as it may, however, we think Mr. Solly's appeal to the manes of the illustrious dead is rather unfortunate; for, if our memory serves us, the great intellects of the past were notorious smokers to wit, Raleigh, Newton, Hobbes, Locke, Milton, Byron, Coleridge, Charles Lamb (see his ode to Tobacco), Moore, Shelley, Scott, Robert Hall, Burns. These are only a few that come to mind at this moment, but they certainly contain the cream of the human intellect of the last three centuries in England. If we look abroad, the smokers are equally in the ascendant; in large-brained Germany all the philosophers, past and present, with Goethe at their head, were and are smokers.

After this evidence, we think Mr. Solly must considerably modify his statement that smoking is incompatible with a high state of intellectual activity. We do not think, however, that the defence of a moderate use of tobacco rests upon the support of even these gigantic exemplars of the human mind: it has a far surer foundation in the universality of its use. Surely a substance which is used almost as commonly as food itself-which finds equal favour in the hut of the savage and the homes of the first cities in the world-must be something more than a mere vulgar mistake, a noxious blunder, which has only to be exposed to be abolished. It must be en rapport with man's nature itself to have spread even farther than the use of wine. Let our controversalists consider this fact in its broad and ineffaceable meaning, and we do not fear that they will pooh-pooh it as unworthy of being considered, as Mr. Solly does.

Mr. Solly asks if our psychologists or mental physicians cannot give us some account of the average number of lunatics who have been habitual smokers. Is this eminent surgeon, who has devoted himself to brain diseases all his life, unaware that tobacco is, almost without exception, used as a common article of consumption, and as a sedative, in our public and private lunatic asylums? We select, for instance, the following items from the reports of lunatic asylums on our own table:-Colney Hatch: tobacco and snuff for one year, £271 25.; North and East Riding Lunatic Asylum: tobacco, 210lb., £36 155.; snuff, 8lb., £1 175.; Wilts County Asylum: tobacco, 22734lb., £37 10s. 11d.; snuff, 371⁄2 lb., £6 12s. 8d. We may go

through the reports of every county asylum in England and find similar entries. This, if not an exact answer to Mr.

Solly's question, at least shows what are the smoking habits of our lunatics. The medical superintendents of our asylums must be prepared to defend this practice against the wholesale denunciations of Messrs. Lizars and Solly; and we call upon them publicly to give "the reason that is in them" for what they do. As far as we have been able to observe, it would appear that excessive smoking is more particularly confined to very young men-a class of persons who are generally apt to run into excesses of all kinds. such persons the habit is, we believe, injurious, as the nervous system in youth is particularly sensitive. In middle age, we question whether there is such a thing as immoderate smoking to any extent; certainly the habit is not so universal among men of the world as it was in the reign of the first and second Georges, when the pipe and the pot, or the punch-bowl, were the sole solace of the age.

To

After a certain period of life the human frame seems capable of resisting the influence of any amount of tobaccosmoking. Those who have noticed the habits of very aged people know full well that many of them, especially in the lower ranks, consider the pipe to be the chief enjoyment of life. There was a few years ago an old woman at Swansea, 108 years old, whose cutty pipe was never out of her mouth; and we have remarked that of late most old women who have died at a very advanced age, beyond a hundred years, have retained the habit until the latest moment of their existence. We do not wish to put forward these old women as any argument in favour of immoderate smoking, as we know the worthlessness of arguing from the special to the general, but simply to show that tobacco, even taken largely, in a certain stage of life, and after the establishment of a habit, becomes quite inert.

WHY ONLY "SPELLING BEES"?

How Johnson's heart would have rejoiced had he been alive to witness the swarms of bees settling and taking possession of every public building and schoolroom throughout the country! Looked upon as a psychological curiosity, it is certainly curious to note the waves of thought-some may term it mere fashion-which runs over the whole country, bending it in the same direction, as fields of wheat ripple before the breeze.

And cross ripples every now and then spring up in varying directions: thus we have at the same moment with the educational current the social and athletic one, in the shape of the Rink, which was recently driving all the young girls mad.

But to revert to the Spelling Bees. May we not look upon this poor movement as an advanced wave of the educational tone of thought that is with such earnestness taking possession of the mind of the country? In our opinion there is no other way of accounting for a movement which at first thought seems so little capable of giving any social excitement or of interesting such a variety of classes as this spelling movement does. We were interested to hear some working-men discussing the matter in a third-class carriage the other day. The eagerness with which the merits of different spelling bees of their acquaintance were discussed, reminded us rather of the fierce partizanship which among this class generally marks their views of favourites in running or boxing matches.

It was to be noted in such discussions, too, that the element of wonderment was also very powerful. "Ah, that little girl, she came out prime! Why, she beat the school

master!" "Ah, little one was biggest there," said another, with the old English spirit of patting Jack in his fight with the Giant. Then there was mighty grumbling about the hard words given. ""Tain't fair," said one burly fellow; "they gave me Ichthyophthalmite. There's a word to chew over! 'Twas as much as the parson could do to get over it. Yes, and the very next word, as any child could spell, threw him over. Only think of spelling honor with a 'u'!"

Indeed, in this rivalry, as in any other, there was ample room for contention and quarrelling; and we may add that we think we see signs of an attempt on the part of the leaders at these spelling bees to select hard words. If there is any suspicion of favouritism, or a departure from the selection of downright English words, it will lead to a suspicion of foul play, and then good-bye to the fashion of the thing.

*

It also strikes us that in ordinary cases we spell by sight as well as by sound, and that many a person, if they saw the letters as they were writing them, would be less likely to make mistakes. If, therefore, the prizes were to be given for written words, the test of the spelling bee's power to perform his part as in actual practice would be much more perfect. Let us ask ourselves, if in any difficult word we do not first spell aloud to ourselves, and if that does not assure us, if, instinctively, we do not see how the letters look on paper. This written test may also serve another purpose beside that of showing us our powers of orthography. It would give a specimen of our writing: a very important matter indeed. It seems to us that a list of words should be read out, which the candidates should spell as they are spoken, and the person who made the fewest errors should win the prize; and it would be far more interesting. And let us remind the very good people who carry away prizes at these "spelling bees," that the cleverest men are very often the worst spellers. It is said that Johnson himself was an indifferent orthographist; at all events, some of the greatest thinkers and authors of the present day would be beaten by third-rate competitors at these bees. We say this with no wish to depreciate these spelling bees, or to throw a damper on the dictionary interest, which we are told is flourishing amazingly by the movement; but to warn too triumphant spelling bees that they must not think over much of themselves. They are only making bricks, after all, and these do *This was Lord Chesterfield's advice to his son on the subject.-A. S.

not go far in making and building up thought, which is the main thing to be desired.

With regard to the authorities in spelling, let us also remark that the dictionary-makers themselves are often at variance with reference to the same word. Johnson and Webster often differ, and fashions alter. We clip our words, leaving out the superfluous letters our grandfathers delighted in, and which made the old novels of the last century read in so grandiose a manner.

A

Now, it would be a thousand pities if the powerful element of competition, which gives the salt, as it were, to these spelling bees, were to be lost on these first steps in education. It seems to us that we might get rid of this element of dispute if we were to select some other field of knowledge besides orthography, which is, after all, but a dry subject, and not capable of illustration, so as to enliven the mind during the course of instruction. Why should we not have geography treated in the same happy manner? Surely it is quite as useful and necessary to know the situation of different countries and places as the relative position of letters. few trials would, we think, prove that our ignorance of the situation of places, even in our own island, is something astounding, notwithstanding the familiar manner in which we turn over our Bradshaw. Again, in the arts and sciences, how elementary is our knowledge, when we have any knowledge at all! Ask any working-man, or labourer, the elements of a piece of chalk or clay, the chemistry of the common things we daily handle and see. Does it not astound even the best of us how ignorant we are respecting their composition?

Or arithmetic, again: what a fine field short calculating would yield, and how fierce would be the contention ! Among the class which especially patronizes these spelling bees, figures are the weapons they chiefly use, and there is a necessity, therefore, that they should be kept well sharpened and ready for service. There is no fashion in figures, no disputes as to the value of various authorities, no French importations altering the spelling and pronunciation of words. It is an exact science, the answers to which cannot be evaded, misunderstood, or misapprehended, and are therefore particularly fitted for the nimble game which seems so attractive to a certain class of society, and which the schoolmaster should hail with acclamation.