that the
geography of the world, notwithstanding some very fair existing
treatises, is little studied by Chinese at the present day. More works
on topography have been written in Chinese than in probably any other
language, but to say that even these are read is quite another matter.
Geography, properly so called, is almost entirely neglected, and in a
rather extensive circle of literary acquaintances, it has never been
our fortune to meet with a single scholar acquainted with the useful
publications of Catholic or Protestant missionaries--the latter have
not contributed much--except perhaps the mutilated edition of
Verbiest's little handbook.

To describe one is to give a fair idea of all such native works for
the diffusion of knowledge. We found in our little parcel a complete
guide (save the mark!) to the _Fauna_ and _Flora_ of the Celestial
Empire, besides a treatise headed "Philosophy for the Young," in which
children are shown that to work for one's living is better than to be
idle, and that the strength of three men is powerless against _Li_.
Now as _Li_ means "abstract right," and as it is an axiom of Chinese
philosophy that "right in the abstract" does exist, we are gravely
informed that neither the moral or physical violence of any three men
acting in concert can hope to prevail against it. So much for the
state of education in China at the present day, the remedy for which
unwholesome condition will by no means readily be found. From time to
time a few scientific treatises are translated by ambitious members of
the missionary body, but such only tend to swell the pastor's fame
amongst his own immediate flock: they do not advance civilisation one
single step. The very fact of their emanating from a missionary would
of itself be enough to deter the better class of Chinese from
purchasing, or even accepting them as a gift.[*]

[*] "The principal priest . . . declined the gift of some Christian
books."--From _Glimpses of Travel in the Middle Kingdom_,
published in the _Celestial Empire_ of July 3d, 1875.

DENTISTRY

Roaming in quest of novelty through that mine of marvels, a Chinese
city, we were a witness the other day of a strange but not uncommon
scene. We had halted in front of the stall of a street apothecary,
surgeon, and general practitioner, and were turning over with our eyes
his stock of simples, dragons' teeth, tigers'-claws, and like drugs
used as ingredients in the native pharm