ingly numerous, and the same may be said of the other specific febrile diseases. Eventually there is a deposit of morbid material in the tissues, where the process of development goes on till a great change in the once healthy structures is effected.

With the light derived from recent investigation we are able to understand the wisdom and foresight of the Mosaic injunction as well as appreciate its supreme importance. The Jew, like the Christian, is exposed to the inroads of disease when he breathes an infected atmosphere and eats tainted food, provided he is susceptible at the time to the morbific influence, but he is protected by a dietary rule at the point where the Christian is in danger. The Jew who conforms to the law of Moses in this particular must have a better chance of escaping the ravages of epidemics than those who are not bound by these restrictions. This hygienic maxim goes far to explain the comparative freedom of the Jewish race from the large class of blood diseases.

The examination of the carcass is also necessary with the view of determining the sound or unsound condition of the meat. At one time it was doubted that the complaints from which animals suffer could be communicated by eating their flesh, but the evidence of eminent authorities has definitely settled the question. Such bovine diseases as the several varieties of anthrax, the foot and mouth disease, and especially tuberculosis, are now believed to be transmissible through ingested meat. It has been proved that the pig fed with tuberculous flesh becomes itself tuberculous, and the inference is fair that man might acquire the disease if subjected to the same ordeal. This last disease is very common amongst animals, and is now recognised as identical with that which is so fatal to the human race. It is considered highly probable that the wide-spread mortality caused by this malady is due in a great degree to the consumption of the milk and meat of tuberculous animals. That the milk supply should be contaminated is a very serious affair for the young, who are chiefly fed on it. The regular inspection of all dairies by skilled officials is imperatively necessary to ward off a terrible and growing evil; just as a similar inspection of slaughter-houses is demanded in the interests of the meat-eating portion of the community.

Temperance is a noteworthy feature in the habits of the Jews. Their moderation in the use of alcoholic drinks is deserving of the highest commendation. Very rarely are they rendered unfit for business by over-indulgence in this debasing vice. In no class of Jewish society is excessive drinking practised. The poorest, in their persons, families, and homes, present a marked contrast to their Christian neighbours in the same social position. The stamp on the drunkard's face is very seldom seen on the countenance of a Jew. He is not to be found at the bar of a public-house, or hanging idly about its doors with drunken associates. His house is more attractive by reason of the thrift that forms the groundwork of his character. Domestic broils, so common an incident in the life of the hard

drinking poor, are most unusual. When work is entrusted to him insobriety does not interfere with the due and proper performance of it, hence his industry meets with its reward in the improvement of his circumstances. This habit of temperance amid abounding drunkenness, more or less excessive, is probably one of the causes of the protection afforded to him during the prevalence of some epidemic diseases, such as typhus, cholera, and other infectious fevers. His comparative freedom from the ravages of these terrible complaints has been chronicled by observers, both mediæval and modern, and is now a subject of common remark. The latest instance of this immunity is furnished by the records of the deaths from cholera in the south of France, where it is affirmed that out of a considerable Jewish population in the infected districts only seven fell victims to the disease, a fact which ought to receive more than a passing notice in the interests of humanity.

Another point that may be mentioned is the provision made by the Jewish Board of Guardians for the indigent poor. It has been said that no known Jew is allowed to die in a workhouse. When poverty, or sickness involving the loss of his livelihood, occurs, charity steps in and bestows the help which places him above want, and tides him over his bodily or pecuniary distress. The mother is also seasonably provided with medical and other comforts when her pressing need is greatest. In this way they are saved from the diseases incidental to lack of food, and after an attack of illness are sooner restored to health than the majority of the poor, who linger on in a state of convalescence little better than the ailment itself, and often sink into permanent bad health from the scanty supply of the necessary nourishment which their exhausted frames require.

In enumerating the causes which have made the Jewish people so strong and vigorous, particular mention must be made of their observance of the Sabbath. This day was appointed for the double purpose of securing a set portion of time for the worship of God, and of affording rest to the body wearied with its six days' labours. The secularising of this holy day in the history of the French nation has demonstrated the need of a day of rest and the wisdom of its institution by a merciful Creator, even before there was a man to till the ground. Obedience to this primeval law, renewed amid the thunders of Sinai, and repeated on many subsequent occasions by Moses and the prophets, is still held by the Jews to be as strictly binding on them as any other religious obligation. Of the physical blessings derivable from keeping the Sabbath day they have had the benefit for many long centuries when other nations were sunk in heathenism and ignorant of the divine ordinance made to lighten their labours and recruit their strength. In Christian countries where the Sunday is kept sacred, or observed as a holiday, another day of rest in addition to their own Sabbath is obtained, thus fortifying them against the crushing toil and nervous strain of modern life. The loss accruing from this enforced abstinence from business worries is more

than counterbalanced by the gain in nerve power with which periodical cessation from any harassing employment is compensated. This is doubtless one of the factors which have helped to invigorate both mind and body, and to develop in them those high qualities for which they are justly distinguished.

To sum up-the longevity of the Jew is an acknowledged fact. In his surroundings he is on a par with his Christian neighbour. If the locality in which he dwells is unhealthy, he also suffers, but to a less degree. If the climate is ungenial, its influence tells on him too, but with less injurious effect. His vigorous health enables him to resist the onset of disease to which others succumb. These advantages are for the most part owing to his food, his temperate habits, and the care taken of him in sickness and poverty. No doubt he is specially fortunate in inheriting a constitution which has been built up by attention, for many centuries, to hygienic details. His meat is drained of blood, so that by that means morbid germs are not likely to be conveyed into his system. It is also most carefully inspected so as to prevent the consumption of what is unsound, hence his comparative immunity from scrofulous and tuberculous forms of disease.

How can the benefits which the Jews enjoy be shared by other races? In regard to food, whatever prejudice may stand in the way of draining the blood from the animal, it ought surely to be done when there is the least suspicion of un

healthy symptoms; but there can be no doubt about the urgent necessity for a strict supervision of our meat markets, so as to prevent the sale of diseased food. Legislation ought to make such regulations as will render impossible the continuance of an evil which, by oversight or otherwise. is dangerous to the general health. Temperance is a virtue within the reach of everybody, and is now widely practised by all classes, and the gain in improved health will soon be apparent in the lessening of ailments due to drunkenness. Charity is as much the duty of the Christian as of the Jew, and it is a dishonour to the Master whom the former professes to serve if he shuts up his bowe's of compassion when the poor, who have always claims upon him, call in vain for the needed help. They ought never to be allowed to languish in sickness and poverty till the friendly hand of death brings a grateful relief to all their troubles.

The Bible is regarded by some scientists as an old-fashioned book; but its teaching in relation to hygiene, even they will confess, has not become antiquated. It must be credited with having anticipated and recorded for our instruction and profit doctrines which are now accepted as beyond dispute in this department of knowledge. In the Mosaic law are preserved sanitary rules, the habitual observance of which by the Jew, frora generation to generation, has made him superior to all other races in respect of health and longevity.

VERY day in Great Britain and Ireland we

with the utmost cheerfulness. For our scheme of national education, however, science and art included, we set apart only £13,296 daily. Yet the average ratepayer is inclined to grumble at this expenditure; and when we are warned by educational authorities that during the next few years the sum to be voted by Parliament for the instruction of the rising generation will annually increase, some of us cry out that the Education Acts, from the first to the latest, have been frauds. In 1870 we were told that the School Board rate would not exceed at any time threepence in the pound. This year it has risen in some towns as high as one-and-eightpence. In London it is eightpence, and most certainly it will be ninepence or tenpence in the metropolis within the twelvemonth.

What we spend on this State education is easily seen; what we save by it is not so easily discovered at a casual glance. Each of our paupers costs us 21 10s. a year. Each of the criminals in our prisons costs us about half as much more. Each of the children we educate by State means costs us £2 13s. 8d. a year. Does not a little reflection show that of these three outlays the

last is the only one that is productive? It is like capital invested. In the first place, by rescuing children from the squalid surroundings of homes in which ignorance and vice prevail, and giving them a knowledge of the big world around them and tastes which exercise a refining influence, we are doing one of the best things in the world to keep the youthful poor of the nation from entering on careers of crime that lead to the prison doors. In the second place, we are fitting these girls and boys with that education which alone will enable our working classes to contend in the coming years with the intelligent competitive labour of the chief Continental nations. Unless we can successfully maintain this competition our industries will decay and our poor-houses will grow larger and larger. The only thing that the ratepayer should look to closely at present is to assure himself that there is effectual work done for the money spent.

It is extraordinary how many of those who grumble at Education estimates in this country are content to remain in absolute ignorance as to what the provisions of the existing Education Acts are, and how they are carried out. The various organisations of voluntary schools throughout the land

But,

have happily suffered far less than was anticipated from competition with State education. No ratepayer need find much difficulty in gaining access to some of these denominational establishments in his own neighbourhood and seeing what fine work they are accomplishing. except in regard to religious teaching, all of the elementary denominational schools are bound to administer a system of education similar to that given in Board schools; and as it is in a good Board school that the Government's ideas on the instruction of the rising generation are most completely formulated, a visit to such a school should prove highly interesting to any intelligent inquirer.

The London School Board is rightly regarded as the true educational parliament of the country, where the theories of the code are best discussed and practically tested. It annually administers an income of more than one million and a half, and manages three hundred thousand children. It therefore possesses responsibilities and powers greater than those of a petty kingdom. Some say that it exceeds the powers given to it by Parliament; that it is too much given over to theories; and that it neglects the cause of the poorest classes of children in order to compete with the secondary schools. It is difficult to see how the functions of a Board governing a system involving to many complexities could ever be

discharged with any regularity except by theorists. The Board is certainly composed of theorists, but to learn new lessons by each year's additional experiences. Theories are good things. The accumulation of experience necessitates in many logical minds the formulation of theories. The only requisite is that the theories follow the experience, and do not precede it. Accordingly the work of the London School Board is likely to secure the confidence of the public more and more. Perhaps it is true that at present it exhibits a tendency to educate in certain of its highest class schools beyond the limits assigned. to it. But its devotion to the true interests of the poor children of the metropolis is patent to most people who have watched the development of its schools. In each of the overcrowded and poverty-stricken districts of London the Board's schools perform a public service only second in efficiency to that of the hospitals. A single illustrative example of the work they do may be given.

here.

There is a populous district of Islington lying south of the Caledonian Meat Market. A few years ago this was a conglomeration of terribly unhealthy hovels of the poor, thieves' dens, and fourth-rate drinking-shops. It is still bad enough The Midland Railway almost overwhelmed it with the poorest classes by driving thither much of

ing walls contain a space of two acres. Within the intricacies of the playgrounds and covered courts and ground-floor passages the visitor becomes bewildered. It reaches a height of many storeys. And here, every day, 2,200 poor children are being endowed with the inestimable benefit of a sound education. It is indeed quite a town in itself, filled with Liliputians who can exhibit at times remarkable freedom of speech and action. Their parents chiefly come under the following categories: labourers, 355; cabmen, 97; coalmen, 93; charwomen, 78; joiners, 50; porters, 45; painters, 44; carmen, 44; stokers, 32; bricklayers, 31; gas stokers, 25; stablemen, 25; blacksmiths, 25; factory men, 23; needlewomen, 22; shoemakers, 22; slaughtermen, 21; railway servants, 21; costermongers, 19; bakers, 17; milkmen, 16; tailors, 10. Among the others are sweeps, potmen, cat's-meat vendors, hucksters,

drovers, barmaids, barbers, plumbers, sailors, mangle-women, etc., etc. The social state of the people sending children to this school may be indicated by the single fact that, out of their number, 415 families inhabit only one room apiece, and 1,030 inhabit homes of two rooms. The families number six individuals on the average.

Let us see what this school-Gifford Street Board School-does for the children coming from such overcrowded abodes.

In going over such a place one is naturally reminded of the process of fish-hatching; for all stages of development are to be found in it. The youngest pupils are only a year old. These are the offspring of mothers who are compelled to put them in the kindly charge of the school authorities while they go out to earn some sort of a livelihood. The little creatures are brought to school at nine in the morning and remain till five, except that most of them are taken out between twelve and two for food. Of course such babes are quite helpless. They tumble about together in a huge cradle, always under the watchful eye of a motherly nurse. The morning they devote to speculative studies after their own fashion, trying to tear to pieces anything they can lay hands on, or in default of such manual employment, pondering the mysteries of the external world, with a zeal worthy of the metaphysical Bishop Berkeley. It is the afternoons-especially hot afternoons that the babies usually select for self-instruction in the management of the voice. Their little bodies are then rather aweary of this big world; and if sleep does not lay a soothing hand upon them they are apt to try the attendant's patience a good deal with their fretful squalling. In the same room with this crèche are such other infants as are below the age of three. They are very gleeful when any visitor appears in their midst. Their chatter may stop for a few moments, but usually one or two will pull at the new-comer's skirts and make overtures in the direction of some fun. Such is the population of the nursery, which has an average number of forty inmates. They are all well cared for. Even were it possible for their mothers to leave them at home, day after day, they would become dirty, and would be in a hundred dangers. Here every kind of necessary attention is paid to their physical well-being, and the excellent head infant mistress is very proud of the fact that the disease called rickets is unknown among her charges.

The next stage of the education process is devoted to the little ones aged three to four. These number about 100. Their intelligence is now sufficient to enable them to use their powers of observation with some amount of logic, and accordingly they are employed in Kindergarten exercises, such as pricking patterns on cards, or building with bricks after set models. They likewise begin to sing by ear, and learn a simple drill. The various portions of this drill form one of the most pleasing sights in the school; and the exercise is greatly enjoyed by the children.

The next class is composed of about two hundred little ones between the ages of four and five.

They go on with Kindergarten work and singing, but also learn the letters of the alphabet and their sounds, and the simple strokes in writing. Then we have the children between five and seven, numbering about a hundred and forty. These begin reading easy primers; they learn also to write capital and small letters, and easy combinations of letters. Needlework is begun with the girls at this stage. The Code has tried to encourage the education of the young boys also in the use of the needle; but any one who has seen how grievous this work is to the little lads, and how gladly they take to pencil-work instead, must be of opinion that they could be employed more usefully than in a hopeless competition with the girls. In Gifford Street School the boys between five and seven now learn, instead of sewing, an easy style of geometrical drawing on chequered slates. This they enjoy very much.

There only remains one other class in the infant department. This is known as Standard 1. It is formed of children over seven, and, being chiefly composed of pupils who have passed the lower grades of the school, it is usually in a highly efficient state when the Inspector comes round to examine. Its work is just a slight advance on the work of the class immediately below it. All the children in these various infant classes, except the babies, receive two object lessons every day : in the morning, a lesson about some simple in

animate natural object; in the afternoon, an account of some animal.

The head mistress of the infant department now resigns the charge of the young ones whom she has superintended with such intelligent and affectionate care. They are well prepared to proceed to standard work, the boys and the girls being henceforth separated. Following the gentler sex for the present, we find that the Standard I girls drafted from the infant department into the girls' department form a striking contrast to another Standard I class existing there. This latter has in its ranks many a rough girl who hardly knows her letters, and who is at school for the first session in her life. Perhaps one or two of them are "magistrates' orders"-that is, street vagrants sent to school by command of a police magistrate. It is no uncommon thing for the masters or mistresses to receive in this way children of fourteen who either know no letters or else recognise but three-" a," "s," and "w." These three are always the first to be learnt by the children, their forms being the most distinctive. The Standard I children from the infant department of course pass on to Standard II in the upper school, and their progress is steady and satisfactory, so long as their parents allow them to remain. The Standard II work includes reading, writing, dictation, and arithmetic in the morning; sewing, drawing, and singing in the