even when not intended for food, entails so much
disgrace that it is an offence of the rarest occurrence. My laws provide
various punishments according to the grade of the offender and the
nature of the offence.

If a common man were really cruel to his horse he would be compelled to
draw his merchandise by hand. If the offence were committed by a man of
high position the punishment would be more severe, and not only would he
be treated as though he were unworthy of exercising power over good
animals and consequently deprived of all his horses, but he would be
supplied with a vicious horse, which, perhaps, he would be obliged to
ride along a dangerous path, that he might thus be made to appreciate
the superior gentleness of the one he had maltreated. If the offence
were repeated, he would be degraded from his position or condemned
during a certain period to wear "the dress of shame."

XXXVII.

THE ALLMANYUKA.

"Improve Nature's gifts, and with her elements form new
compounds....

"Were man's faculties given that they should slumber?"

Nothing engaged my attention more than the health of my people. I had
satisfied myself that the most virulent diseases took their development
from minute, nay, almost imperceptible causes.

As I had determined to find out the germs of faults in children, which,
when neglected, led to confirmed vices in the adult; so I was determined
to discover disease in its incipience, and wherever possible, to remove
the exciting cause.

I have already referred to the creation of a new fruit-vegetable, as one
of the subjects of a series of pictures in my summer palace. I will now
relate to you some facts regarding the production of the fruit, the
offspring of my anxiety for the health of the people.

In the early part of my reign, before the means had been discovered for
detecting the incipient germs of disease, the people were afflicted by
the return of a painful malady, with which they had often been afflicted
before. It was attended with irritation of the intestines, and carried
the sufferer off rapidly; for, although all the doctors were familiar
with the symptoms, none of them had been able to discover the cause of
the disease, or its cure.

I remarked that the children at the colleges were not attacked by this
disease, and therefore thought that it had probably originated in
something used by adults and not by the young.

The truth of my hypothesis was soon