The Universal Review for January publishes a " Symposium "
on the influenza, which contains, among other information, a really valuable account of the origin of the epidemic, by Dr. Klein, the bacteriologist. He maintains that the cause is a microbe, and that it is borne by the air. No other cause will account, he says, for its extremely rapid diffusion, and its infectiousness as regards all persons with a liability to its attacks. He thinks it most probable that the microbe lives and thrives in the blood of the infected person. Dr. Sisley, who writes the paper on the subject, suggests no general remedies except warmth and full nourishment, the object being to institute a normal condition of good health ; but he gives a most necessary caution against antipyrine :—" Enormous quantities of this drug have been sold abroad, and it is on record that seventeen deaths have occurred in Vienna alone from its use ;' but its sale is now forbidden in that city, except under a doctor's prescription.' Antipyrin kills by causing stoppage of the heart, and it is to be hoped that the people of this country who have a taste for drugging themselves will adopt some less dangerous remedy; so much may be safely advised."—Mr. F. H. Hill sends an interesting paper on "Democracy and Progress," the drift of which is that democracy is upon us, but that the fewer changes we make in the Constitution, the better. He would even keep up the House of Lords, believing that in the Commons honest advice will be less and less offered, especially if Members are paid. We should agree if we thought the Lords a good deliberative Chamber ; but it is not, while its resisting power is exceedingly small. Mr. Hill, like the Spectator, believes the great danger of any democracy to be pecuniary corruption, and remarks that purity has had, even in England, but a short trial. Is he not rather exaggerating in his own mind the old effect of corruption ? We suspect Walpole con- stantly paid men to vote as they wished to vote, undoubtedly the secret of much corruption in the old borough elections.—We cannot be interested in Miss Beale's "Last Glance at the Paris Ex- hibition ;" clever as the illustrations are, the letterpress strikes us as guide-hooky. What is the use of this sort of thing ?— " Every one knows that the giant [the Eiffel Tower] cost five millions of francs; but an ingenious person, M. A. de Foville, related, in a lecture at the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, that were this sum transformed into twenty-franc gold pieces and duly piled up one upon another, the 250,000 coins would reach to the summit of the tower. Suppose for a moment that we lay the monster down on his side, and desire to protect him from the rain and dust ; how much calico, think you, it would take to cover him over ? Just 75,000 metres, which, stretched out lengthways, would reach from Paris to Beauvais ! Suppose, again, that you wanted to transport it by railway to the other end of France ; it would require 100 goods trains of ordinary length, and its 6,500 tons of metal would weigh as much as 100,000 men. Or if you want simply to translate it from the Champ de Mars to the Buttes de Chaumont, after the manner of the bodies of the Saints, you will be obliged to engage all the omnibus and tram horses of the city to draw the carriage upon which it would be placed. There are no less than two and a half millions of rivets in it, and seven millions of holes had to be pierced ; while a perfect mountain of paper was wanted for the 3,000 working drawings required by the engineers. If we walk up we must climb 1,792 steps, and make many twists and twirls."
—The best things in the number are Mr. Train's verses, sewn together in a paper which he calls " The Armourer of the Twentieth Legion." These two verses at least might be uttered by some considerable pessimist poet in an address to England :—
" The world is ripe for freedom ; manumit :
The world is young, and thou hast waxen old; The orb of empire trembles in thy grasp; Thy song is sung ; thy mighty tale is told; The book is filled for Fate to close and clasp, And fix her seal on it.
Accomplished is the work Jove's counsel willed; That destiny the Sibyl saw and sang To old 2llneas, long ere Victory sprang Armed from the brain of Cre.sar, is fulfillei.
For never have the immortal gods ordained Perpetual rule by their august decree
To any state by hands of mortals reared, And let it be enough, 0 Home, for thee,
That not unloved by some, by none nnfeared, Thou bast subdued and reigned. Stand now apart, selfgathered, and rejoice
In those strong children who from East to West Have sucked the milk of wisdom from thy bread, And learnt the speech of nations from thy voice."
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