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speaker or singer, if long engaged in the work of enuncia-tion, we can form but one opinion on this subject, sincethe attainment, and especially the maintenance, of an effectand the economy of effort in delivery are obviously depen-dent on proper management of the voice. For all concernedin public utterance, elocution is therefore a matter of muchconsequence. Were scientific method more closely followedby those who are so occupied, we should probably hearcomparatively little of such complaints as the sore throat ofpreachers and vocalists. Nor is any elaborate course ofinstruction necessary in order to acquire this power of self-control in using speech. Some practical hints as to diet,posture, exercise, method in the inspiration and exhalationof breath, with a few details as to articulation, emphasis,and other matters native to the subject, are easily withinthe capacity of most persons, and if adhered to will confer apower and facility otherwise unknown. For short and

carefully stated remarks on this important topic we mayrefer our readers to a small pamphlet by Mr. D. J. Macfar-lane, entitled " Hints to Singers, Speakers, and Readers."The directions given therein are particular, concise, and byno means tedious.

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THE GREAT NORTHERN AND CENTRAL HOSPITAL.

WE lately noticed that the committee of the IslingtonJubilee Fund had seen its way to forward a second sum of£2000 to the building fund of the above hospital. It is ex-

pected that the committee will be able to send yet more tothe fund. It is announced that by the legacy of Mr. Quinnthe hospital will receive a sum of £5000, minus legacy duty,which, by the way, is very heavy. It is hard that the Stateshould take 10 per cent. of what is left to charities, and yetitself do nothing to support the hospitals. In other coun-tries the State maintains the hospitals. In ours this dutyis not only thrown on private individuals, but even theircharity is taxed. We commend this hardship to the con-sideration of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who is a fair-minded man. Professor Leone L,3vi has within the last few

days sent a cheque for 100 guineas to the hospital, underone of the rules which allows such a subscriber to have abed called after his name. Professor Levi was one of themost ardent promoters of this new hospital before he waslaid aside with serious disease. This last gift shows thatpersonal suffering has only deepened his charity and hissympathy. -

ONE METHOD OF CIRCUS TRAINING.

IT is an open secret that the course of training undergoneby circus performers frequently implies a degree of physicalstrain which is nothing short of downright cruelty. Whenthis is voluntarily endured, pity mingled with reproach isthe feeling with which we naturally regard the sufferingdevotee. When, on the other hand, it is imposed on anunwilling subject, we are guilty if we seek to suppress anatural sense of its criminal injustice. It is well for thecredit of mankind and of civilisation that feeling is usuallyin this case allowed to have its way. Anything morebrutal, cowardly, and debasing than some dark phases ofthe training process it is difficult to conceive. What, forexample, can be said in extenuation of the conduct of arascal remanded the other day at Manchester for beating achild of four years old till his body was a mass of bruisee," to make him learn"? The magistrate who tried the caseevidently could not, without delioeration, measure in legalterms the ruffian savagery of this offence. It is much tobe desired, in view of a possible tendency among un-scrupulous "artistes" to defend such cruel usage on theplea of necessity, that no false idea of clemency will savethe culprit from receiving, on further consideration of hiscase, the heaviest penalty which the law can impose.

AROMATIC COMPOUNDS IN HUMAN SWEAT.

IN a recent research published in the Zeitschrift fiirPhysiologische Chemic, xi., 501-507, A. Kast has obtainedsome interesting and important results from the analysisof human sweat. The importance of such an analysis isobvious on account of the correlative functions of the skinand kidneys. The occurrence of indigo compounds, for

example, in cases of chromidrosis, has already been noted,and phenol-sulphonic acid has been shown to exist inthe sweat of sheep. For the present investigation largequantities of sweat (from eighteen to twenty litres) wereobtained by the use of the hot-air baths. After addingexcess of absolute alcohol and sodium carbonate till it was

faintly alkaline, the sweat was evaporated to a small bulkon the water bath. The relation of sulphuric acid combinedas sulphate to that combined as ethereal hydrogen sulphateswas then determined in the concentrated sweat as well asin the urine collected at the same time, the quantity usedin each case being 200 cubic centimetres. The relation wasfound to be as follows:-

S weat ... 11.009 inorganic sulphate : 1 ethereal sulphateUrine ... 16.020 " " 1 " "

Ten grains of salol were then administered in three days tothe same patients, the quantity of the ethereal hydrogensulphates in the urine being made thereby to increase.Sweat ... 9.504 inorg. sulphate : 1’0 ethereal sulphateUrine ... 1-000 ,, " : 1’339 ,, "

The sweat, therefore, unlike the urine, remains fairly constantin composition. The following relation was also found toexist with regard to the chlorides, phosphates, and sulphates:

Chlorides. Phosphates. Sulphates.Sweat ......... 1 : .0015 ’009Urine ......... 1 .1320 : 397

Mere distillaticn of the sweat readily yielded phenol, whichwas recognised by means of Millon’s reagent. The presencealso of aromatic oxy-acids was shown by acidifying the sweatwith hydrochloric acid, shaking with ether, evaporating todryness, dissolving the residue in water, and adding Millon’sreagent, when the characteristic red colour was producedJaffe’s test gave a red colour, indicating the presence ofscatoxyl ; but indoxyl-sulphuric acid, according to the sametest, was not found. The blue colour of the sweat in chromi-drosis is suggested by the author to be due to the action ofbacteria.

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LIFE ASSURANCE IN 1887.

A PARLIAMENTARY PAPER just issued gives publicity tothe insurance companies’ returns deposited during last yearwith the Board of Trade. The summary tables which

accompany this return show that the progress of thisadmirable form of thrift continues unabated. The aggre-gate premium income of the reporting offices (premiumspaid for annuities being included in the term) has increasedfrom .616,998,000 in 1886 to £17,484,000 in 1887-anaugmentation of upwards of .E486.000. Payments in theshape of benefit have likewise increased, though not in thesame measure, and the largest item on the credit side ofthe account is the addition to the life and annuity funds,which figures at very nearly £4,320,000. It is a significantand only very partially satisfactory feature of the pre-sent account that, notwithstanding the enormous additionmade to their invested capital, the ordinary life assurancecompanies have had to submit to a diminution in the

aggregate amount of their income from interest. Theindustrial companies have been more fortunate in this

respect, and upon the whole there is abundant reason forcongratulation on the life assurance record of 1887. A veryinteresting table--which is, we believe, new this year-gives