 95 Theses by Martin Luther This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Read by David Jakeway. Disputation of Dr. Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences by Dr. Martin Luther, 1517 Out of love for the truth and the desire to bring it to light, the following propositions will be discussed at Wittenberg. Under the Presidency of the Reverend Father Martin Luther, Master of Arts and of Sacred Theology, and Lecturer in Ordinary on the Same at that Place. Wherefore he requests that those who are unable to be present and debate orally with us may do so by letter. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen. 1. Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when he said, penitentium agite, will that the whole life of believers should be repentance. 2. This word cannot be understood to mean sacramental penance, i.e. confession and satisfaction, which is administered by the priests. 3. Yet it means not inward repentance only. Nay, there is no inward repentance which does not outwardly work diverse mortifications of the flesh. 4. The penalty of sin therefore continues so long as hatred of self continues, for this is the true inward repentance and continues until our entrance into the kingdom of heaven. 5. The Pope does not intend to remit and cannot remit any penalties other than those which he has imposed either by his own authority or by that of the cannons. 6. The Pope cannot remit any guilt except by declaring that it has been remitted by God and by assenting to God's remission, though to be sure he may grant remission in cases reserved to his judgment. If his right to grant remission in such cases were despised, the guilt would remain entirely unforgiven. 7. God remits guilt to no one whom he does not at the same time humble in all things and bring into subjection to his vicar the priest. 8. The penitential cannons are imposed only on the living and according to them nothing should be imposed on the dying. 9. Therefore the Holy Spirit and the Pope is kind to us because in his decrees he always makes exception of the article of death and of necessity. 10. Ignorant and wicked are the doings of those priests who in the case of the dying reserve canonical penances for purgatory. 11. This changing of the canonical penalty to the penalty of purgatory is quite evidently one of the tears that were sown while the bishops slept. 12. In former times the canonical penalties were imposed not after but before absolution as tests of true contrition. 13. The dying are freed by death from all penalties. They are already dead to canonical rules and have a right to be released from them. 14. The imperfect health of soul that is to say the imperfect love of the dying brings with it of necessity great fear and the smaller the love the greater is the fear. 15. This fear and horror is sufficient of itself alone to say nothing of other things to constitute the penalty of purgatory since it is very near to the horror of despair. 16. Hell, purgatory and heaven seem to differ as do despair, almost despair and the assurance of safety. 17. With souls in purgatory it seems necessary that horror should grow less and love increase. 18. It seems unproved either by reason or scripture that they are outside the state of merit that is to say of increasing love. 19. Again it seems unproved that they or at least that all of them are certain or assured of their own blessedness, though we may be quite certain of it. 20. Therefore by, quote, full remission of all penalties, unquote, the Pope means actually not of all but only those imposed by himself. 21. Therefore those preachers of indulgences are in error who say that by the Pope's indulgences a man is freed from every penalty and saved. 22. Whereas he remits to souls in purgatory no penalty which, according to the canons, they would have had to pay in this life. 23. If it is at all possible to grant to anyone the remission of all penalties whatsoever, it is certain that this remission can be granted only to the most perfect, that is, to the very fewest. 24. It must needs be therefore that the greater part of the people are deceived by that indiscriminate and high-sounding promise of release from penalty. 25. The power which the Pope has, in a general way over purgatory, is just like the power which any bishop or curate has in a special way within his own diocese or parish. 26. The Pope does well when he grants remission to souls in purgatory, not by the power of the keys which he does not possess, but by way of intercession. 27. They preach man who say that so soon as the penny jingles into the money-box the soul flies out of purgatory. 28. It is certain that when the penny jingles into the money-box gain an avarice can be increased, but the result of the intercession of the church is in the power of God alone. 29. Who knows whether all the souls in purgatory wish to be bought out of it, as in the legend of Saints Severinas and Paschal. 30. No one is sure that his own contrition is sincere, much less that he has attained full remission. 31. Rare as is the man that is truly penitent, so rare is also the man who truly buys indulgences, i.e. such men are most rare. 32. They will be condemned eternally together with their teachers who believe themselves sure of their salvation because they have letters of pardon. 33. Men must be on their guard against those who say that the Pope's pardons are that inestimable gift of God by which man is reconciled to him. 34. For these graces of pardon concern only the penalties of sacramental satisfaction, and these are appointed by man. 35. They preach no Christian doctrine who teach that contrition is not necessary in those who intend to buy souls out of purgatory or to buy confession alia. 36. Every truly repentant Christian has a right to full remission of penalty and guilt even without letters of pardon. 37. Every true Christian whether living or dead has part in all the blessings of Christ in the church, and this is granted him by God even without letters of pardon. 38. Nevertheless the remission and participation in the blessings of the church which are granted by the Pope are in no way to be despised, for they are as I have said the declaration of divine remission. 39. It is most difficult even for the very keenest theologians at one and the same time to commend to the people the abundance of pardons and the need of true contrition. 40. True contrition seeks and loves penalties, but liberal pardons only relax penalties and cause them to be hated or at least furnish an occasion for hating them. 41. Apostolic pardons are to be preached with caution, lest the people may falsely think them preferable to other good works of love. 42. Christians are to be taught that the Pope does not intend the buying of pardons to be compared in any way to works of mercy. 43. Christians are to be taught that he who gives to the poor or lends to the needy does a better work than buying pardons. 44. Because love grows by works of love and man becomes better, but by pardons man does not grow better, only more free from penalty. 45. Christians are to be taught that he who sees a man in need and passes him by and gives his money for pardons purchases not the indulgences of the Pope but the indignation of God. 46. Christians are to be taught that unless they have more than they need they are bound to keep back what is necessary for their own families and by no means to squander it on pardons. 47. Christians are to be taught that the buying of pardons is a matter of free will and not of commandment. 48. Christians are to be taught that the Pope, in granting pardons, needs and therefore desires their devout prayer for him more than the money they bring. 49. Christians are to be taught that the Pope's pardons are useful if they do not put their trust in them but altogether harmful if through them they lose their fear of God. 50. Christians are to be taught that if the Pope knew the exactions of the pardon preachers he would rather that St. Peter's church should go to ashes than that it should be built up with the skin, flesh and bones of his sheep. 51. Christians are to be taught that it would be the Pope's wish as it is his duty to give of his own money to very many of those from whom certain hawkers of pardons cajole money even though the church of St. Peter might have to be sold. 52. The assurance of salvation by letters of pardon is vain even though the commissary, nay, even though the Pope himself were to stake his soul upon it. 53. They are enemies of Christ and of the Pope who bid the word of God be altogether silent in some churches in order that pardons may be preached in others. 54. Injury is done the word of God when, in the same sermon an equal or longer time is spent on pardons than on this word. 55. It must be the intention of the Pope that if pardons which are a very small thing are celebrated with one bell with single processions and ceremonies, then the gospel which is the very greatest thing should be preached with a hundred bells, a hundred processions, a hundred ceremonies. 56. The treasures of the church out of which the Pope grants indulgences are not sufficiently named or known among the people of Christ. 57. That they are not temporal treasures is certainly evident for many of the vendors do not pour out such treasures so easily but only gather them. 58. Nor are they the merits of Christ and the saints, for even without the Pope these always work grace for the inner man, and the cross, death, and hell for the outward man. 59. St. Lawrence said that the treasures of the church were the church's poor, but he spoke according to the usage of the word in his own time. 60. Without rashness we say that the keys of the church given by Christ's merit are that treasure. 61. For it is clear that for the remission of penalties and of reserved cases the power of the Pope is of itself sufficient. 62. The true treasure of the church is the most holy gospel of the glory and the grace of God. 63. But this treasure is naturally most odious for it makes the first to be last. 64. On the other hand the treasure of indulgences is naturally most acceptable for it makes the last to be first. 65. Therefore the treasures of the gospel are nets with which they formerly were want to fish for men of riches. 66. The treasures of the indulgences are nets with which they now fish for the riches of men. 67. The indulgences which the preachers cry as the greatest graces are known to be truly such insofar as they promote gain. 68. Yet they are in truth the very smallest graces compared with the grace of God and the piety of the cross. 69. Bishops and curates are bound to admit the commissaries of apostolic pardons with all reverence. 70. But still more are they bound to strain all their eyes and attend with all their ears lest these men preach their own dreams instead of the commission of the pope. 71. He who speaks against the truth of apostolic pardons let him be anathema and accursed. 72. But he who guards against the lust and license of the pardon preachers let him be blessed. 73. The pope justly thunders against those who by any art contrive the injury of the traffic in pardons. 74. But much more does he intend to thunder against those who use the pretext of pardons to contrive the injury of holy love and truth. 75. To think the papal pardons so great that they could absolve a man even if he had committed an impossible sin and violated the mother of God this is madness. 76. We say on the contrary that the papal pardons are not able to remove the very least of venial sins so far as its guilt is concerned. 77. It is said that even St. Peter if he were now pope could not bestow greater graces. This is blasphemy against St. Peter and against the pope. 78. We say on the contrary that even the present pope and any pope at all has greater graces at his disposal to width the gospel, powers, gifts of healing, etc. as it is written in 1 Corinthians 12. 79. To say that the cross emblazoned with the papal arms which is set up by the preachers of indulgences is of equal worth with the cross of Christ is blasphemy. 80. The bishops, curates, and theologians who allow such talk to be spread among the people will have an account to render. 81. This unbridled preaching of pardons makes it no easy matter even for learned men to rescue the reverence due the pope from slander or even from the shrewd questionings of the laity. 82. To wit. Why does not the pope empty purgatory for the sake of holy love and of the dire need of the souls that are there if he redeems an infinite number of souls for the sake of miserable money with which to build a church? The former reasons would be most just. The latter is most trivial. 83. Again, why are mortuary and anniversary masses for the dead continued and why does he not return or permit the withdrawal of the endowments founded on their behalf since it is wrong to pray for the redeemed? 84. Again, what is this new piety of God and the pope that for money they allow a man who is impious and their enemy to buy out of purgatory the pious soul of a friend of God and do not rather, because of that pious and beloved soul's own need, free it for pure love's sake? 85. Again, why are the penitential canons long since an actual fact and through disuse abrogated and dead now satisfied by the granting of indulgences as though they were still alive and in force? 86. Again, why does not the pope whose wealth is today greater than the riches of the richest build just this one church of St. Peter with his own money rather than with the money of poor believers? 87. Again, what is it that the pope remits and what participation does he grant to those who, by perfect contrition, have a right to full remission and participation? 88. Again, what greater blessing could come to the church than if the pope were to do a hundred times a day what he now does once and bestow on every believer these remissions and participations? 89. Since the pope, by his pardons, seeks the salvation of souls rather than money, why does he suspend the indulgences and pardons granted of four since these have equal efficacy? 90. To repress these arguments and scruples of the laity by force alone and not to resolve them by giving reasons is to expose the church and the pope to the ridicule of their enemies and to make Christians unhappy. 91. If therefore pardons were preached according to the spirit and mind of the pope, all these doubts would be readily resolved, nay, they would not exist. 92. Away then with all those prophets who say to the people of Christ, peace, peace, and there is no peace. 93. Blessed be all those prophets who say to the people of Christ, cross, cross, and there is no cross. 94. Christians are to be exhorted that they be diligent in following Christ, their head, through penalties, deaths, and hell. 95. And thus be confident of entering into heaven rather through many tribulations than through the assurance of peace. End of 95 Theses by Martin Luther. On the Antiseptic Principle of the Practice of Surgery This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. On the Antiseptic Principle of the Practice of Surgery 1867 by Joseph Lister In the course of an extended investigation into the nature of inflammation and the healthy and morbid conditions of the blood in relation to it, I arrived several years ago at the conclusion that the essential cause of superation in wounds is decomposition brought about by the influence of the atmosphere upon blood or serum retained within them and in the case of contused wounds upon portions of tissue destroyed by the violence of the injury. To prevent the occurrence of superation with all its attendant risk was an object manifestly desirable, but till lately apparently unattainable, since it seemed hopeless to attempt to exclude the oxygen which was universally regarded as the agent by which pre-trafection was affected. But when it had been shown by the researches of Pasteur that the septic properties of the atmosphere depended not on the oxygen or any gaseous constituent but on minute organisms suspended in it which owed their energy to their vitality, it occurred to me that decomposition in the injured part might be avoided without excluding the air by applying as addressing some material capable of destroying the life of the floating particles. Upon this principle I have based a practice of which I will now attempt to give a short account. The material which I have employed is carbolic or phenic acid, a volatile organic compound which appears to exercise a peculiarly destructive influence upon low forms of life and hence is the most powerful antiseptic with which we are at present acquainted. The first class of cases to which I applied it was that of compound fractures in which the effects of decomposition in the injured part were especially striking and pernicious. The results have been such as to establish conclusively the great principle that all local inflammatory mischief and general febrile disturbances which follow severe injuries are due to the irritating and poisonous influence of decomposing blood or sloths. For these evils are entirely avoided by the antiseptic treatment so that limbs which would otherwise be unhesitatingly condemned to amputation may be retained with confidence of the best results. In conducting the treatment the first object must be the destruction of any septic germs which may have been introduced into the wounds in the moment of the accident or during the time which has since elapsed. This is done by introducing the acid of full strength into all accessible recesses of the wound by means of a piece of rag held in dressing forceps and dipped into the liquid. Note 1. The addition of a few drops of water to a considerable quantity of the acid induces it to assume permanently the liquid form. This I did not venture to do in the earlier cases, but experience has shown that the compound which carboleic acid forms with the blood and also any portions of the tissue killed by its caustic action including even parts of the bone are disposed of by absorption and organization provided they are afterward kept from decomposing. We are thus unable to employ the antiseptic treatment efficiently at a period after the occurrence of the injury at which it would otherwise probably fail. In the last two weeks after my care in Glasgow Infirmary a boy who was admitted with compound fracture of the leg as late as 8 and 1 half hours after the accident in whom, nevertheless, all local and constitutional disturbance was avoided by means of carboleic acid and the bones were soundly united five weeks after his admission. The next object to be kept in view is to guard effectually against the spreading of decomposition into the wound along the stream and serum which oozes out during the first few days after the accident when the acid originally applied has been washed out or dissipated by absorption and evaporation. This part of the treatment has been greatly improved during the past few weeks. The method which I have hitherto published, see Lancet for March 16th, 23rd, 30th and April 27th of the present year consisted in the application of a piece of lint dipped in the acid overlapping the sound skin to some extent and covered with a tin cap which was daily raised in order to touch the surface of the lint with the antiseptic. This method certainly succeeded well with wounds of moderate size and indeed I may say that in all the many cases of this kind which have been so treated by myself or my house surgeons, not a single failure has occurred. When however the wound is very large the flow of blood and serum is so profuse, especially during the first four hours, that the antiseptic application cannot prevent the spread of decomposition into the interior unless it overlaps the sound skin for a very considerable distance. And this was inadmissible by the method described above on account of the extent sloughing of the surface of the cutis which it would involve. This difficulty has however been overcome by employing a paste composed of common whiting, carbonate of lime, mixed with the solution of one part of carbolic acid and parts of oil linseed oil so as to form a firm putty. This application contains the acid in too diluted form to excruiate the skin which it may be made to cover to any extent that may be thought desirable while its substance serves as a reservoir of the antiseptic material. So long as any discharge continues the paste should be changed daily and in order to prevent the chance of mischief occurring during the process a piece of rag dipped in the solution of carbolic acid and oil put on next the skin and maintain there permanently care being taken to avoid raising it along with the putty. This rag is always kept in an antiseptic condition from contact with the paste above it and destroys any germs which may fall upon it during the short time that should alone be allowed to pass in the changing of the dressing. The putty should be in a layer about a quarter of an inch thick and may be advantageously applied rolled out between two pieces of thin calico in the form of a continuous sheet which may be wrapped in a moment around the whole circumference of a limb if this be thought desirable while the putty is prevented by the calico from sticking to the rag which is next to the skin. Note 2. In order to prevent evaporation of the acid which passes readily through any organic tissue such as the oiled silk or gutta percha it is well to cover the paste with a sheet of blocked tin or tin foil strengthened with adhesive plaster. The thin sheet lead used for lining tea chest will also answer the purpose and may be obtained from any wholesale grocer. When all discharge has ceased the use of the paste is discontinued but the original rag is left adhering to the skin till healing by scabbing is supposed to be complete. I have at present in the hospital a man with severe compound fracture of both bones of the left leg caused by direct violence who after the cessation of the sanious discharge after the use of the paste without a drop of pus appearing has been treated for the last two weeks exactly as if the fracture was a simple one. During this time the rag adhering by means of a crust of inspisated blood collected underneath it has continued perfectly dry and it will be left untouched until the usual period for removing the splints in a simple fracture when we may fairly expect to find a sound cicatrix beneath it. We cannot however always calculate on so perfect a result as this. More or less pus may appear after the lapse of the first week and the larger the wound the more likely this is to happen. And here I would desire earnestly to enforce the necessity of persevering with the antiseptic application in spite of the appearance of superation as long as other symptoms are favorable. The surgeon is extremely apt to suppose that any superation is an indication that the antiseptic treatment has failed and that poulticing or water dressing should be resorted to. But such a course would in many cases sacrifice a limb or a life. I cannot however expect my professional brethren to follow my advice blindly in such a matter and therefore I feel it necessary to place before them as shortly as I can some pathological principles intimately connected not only with the point we are immediately considering but with the whole subject of this paper. The granulating sore be well washed and covered with a plate of clean metal such as blocked tin fitting its surface pretty accurately and overlapping the surrounding skin an inch or so in every direction and retained in position by adhesive plaster and a bandage it will be found on removing it after 24 or 48 hours that little or nothing that can be called pus is present merely a little transparent fluid while at the same time there is an entire absence of the unpleasant odor invariably perceived when water dressing is changed. Here the clean metallic surface presents no recesses like those of porous lint for the septic germs to develop in. The fluid exuding from the surface of the granulations has flowed away undecomposed and the result is the absence of superation. This simple experiment illustrates the important fact that granulations have no inherent tendency to form pus but do so only when subjected to natural stimulus. Further it shows that the mere contact of a foreign body does not of itself stimulate granulations to superate whereas the presence of decomposing organic matter does. These truths are even more strikingly exemplified by the fact that I have elsewhere recorded Lancet March 23rd 1867 that a piece of dead bone free from decomposition may not only fail to induce the granulations around it to superate but may actually be absorbed by them whereas a bit of dead bone soaked with putrid pus infallibly induces superation in its vicinity. Another instructive experiment is to dress a granulating sore with some of the putty above described overlapping the sound skin extensively. When we find in the course of 24 hours that pus has been produced by the sore although the application has been perfectly antiseptic and indeed the larger amount of carbolic acid in the paste the greater is the quantity of pus formed provided we avoid such a proportion as would act as a caustic. The carbolic acid though it prevents decomposition induces superation obviously by acting as a chemical stimulus and we may safely infer that putrescent organic materials which we know to be chemically acrid operate in the same way. In so far then carbolic acid and decomposing substances are alike fees that they induce superation by chemical stimulation as distinguished from what may be termed simple inflammatory superation such as that in which ordinary abscesses originate where the pus appears to be formed in consequence of an excited action of the nerves independent of any other stimulus. There is however this enormous difference between the effects of carbolic acid and those of decomposition fees that carbolic acid stimulates only the surface to which it is at first applied and every drop of discharge that forms weakens the stimulant by diluting it but decomposition is a self-propagating and self-aggravating poison and if it occur at the surface of a severely injured limb it will spread into all its recesses so far as any extra-vastated blood or shreds of dead tissue may extend and lying in those recesses it will become from hour to hour more acrid till it requires the energy of a caustic sufficient to destroy the vitality of any tissues naturally weak from inferior vascular supply or weakened by the injury they sustained in the accident. Hence it is easy to understand how when a wound is very large the crust beneath the rag may prove here and there insufficient to protect the raw surface from the stimulating influence of the carbolic acid in the putty and the result will be first the conversion of the tissue acted on into granulations and subsequently the formation of more or less pus. This however will be merely superficial and will not interfere with the absorption and organization of extra-vastated blood or dead tissues in the interior but on the other hand should decomposition set in before the internal parts have become securely consolidated the most disastrous results may ensue. I left behind me in Glasgow a boy 13 years of age who between 3 and 4 weeks previously met with a most severe injury to the left arm which he got entangled in a machine at a fair. There was a wound 6 inches long and 3 inches broad and the skin was very extensively undermined beyond its limits while the soft parts were generally so much lacerated that a pair of dressing forceps introduced at the wound and pushed directly inwards appeared beneath the skin at the opposite aspect of the limb. This wound several tags of muscle were hanging and among them was one consisting of about 3 inches of the triceps and almost its entire thickness while the lower fragment of the bone which was broken high up was protruding 4 inches and a half stripped of muscle, the skin being tucked in under it. Without the assistance of the antiseptic treatment I would certainly have thought of nothing else but amputation at the shoulder joint but as the radial pulse could be felt and the fingers felt sensation I did not hesitate to try to save the limb and adopted the plan of treatment above described wrapping the arm from shoulder to below the elbow in the antiseptic application. The whole interior of the wound together with their protruding bone having previously been freely treated with strong carbolic acid. About the 10th day the discharge which up to that time had been only sannyus and cirrus showed a slight admixture of slimy pus and this increased till a few days before I left it amounted to about 3 dracoms in 24 hours. But the boy continued as he had been after the second day free from unfavorable symptoms with pulse, tongue, appetite and sleep natural and strength increasing while the limb remained as it had been from the first free from swelling redness or pain. I therefore persevered with the antiseptic dressing and before I left the discharge was already somewhat less while the bone was becoming firm. I think it likely that in that boy's case I should have found merely a superficial sore had I taken off all the dressings at the end of the three weeks, though considering the extent of the injury I thought it prudent to let the month expire before disturbing the rag next the skin. But I feel sure that if I had resorted to ordinary dressing when the pus first appeared the progress of the case would have been exceedingly different. The next class of cases to which I have applied the antiseptic treatment is that of abscesses. Here also the results have been extremely satisfactory and in beautiful harmony with the pathological principles indicated above. The pyogenic membrane like the granulations of a sore which it resembles in nature forms pus not for many inherent disposition to do so but only because it is subjected to some preternatural stimulation. In an ordinary abscess whether acute or chronic before it is opened the stimulus which maintains the superation is derived from the presence of pus pent up within the cavity. When a free opening is made in the ordinary way this stimulus is got rid of but the atmosphere gaining access to the contents the potent stimulus of decomposition comes into operation and pus is generated in greater abundance than before. But when the evacuation is affected on the antiseptic principle the pyogenic membrane freed from the influence of the former stimulus without the substitution of a new one ceases to superate like the granulations of a sore under metallic dressing. Furnishing merely a trifling amount of clear serum and whether the opening be dependent or not rapidly contracts and coalesces. At the same time any constitutional symptoms previously occasioned by the accumulation of the matter are got rid of without the slightest risk of the irritative fever or hectic issues so justly dreaded and dealing with large abscesses. In order that the treatment may be satisfactory the abscess must be seen before it is opened then except in very rare and peculiar cases there are no sceptic organisms in the contents so that it is heedless to introduce carbolic acid into the interior. Indeed such a procedure would be objectionable as it would stimulate the pyogenic membrane to unnecessary superation. The first requisite is to guard against the introduction of living atmospheric germs from without at the same time that free opportunity is afforded for the escape of the discharge from within. Note 3. As in the instance of one of these exceptional cases I may mention that of an abscess in the vicinity of the colon and afterwards proved by post mortem examination to have once communicated with it. Here the pus was extremely offensive when evacuated and exhibited under the microscope. I have so lately given elsewhere a detailed account of the method by which this is affected Lancet July 27th 1867 that I shall not enter into it at present further than to say that the means employed are the same as those described above for the superficial dressing of compound fractures. These, a piece of rag dipped into the solution of carbolic acid in oil to serve as an antiseptic curtain under cover of which the abscess was evacuated by free incision and the antiseptic paste to guard against decomposition occurring in the stream of pus that flows out beneath it the dressing being changed daily until the sinus is closed. The most remarkable results of this practice in the pathological point of view have been afforded by cases where the formation of pus depended on disease of bone. Here the abscesses instead of forming exceptions to the general class have resembled the rest in yielding in a few days only a trifling discharge and frequently the production of pus has ceased from the moment of the evacuation of the original contents. Hence it appears that carries when no longer laboring as here to fore under the irritation of decomposing matter ceases to be in a probrium of surgery and recovers like other inflammatory affections. In the publication before alluded to I have mentioned the case of a middle man with a psoas abscess depending in diseased bone in whom the sinus finally closed after months of patient perseverance with the antiseptic treatment. Since that article was written I have had another instance of abscess equally gratifying but the differing in the circumstance that the disease and the recovery were more rapid in their course. The patient was a black Smith who had suffered four and a half months before I saw him from symptoms of ulceration of cartilage in the elbow. These had laterally increased in severity so I should deprive him entirely of his night's rest and of appetite. I found the region of the elbow greatly swollen and on careful examination found a fluctuating point at the outer aspect of the articulation. I opened it on the antiseptic principle the incision evidently penetrating to the joint giving exit to a few drawcums of pus. The medical gentleman under whose care he was, Dr. McGregor of Glasgow supervised the daily dressing with the carbolic acid paste till the patient went to spend two or three weeks at the coast when his wife was entrusted with it. Just two months after I opened the abscess he called to show me the limb stating that the discharge had been for at least two weeks as little as it was then a trifling moisture upon the paste such as might be accounted for by the little sore caused by the incision. On applying a probe guarded with an antiseptic rag I found the sinus was soundly closed while the limb was free from swelling or tenderness and although he had not attempted to exercise it much the joint could already be moved through a considerable angle. Here the antiseptic principle had affected the restoration of a joint which on any other known system of treatment must have been excised. Ordinary contused wounds are, of course amenable to the same treatment as compound fractures which are a complicated variety of them. I will content myself with mentioning a single instance of this class of cases. In April last a volunteer who was discharging a rifle when it burst and blew back the thumb with its metacarpal bone so that it could be bent back as on a hinge at the trapezeal joint which had evidently been opened while all the soft parts between the metacarpal bones of the thumb and forefinger were torn through. I need not insist before my present audience on the ugly character of such an injury. The house surgeon Mr. Hector Cameron applied carbolic acid to the whole raw surface and completed the dressing as if for a compound fracture. The hand remained free from pain, redness or swelling and with the exception of a shallow groove all the wound consolidated without a drop of matter so that if it had been a clean cut it would have been regarded as a good example of primary union. The small granulating surface soon healed and at present a linear cicatrix alone tells the injury he has sustained while his thumb has all its movements and his hand a fine grasp. If the severest forms of contused and lacerated wounds heal thus kindly under the antiseptic treatment it is obvious that its application to simple incised wounds must be merely a matter of detail. I have devoted a good deal of attention to this class but I have not as yet pleased myself altogether with any of the methods I have employed. I am however prepared to go as far as to say that a solution of carbolic acid in 20 parts of water while a mild and cleanly application may be relied on for destroying any septic germs that may fall upon the wound during the performance of an operation and also that for preventing the subsequent introduction of others the paste above describe applied as for compound fractures gives excellent results. Thus I have had a case of strangulated inguinal hernia in which it was necessary to take away a pound of thickened omentum heal without any deep seated superation or any tenderness of the sac or any fever and amputations including one immediately below the knee have remained absolutely free from constitutional symptoms. Further I have found that when the antiseptic treatment is efficiently conducted ligatures may be safely cut short and left to be disposed of by absorption or otherwise. Should this particular branch of the subject yield all that it promises should it turn on further trial that when the knot is applied on the antiseptic principle we may calculate as securely as if it were absent on the occurrence of healing without any deep seated superation. The delegation of main arteries in their continuity will be deprived of the two dangers that now attend it these those of secondary hemorrhage and an unhealthy state of the wound. Further it seems not unlikely that the present objection to tying an artery in the immediate of a large branch may be done away with and that even the inominate which has lately been the subject of an ingenious experiment by one of the Dublin surgeons on account of its well-known fatality under the ligature for secondary hemorrhage may cease to have this unhappy character when the tissues in the vicinity of the thread instead of becoming softened through the influence of an irritating decomposing substance are left at liberty to consolidate firmly near an unoffending though foreign body. It would carry me far beyond the limited time which by the rules of the association is alone at my disposal were I to enter into the various applications of the antiseptic principle in the several special departments of surgery. There is however one point more than I cannot but advert to these the influence of this mode of treatment upon the general healthiness of the hospital. Previously to its introduction the two large wards in which most of my cases of accident and of operation are treated were among the unhealthiest in the whole surgical division of the Glasgow royal infirmary in consequence apparently of those wards being unfavorably placed with reference to the supply of fresh air and I have felt ashamed when recording the results of my practice to have so often to allude to hospital Grand Green or Pyemia. It was interesting though melancholy to observe that whenever all or nearly all the beds contain cases with open sores these grievous complications were pretty sure to show themselves so that I came to welcome simple fractures though in themselves of little interest either for myself or the students because their presence diminished the proportion of open sores among the patients but since the antiseptic treatment has been brought into full operation and wounds and abscesses no longer poison the atmosphere with putrid exhalations my wards though in other respects under precisely the same circumstances as before have completely changed their character so that during the last nine months not a single instance of Pyemia hospital gangrene or Erisipolis has occurred in them as there appears to be no doubt regarding the cause of this change the importance of the fact can hardly be exaggerated and of on the antiseptic principle of the practice of surgery by Joseph Lister progress of medical science from Vanity Fair February 18th 1860 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org progress of medical science a western clergyman named H.T. Lewis having been attacked by bronchitis his physician prescribed a situation as conductor on the Memphis and Charleston railroad which the invalid straight away took we learn that he is rapidly running off his disease at the rate of 30 miles an hour or there about if the final success be equal to present indications it will be evident that medical men are on the track of a great discovery it has hitherto been understood that the mission of railroads is to endanger and destroy rather than preserve human life this new development of the law of compensation with delight even if the restorative power of the railroad should be confined to throat diseases much will be gained a mild case of Qatar might be overcome by a few days duty in the capacity of breakmen for an ordinary sore throat a trip or two as firemen ought to operate favorably a mere cold in the head would simply call for a little service as lubricator of machinery and in case of accompanying nasal a judicious application to the same grease to the obstructed member would be advantageous and so on through the chapter the arrangement would benefit both sides for not withstanding their characteristic modesty it is not to be expected that railroad companies could forgo the legitimate opportunities of profit they would open to them railway service would command a premium and naturally enough advertisements of this description would appear thus consumption can be cured there is a disease whose unrelenting fangs ruthlessly penetrate the sanctity of the family circle and whose ravages countless thousands mourn its progress is insidious its effects are fatal to the bodies of its victims and harrowing to the minds of surviving relatives and its name is consumption for ages it has baffled the skill of the wise and ridden its course of devastating triumph but its day is now over and its doom is sealed and its consumption can be cured likewise coughs colds and guitars and kindred diseases the Schohegan and Tallahassee railroad company beg to announce to the afflicted that desirable situations on their trains are now open at moderate rates particulars may be learned on personal application the attention of sufferers from stiff necks is particularly invited as there is at present a number of vacancies in the engine driving department where immovability of head and neck from one direct position is requisite NB it must be distinctly understood that the company refuses to assume all responsibility in case of accident the company can only undertake to cure or kill come and try it come and try it come and try it terms moderate terms moderate end of progress of medical science read by Leanne Howlett in baseball annals January 6th, 1920 New York Times Yanks by Babe Ruth for $125,000 highest purchase price in baseball history paid for games greatest slugger will get new contract Miller Huggins is now in California to sign home run king at large salary slated for right field acquisition of noted batsman gives New York club the hard hitting outfielder long desired Babe Ruth of the Boston Red Sox baseball super slugger was purchased by the Yankees yesterday for the largest cash sum ever paid for a player the New York club paid Harry Frazier of Boston $125,000 for the sensational batsman who last season caused such a furor in the national game by batting out 29 home runs a new record in long distance clouting Colonel Rupert President of the Yankees said that he had taken over Ruth's Boston contract which has two years more to run this contract calls for a salary of $10,000 a year Ruth recently announced that he would refuse to play for $10,000 next season although the Boston club has received no request for a raise in salary Mr. Miller Huggins is now in Los Angeles negotiating with Ruth it is believed that the Yankee manager will offer him a new contract which will be satisfactory to the colossus of the bat President Rupert said yesterday that Ruth would probably play right field for the Yankees he played in left field for the Red Sox last season and had the highest fielding average among the outfielders making only two errors during the season while he is on the Pacific next, manager Huggins will also endeavor to sign Duffy Lewis who will be one of Ruth's companions in the outfield at the polo grounds next season home run record in danger the acquisition of Ruth strengthens the Yankee club in its weakest department with the added hitting power of Ruth Bob Shockey one of the Yankee pitchers said yesterday the New York club should be a pennant winner next season for several seasons the Yankees have been experimenting without fielders but never have been able to land a consistent hitter the short right field wall at the polo grounds should prove an easy target for Ruth next season and playing 77 games at home it would not be surprising if Ruth surpassed his home run record of 29 circuit clout's next summer Ruth was such a sensation last season that he supplanted the great tie cob his baseball's greatest attraction and in obtaining the services of Ruth for next season the New York club made a ten strike which will be received with the greatest enthusiasm by Manhattan baseball fans Ruth's crowning batting accomplishment came at the polo grounds last fall when he hammered one of the longest hits ever seen in Harlem over the right field grandstand for his 28th home run smashing the home record of 27 made by Ed Williams and way back in 1884 the more modern home record up to last season had been held by Buck Freeman who made 25 home runs when a member of the Washington club in 1899 the next best home run hitter of modern times is Gavi Cravath now manager of the Phillies who made 24 home runs a few seasons ago Ruth's home run drives were distributed all over the circuit and he is the one player known to the game who hit a home run on every mark on the circuit in the same season specializes in long hits Ruth's batting feats last season will stand for many years to come unless he betters the record himself with the aid of the short right field under Cougin's bluff the record he made last season was a masterpiece of slugging he went up to the bat 432 times in 130 games and produced 139 hits of these hits and 75 were for extra bases not only did he make 29 home runs but he also made 34 two-baggers and 12 three-baggers Ruth's batting average for extra base hits was 657 a mark which probably will not be approached for many years to come Ruth scored the greatest number of runs in the American League last season crossing the plate 103 times Cobb scored only 97 runs last year Ruth was so dangerous that the American League pitchers were generous with their passes and the superlative hitter walked 101 times many of these passes being intentional Ruth also struck out more than any other batsman in the league fanning 58 times he also made 3 sacrifice hits and he stole 7 bases Ruth is a native of Baltimore and is 26 years old just in his prime as a baseball player he was discovered by Jack Dunn owner of the Baltimore club while playing with the baseball team of Mount St. Joseph's a school which Ruth attended in that city in 1913 in 1914 Ruth played with the Baltimore team and up to that time little attention had been paid to his batting it was as a picture that he attracted attention in Baltimore Boston bought Ruth along with Ernie Shore and some other players in 1914 this piece paid for Ruth was said to have been $2,700 holds world series record Ruth was a big success in the major league from the start in 1916 when the Red Sox won the pennant he led the American League pitchers in effectiveness and in the world series of 1916 and 1918 Ruth hung up a new world series pitching record for shut out innings he pitched 28 consecutive scoreless innings which beat the record of 27 scoreless innings made in world series games by Christy Matthewson of the Giants for the past few seasons Ruth's ambition has been to play regularly while he was doing only pitching duty with Boston he was a sensational pinch hitter and when he played regularly in the outfield last season he blossomed forth as the most sensational batsman the game has ever known he was also a great success as a fielder and last season he made only two errors and had 230 put outs he also had 26 assists more than any outfielder in the American League this was because of his phenomenal throwing arm his fielding average last season was 992 Ruth didn't do much pitching last season he pitched 13 games and won 8 and lost 5 manager Huggins is expected back in New York at the end of next week he has a contract in his inside pocket it is believed that the New York club will not try to hold Ruth to the Boston contract which he has decided is unsatisfactory the new contract which the Yankees have offered Ruth is said to be almost double the Boston figure of $10,000 a year while he is out on the coast interviewing Ruth Huggins is also getting into line not only Duffy Lewis but also Bob Muzel the sensational young slugger of the Pacific Coast League is regarded by baseball scouts as the minor league find of the year the perfect hitter Ruth's principle of batting is much the same as the principle of the golfer he comes back slowly keeps his eye on the ball and follows through his very position at the bat is intimidating to the pitcher he places his feet in perfect position he simply cannot step away from the pitch if he wants to he can step only one way the weight of Ruth's body when he bats is on his left leg the forward leg is bent slightly at the knee as he stands facing the pitcher more of his hips and back are seen by the pitcher than his chest or side when he starts to swing his back is half turned toward the pitcher he goes as far back as he can reach never for an instant taking his eye off the ball as it leaves the pitcher's hand the greatest power in his terrific swing comes when the bat is directly in front of his body just half way in the swing he hits the ball with terrific impact and there is no player in the game who swing is such a masterpiece of batting technique end of article please visit LibriVox.org the earthquake shook down in San Francisco hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of walls and chimneys but the conflagration that followed burned up hundreds of millions of dollars worth of property there is no estimating within hundreds of millions the actual damage wrought not in history has a modern imperial city been so completely destroyed San Francisco is gone nothing remains of it but memories and a fringe of dwelling houses on the outskirts its industrial section is wiped out its business section is wiped out its social and residential section is wiped out the factories and warehouses the great stores and newspaper buildings the hotels and the palaces of the Nabobs are all gone remains only the fringe of dwelling houses on the outskirts of what was once San Francisco within an hour after the earthquake shock the smoke of San Francisco's burning was a lurid tower visible a hundred miles away and for three days and nights this lurid tower swayed in the sky reddening the sun darkening the day and filling the land with smoke on Wednesday morning at a quarter past five came the earthquake a minute later the flames were leaping upward in a dozen different quarters south street in the working class ghetto and in the factories fires started there was no opposing the flames there was no organization no communication all the cunning adjustments of a 20th century city had been smashed by the earthquake the streets were humped into ridges and depressions and piled with the debris of fallen walls the steel rails were twisted into perpendicular and horizontal angles the telephone and telegraph systems were disrupted and the great water mains had burst all the shrewd contrivances and safeguards of man had been thrown out of gear by 30 seconds twitching of the earth crest the fire made its own draft by Wednesday afternoon inside of 12 hours half the heart of the city was gone at that time I watched the vast conflagration from out on the bay it was dead calm not a flicker of wind stirred yet from every side wind was pouring in upon the city east west north and south strong winds were blowing upon the doomed city the heated air rising made an enormous suck thus did the fire of itself built its own colossal chimney through the atmosphere day and night this dead calm continued and yet near to the flames the wind was often half a gale so mighty was the suck Wednesday night saw the destruction of the very heart of the city dynamite was lavishly used and many of San Francisco's proudest structures were crumbled by man himself into ruins but there was nowithstanding the flames time and again successful stands were made by the firefighters and every time the flames flanked around on either side or came up from the rear and turned to defeat the hard won victory an enumeration of the buildings destroyed would be a directory of San Francisco an enumeration of the buildings undestroyed would be a line and several addresses an enumeration of the deeds of heroism would stock a library and bankrupt the Carnegie metal fund an enumeration of the dead will never be made all vestiges of them were destroyed by the flames the number of the victims of the earthquake will never be known south of market street where the loss of life was particularly heavy was the first to catch fire remarkable as it may seem Wednesday night while the whole city crashed and roared into ruin was a quiet night there were no crowds there was no shouting and yelling there was no hysteria no disorder I passed Wednesday night in the path of the advancing flames and in all those terrible hours I saw not one woman who wept not one man who was excited not one person the slightest degree panic-stricken before the flames throughout the night led tens of thousands of homeless ones some were wrapped in blankets others carried bundles of bedding and deer household treasures sometimes a whole family was harnessed to a carriage or delivery wagon that was weighted down with their possessions baby buggies, toy wagons and go-karts were used as trucks while every other person was dragging a trunk yet everybody was gracious the most perfect courtesy obtained never in all San Francisco's history were her people so kind and courteous as on this night of terror a caravan of trunks all night these tens of thousands fled before the flames many of them the poor people from the labor ghetto all day as well they had left their homes burdened with possessions now and again they lightened up flinging out upon the street clothing and treasures they had dragged for miles they held on longest to their trunks and over these trunks many a strong man broke his heart that night the hills of San Francisco are steep and up these hills mile after mile were the trunks dragged everywhere were trunks with across them lying their exhausted owners men and women before the march of the flames were flunked picket lines of soldiers and a block at a time as the flames advanced these pickets retreated one of their tasks was to keep the trunk pullers moving the exhausted creatures stirred on by the menace of bayonets would arise these deep pavements pausing from weakness every 5 or 10 feet often after surmounting a heartbreaking hill they would find another wall of flame advancing upon them at right angles and be compelled to change anew the line of their retreat in the end completely played out after toiling for a dozen hours like giants thousands of them were compelled to abandon their trunks here the shopkeepers and soft members of the middle class were at a disadvantage but the working men dug holes in vacant lots and backyards and buried their trunks the doomed city at nine o'clock Wednesday evening I walked down through the very heart of the city I walked through miles and miles of magnificent buildings and towering skyscrapers here was no fire all was in perfect order the police patrolled the streets every building had its watchman at the door and yet it was doomed all of it there was no water the dynamite was giving out and at right angles two different conflagrations were sweeping down upon it at one o'clock in the morning I walked down through the same section everything still stood intact there was no fire and yet there was a change a rain of ashes was falling the watchmen at the doors were gone the police had been withdrawn there were no firemen no fire engines no men fighting with dynamite the district had been absolutely abandoned I stood at the corner of Kearney and Market in the very innermost heart of San Francisco Kearney Street was deserted half a dozen blocks away it was burning on both sides the street was a wall of flame and against this wall of flame silhouetted sharply were two United States cavalrymen sitting their horses calmly watching that was all not another person was in sight in the intact heart of the city two troopers sat their horses and watched spread of the conflagration surrender was complete there was no water the sewers had long since been pumped dry there was no dynamite another fire had broken out further uptown and now from three sides conflagrations were sweeping down the fourth side had been burned earlier in the day in that direction stood the tottering walls of the examiner building and the burned out call building the smoldering ruins of the grand hotel and the gutted, devastated, dynamited palace hotel the following will illustrate the sweep of the flames and the inability of men to calculate their spread at eight o'clock Wednesday evening I passed through Union Square it was packed with refugees thousands of them had gone to bed on the grass government tents had been set up supper was being cooked and the refugees were lining up for free meals at half past one in the morning three sides of Union Square were in flames the fourth side where stood the great St. Francis hotel was still holding out an hour later ignited from top and sides the St. Francis was flaming heavenward Union Square heaped high with mountains of trunks was deserted troops, refugees, and all had retreated even for a horse it was at Union Square that I saw a man offering a thousand dollars for a team of horses he was in charge of a truck piled high with trunks from some hotel it had been hauled here into what was considered safety and the horses had been taken out the flames were on three sides of the square and there were no horses also at this time standing beside the truck I urged a man to seek safety in flight he was all but hemmed in by several conflagrations he was an old man and he was on crutches said he today is my birthday last night I was worth $30,000 I bought five bottles of wine some delicate fish and other things for my birthday dinner I have had no dinner and all I own are these crutches I convinced him of his danger and started him limping on his way an hour later from a distance I saw the truck load of trunks burning merrily in the middle of the street on Thursday morning at a quarter past five just 24 hours after the earthquake I sat on the steps of a small residence on Nob Hill with me sat Japanese Italians, Chinese and Negroes the cosmopolitan flotsam of the wreck of the city all about were the palaces of the Nobob pioneers of 49 to the east and south at right angles were advancing two mighty walls of flame I went inside with the owner of the house on the steps of which I sat he was cool and cheerful and hospitable yesterday morning he said I was worth $600,000 this morning this house is all I have left it will go in 15 minutes he pointed to a large cabinet that is my wife's collection of china this rug upon which we stand is a present it cost $1500 try that piano listen to its tone there are few like it there are no horses the flames will be here in 15 minutes outside the old Mark Hopkins residence a palace was just catching fire the troops were falling back and driving the refugees before them from every side came the roaring of flames the crashing of walls and the detonations of dynamite the dawn of the second day I passed out of the house the day was trying to dawn through the smoke-pall suddenly light was creeping over the face of things once only the sun broke through the smoke-pall blood-red and showing quarter its usual size the smoke-pall itself viewed from beneath was a rose-color that pulsed and fluttered with lavender shades then it turned to mauve and yellow and done there was no sun and so dawned the second day on stricken San Francisco an hour later I was creeping past the shattered dome of the city hall then it there was no better exhibit of the destructive force of the earthquake most of the stone had been shaken from the great dome leaving standing the naked framework of steel market street was piled high with the wreckage and across the wreckage lay the overthrown pillars of the city hall shattered into short crosswise sections this section of the city with the exception of the mint and the post office was already a waste of smoking ruins here and there through the smoke creeping warily under the shadows of tottering walls emerged occasional men and women it was like the meeting of the handful of survivors after the day of the end of the world thieves slaughtered and roasted on mission street lay a dozen steers in a neat row stretching across the street just as they had been struck down by the flying ruins of the earthquake the fire had passed through afterward and roasted them the human dead had been carried away before the fire came at another place on mission street I saw a milk wagon a steel telegraph pole had smashed down here through the driver's seat and crushed the front wheels the milk cans lay scattered around all day Thursday and all Thursday night all day Friday and Friday night the flames still raged on Friday night saw the flames finally conquered though not until Russian hill and telegraph hill had been swept and three quarters of a mile of wharves and docks had been licked up the last stand the great stand of the firefighters was made Thursday night on Van Ness Avenue had they failed here the comparatively few remaining houses of the city would have been swept here were the magnificent residences of the second generation of San Francisco Nabobs and these in a solid zone were dynamited down across the path of the fire here and there the flames leaped the zone but these fires were beaten out principally by the use of wet blankets and rugs San Francisco at the present time is like the crater of a volcano around which are camped tens of thousands of refugees at the Presidio alone are at least 20,000 all the surrounding cities and towns are jammed with the homeless ones where they are being cared for by the relief committees the refugees were carried free by the railroads to any point they wished to go and it is estimated that over 100,000 people have left the peninsula on which San Francisco stood the government has the situation in hand and thanks to the immediate relief given by the whole united states there is not the slightest possibility of a famine the bankers and businessmen have already said about making preparations to rebuild San Francisco end of the story of an eye witness by Jack London winter sunshine by John Burroughs this is a Libervox recording all Libervox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit Libervox.org winter sunshine by John Burroughs an American resident in England is reported as saying that the English have an atmosphere but no climate the reverse of this remark would apply pretty accurately to our own case we certainly have a climate a two edged one that cuts both ways threatening us with sunstroke on the one hand and with froststroke on the other but we have no atmosphere to speak of in New York and New England except now and then during the dog days or the fit-fill and uncertain Indian summer an atmosphere the quality of tone and mellowness in the near distance is the product of a more humid climate hence as we go south from New York the atmospheric effects become more rich and varied until on reaching the potamic you find an atmosphere as well as a climate the latter is still on the vehement American scale there has been violent changes and contrasts baking and blistering in summer and nipping and blighting in winter but the spaces are not so purged and bare the horizon wall does not so often have the appearance of having just been washed and scrubbed down there is more depth and visibility to the open air a stronger infusion of the Indian summer element throughout the year than is found further north including the night's more enchanting it is here that Walt Whitman saw the full moon pour down night's nimbus floods as one may see her during the fall from October to May there is more haze and vapor in the atmosphere during that period and every particle seems to collect and hold the pure radiance until the world swims with the lunar outpouring is not the full moon always on the side of fair weather I think it is Sir William Herschel who says her influence tends to dispel the clouds certain it is her beauty that is seldom lost or even veiled in this southern or semi-southern climb floods of the yellow gold of the gorgeous, indolent, sinking sun burning, expanding the air a description that would not apply with the same force further north where the air seems thinner and less capable of absorbing and holding the sunlight indeed the opulence and splendour of our climate at least the climate of the Atlantic seaboard cannot be fully appreciated by the dweller north of the thirty-ninth parallel it seems as if I have never seen but a second-rate article of sunlight or moonlight until I had taken up my abode in the national capital it may be perhaps because we have such splendid specimens of both at the period of the year when one values such things highest namely in the fall and winter and early spring sunlight is good any time but a bright, evenly tempered day is certainly more engrossing to the attention in the winter then in summer and such days seems the rule and not the exception in the Washington winter the deep snows keep to the north the heavy rains to the south leaving a blue space central over the border states and there is not one of the winter months but wears this blue zone as a girdle I am not thinking especially of the Indian summer that charming but uncertain second youth of the New England year but of regularly recurring lucid intervals in the weather system of Virginia fall and winter when the best our climate is capable of stand revealed southern days with northern blood in their veins exhilarating elastic full of action the hyperborean oxygen of the north tempered by the dazzling sun of the south a little bitter in winter to all travelers but the pedestrian to him sweet and warming but in autumn a vintage that intoxicates all lovers of the open air it is impossible not to dilate and expand under such skies one breathes deeply and steps profoundly and if he have any of the eagle nature in him it comes to the surface then there is a sense of altitude above these dazzling November and December days of mountaintops and pure ether the earth in passing through the fire of summer seems to have lost all its dross and life all its impediments but what does not the dweller in the national capital endure in reaching these days think of the agonies of the heated term the raging of the dog-star the purgatory of heat and dust of baking blistering pavements of cracked and powdered fields of dead stifling night air from which every tonic and antiseptic quality seems eliminated leaving a residuum of sultry malaria and all diffusing privy and sewer gases that last from the first of July to near the middle of September but when October is reached the memory of these things is far off and the glory of the days is perpetual surprise I sally out in the morning with the extensible purpose of gathering chestnuts or autumn leaves or persimmons or exploring some run or branch it is say the last of October or the first of November the air is not balmy but tart and pungent like the flavour of the red-cheeked apples by the roadside in the sky not a cloud not a speck neither lightly suspended above the world the woods are heaped with colour like a painter's palette great splashes of red and orange and gold the ponds and streams bear upon their bosoms leaves of all tints from the deep maroon of the oak to the pale yellow of the chestnut in the glens and nooks it is so still that the chirp of a solitary cricket is noticeable the red berries of the dogwood and other shrubs shine in the sun like rubies and coral the crows fly high above the earth as they do only on such days forms of ebony floating across the azure and the buzzards look like kingly birds sailing round and round or it may be later in the season well into December the days are equally bright but a little more rugged the mornings are rushed in by an immense spectrum thrown upon the eastern sky a broad bar of red and orange lies along the low horizon surmounted by an expanse of colour in which green struggles with yellow and blue with green half the way to the zenith by and by the red and orange spread upward and grow dim the spectrum fades and the sky becomes suffused with yellow-white light and in a moment the fiery scintillations of the sun begin to break across Maryland Hills then before long the mists and vapours uprise like the breath of a giant army and for an hour or two one is reminded of a November morning in England but by mid-four noon the only trace of the obscurity that remains is a slight haze and the day is indeed a summons and a challenge to come forth if the October days were a cordial like the sub-acids of a fruit these are the tonic like the wine of iron drink deep or be careful how you taste this December vintage the first sip may chill but a full draught warms and invigorates no loitering by the brooks or in the woods now but spirited rugged walking along the public highway the sunbeams are welcome now they seem like pure electricity like a friendly and recuperating lightning are we led to think electricity abounds only in the summer when we see storm clouds as it were the veins and orbits of it I imagine it is equally abundant in winter and more equable and better tempered whoever breasted a snowstorm without being excited and exhilarated as if this meteor had come charged with a latent aurora of the north as doubtless it has it is like being pelted with sparks from a battery behold the frost work on the pain the wild fantastic linings and etchings can there be any doubt but this subtle agent has been here where is it not it is the life of the crystal the artifact of the flake the fire of the frost the soul of the sunbeam this crisp winter air is full of it when I come in at night after an all day tramp I am charged like a laden jar my hair crackles and snaps I eat the comb like a cat's back and a strange new glow diffuses itself through my system it is a spur that one feels at this season more than any other how nimbly you step forth the woods roar the waters shine and the hills look invitingly near you do not miss the flowers and the songsters or wish the trees or the fields any different or the heavens any nearer every object pleases a rail fence running a thwart the hills now in sunshine and now in shadow how the eye lingers upon it or the straight light gray trunks of the trees where the woods have recently been laid open by a road or clearing how curious they look and as if surprised and undressed next year they will begin to shoot out branches and make themselves a screen to draw the rough-coated horses the cattle sunning themselves are walking down to the spring to drink the domestic fowls moving about there is a touch of sweet homely life in these things that the winter sun enhances and brings out every sign of life is welcome at this season I love to hear the dogs bark hens cackle and boys shout one has no privacy with nature now and does not wish to seeker looks and hidden ways she is not at home if he goes there her house is shut up and her hearth cold only the sun and sky and perchance the waters wear the old look and today we will make love to them and they shall abundantly return it even the crows and buzzards draw the eye fondly the national capital is a great place for buzzards and I make the remark in no double or allegorical sense here for the buzzards I mean are black and harmless as doves though perhaps hardly dove-like in their tastes my vulture is also a bird of leisure and sails through the ether on long flexible pinions as if that were the one delight of his life some birds have wings others have pinions the buzzard enjoys this latter distinction there is something in the sound of the word that suggests that easy dignified fungulatory movement he does not propel himself along by sheer force of muscle after the plebeian fashion of the crow for instance but progresses by a kind of royal indirection that puzzles the eye even on a windy winter day he rides the vast aerial billows as placidly as ever rising and falling as he comes up towards you carving his way through the resistant currents by a slight oscillation to the right and left but never once beating the air openly this superabundance of wing-power is very unequally distributed among the feathered races the hawks and vultures having by far the greater share of it they cannot command the most speed but their apparatus seems the most delicate and consummate apparently a fine play of muscle a subtle shifting of the power along the outstretched wings a perpetual loss and a perpetual recovery of the equipoise sustains them and bears them along with them flying is a luxury a fine art not merely a quicker and safer means of transit from one point to another but a gift so free and spontaneous that work becomes leisure and movement rest they are not so much going somewhere from this perch are that as they are abandoning themselves the pleasure of riding upon the air and it is beneath such grace and highbred leisure that nature hides in her creatures the occupation of scavenger and carrion-eater but the worst thing about the buzzard is his silence the crow-caws, the hawk screams the eagle burts but the buzzard says not a word so far as I have observed he has no vocal powers whatever nature dare not trust him to speak in his case she preserves discreet silence the crow may not have the sweet voice which the fox in his flattery attributed to him but he has a good, strong native speech nevertheless how much character there is in it how much thrift and independence of course his plumage is firm his colour decided his wit quick he understands you at once and tells you so so does the hawk by his scornful, defiant, whir hardy, happy outlaws the crows how I love them alert, social, republican always able to look out for himself not afraid of the cold and the snow fishing when flesh is scarce and stealing when other resources fail the crow is a character I would not willingly miss from the landscape I love to see his track in the snow or the mud and his graceful pedestrianism about the brown fields he is no interloper but has the air and manner of being thoroughly at home and in the right possession of the land he is no sentimentalist like some of the planing disconsolate songbirds but apparently is always in good health and good spirits no matter who is sick or dejected or unsatisfied or what the weather is or what the price of corn the crow is well and finds life sweet he is the dusky embodiment of worldly wisdom and prudence then he is one of nature's self-appointed constables and greatly magnifies his office he would feign arrest every hawk or owl or grimalkin that ventures abroad I have known a posse of them to beset the fox and cry thief till Reynard hid himself for shame do I say the fox flattered the crow when he told him that the crow was in his place yet one of the most musical sounds in nature proceeds from the crow all the crow-tribe from the Blue J. App are capable of certain low ventralochial notes that have peculiar cadence and charm I often hear the crow indulging in his in winter and am reminded of the sound of the dulcimer the bird stretches up and exerts himself like a cock peculiarly clear vitreous sound that is sure to arrest and reward your attention this is no doubt the song the fox begged to be favored with as in delivering it the crow must inevitably let drop the piece of meat the crow in his purity I believe is seen and heard only in the north before you reach the Potamac there is an infusion of a weaker element the fish-crow whose helpless feminine call contrasts strongly with the hearty masculine call of the original Simon in passing from crows to colored men I hope I am not guilty of any disrespect towards the latter in my walks about Washington both winter and summer colored men are about the only pedestrians I meet and I meet them everywhere in the fields and in the woods and in the public road swinging along with that peculiar rambling elastic gait taking advantage of the shortcuts and treading the country with paths and by-ways I doubt if the colored man can compete with his white brother as a walker his foot is too flat and the calves of his legs too small but he is certainly the most picturesque traveller to be seen on the road he bends his knees more than the white man and oscillates more to and fro or from side to side the imaginary line which his head describes is full of deep long undulations even the boys and young men sway as if bearing a burden along the fences and by the woods I came upon their snares, deadfalls and rude box-traps the freed man is a successful trapper and hunter and has by nature an insight into these things I frequently see him in the market or on his way, thither with a tame possum clinging timidly to his shoulders a young coon or fox led by a chain indeed the colored man behaves precisely like the rude unsophisticated peasant that he is and there is fully as much virtue in him using the word in its true sense as in the white peasant indeed much more than in the poor whites who grew up by his side while there is often a benignity and a depth of human experience and sympathy about some of these dark faces that comes home to one the best one sees in art or reads in books one touch of nature makes all the world akin and there is certainly a touch of nature about the colored man indeed I had almost said of the Anglo-Saxon nature they have the quaintness and homeliness of this simple English stock I seem to see my grandfather and grandmother in the ways and doings of these old uncles and aunties indeed the lesson comes nearer home than even that for I seem to see myself in them and what is more I see that they see themselves in me and that neither party has much to boast of the negro is a plastic human creature and is thoroughly domesticated and thoroughly anglicized the same cannot be said of the Indian for instance between whom and us there can never exist any fellowship any community of feeling or interest or is there any doubt that the Chinaman will always remain to us the same impenetrable mystery he has been from the first but there is no mystery about the negro and he touches the Anglo-Saxon at more points than the latter is always willing to own taking as kindly and naturally to all his customs and usages yay to all his prejudices and superstitions as if to the manner born the colored population in very many respects occupies the same position as that occupied by our rural populations a generation or two ago seeing signs and wonders haunted by the fears of ghosts and hobgoblins believing in witchcraft, charms the evil eye etc in religious matters also they are on the same level and about the only genuine shouting methodists that remain are to be found in the colored churches I fear the negro tries to ignore or forget himself as far as possible and that he would deem it felicity enough to play second fiddle to the white man all his days he liked his master but he likes the Yankee better not because he regards him as his deliverer but mainly because the two-handed thrift of the northerner his varied and wonderful ability completely captivates the imagination of the black man just learning to shift for himself how far he is caught or is capable of being imbued with the Yankee spirit of enterprise and industry remains to be seen in some things he has already shown himself an apt scholar I notice for instance that he is about as industrious an office seeker as the most patriotic among us and that he learns with amazing ease and rapidity all the arts and wilds of the politicians he is versed in parades mass meetings, caucuses and will soon shine on the stump I observe also that he is not far behind us in the observance of the fashions and that he is as good a churchgoer, theatergoer and pleasure seeker generally as his means will allow as a boot-blacker news-boy he is adept in all the tricks of the trade and as a fast young man about town among his kind he is worthy of the great prototype the swagger, the impertinent look the coarse remark, the loud laugh are all in the best style as a lounger and stareer also on the street corners of a Sunday afternoon he has taken his degree on the other hand I know cases among our colored brethren plenty of them of consciousness and well directed effort and industry in the wordliest fields in agriculture and trade and many of them are the managerts that show the colored man has in him all the best rudiments of a citizen of the states lest my winter sunshine appear to have too many dark rays in it, buzzards, crows and colored men I hasten to add the brown and neutral tints and maybe a red ray can be extracted from some of these hard, smooth, sharp-gritted roads that radiate from the roads that invite the pedestrian. There is the road that leads west or north-west from Georgetown, the tenally road, the very sight of which, on a sharp, lustrous winter Sunday, makes the feet tangle. Where it cuts through a hill or a high knoll, it is so red it fairly glows in the sunlight. I warn'tch you will kindle, and your own colour will mount, if you resign yourself to it. It will conduct you to the wild and rocky scenery of the upper Potamac to great falls and on to Harper's Ferry, if your carriage holds out. Then there is the road that leads north over Meridian Hill, across Pinney Branch, and on through the wood of crystal springs to Fort Stevens, and so into Maryland. This is the proper route for an excursion in the spring to gather wildflowers, or in the fall for a nut-hink expedition. As it lays open some noble woods and a great variety of charming scenery, or for amusing moonlight saunter, say in December, when the Enchantress has folded and folded the world in her web. It is by all means the course to take. Your staff rings on the hard ground, the road, a misty white belt, gleams and vanishes before you. The woods are cavernous and still, the fields lie in a lunar trance, and you will yourself return fairly mesmerized by the beauty of the scene. Or you can bend your steps eastward over the eastern branch, up Good Hope Hill, and on till you strike the Marlboro Pike, as a trio of us did that cold February Sunday we walked from Washington to Pumpkin Town and back. A short sketch of this pilgrimage is a fair sample of these winter walks. The delight I experienced in making this new acquisition to my geography was of itself sufficient to atone for any aches or weariness I may have felt. The mere fact that one may walk from Washington to Pumpkin Town was a discovery I had been all these years in making. I had walked to Sligo, and to Northwest Branch, and had made the falls of the Potamac in a circuitous route of ten miles, coming suddenly upon the river in one of its wildest passes. But I little dreamed all the while that there, in a wrinkle, or shall I say furrow, of the Maryland hills almost visible from the outlook of the bronze squaw on the dome of the capital, and just around the head of Arxon Run lay Pumpkin Town. The day was cold, but the sun was bright, and the foot took hold of those dark, dry, gritty Maryland roads with the keenest relish, how the levels of the laurel glistened. The distant oak woods suggested gray-blue smoke, while the recesses of the pines looked like the layer of night. Beyond the district limits we struck the Malboro Pike, which round and hard and white, held squarely to the east and was visible a mile ahead. Its friction brought up the temperature amazingly, and spurred the pedestrians into their best time. As I trudged along, Thorow's lines came naturally to mind. When the spring stirs my blood, with the instinct of travel, I can get enough gravel on the old Marlboro Road. Cold as the day was, many degrees below freezing, I heard and saw bluebirds, and as we passed along, every sheltered tangle and overgrown field or lane swarmed with snowbirds or sparrows. The latter mainly Canada or tree sparrows, with a sprinkling of the song, and maybe one or two other varieties. The birds are all social and gregacious in winter, and seem drawn together by common instinct. Where you find one, you will not only find others of the same kind, but also several different kinds. The regular winter residents go in little bands, like a well-organized pioneer corps. The jays and woodpeckers in advance, doing the heavier work. The nut-hatch is next, more lightly armed, and the creepers and kinglets, with their slender peaks and microscopic eyes, last of all. Footnote! It seems to me this is a borrowed observation, but I do not know whom to credit it. Now and then among the gray and brown tints there was a dash of scarlet, the cardinal Groespeak, whose presence was sufficient to enliven any scene. In the leafless trees, as a ray of sunshine fell upon him, he was visible a long way off, glowing like a crimson spar, the only bit of color in the whole landscape. Maryland is here rather a level unpicturesque country, the gaze of the traveller bounded at no great distance by oak-woods, with here and there a dark line of pine. We saw few travellers, past a ragged squad or two of colored boys and girls, and met some colored women on their way to or from church perhaps. Never asked a colored person, at least the crude rustic specimens, any question that involves a memory of names or any arbitrary signs, you will rarely get a satisfactory answer. If you could speak to them in their own dialect or touch the right spring in their minds you would no doubt get the desired information. They are as local in their notions and habits as the animals, and go on much the same principles as no doubt we all do, more or less. I saw a colored boy come into a public office one day, and asked to see a man with red hair. The name was utterly gone from him. The man had read whiskers, which was as near as he had come to the mark. Ask your washerwoman what street she lives on, or where such a one has moved to, and the chances are that she cannot tell you, except that it is a right smart distance this way or that. Or near Mr. So-and-so, or by such and such a place, describing some local feature. I love to amuse myself when walking through the market by asking the old aunties and the young aunties, too, the names of their various yarbs. It seems as if they must trip on the simplest names. Blood-root they generally call grub-root. Trailing arbutus goes by the name of trawling arbutus, training arbuti-flower, and ground ivory. In Virginia they call woodchucks moonucks. On entering Pumpkin-town, a cluster of five or six small, white-wash blockhouses towing squarely on the highway, the only inhabitant we saw was a small boy, who was as frank and simple as if he had lived on pumpkins and marrow-squashes all his days. Half a mile further on we turned to the right into a characteristic southern road, a way entirely unkempt, and wandering free as the wind, now fading out into a broad field, now contracting into a narrow track between hedges, a naan roaming with delightful abandon through swamps and woods, asking no leave and keeping no bounds. About two o'clock we stopped in an opening in a pine-wood and ate her lunch. We had the good fortune to hit upon a charming place. A woodchopper had been there, and let in the sunlight full and strong, and the white chips the newly-piled wood and the mounds of green boughs were welcome features, and helped also to keep off the wind that would creep through under the pines. The ground was soft and dry, with a carpet an inch thick of pine needles, and with a fire less for warmth than to make the picture complete we ate our bread and beans, with the keenest satisfaction, and with a relish that only the open air can give. A fire, of course, an encampment in the woods at this season, without a fire, would be like leaving Hamlet out of the play. A smoke is your standard, your flag. It defines and locates your camp at once. You are an interloper until you have made a fire. Then you take possession. Then the trees and rocks seem to look upon you more kindly, and you look more kindly upon them, as one opens his budget, so he opens his heart by a fire. Already something has gone out from you, and comes back as a faint reminiscence and home-feeling in the air and place. One looks out upon the crow or the buzzard that sails by as from his own fireside. It is not that I am a wanderer and a strangerer now, it is the crow and the buzzard. The chickadees were silent at first, but now they approach by little journeys, as if to make our acquaintance. The nut-hatches also cry, yank, yank, in no inhospitable tones, and those purple finches there in the cedars, are they not stealing our berries? How one lingers about a fire under such circumstances, loathe to leave it, poking up the sticks, throwing in the burnt ends, adding another branch and yet another, and looking back as he turns to go, to catch one more glimpse of the smoke going up through the trees. I reckon it is some remnant of the primitive man which we all carry about with us. He has not forgotten his wild, free life, his arboreal habitations, and the sweet bitter times he had in those long-gone ages. With me he wakes up directly at the smell of smoke, of burning branches in the open air, and all his old love of fire and his dependence upon it in the camp or the cave come freshly to mind. On resuming our march we filed off along a charming wood-path, a regular little tunnel through the dense pines, carpeted with silence, and allowing us to look nearly the whole length of it through its soft green twilight out into the open sunshine of the fields beyond. A pine wood in Maryland or in Virginia is quite a different thing from a pine wood in Maine or Minnesota, the difference in fact between yellow pine and white. The former, as it grows here about, is short and scrubby, with branches nearly to the ground, and looks like the dwindling remnant of a greater race. Beyond the woods the path led us by a colored man's habitation, a little low-framed house on a knoll, surrounded by the quaint devices and rude makeshifts of these quaint and rude people. A few poles stuck in the ground, clapboard with cedar boughs and corn stalks, and supporting a roof of the same gave shelter to a rickety one-horse wagon and some farm implements. Near this there was a large, compact tent made entirely of corn stalks, with, for door, a bundle of the same in the dry, warm nest-like interior of which the husking of the corn crop seemed to have taken place. A few rods further on we passed through another humble dooryard, musical with dogs and dusky with children. We crossed here the outlying fields of a large, thrifty, well-kept looking farm, with a showy, highly ornamental frame-house in the center. There was even a park with deer and among the gaily-painted out-buildings I noticed a fancy dove-coat with an immense flock of doves circling about it. Some whiskey-dealer from the city we were told, trying to take the poison out of his money by agriculture. We next passed through some woods when we emerged into a broad, sunlit, fertile-looking valley called Oxen Run. We stooped down and drank of its clear, white-pebbled stream in the veritable spot I suspect where the oxen do. There were clouds of birds here on the warm slopes, with the usual sprinkling along the bushy margin of the stream of scarlet grow-speaks. The valley of Oxen Run has many good-looking farms, with old, picturesque houses and loose, rambling barns such as artists love to put into pictures. But it is a little awkward to go east. It always seems left-handed. I think this is the feeling of all walkers and that Thoreau's experience in this respect was not singular. The great magnet is the sun, and we follow him. I notice that people lost in the woods work to the westward. When one comes out of his house and asks himself which way shall I walk, and looks up and down and around for a sign or a token, does he not, nine times out of ten, turn to the west? He inclines his way as surely as the willow wand bends towards the water. There is some something more genial and friendly in this direction. Occasionally in winter I experience a southern inclination and cross Long Bridge and Rendezvous for the day in some old earthwork on the Virginia hills. The roads are not so inviting in this direction, but the line of old forts with rabbits burrowing in the bomb-proofs and a magazine or officer's quarters turned into a cow stable by colored squatters form an interesting feature. But whichever way I go I am glad I came. All roads lead up to the Jerusalem the walker seeks. There is everywhere the vigorous and masculine winter air and the impalpable sustenance the mind draws from all natural forms. End of winter sunshine.