requisite three or four guinea fee. In a short time the scarlet gown which students are expected to wear, particularly in the Latin class, is noticeable in the quadrangles and on the streets, the bell which marks the opening of one class and the closing of another is clanging hourly, the various class-boards are full of announcements, and the seventeen hundred young men have begun their daily march from home or lodging to the chosen halls of enlightenment. The majority of these come from the country districts, the Saxon from the lowland counties, the raw-boned Gael from the western isles, and not a few from England, Ireland, and foreign countries-for not infrequently the Glasgow professor has a world-wide reputation which will draw students from every clime. Several classes meet as early as eight o'clock, and a stranger may then have a good opportunity of observing the quality of the Scottish students. They appear to range from seventeen years in age upwards, and are for the most part strapping fellows. Some come from rich men's homes and some from lodgings, where the only extravagance allowed is the burning of the gas into the small hours; but, as students, all meet on a common footing; no distinctions are discernible save those created by the results of the class examinations, which occur at intervals of from one week to two months.

Between classes, students have a chance to become acquainted with one another in the library reading-room. Casual acquaintanceship is also formed in the ordinary way. The isolation and unsociability of this arrangement were defects which have been much mitigated in recent years by the formation of the Students' Representative Council, made practicable by the generosity of a wealthy citizen, who donated a sum to build the necessary club-house which now graces a part of the university grounds. The students have since been recognized as a corporate body, and have a standing in relation to the University Court, the Senate of professors and the General Council of graduates, such as they never had before. The purpose of the gift was to make such a thing as "university life," no less than university study, a reality in Scotland, and it has had a wholesome effect in that direction.

fessor all his fees, in addition to the income from the endowment of his chair, makes a professorship worth in some instances as much as $10,000 a year, and, when added to the unusual dignity which surrounds the position, it is little wonder that Scottish university chairs are generally filled by men of eminence in their respective subjects. A university is honored by such men, and the lustre of a great professor's name is something in which the student also feels some satisfaction. The latter may sometimes be troublesome to an assistant, but he always regards the professor himself with great respect and speaks of him with pride.

Professors in those subjects that are taught by means of lectures, such as Moral Philosophy, Logic, and English Literature, have a prodigious task the first year in preparing a daily lecture of an hour's duration. The classes of the years following are, however, liable to receive literally the same lectures, as such expenditure of energy as would be necessary to produce new lectures is not likely to be relished by a professor and could oblige only a few idlers. The lecturing system gives rise to a peculiar anomaly, which, in the estimation of many, calls for some justification. Often a student with an old copy of the lectures can follow a speaker or precede him at pleasure, with eloquent passages marked for applause, and with even the jokes numbered and indexed. It must be admitted, however, that professors most liable from the nature of their subjects to be tempted to provide a stereotyped course of lectures are often heroic enough to depart materially from the beaten track, thus putting the lazy student with the old copy at once on a level with his less fortunate neighbor whose pencil is disfiguring many pages of clean paper in the course of an hour. From an experience of the system the verdict of students generally will be found that a professor who is faithful to his old lectures is much more satisfactory than one who relies mainly on extempore speech. In the latter case the more difficult the subject the greater is the tendency to digression. The old but prepared lecture is as much the better of the two as a book is superior to a newspaper.

In some of the classes there is wide dis

purposing to take a degree have to pass an entrance examination which ensures a suitable initial standard. Particularly in such subjects as mathematics and physics many a student follows his professor at a great distance throughout the entire session. What Mr. J. M. Barrie in "An Edinburgh Eleven" relates of Professor Chrystal reminds one of Lord Kelvin who for fifty years has filled the chair of Natural Philosophy at Glasgow. Lord Kelvin's subject, however, does not allow him to gain ground so steadily. He goes and returns like the waves of the sea, and the progressive element is the weekly examination. The explanation of the latter on Friday afternoon is the most instructive exercise of the class.

The Rectorial election which occurs at the beginning of every third session is a rousing event. The students elect the Lord Rector and the time-honored custom is to make the contest sharply political, thus affording the greatest freedom to the exuberant spirits of all. The only service expected from the Lord Rector is the delivering of an address at the ceremony of his installation, which may take place at any time he finds convenient during his term of office. Such men as Edmund Burke, Francis Jeffrey, Lord Brougham, the poet Campbell, Sir Robert Peel, Lord John Russell, Lord Macaulay, Sir Archibald Alison, Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Lord Palmerston, Benjamin Disraeli, W. E. Gladstone, John Bright, and A. J. Balfour have held the office and performed its accompanying duty. The occasion of the Lord Rector's address is a memorable one in the career of every undergraduate.

Among the noteworthy organizations of Glasgow University are its library and the Hunterian Museum. Every year $3,500 is expended on the purchase of books for the library, and from time to time large additions come to it from private individuals. The Hunterian Museum was founded in 1783 by the will of Dr. William Hunter, one of the most eminent physicians of his day, brother of Dr. John Hunter, the founder of scientific surgery. He bequeathed for this purpose a valuable collection of books, manuscripts, coins, zoölogical and archæological specimens, together with a sum of $40,000.

Many changes in the university's arrangements have been introduced by the

commissioners who were empowered by the Scottish Universities Act of 1889. Among others, since 1892 women have been allowed to become matriculated students and to take degrees. Their instruction, however, is conducted separately at Queen Margaret's College, an institution which now forms part of the university. Readers of the Encyclopædia Britannica will find that several of the prominent contributors to that work were professors of the University of Glasgow. Lord Kelvin (Sir William Thomson), professor of Natural Philosophy, wrote the articles on Elasticity and Heat; Edward Caird, professor of Moral Philosolophy, the articles on Cartesianism and Metaphysics; the late John Nichol, professor of English Literature, the articles on American Literature and Burns; Richard C. Jebb, since 1889 professor of Greek at Cambridge, the articles on Aristophanes, Demosthenes, Euripides, Greece (History and Literature), Isæus, Isocrates, Lysias, Olympia, Pindar and Rhetoric; and John Veitch, professor of Logic, wrote the article on Victor Cousin, the French philosopher.

T. HUNTER.

Prof. William Crookes, the eminent English chemist, in his recent presidential address before the Society for Psychical Research, essayed a scientific theory of thought-transference (telepathy) and

"suggested that it was quite conceivable that the intense thought concentrated by one person upon another, with whom he is in close sympathy, should induce a telepathic chain along which brain-waves should go straight to their goal without loss of energy due to distance. Such speculation was, he admitted, new and strange to science. It was at present strictly provisional, but he was bold enough to make it, and the time might come when it could be submitted to experimental tests." Going on to speak of the spiritual body, he protested against the view that it need in any way re-. semble the material body, which corresponds only to a material environment. He said that his idea of spiritual bodies made them "centres of intellect, with will, energy, and power, each centre retaining the individuality and persistence of self and memory, and each mutually penetrable, while at the same time permeating what we call space."

DIGESTION AND DIET

N our last issue was discussed, with the functions and nature of our food, the important subject of the nourishment of our bodies. In this article it is proposed to conclude the discussion by considering the question of the digestibility of our foods, for the value of a food as a source of nourishment does not depend solely on its composition—that is, the percentage of protein and other nutrients which it contains-but also on the extent to which these nutrients are digested. As before, we are indebted to a learned medical authority writing in the pages of the Edinburgh Scotsman :

There can be no doubt that the digestibility of foods varies very considerably, according to the state of the digestive organs of the individual. It is an every-day experience with a large majority of people that certain foods do not agree with them. The case of milk may be cited as an example of a wholesome food which, in many cases, does not seem to be easily digested. What the cause of this is it is, as yet, impossible to say; but the fact nevertheless remains, although, so far, we may not be in a position to explain it. It is an illustration of the old adage that "what is one man's meat may be another man's poison." A possible suggestion is that it is due to ferments in the digestive canal, which, in certain cases, effect the change of harmless substances into injurious and even poisonous forms. The process of digestion has not inaptly been compared to the extraction of precious metal from an ore. The food is first, like the ore, reduced to a fine state of division by the teeth, and then submitted to the action of the gastric juices in the stomach and intestines, which dissolve out the digestible portion of the nutrient, which is then absorbed through the porous walls of the above-mentioned organ.

To estimate the extent to which a nutrient in a food is digested, it is necessary to make an actual experiment with a living subject. Although the digestibility of the coarser fodders and feeding stuffs, used for the rearing of stock, has been tested by experiments carried out with live animals, but few experiments have been carried out on the digestive capability of man.

But, from the small number of experiments which have been carried out, it seems reasonably safe to conclude that when a healthy individual, who is blessed with sound digestive organs, partakes of an ordinary diet of meat or fish in proper quantity, all, or nearly all, of the protein nutrients are digested. The same is not the case, however, with vegetable foods. Thus, in the case of potatoes or beans, for example, a third or more of the protein matter present escapes digestion. It would also seem reasonable to infer from the above-mentioned experiments that much of the fat in animal foods, as well, indeed, as in vegetable foods, may fail to be digested. The carbohydrates, like protein compounds, are in general very digestible. Sugar, for example, is probably in all cases completely digested.

As to the conditions influencing digestion but little is understood. It would seem, however, that the flavor of the food and the food adjuncts affect digestibility of food to a much less extent than is commonly believed. What, however, has a very distinct influence on digestion is the preparation —such as the cooking, etc.,-of the food. For example, the protein nutrients present in many foods in a soluble condition, on being submitted to boiling heat, are converted into an insoluble condition. This is the case with the typical member of the group- viz., albumin- and is familiar to all in the process of boiling an egg. In this form the albumin is not nearly so soluble as it is in the uncoagulated form; indeed, it requires the action of an acid or of digestive juices to dissolve it. The same is not the case, however, with the characteristic protein nutrients of beef-syntonin and myosin-which are not coagulated by heat. Despite the above fact, eggs are as completly digested as meat, although the time required may be longer, for all we know. From experiments, it would seem that hard boiled eggs are as thoroughly digested as soft boiled eggs, although here again the time element may be different. Again, certain foods seem to be better adapted for the digestive organs of children than for those of adults, this being strikingly the case with milk.

The chief juices which render the protein nutrients available for the needs of the body are the gastric and pancreatic fluids. Both these juices act to produce a common result, but they do so in different methods. Gastric juice is of an acid nature, while the pancreatic

juice is of an alkaline nature. Such food, then, as may escape the action of the gastric juice, is probably dissolved by the pancreatic juice. The greater digestibility of the proteids of animal origin as compared with those of vegetable origin may be only partially due to their nature. It may also be due to the fact that the latter are admixed, as a rule, with a considerable amount of extraneous matter. Thus, in such foods as oatmeal, wheat flour, or potatoes, there is comparatively little protein matter, and a large amount of starchy material. In such a case the nitrogenous matter is so diluted that the difficulty of digesting is increased. There can be no doubt, too, that a variety in diet helps digestion. We are all aware of the craving we have for variety in diet; but few probably realize that this craving is based on physiological grounds, as well as upon those of taste. Sameness of diet, if continued for too long a period, may actually impair the efficiency of the digestive organs. The percentage of fat in a food has also a marked influence on its digestibility. Lean meat is more readily digested in the stomach than fat meat. We may add that the more finely the food is masticated the better is its chance of being fully utilized.

The question of the influence exerted by cooking on the digestibility of a food, is an important one, and merits consideration. Cooking is a refinement of civilization, and is dispensed with by the savage. Indeed, it has been held that the state of a nation's civilization may be measured by the art of its cooking. Some foods we take uncooked, such as milk; but most foods we prefer in the cooked state. Now, cooking has probably a double action on food. By improving- both by the process of cooking as well as by the addition of condiments, spices, etc., the appearance and flavor of the food, it helps to excite the secretion of the digestive juices. Again, in many cases it helps to disintegrate the food. The action of cooking, for example, on certain protein bodies in meat, such as collogen, which acts as the binding material of the animal tissue, is to convert them into a much more soluble form. Thus, collogen when cooked is converted into soluble gelatine. It must be remembered that even where the nutrients of a food seem to be rendered less soluble by the process of cooking, yet the result of cooking in rendering the food more savory, and in thus stimulating the secretion of the digestive juices, may be such as to more than compensate for this loss in digestibility.

It may, therefore, be safely asserted that, all things considered, proper cooking unquestionably tends to increase the digestibility of the protein in foods. Nevertheless, the few experiments which have been carried out with regard to the rate at which digestion takes place have shown that certain foods, when in the raw condition, are more quickly digested than when cooked. In experiments carried out at Tübingen, in Germany, a year or two ago, on the digestibility of raw meat, rare meat, and meat cooked for different lengths of time, it was found that the raw and rare meat were more quickly digested than the cooked meat. Thus, while raw meat took two hours, meat boiled, but only half-done, took two and a half hours to digest. Again, meat boiled, but well-done, took

three hours, which was the same period that was required for the digestion of roasted, but half-done meat; while roasted meat, welldone, required four hours. From this it would seem that boiled meat is more quickly digested than roasted meat. Experiments were also carried out on the subject of the influence of cooking on milk. It was found that the milk uncooked took three and a-half hours to be digested, while boiled milk took four hours. It may be added that sour milk seems to be more quickly digested than fresh milk.

These facts, however, only hold good with regard to meat diet. Many vegetable foods, on the other hand, require cooking to fit them for use. Especially is this the case with foods rich in starchy matter, in which the starch is confined in cells, the walls of which are acted but slowly upon by the digestive juices. When such foods are cooked the cells are ruptured, while the starch itself undergoes a certain change, which renders it more easily digested.

With regard to the action of flavoring materials on the digestibility of food, although much has been written on the subject, it has been based upon but little actual experiment. By flavoring materials we mean such substances as spice, mustard, etc., beef tea and meat extracts, tea, coffee, chocolate, and similar beverages, as well as alcoholic drinks. There can be no doubt that the effect of flavoring materials or appetizers, what our German friends call "Genussmittel," have a very important influence in stimulating the digestive juices. For instance, when one takes salt or sugar, the result is that there is an abundant flow of saliva; indeed, even the sight of certain savory foods produces what we popularly call "a watering of the mouth." The result of taking such appetizers, or flavoring materials, no doubt, improves the digestion, by either causing a larger amount to be digested, or else helps to effect a quickening of digestion. But this increase in digestion seems to be chiefly limited to invalids, and does not appear to affect to the same extent the digestion of healthy individuals. There can be no doubt that the craving for alcohol-which may be classed in this category, since it stimulates the digestion-and its frequent use by the poorer classes as a remedy in cases of disturbances of the stomach, is often due to a wretched diet of indigestible foods. The action of meat extracts, tea, coffee, etc., is similar to alcohol and wines, and affects the nervous system. Spices, on the other hand, act directly on the glands which secrete digestive juices.

And here it may be well to point out that such foods as soups contain very little real nutriment. Their action is almost entirely of a stimulating nature. When meat is boiled there is a certain amount of its nutritive matter, especially its mineral matter, removed. Meat which has been extracted to any extent forms an incomplete food, as has been strikingly proved by experiments on dogs, which, on being exclusively fed with such meat have died. It is for this reason that meat which has been long boiled should not be used as an exclusive diet. It is always desirable in such cases to serve along with the meat the soup in which the meat has been boiled.

Boiling as a method of cooking meat can scarely, therefore, be regarded as so rational a

method of preparing food as roasting, frying, or broiling. It may be interesting to point out that not a little depends on the way in which meat is boiled. When the precaution is taken to plunge it at once into boiling water the loss of nutritive matter is very much less than when it is allowed to remain in the water while the latter is being heated.

How far the quantity of food affects the proportion digested is not known; but it would seem reasonable to suppose that too much food interferes with complete digestion. On the other hand, there is some evidence in support of the belief that a very small quantity of food is likewise less perfectly digested than the proper amount. The drinking of too much water with food seems also to impair digestion.

On the subject of the influence of exercise on digestion but little is known, and such experiments as have been carried out furnish contradictory results. Here, again, no doubt, much depends on the individual. There seems to be little question, however, that during sleep digestion is diminished. That our diet is not always an ideal one has already been indicated. The diet of the rich may be said to contain, as a rule, too large a proportion of protein; while that of the poor contains too little. The tendency of most people is to indulge in too fatty a diet. Perhaps in this respect brain-workers are most guilty; since they require less fat in their diet than those engaged in physical work. It is on this account that fish, more especially such fish as cod, which are poor in fatty matter, are to be recommended; not certainly, however, as we have already pointed out, because fish is, in a special degree, a brain-making food. The origin of this popular theory has been recently traced with much ingenuity by Professor Atwater. It rests on two false suppositions, the first of which is that fish is especially rich in phosphatic compounds, and the second, that phosphatic foods are especially brain-making. Many will recall Mark Twain's advice to an inquiring literary correspondent who had sent him a specimen of his brain-power. "If the specimen you send is about a fair usual average, I should judge that perhaps a couple of whales would be all you would want for the present, not the largest kind, but simply good middlingsized whales."

A common mistake in our diet is that it contains an excessive amount of sweetmeats. Indeed, we use far too much sugar nowadays. Not merely is our diet badly adjusted, but as a rule we use a needless quantity of food. Excess of one-sided foods should be avoided. Such foods are butter and pork (fatty foods) and rice (starchy food). Cod-fish may also be cited as a one-sided food, since it contains only fleshformers. It may be generally said that most of the staple foods are not one-sided. This is the case, for example, with milk and oatmeal. It is a fortunate circumstance that the promptings of Nature do much to rectify the tendency we have to indulge in one-sided foods. The custom of eating rice or potatoes with fish, or meat pulse with rice (Hindoos) and skimmed milk with potatoes (Irish), is based on sound physiological principles. Another example of how, under nature's cravings, a proper adjustment of nutrients in food is effected, is afforded by the food of lumbermen in the American forests,

where work is of a most arduous kind. The staple articles of their diet are beans and fat pork, the former rich in flesh-formers, and the latter a most concentrated fuel food.

It may be asked, What are the requirements of the body, and what constitutes a proper diet? This question leads us to discuss, in conclusion, the subject of food dietaries, as they are called. Various attempts have been made by different physiological authorities to fix food standards. Although these food standards differ within certain limits, there is, on the whole, a wonderful agreement. Of course, great variation exists on the part of the individual. The requirements of the body, at different stages of its growth and under different circumstances, are naturally different. Children do not require the same amount of food as adults; similarly, when the body is hard at work, it requires more food than when it is at rest.

Experiments carried out on the subject show that in the case of a man fasting and undergoing no muscular labor, the consumption of muscle, under such circumstances, amounted to about 34 lb. per day, and about lb. of fat, Other experiments have shown that with a food consisting of 31⁄2 ozs. of protein, the same quantity of fat, and 8% ozs. of carbohydrates, the body of a man at rest neither lost nor gained anything. The amount of food required depends largely on the amount of work done by the body, as well as on the size of that body. Again, it may be said that old people require less food than younger people, and this for the reason that the former are, as a rule, less active than the latter. Sex also makes a difference, inasmuch as a woman undergoing the same amount of muscular activity only requires eight-tenths as much food as a man does.

We have already pointed out that all foods can be valued according to the amount of potential energy they contain. A comparison of the relative quantities of potential energy in food nutrients required by persons of different classes is shown by the following statement :Laboring man at moderate work, 10; woman at ordinary work, 8; child, fifteen to six years old, 7; child, six to two years old, 5; child under two years old, 2%. The following amounts of food material may be regarded as being sufficient to supply the necessary food constituents for a mechanic or day-laborer:-8 ozs. of lean beef steak, 20 ozs. of bread, 30 ozs. of potatoes, I oz. of butter, and 37 ozs. of water-total 96 ozs., or 6 lbs. The dietaries of a large number of people in different parts of the world have been collected. Space does not permit us to quote at any length from these. It has been pointed out, however, that in the case of the dietaries of a large number of French Canadians, a variation of from 3 to 1⁄2 lb. of animal food, and from 5 to 11⁄2 lbs. of vegetables occurred. Estimating the amount required by a laboring man in terms of pure nutrients, the following may be stated as a fair daily ration:-4.2 ozs. of protein, 2 ozs. of fat, and 17.6 ozs. of carbohydrates; for a child one to two years old:-1 oz. of protein, I 1.3 ozs. of fat, and 234 ozs. of carbohydrates. For an aged man-31⁄2 ozs. of protein, 21⁄2 ozs. of fat, and 121⁄2 ozs. of carbohydrates; and for an aged woman -234 ozs. of protein, 134 ozs. of fat, and 9% ozs. of carbohydrates.