A second book, which may be taken in hand almost or quite from the start, is "The Iliad of Homer; Books I-VI, with an Introduction and Notes," by Robert P. Keep. Read those parts of the introduction which are found not difficult to understand, and then begin at once with the first lines of the first book of the Iliad. Attempt only to know what the poet says, not spending any time on finding the explanation of the words he uses. All that may come later. The first object is to learn to read as fast as possible, precisely as a young child would, not bothering at all about grammar any more than is necessary to understand the author. Little by little points of the grammar may be carefully looked up, and thus knowledge in that direction slowly acquired, but let the reading keep well ahead, and be the only thing on which interest is concentrated.

It is far better to study grammar after a large knowledge of words and of reading has been obtained. The Beginner's Book, already spoken of, will supply a fairly good understanding of grammatical points. For further grammatical knowledge, it is well to have a copy of Prof. W. W. Goodwin's Greek grammar. It has no equal as an interesting and instructive authority for grammatical knowledge of Greek. Readers who might prefer something else to Homer, or might wish to take a second book after Homer, or to take the two books in the reverse order, can find nothing better than Prof. Goodwin's "New Anabasis," part of a prose work which is easy reading, and is interesting.

Please inform me in regard to the origin of our Fourth of July, and how it was made a legal holiday?

The facts in regard to July 4th as the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence are these:

Jefferson reported the declaration to Congress on the 28th of June, 1776. On the 2d day of July, the twelve colonies, in Congress, adopted this resolution:

"That these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved."

In was with reference to this resolution for independence that John Adams said:

"The greatest question was decided which ever was adopted in America, and a greater perhaps never was, nor will be, decided among The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memerable epoch in the history of America, to be celebrated by succeeding generations

men.

as the great anniversary festival, commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty, from one end of the continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore."

Immediately after adopting the above resolution of independence, on the 2d of July, Congress entered upon the consideration of the declaration of independence. During the remainder of that day and the next two days the language, the statements, and the principles of the paper were closely scanned. It was on the evening of the 4th that the declaration of independence was adopted by the vote of Congress. Both on the 2d and on the 4th New York abstained from voting, and the great decision was made by twelve states, New York not participating. The declaration was not signed by the members of Congress on the day on which it was agreed to, but it was duly authenticated by the President and Secretary of Congress, and published to the world The signing of the declaration, which is so widely known by the fac simile list of the signers, took place on the 2d day of August. Public opinion throughout the country, in taking up the matter of celebrating the anniversary of independence, gave no heed to the feeling which dictated the language of Adams, quoted above, but settled upon the day on which the declaration was adopted by Congress. In doing this, it took no note of the fact that the adoption was reached in the evening of July 4. The matter of making the 4th a legal holiday had nothing to do with the origin of the anniversary celebration. The celebration could take place without making the day a legal holiday. It belongs to states to fix such holidays for suspension of business, and there has been an increasing tendency to adopt conspicuous popular days as legal holidays.

1. What is the cause of spontaneous combustion? 2. What is the cause of explosion of dust in large flouring-mills?

It is in appearance only that combustion is spontaneous." In reality it is precisely the same as any other combustion. It has been separately noted as spontaneous because of want of exact knowledge of the true nature of all combustion.

Combustion requires two things: first, a combustible atom or molecule hot enough, that is, vibrating rapidly enough, to be ready to unite with or to be seized by the oxygen of the air. If, for instance, we strike a match, the direct effect of our striking is to bring some particle of the match into such a state of vibration that the

oxygen of the air will seize it. Here it is important to note that we do not, as we naturally suppose, strike the fire. We only strike or cause the state of vibration, and no fire would come of it but for what the oxygen does after us. As soon as the particle vibrates fast enough the oxygen strikes it with lightning quickness and energy, and that striking gives the fire.

The state of vibration which prepares the combustible particle for the oxygen is called "the point of ignition." This point is a long way off from fire, but it is enough to let the oxygen strike. The oxygen is electrical, apparently at least; at any rate, it is something which causes it to strike like a molecular bolt of lightning, instantly heightening the point of ignition or state of vibration so greatly as to give fire. What we see of the fire is its incomplete state. There is a point, or instant, at which the particle struck by the oxygen is heated red, or white hot, and shows accordingly. This is just before the oxygen has completed its work. In many cases particles are taken so quickly by the oxygen and with so little preliminary heating that no show of fire, or very little, is made. If the particle is carbon, a big show is made, but if it is hydrogen, although the heat in the operation is much greater, there is very little show of fire. What the oxygen is after is not fire, but to unite with and carry off the combustible particle-carbon or hydrogen, or any other.

In the whole business the all-comprehending fact is the lightning quickness and energy of the oxygen. The greatest fire consists of nothing more than the oxygen of the air eating up whatever materials fall a prey to the conflagration. In no matter what conflagration, it is not the fire which consumes anything. All that the visible fire does is to heat unburned material to the point of ignition. The real work of consuming whatever is burned is the work of the oxygen of the air in seizing and carrying away combustible particles. These are mostly particles of carbon and particles of hydrogen. The particles of carbon are carried off one atom at a time, every molecule of oxygen taking its one atom of carbon. The particles of hydrogen are in the same way taken two at a time. consuming hydrogen the oxygen molecules divide each into two oxygen atoms, and each single atom takes its two hydrogen atoms.

In

Now, in the case of spontaneous combustion, unobserved causes produce heat among particles of combustible character. If, for instance, a painter throws a ball of cotton waste, with which he has rubbed down an oiled surface, out upon a snowdrift, he may see it take fire there in consequence of the fact that the oxygen of the air beating intensely among and

upon the particles of the oil and the cotton heats them rapidly until they reach the point of ignition. Then the next step of the process is taken-that of the oxygen striking fiercely enough for a fiery effect, thus causing the oiled cotton to burst into flame. The unobserved cause here of the heating is the intensely beating oxygen. The imagination can hardly form an adequate conception of the violent intensity with which the oxygen of the air is beating against everything. The rust of steel is the result of the eating power which the beating oxygen has. Oiled cotton is easily and quickly affected by this action of the oxygen of the air, which thus, on the sly as it were, does the preparatory work of combustion which ordinarily is done for it by some other heating cause.

Now, in the case of explosion in flour-mills, or in places where dry coal-dust fills the air, that which takes place is comparable exactly to what we have described in the case of the cotton waste, heated to the point of ignition and then burned through the operation of oxygen alone. One-fourth part of the air of the mill is oxygen in the state which we have described. The fine particles of dry dust, flour or coal in the air are easily heated by the action of the oxygen to the point of ignition, and once at that point the lightning stroke of the oxygen, all the molecules of the whole air acting in one instant, or flash, make the explosion. The terrific energy of an explosion cannot be properly understood without a considerable further explanation of the way in which the explosive effects take place. But the matter of the initiation of the explosion has its complete explanation in what we have said of the natural action of the oxygen of the air.

I wish to take a course in anatomy and physiology preparatory to studying medicine. Kindly put me in a way to do so.

The two subjects are of peculiar interest taken together. That of Anatomy can be pursued with great satisfaction through careful reading, -first, of the elaborate encyclopædia articles in the Britannica, including the biographical articles on the eminent men who represent different steps of advance in the history of the science; and, second, in the best, most recent works which bring the subject up to date.

Physiology is provided for in the same way, and very fully, in the Britannica and in recent works of the highest character and value; but the subject is one not yet clearly and conclusively taught anywhere, although opinions expressed with the greatest confidence and in very elaborate expositions of what are supposed to be the facts, are abundant.

sources.

One of the great matters not yet perfectly resolved grows out of the fact that physiology covers the whole plant world; everything vegetable, not less than the animal world. But the greatest difficulties in physiology are met with in connection with the attempts which are made to explain what vital energy is and what are its Here the field is almost wholly in possession, even to the present moment, of pseudoscience. The immense and masterly five-volume text-book, for example, by Foster, of the University of Cambridge, elaborately expounds a thoroughly wrong, not to say absolutely absurd, theory of the source of vital energy in the animal. Prof. Huxley, in an admirable small book on Physiology, sets forth this theory, claiming that the same stir among the molecules or atoms of the system, which takes place in a rotting carcass, gives, when it takes place in the living system, the animating and moving energy of the system.

A pumpkin, for instance, left lying on the ground, will, through chemical stir among its molecules, sink down in a mass of rottenness. If a cow eats the fresh pumpkin, the same chemical stir, taking place at once, is supposed by Huxley and Foster to give the cow animating and vital energy. The rotting of the pumpkin in her interior unlooses, they say, the energy which enables her to kick over the milk-pail, and perhaps violently gore the milk-maid. Just how the decay of a pumpkin in a cow's interior should contain any such energy, much less let it off, the labored explanation about it has never attempted to state.

In the next number of SELF CULTURE the editor will begin a series of outline studies of the double subject of Anatomy and Physiology, together with the Chemistry and Physics, the Electricity and Magnetism, the Zoology and Botany which are necessarily a part of the study. An indexical digest of readings in the Britannica will be given, with definitions and defining descriptions of all the objects covered by the study, and an outline view of teaching on the subject, with additional references to the best recent authorities.

What is the cause of the beautiful colors at sunrise and sunset?

The cause of the blue color of the sky is the presence in the air through which we see a blue sky of particles of matter so fine and minute as to agree in size with the smallness of the smallest light-waves; those which give to the eye the effect of blue. If the air were perfectly clear of these fine particles of matter, the sky would be black instead of blue. The exceed

ingly fine particles wholly reflect the waves of light which give a blue effect.

But as the sun rises in the east or sets in the west, his rays come to the eye through air in which the floating particles of matter are larger, and these larger particles reflect, it may be waves which give yellow, or, with particles still larger, the waves that give red effect. To have the heavens blood-red, it would only be necessary to have the upper air filled with fine particles of the right size for reflecting the red waves. Suns or skies that scare people, as if solar anger or celestial terror were revealed, really mean nothing, except that the universal dust of the air is composed of particles enough larger than the common to reflect red instead of blue.

What was the origin of vaccination?

Jenner, the discoverer of vaccination, was an apprentice to a surgeon at Sodbury, near Bristol, England, when, about 1769, his attention was called to the popular belief which he found current in Gloucestershire that cowpox antagonized smallpox. From 1770, as a student under John Hunter, in London, for two years, and as a practitioner at Berkeley, his native town, he pursued occasional inquiry without any clear result. In the years 1775 to 1780 he became satisfied, by careful investigation, that one form of cowpox taken at the right time would antagonize smallpox. In 1788 he had on exhibition a drawing of the cowpox as seen on the hands of a milkmaid. In 1796, May 14th, he made an experiment on a boy 8 years of age, whom he inoculated with cowpox matter, and later, July 1st, inoculated with smallpox matter without any smallpox following. Two years followed before he could experiment further and announce, as he then did, his discovery in a published pamphlet. Both strong opposition and strong advocacy immediately followed, and in the course of 1799 the practice of inoculating with cowpox matter spread over England, was extended within a year to the United States, and on the continent of Europe, and so over the whole world within the short period of six years. Spain, for example, in 1803, sent a cowpox diffusion expedition on a three-years' circumnavigation of the globe, to introduce the new practice in all the Spanish possessions. The greatest excitement and enthusiasm attended the early progress of the practice throughout the world. The exact philosophy of the practice cannot be said to have been perfectly made out during these years, and questions, therefore, as to its merit and its necessity cannot be said to have been fully answered. In 1811 London was greatly excited

by the case of one of Lord Grosvenor's children, who took the smallpox severely after having been vaccinated by Jenner himself ten years before. Great clamor against the practice had existed from the first, and this, especially renewed on the occasion just mentioned, was again widely renewed in 1818, when a severe epidemic of smallpox prevailed, in disregard, apparently, of the supposed efficacy of vaccination.

An earlier practice before Jenner's time was that of inoculating with smallpox matter from a mild case, in the belief that a mild form of the disease would follow, and would serve as protection against the worse form. This practice was in use in Turkey early in the eighteenth century, and became known and employed in England through information given in the letters of Lady Mary Mortley Montague. The practice was thought well of for a time, but the final conclusion was that it tended to

EVENTS OF THE MONTH

August 21.-A lamentable outbreak of smallpox in London. . Collapse of the Chicago Colosseum. . State census of Massachusetts gives Boston a population of 494,205 and the proposed "Greater Boston" 971,512.

August 22.-Heavy fire loss at Milwaukee. The Maybrick case promised consideration by the British Home Secretary. . $1,500,000 Chicago City warrants sold at par. . Nebraska Democrats declare for free coinage of silver. August 23.-Keir Hardie, English labor representative, arrives at New York. . Cardinal Gibbons returns from Rome. . The London Times pronounces for free Cuba. . President J.J. Hill of the Great Northern likely to obtain control of the Northern Pacific.

August 24.—Attempt upon the life of Baron Alphonse de Rothschild, in Paris, by an infernal machine. . Constant successes of Cuban insurgents reported.

August 25.-Poor's Railway Manual for 1895 shows total number of miles of railroads in the United States 179,279.

August 26.—The corn crop of America 1,000,oco bushels larger than in 1894. . Report of execution of four Chinese ringleaders in recent

massacre.

August 28.-Grand parade of Knights Templar in Boston-20,000 in line. . The Illinois Central and the City of Chicago settle the question of the occupancy of the lake front. . Senator Quay controls Republican organization in Pennsylvania. . Captain-General Campos

said to declare Spain's struggle in Cuba hopeless.

August 29.-Latin made an elective study in Chicago grammar-schools.

August 30. Keir Hardie in Chicago .. Cholera in Hawaii. . "New Irish movement" proposed in Chicago. . Excavation for first eight miles of the Hennepin Canal completed. .. The Cincinnati Conference of Methodists votes to make women eligible as delegates.

August 31.-The Academy of Music, Buffalo, N. Y., destroyed by fire.

September 1.-Earthquake shocks at Philadelphia, and Brooklyn, N. Y. . . The Emperor William Memorial Church in Berlin consecrated... German-Americans of Chicago celebrate German victory at Sedan twenty-five years ago.

September 3.-The Mississippi Valley Medical Association in session at Detroit.

September 5.-Chicago has 11,000 more pupils than her school-buildings will accommodate. . . A bomb thrown into the Rothschild bank in Paris.

September 6.-Chauncey M. Depew of the opinion that the Democrats will nominate Cleveland for a third term . . The price of steel tin-plate bar threatens to destroy the American tin-plate industry. . . Death of William Henry Hurlbert in Italy.

September 7.-The Defender wins the first yacht-race at New York by 8.49. . . Masonic Temple at Boston nearly destroyed by fire. .

Railway wreck near Monmouth, Kansas. Nearly forty miners entombed in a burning shaft at Houghton, Mich. . . Adams Express Company robbed of about $40,000 at Terre Haute, Ind.

September 8.-Explosion of dynamite at Specht's Ferry, Iowa, kills five and wrecks many buildings.

September 9.-Cuban insurgents said to have captured Puerto Principe. . . Report of fresh Turkish outrages in Armenia.

September 10.-New York yacht-race won on a foul by Valkyrie III. . . Great Republican rally to open campaign at Springfield, Ohio. . . Grand gathering of G. A. R. men at Louisville, Ky.

September 11.-PennsylvaniaDemocratic Convention... Defender awarded Tuesday's race. . . Excessive heat-92° in Chicago. . . The New York Central Railroad breaks the world's record (634 miles in an hour-540 miles in 512 minutes) by making 436%1⁄2 miles in 414 minutes and 57 seconds, or 64 miles an hour. . . Parade of the G.A. R. veterans at Louisville-30,000 in line. . . The British Association for the Advancement of Science opens its sixty-fifth annual meeting at Ipswich, England. . . Railway wreck and five killed at Melby, on the Great Northern.

September 12.-Defender a victor in third race at New York. . . Cholera increasing at Honolulu. . . Cardinal Gibbons announces the desire of the pope for prayers on behalf of his independence in Rome.

September 13.-Banquet in Chicago to representative men from Atlanta, Ga. . . Crop expectations in America wheat, 403,000,000 bushels; oats, 725,000,000; corn, 3,325,000,000. .. The Detroit Methodist Conference allows eleven women delegates to take their seats as members.

September 14.-Prof. E. V. Riley, entomologist at Washington, killed by fall from his bicycle.

September 15.-Dr. F. W. Reilly issues for the Board of Health of Chicago a circular in favor of the anti-toxine treatment for diphtheria. Beloit College opens all its opportuni

ties to women.

September 16.-The National Irrigation Congress meets at Albuquerque, New Mexico. . . Opening of the Mexican Congress, and message of President Diaz. . . Phenomenal locomotivea single driver engine for fast work, turned out from the Baldwin works, at Philadelphia.

September 17.-Cholera spreading in the Sandwich Islands. . . Republican Convention in New York nominates state ticket. . . Death of Dr. V. C. McClure.

IT IS FULL TO OVERFLOWING WITH CORN, OATS, AND WHEAT, AND PROMISES TO BRING PEACE, PROSPERITY AND PLENTY TO US ALL.

The editor of SELF CULTURE, who began with the farm as his first practical school, and who still knows of no situation more attractive than that of close acquaintance with the field and the forest, congratulates the University of Self-Culture readers upon Mr. Prime's contribution this month to studies of extreme interest, and upon the prospect that agriculture will receive regular attention from him with each recurring month. In Self Culture for November Mr. Prime will take occasion, by the State Fair at Springfield, to tell the story of Agriculture in Illinois.

LL we can do is to move something," was said many years ago by a French political economist. Yes, that is all very true, but we must grow something first. At the same time, production and movement are one and inseparable. Every man who is a producer not only benefits himself, but mankind.

We are on the eve of another great crop windup, the like of which we, as a people, probably never witnessed before. The whole country seems fairly thrilled to its very center at the prospects of the good times coming, and which seem to be almost within our grasp. Reports are now coming from all over the country as to general trade expansion, which are building a firm foundation in commercial and financial circles for our future prosperity.

It is true that every crop-season sees more or