big drums at arms' length, and quaffed pots of beer alternately the day through, whilst the medicine-man doctored a poor creature propped against a tree. To suppose such treatment a local form of insanity was natural; but Thomson soon learned his error. Sometimes the proceedings are intentionally droll, as in the Far East. Rajah Brooke says that Dyaks crowd to the hut of a sick person just as we do to a theatre when an attractive piece is on. A band is engaged; if the patient's friends be rich, eminent performers may be brought from a distance at great expense. Men and women of local renown for drollery, arrayed in grotesque costumes, which they change from time to time, go through a comic rehearsal of the sick person's daily employments when well. Other favorites of the public grimace, spin their heads round, protrude their eyes and distort their features. In fact, the Rajah declares, a neighbor's illness-that is, the process of curemakes a popular entertainment, for which visitors put on their best clothes and enjoy themselves accordingly. In particular, these are recognized occasions for flirting, match-making and amorous enterprise.

The traveler who sees such absurd barbarities is too much occupied with the spectacle, perhaps, to give more than a glance to the invalid. The incongruity of the scene absorbs him. But those who incline to believe that the actions of men, in a case so ordinary and so important as the healing of the sick, must surely be guided by reasoning and experience, may suspect that even such eccentricities may be explained when they prove to be universal. Jesuit missionaries gave just the same report of the practice of the Hurons in Canada. If a warrior fell ill; the whole clan visited him, disguised as bears, rattling pieces of dry bark and knocking sticks together.

Then they whooped and danced for hours. Meantime the medicine-man shook his patient, bit, pinched, roared in his ears, and drummed upon a tortoise-shell, until in due course he extracted a bit of wood or something, the cause of the disease.

But we know as a fact that these people had valuable remedies. Jacques Cartier tells how a friendly Indian pointed out to him a tree when very nearly all his crew had died of scruvy. An infusion of its leaves saved the rest. So the yellow fever ceased on Drake's vessels, as by magic, when the Caribs of Dominica gave him "certain herbs, known to them." It is likely that the Huron doctors were using matter-of-fact remedies all the while they played their tricks; but the Jesuits, shocked and disgusted, did not notice that. As for the drumming, howling, dancing, those were the special delights of the sick man while in health, and his friends might naturally suppose that they would cheer him up when ill. Perhaps they were not wrong. The object avowed is to scare away evil spirits; but distracting or diverting the sufferer would be an excellent purpose also. The same explanation may apply to the comic performances. We begin to understand that imagination has great influence over disease; it is not improbable that the naked races have long been familiar with that as with other secrets of psychology.

In every region of the savage world, or almost, one finds Europeans long resident, not less sensible than their neighbors apparently, who put faith in the local medicine-men-not seldom preferring to be treated by them. Much evidence on this point could be cited if necessary. But those are the people who have experience, whatever it be worth. Perhaps the case of China is most significant, because Chinese doctors and their methods are com

monly recognized as the funniest institutions of a funny nation. But now and again some individual protests. The great botanist Fortune thankfully recorded his deliverance from a virulent fever by one of these despised practitioners, and he rather warmly denounced the "common notion" that their physic is compounded of grotesque materials. "The treatment is most careful." The Chinese scholar, Mr. Cobbold, winds up a droll analysis of the medical theories taught in books with the unexpected admission, "I myself have no mean opinion of Chinese skill." He has often consulted a native doctor, always has followed the prescription, and "always" found himself better! Mr. Williams suggests an explanation in The Middle Kingdom: "the practice of the Chinese is far in advance of their theory."

The most bestial of human stocks have a minute acquaintance with herbs and other substances, wholesome or noxious. So widespread is this knowledge, and so unexpected some of its manifestations, that grave observers have supposed it instinctive with primitive man-one of the attributes which are lost in the course of civilization. Prima facia therefore it might be assumed that after the experience of countless generations aboriginal peoples generally have learned how to treat such maladies as are common

among them. Many travelers report that it is so, and official documents bear testimony from time to time that such or such a tribe possesses a secret cure for some disease. For instance, a Bluebook issued by the Cape Government in 1885 states positively, on the evidence of magistrates, mis

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sionaries, and traders, that the Bantu medicine-men of certain districts have a remedy for cancer. Doctors like O'Sullivan Beare, willing to admit that European science can learn from a naked savage, are very uncommon. And there is one great difficulty in the way of all research-the native professor can seldom be tempted or persuaded to reveal his methods. Perhaps this reluctance grows stronger as the competition of white rivals becomes more pressing.

ern

A hundred years ago Dr. Winterbottom, Physician to the Colony of Sierra Leone, compiled a volume upon The Present State of Medicine among the African Natives of that coast. It deals with almost every ailment of the Westnegro with "sleeping sickness" among the rest, though it has been confidently asserted of late that this terrible disease had only just reached the district. And the native remedies are described in every case at length, with the treatment. Sometimes the Colonial Physician becomes enthusiastic over the merits of a certain herb, recommending it to the Apothecaries' Company and even consigning samples home. But Miss Mary Kingsley wrote of the West Africans: "I have never seen in their herbal remedies any trace of a really valuable drug." Doubtless she repeated what she was told, but the statement seems very odd to one who has looked through Dr. Winterbottom's book. Unfortunately, that careful inquirer too often forgot to say whether the medicines so conscientiously enumerated produce the effect desired. Perhaps he did not know, saving the cases mentioned.

Frederick Boyle.

After the ruinous fall in American railway stocks which was experienced a fortnight ago, it was hoped that no further decline of any magnitude would take place, but Monday's debacle in New York showed that there was a still lower depth, and the market there appears to be in a state of demoralization. The one favorable outcome of the untoward events of the past few weeks is the changed attitude of the railway magnates towards Federal legislation. Their volte face is, indeed, of so extraordinary a nature, that it has given rise to cynical comment in the United States. In the past they have been stalwart upholders of State rights. The constitutional arguments advanced by their legal advocates against the intrusion of the Federal arm into this domain, indeed, were calculated to arouse the admiration of connoisseurs in judicial hair-splitting, and President Roosevelt was solemnly warned of the dangers likely to arise from the undue concentration of power at Washington. To-day the position is entirely reversed. Instead of appealing to the States for protection against Federal interference, the magnates are now expressing their earnest desire to co-operate with the President, and urging him to aid in allaying the "public anxiety" which has arisen, owing, they say, to the fears of injudicious and harmful legislation. It is not Federal legislation, however, that is now in question, but projects, some of them apparently of a harmful and ill-considered character, which are being advocated in the State Legislatures. A formidable list of these measures which has been published in New York shows that in at least eighteen States action is being taken with a view of regulating the railroads, the proposal being put forward in a number of in

stances that a two cent per mile passenger fare shall be inaugurated, while in one or two instances legislation to that effect has actually been passed. The fact is, that the railroad interests have lost the control they formerly exercised in the State Legislatures, and, that being so, they are now anxious to secure the protection of the very Federal authority which they formerly opposed on high constitutional grounds. And in so doing they emphasize the "public anxiety" which they declare to prevail, though it has been very pointedly remarked that what they really mean is the anxiety of railway men themselves, and of that public of financiers and investors upon whom they depend for funds.

While it is undeniable that for the general distrust of railway securities which prevails the unscrupulous manœuvres of the financial magnates are responsible, it is eminently desirable.in the interests of the country at large that confidence should be restored, so that the requisite funds for providing adequate transportation facilities may be raised. Unless that can be effected the general commerce of the United States must inevitably suffer, and that is an eventuality which President Roosevelt will be anxious to avoid. But there are various indications that the President has no intention of modifying his policy of "increasing the power of the national Government over the use of capital in inter-State commerce." If the magnates, therefore, desire to secure his co-operation in allaying the public distrust, they must be prepared to accept further Federal legislation which will tend to check the unlimited sway they have hitherto exercised in the domain of railroad finance. That appears to be recognized by high finan

cial authorities in New York, one of whom has well summarized the situation in these words: "The best way to restore public confidence in the railroads is to assist the President in plans for Governmental supervision. The great objection to legislative action against the railroads is found not in the national administration, but in various State administrations. A broad, comprehensive plan of national supervision would do away with a great deal of restrictive legislative action of individual States. The result would be that the public would regain confidence in the railroads, and the exploitation of the railroads for private advantage would cease." It is beyond question that if the power of financiers to manipulate the transportation systems of the United States for their own ends were eliminated, the market for American railway stocks would enjoy a stability it has never hitherto experienced. knowledge that holders of these securities are at the mercy of unscrupulous wire-pullers has worked incalculable injury, and so far as investors here are concerned, it has practically killed their interest in American railways. same result has followed in the United States, and in view of the detrimental effect on American commerce of an inadequately equipped transportation system, the time seems ripe for legisla

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tion which would put an end to the gross abuses that have been the bane of American railway finance.

It seems far from likely, in view of past experience, that the President will be in any wise perturbed by the outcry raised in some quarters that further legislative interference may precipitate "an industrial break-up." In his Message to Congress in December he pointed out that "during the last five months," within which the new rate law was operative, "the railroads have shown increased earnings, and some of them unusual dividends," and yet ruin for the railways was predicted if that measure should be enacted. And if Mr. Roosevelt, before the conclusion of his term of office, can secure the passage of a law which will remove the evils that have been described above. he will add materially to his own prestige, and to the prosperity of the United States. Meanwhile, the immediate outlook is disturbed by the inability of the companies to obtain funds, which is necessarily leading them to restrict their orders for material and rollingstock. This must act as a check on the activity of the industries concerned. and unless the situation improves, the railway deadlock may bring to an end the trade boom which has been in evidence in the United States.

Among the latest issues of fiction in Everyman's Library are Cooper's "The Pioneers" and "The Prairie"; Hawthorne's "The House of Seven Gables"; Samuel Lover's "Handy Andy"; Lever's "Confessions of Harry Lorrequer" and Alexandre Dumas's "The Black Tulip" and "Twenty Years After." E. P. Dutton & Co.

Messrs. Macmillan announce a new and cheaper edition of "Lord Randolph Churchill," by Mr. Winston Churchill. The new issue will contain the complete work in one octavo volume of over 900 pages. The same publishers have arranged to issue Professor Walter Raleigh's monograph on Shakespeare, in the English Men of Letters series, OD

April 23, the anniversary alike of the birth and death of the poet.

"Dave Porter's Return to School," by Edward Stratemeyer, is the third volume of the Dave Porter books for boys, and carries his young hero from his adventures in the South Seas back to school, where he experiences the full delights of boyish sports. Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co.

Messrs. Routledge, "recognizing the general desire on the part of the trade and the public to give a fair trial to the experiment of reducing the original published price of new copyright novels," are about to enter the field with a series of books to be published not merely at half-a-crown net, but at halfa-crown "ordinary," which means, of course, that the books will be subject to the usual discount. Each work will be produced in all respects of type, paper, and binding equal to the ordinary six-shilling novel. The first four volumes will be ready this month.

"The Diamond Key and How the Railway Heroes Won It," by Alvah Milton Kerr is a series of twelve stories of railway adventure and heroism, strung together on a slender thread of continuous narrative, and deriving unity from their connection with the running of a single railway line in the mountain regions of the far west, and from being crowned with the reward of the same badge of honor, a "diamond key." Some of the stories have been published separately in the magazines and have attracted attention as among the most graphic and stirring of their kind. Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co.

The second of Fogazzaro's trilogy of novels, of which "The Saint" was the completion has been published by Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton. "The Man of the World," as the English version is called, deals with the earlier life

of Piero Maironi. Young and rich, he is burdened with an insane wife. He is about to succumb to the influence of a beautiful freethinker, who is also unhappily married, when he is reclaimed by his dying wife, who recovers her reason on the point of death. His revulsion of feeling decides him to devote his life to the cause which earned him his saintly reputation in the subsequent years of his career.

Two small volumes of more than ordinary interest are published by T. Y. Crowell & Co. in the dainty typography of the Merrymount Press. One is "Christ's Secret of Happiness," by Dr. Lyman Abbott, a series of eleven brief discourses, in which a twentieth-century application is made of the beatitudes of Christ. The other is "The Greatest Fact in Modern History" which contains the admirable and patriotic address which Ambassador Reid delivered before Cambridge University last year on "The Rise of the United States." Mr. Reid's subject was chosen for him by the university authorities and he treated it with candor, discrimination and a due sense of historic proportion.

In Miss Anna Chapin Ray's "Ackroyd of the Faculty" the hero has every good and perfect gift except pedigree and polish, but because those are lacking to him the daughter of his brother professor, a Brahmin of the true Holmes species, despises him. To begin a novel with despising a man brings the wisest of heroines to loving him before the tale is ended and the last page foretells happiness for all the characters except one who has had the good fortune to die almost in the act of repentance for wrong doing. The author has mastered the secret of adding sufficient moral interest to a tale of every day life to give it a certain gravity and force without darkening its pleasant