, we could say which side a man has taken in this division, from the mark which we see on his forehead. The Shaiva has three horizontal lines, made with gray ashes; the Vaishnava has perpendicular lines made with red or yellow pigments, meeting in a curve above the ridge of the nose. The temples of the two creeds are invariably built in close neighborhood; the images of the two gods appear sometimes in the same sanctuary. Orthodox Brahmans are, in a certain sense, simultaneously Shaivas and Vaishnavas. Yet, there is a marked difference in the hold which the two deities have on the imagination of the people. The worship of Shiva prevails throughout India; but amongst a hundred Hindoos there is barely one who is initiated into the service and hopes to obtain salvation through his help.

It is not on Shiva, the most ancient and eternal one; but on Vishnu, who from age to age has become incarnate, that the

Hindoo mind dwells with fondness. Every time that religion is in danger and that iniquity triumphs, the god issues forth, and he will come again in the last days as an avenger to put an end to the domination of the Mlecchas, the barbarians. Nine times, according to the most reasonable accounts, he has appeared already.

The ninth and last incarnation that has taken place is Buddha. It is certainly wonderful that Hindoo priests should have condescended to recognize as divine, the man who had been their greatest foe, and had led the reforming movement against them. It seems the same thing as if Roman pontiffs were to canonize St. Luther" or to erect altars in memory of "holy Calvin." Buddhism, however, on one hand, was far more imbued with Hindoo ideas than Calvinism is with Roman; and, on the other, Brahman astuteness knew no bounds when it was a question of compromise. No doubt Brahmans would accommodate themselves to accept, if necessary, Christ as an incarnation of Vishnu; although the teaching of Christ denounces every act Vishnu has performed and condemns the very belief in his existence.

Last of all, at the end of the Kali, or Iron Age, when the world is covered with darkness and cruelty, Vishnu will appear again, to destroy the wicked, to restore purity and to renew all creation. It is remarkable that the religions of India entertain the belief of a future Saviour, who, at the winding up of the age, will appear from heaven to judge the earth.

ARE WE CHRISTIANS?
H. HART.

Translated and Condensed for THE LITERARY DIGEST from a Paper in
Samtiden, Bergen, Fjerde Ausgang.

DAVE

AVID FRIEDRICH STRAUSS asked: "Are we still Christians?" M. von Egidy asks: Have we come to be Christians?" Both answer the question in the negative.

As Christianity to Strauss was merely a confession, a doctrine, while to Egidy it is will and action, they are both right in their answers. We are no longer Christians, in so far as we no more bow down to the authority of Christian dogma. On the other side, we are not yet Christians, for we have not yet realized the ethical ideal of Christianity. Christianity means liberation from the beast in us. We fight one another, we rob one another, and covet our neighbor's goods; we lust after women. We do not give our raiment to our brother in need, nor do we speak the truth by Yea, yea; nay, nay. But to keep these commandments is Christianity, and the keeping of them is independent of dogmatic belief. A few individuals may follow the Master, but human society does not even profess the teachings of the Christ. Few attempts have been made to realize them. Charles Kingsley was the first in our century to make an earnest effort in the right direction. He did not try to convert the people to the Church, but to place the Church at the service of the people. In his opinion, the Church has used the Bible as a guide for policemen, a dosis opium for beasts of burden, a book intended for the control of the poor. 'The clergy have told the people that the Book preaches patience, but they have not told them that it preaches freedom, too; they have told them that the Bible preaches privileges for the rich and duties for the worker, but they have neglected to say that it speaks ten times as often about the duties of the rich and the privileges of the poor and the workers." Well done, Charles Kingsley!-but you were an Englishman of the Manchester school and expected too much of individual efforts and too little from society as a community. Thus speaks Egidy. He does not deny that Christianity aims at the conversion and transformation of the individual, but he thinks that no one individual can be transformed without the coöperation and partaking of his neighbor. He emphasizes the solidarity of human society. No doubt, here is a circulus vitiosus, but we will pass by that slip in Egidy's reasoning.

Egidy is not a man of much talk. He is a man of action.

Not a man of meditation, but of will. His word has borne fruit. When his "Ernste Gedanken" appeared, the learned laughed. They found no theological dissertation, no quotations, no barrenness of life hidden behind Aramaic and SyroChaldaic Terms. They found that a man had ascended their cathedra who set his own personality into his work as a proof of the truth he preached; who had not cast dogma overboard on technical grounds, but because it conflicted with his living faith. To Egidy the dogmas of the Church prevent the realization of the Christian virtues, and theology and confessional belief destroy the power to do. In his reasoning he resembles much Sóren Kierkegaard, who also sees in the Church an Enemy to Christianity.

Egidy believes in the future for man. To him sin is not a condition that God has set in the world. God gives salvation only. It was not gottgemeint, as he expressed it. He conceives Christianity a pure humanity," reines Menschenthum. He, therefore, has room for the Jews in his religion and he approaches very near to the Socialistic ideal. But Egidy is no mere talker. What would all of Cato's orations have amounted to without the " ceterum censeo." Egidy always ends his talking by calling for action. In this lies his power in the work he is called to do.

MISCELLANEOUS.

AN EGYPTIAN IN EUROPE.
PROFESSOR M. J. DE GOEJE.

Translated and Condensed for THE LITERARY DIGEST from a Paper in
De Gids, Amsterdam, March.

ONE a

Sunday afternoon, in August, 1889, there came to me a message from the proprietor of the hotel 'Lion d'Or" that four travelers, just arrived in Leyden, wished to see me. It appeared that these gentlemen were Egyptians sent by the Khedive to take part in the Orientalist Congress at Stockholm and Christiania.

They were MM. Fikri, father and son, both high officials, and with them were two professors of theology.

The two gentlemen first-named were very refined and cultured, and, especially the elder, very learned.

M. Fikrî, the elder, purposed to write a book descriptive of his European experiences. Unfortunately, he died when only two chapters of the book had been written, but his son continued the work, and the book now lies before me.*

While preparing for their trip two weighty questions had to be considered-how to guard against the cold, which they expected to be very severe in the north, and how to perform their religious duties and to guard against profanation from meat and drink; but young Fikrî, who belongs to the more liberal Mussulmans, says:

"Even the Prophet himself and Ali have eaten and drunk of the food prepared by Christians, and have also sometimes worn their garb. Besides, I find that the rules are very simple and easily kept. The Vee-Sûra says (6th Chapter, v. 146): Say to the sons of men: I find in what has been revealed to me nothing prohibited for men to eat but carrion, blood, the meat of the pig-for it is an unclean animal-and the meat sacrificed to the Heathen gods.' The compass and the map will point out for us the true direction of Mecca, the watch and some time-tables the proper hour for prayer.'

In their comparison of the condition of things in the East and West, the East does not always come out best. Young Fikrî relates a conversation between his party and a Christian fellow traveler about the freedom of women in the West. His defense of the Eastern custom of seclusion is very tame, and proves that he does not defend it from conviction. On a later occasion, while describing a visit to the Théâtre Français, he speaks of the respectful manner of the men, and he wishes that

* "Irshad al-alibbâ ila mahâsin Europa" (To instruct those who have understanding in the beauties of Europe). By Emin Fikri Bey. Cairo, 1892.

a like freedom were possible in his country. He would like to see a good theatre in Egypt, also, but acknowledges that this is impossible without actresses.

Mr. Fikrî thinks that the hope of Egypt for the Egyptians will never be realized, until his countrymen have learned the value of coöperation.

"It is only by acting together that Europeans have been enabled to raise the grand and beautiful institutions which they possess. And we should do the same thing."

Mr. Fikrî's description of student life in Paris is very amusing, and may perhaps be applied to other than French students.

"These young men spend their time in the acquisition of priceless knowledge, but they do not neglect their pleasures. They walk daily in the beautiful parks of the Luxembourg, they gather at the cafés to exchange views and read the papers, exercising their spirit in wit and repartee, having all possible liberty. But not all know properly how to measure off the time for work and play. There are to be found some who care about nothing but pleasure. Study? Oh yes; but they study only pretty girls and athletic games.

The main object of the travelers in visiting Leyden was to inspect the celebrated library, to see the rare old Eastern manuscripts, and to visit the big printing-offices of Brill & Co., where they bought some books printed in the Arabian language. Fikrî here takes occasion to say:

"Egyptian and Arabic cannot he compared with Italian and Latin. There is no real Egyptian dialect, since not only each particular province has a different pronunciation, but even the people of different villages speak a dialect of their own. But everyone understands good Arabic-the language of the educated, and the common people endeavor to use it in conversation with their superiors, and each Moslem hears and reads pure Arabic from earliest youth in the schools and in the daily religious services."

The writer gives a good deal of space to the Hollanders. He praises their cleanliness and energy.

They have forced the sea to retire, and with wisdom defend the ground thus won. Their cities are among the cleanest in the world. And though they have so much to do at home, yet they manage to gain large colonies, ruling over countries the inhabitants of which number ten times as many as the men of Holland. If only our people possessed a small part of the energy of these men!

Characteristic is the Moslem objection to the church-bells in Holland, which strike every quarter of an hour. It reminds us of the old times when Mohammedans only spoke of those "abominable Christians, with their crosses, pigs, and bells."

THE HEMP-SMOKERS.

JULIUS STINde.

Translated and condensed for THE LITErary Digest from a Paper in Daheim, Leipzig, No. 23.

A

LCOHOL, opium, and cocaine are the cause of endless woe to humanity. What if something could be found which could be substituted for these poisons and at the same time have a pleasing and beneficial influence on man, and instead of making him wild, would quiet him as did the lyre of Orpheus?

The African traveler, Wiesmann, describes in detail the cultivation and use of the "Riambo" among the former cannibal inhabitants of Lubuku, by which their customs and manners were made so mild that it was even forbidden by them to shed the blood of animals. This people, who before had been aggressive leaders in wars, are now living in peace. Villages, which heretofore had been engaged in bitter feuds, became friendly. Laws and customs of the most peaceful kind were introduced, with the result that the country into which strangers had never before ventured, was open to all.

This peaceful disposition, as also this antagonism to the shedding of the blood of animals point to a characteristic feature of an old Oriental people. These are the Indians. The same herb which made the cannibals of Lubuku the

friends of men, and which they call "bashilange," has been known to the Indians for centuries as an intoxicant. It is the Indian hemp.

In the East, the intoxicant extract is made out of the blossoms and out of the whole plant. Generally it is called "hashish," which signifies merely hemp. It is chewed like tobacco, or smoked as such, or the juice, called "damamesk" is used with sugar and almonds or whiskey.

In moderate amounts the Indian hemp and its preparations has a mild effect on the nervous system and produces a pleasant state of feeling, at any rate among the Orientals. Larger quantities produce intoxication. In the East, the number of those who use the hashish is computed at between two and three hundred millions. Physicians are not all agreed as to the effect of the drug, some claiming that it produces nausea, heart-beating, dryness in the throat. When fully efficient it produces the feeling of pleased intoxication and the most agreeable and pleasurable thoughts. Thereupon follows

sleep, deep and dreamless, and on the following morning the pleasant visions are still real and present.

That opium or alcohol eventually destroys those who use it to excess goes without saying. On the other hand, the effect of the hemp-chewing on the negro is wonderfully quieting. Wissmann mentions several African peoples among whom hemp-smoking has been firmly introduced as a habit, especially the Waniamesi. He says that he is convinced that the effect of this hemp on the negro is to make him milder and more gentle, and makes him more accessible to the influences of civilization, although it does have to a certain extent an evil influence on the body, which influence, however, is generally exaggerated.

Most remarkable is the manner in which a "judgment of God" is secured by the hemp-smokers. Those that are accused continue the smoking of hemp until the guilty one is compelled to make a confession. On the other hand, the thieves of India use this hemp for the purpose of pursuing their work. They secretly make a hole in the house and fill it with fumes of hemp smoke. This has its effect on the people of the house and when the thieves enter they find them in the most agreeable humor, incapable of understanding what is going on, and even welcoming the marauders with the most pleasant words and gestures. These statements are from the travels of von Bibra.

. Then the hashish-smokers frequently get into a state much resembling hypnotism, in which it is possible to place the members of the body in any position, and to treat the body as though it were all made of joints. The similarity between hypnotism and the effects of hashish-smoking is so great that Dr. von Schrenk-Notzing, of Munich, made special investigation of this subject. It is well known that when a person is hynotized, a single word or threatening action suffices to throw the subject into spasms of rage. The authority just mentioned has discovered that in a similar way a person under the influence of hashish can be affected. He even discovered that persons who do not submit to ordinary hypnotism can be put into this state through the chewing or smoking of hashish. The faculty most influenced by this narcotic is the imagination. The immediate present is idealized into the most beautiful and fantastic forms; hearing is made finer, and the finest strains of music affect as they never did before. The body also feels the corresponding effect; the pulse increases its beats, the muscular system is agitated, and the nerves are actively aroused.

The old Egyptians knew of a drink which they called nephenthe, or forgetfulness. While this was probably not hemp, this herb having never been found in graves, nor is it mentioned on old monuments. The famous Papyrus Ebers speaks of a seter-seref drink, or the warm, sleep-giving drink, probably opium, or an opium mixture.

It is difficult or impossible to discover how long the Indians have used this hemp. It is probably the old "sona" drink of the gods, mentioned in the oldest Sanskrit literature.

THE VINLAND VOYAGES. PROFESSOR CHARLES SPRAGUE SMITH. Condensed for THE LITERARY DIGEST from a Paper in Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, New York, No. 4, Part I.

THE

THE earliest Northern record touching on the alleged Western voyages of discovery is Ari's Islendinga Bók, in the sixth chapter of which we read: "That land which is called Greenland was found and colonized from Iceland. Erik the Red is the name of a Broad Forth man, who went out thither from here, and took their land, where it is since called Eriksforth. He gave name to the land and called it Greenland, and said that it would make men eager to go thither if the land had a good name. They found there the dwellings of men both east and west in the land, and fragments of boats (cobles) and stone implements; wherefrom it may be concluded that kind of people had been there who occupied Vinland and the Greenlanders called Skraelings."

This work is believed to have been composed about. 1134Ari's information concerning Vinland (to judge from the context) was derived through his uncle Thorkel from a companion of Erik the Red.

The point, however, which Thorkel's authority supports, is the date of Greenland's discovery. Vinland is only mentioned in passing, and in order to exhibit more clearly the character of the probable aborigines of Greenland.

The plain inference is that Ari regarded the tradition of the Vinland voyages as too well known and credited to demand here explanation or confirmation.

The Landnama Saga, the story of the settlement of Iceland, " and the Kristni Saga, the story of the introduction of Christianity, contain similar though fuller statements. The historical value of these works is unquestioned. They are the sources of our knowledge of early Icelandic history. The most complete statement is that of the Kristni Saga (eleventh chapter) "That summer King Olaf Tryggvason went South out of the land to Wendland (Land of the Wends). He sent also at that time Leif Erikson to Greenland to proclaim the faith there. Then Leif found Vinland the Good; he found also men on a wreck at sea; on that account he was called Leif the Lucky." The Landnáma Bók mentions also Karlsefni as one who found Vinland the Good.

Similar, though more extended, notices of the Vinland voyages are contained in the lives of the Kings of Norway. There are many codices wherein the records of early Norse history are inscribed.

The statements of Ari and of the King's Sagas exhibit the general character of the briefer records. The evidence deriving therefrom is this: A series of many manuscripts, dating back at least to 1300, accord in representing the tradition of western voyages as unquestionably accepted in Iceland.

Either, then, Bishop Brynjólf and his scribe forged the Islendinga Bók, and have successfully deceived all Icelandic scholars for two centuries; either all Icelandic scribes of the age of writing (beginning with about 1130) in whose works allusions are found to the Vinland voyages, were clever charlatans, or themselves befooled; or the Islendinga Bók and its substantiation of the Vinland record are genuine, and, from Ari's time downward (about 1100) that tradition was accepted without a dissenting voice.

The story had, even before Ari's time, reached the Court of Denmark. Master Adam, of Bremen, in his Descriptio Insularum Aquilonis, written about 1070, says: "Moreover, he (the King) spoke of an island in that ocean discovered by many which is called Wineland, for the reason that vines grow wild there which make the best of wine. Moreover, that grain unsown grows there abundantly is not a fabulous fancy but, from the accounts of the Danes, we know to be a fact." This work was written about the time of Ari's birth.

Two versions of the Vinland voyages exist. They differ in