HEREDITARY RESULTS OF STARVATION.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2137, 20 March 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

HEREDITARY RESULTS OF STARVATIO N.

Of the hereditary insults of obesity we are often reminded. No soonei had man, by a sjet-tn of management in which a liberal and regular .supply nf good food is an essential pait, elected astonishing improvement in the weight, quality and early development of the butcher's breeds of stock, than an outcry arose against the very course of tieatinent which had most largely contributed to that improvement, and a thoughtless demand for natural condition was reiterated among those who look on and criticise, but do. not take part in the work of the breeders. Now, it is obvious to every practically instructed observer, that if improvement is to be maintained and continued, it must be done, not by "natural " means, but by artificial means ; by the same means used hitherto. In the process of improvement, capabilities far beyond those of animals in a state of nature havo been cultivated. Those capabilities are accomplished by enlarged demands. A little spark of fire may be kept burning with very little consump tiou of mateual, but a fiime kindled to strength and brilliancy must have sufficient tuel ia couataut supply, or it will burn itself out. In all animals, the health aud vigour of a living organic structure depend much upon regularity and sufficiency of the supply of nourishment, ami if this be true, as it assuredly is, in the case of wild breeds, inured to a life of hardship and scarcity of food supply, how much j more emphatically is its truth forced j upon our attention as regards stock highly improved from their natural condition by liberal feeding, comfortable housing, and selection of the fittest for the circum stances and conditions of domestication ? To starve an auitnal of improved breed, that is one of artificial production is not to send it back to the level of its wild progenitors ; it is to lower it beneath their level altogether ; to impose upon an animal, habituited to special care, and trained to require that care, the task of growth under drawbacks for which it is unprepared. Tho wild animal is in some measure prepared tq live roughly ; but the domesticated animal (and the higher its improvement the more forcibly this remark applie--), from the moment when its existence bcyind, lias a strong hereditary claim to sronerous Mipporr, its ancestors, uuder domestication, having surrendered thi'ir origin il power of solfnvunten.iuce, and thrown themselves wholly upon mm's c.uv. Tho c inability of endurance is already de->troytd by the m o an-< of improvement, and if we fail to support the auimai's artifioi illy constituted byhtex, we lose all that enables us to control the form and qualities of the animal. Degeneracy sets in, and if its course be not stopped by fleith or infertility, the "improved" breed dwindles to the sickliest race of weeds, without either the constitution of the wild original or the bountiful properties purchased by the sacrifice of some measure of the old constitutional power of endurance. — Live Stock Journal.

Iv Paris the Municipal Council has rejected a proposal to reduce the liouis of labour from ten to eight for a day's work. China lost 100,000 men and £3S, 000,000, and Fiance 15,090 men and £43,000,000, during the Tonqnin catnpaigu. Shkli, Ekplo-uov at Shoeburyxess. —In the course of some experiments at Shoeburyness a shell burst lnvnodiately on leaving the gun, and the fragments were scattered all over the village toi a distance of 700 yards One piece, weighing six pouuds, entered the roof ot a house and shattered the be Iroom ceilini?. Another piece entered a baker's granary on one side and wpnt out at the other. A. third piece fell in the ruidJle of a brickfield, and others near the theatre, staff serpents' quarters and drill shed. No personal injuries wore sustained. Professor Siikldox says that in Lancashire the quality, and character of the cheeses are due mainly to the keeping over each day of a portion of curd to be mixed with the fresh curd of the following day And the fresh curd is unsalterl and purpnsety allowed to become decidedly acid. "In this, to my mind,' he says, "lies the chief secret of cheesemaking, for it involves a principle which, in one svny or another, consciously or un consciously employed, 1s necessary to the production of <;heese of tins quality." In Greek statues, as is well known, the second toe of the foot is represented as longer t an the great toe, while in the modern European foot the gieat toe. is usually the longer. Albreoht states that in this respect the Greek foot is more quadrn millions than the modern. The second toe is also represented in antique »tatues as being further separated from the great toe than is seen at the present titnu. This might be regarded as another! evidence of qaudrumanous character, but' it has also beeu suggested, and not with-, out reason, that it is simply the result of wearing the sandal strap. In, the modern foot, on the other hand, the reduction in the size of the smaller toe is ascribed to the influence of shoes. < Mr Ukorok Mrr,LE«, founder of the famous orphanage • at Bristol, has just arrived in Sydney by the mail steamer Australia. His reason for visiting these colonies i» beet explained in hU own words. "I have come to the Australian colonies," he said to a representative of the Sydney Daily "Telegraph," "merely as I have been to every country in Hurops, to Egypt, to Palestine, and to America — to preach the gcwpel. I tiu->t no one will think I have come to collect money for my orphanage. I never collected a penny for it in my life." Mr Muller is probably one of the most remarkable men of the century, and as he is expected hboitly to visit New Zealand, in spite of hi-> advanced age of eightyone, it may be interesting to many of our readers to know what is said of him in " Men of the Times." We have condensed the following from that authority :— Mr Muller was born in Prussia in 1805. He did not distinguish himself »t school, and wheu he was about sixteen he was mere than once in pecuniary difficulties, and without the means of paying for his board. Subsequently he went to the Halle University, where he did moderately well, and in 182 a he went on a walking tour for six weeks in Switzerland. About this time his views underwent a change, and shortly after he became fired with missionary ze"af. In 1828, after severe illness, he went to London, and began the ->tndy of Hebrew and Chaldoe. Another illness prevented him fiom carrying out his idea of a missionary life, and he settled down as the pastor of a chopel iv Bn&tol. Hero he, man ted, and after spending a, few more years in earnest work he conceived thje idea of establishing an orphanage in the city hs had made his home. In 1830 ho carried this into , effect, and the Orphan Asylum he foudned fifty years ago, " now consists," say> the Sydney Daily "Telegraph," of "five magnificent houses in the suburbs of Bristol. There are generally 2000 inmates and 110 xssUtants. The girl-, remain in the Home until at .seventeen or eighteen years of age they are placed out at domestic serviced, the boys being apprenticed to useful trades at fourteen or fifteen yoars of ago. And thus thousands who would in all human probability augment the ranks of the criminal population in England are rcocued by' the noble and indeed mysterious' efforts of Mr Mullor, our most recent and respected visitor, wbo never begs from any man,"