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Geography, A First Book of, 250
Geography of the Oceans, The,
148

Glimpses of the British Empire, 151
Glimpses of the Earth, 353
Glimpses of England, 151
Glimpses of the Globe, 151
Industrial Geography of France, A
Primer of the, 199

Industrial Geography of Great Bri-
tain and Ireland, A Primer of the,
440

Industrial Geography of the United
States, A Primer of the, 306
Map of Asia, The Imperial, 147
Modern Geography, A Class-Book
of, 35%

Pictorial Atlas of Nature, A, 440
Royal Relief Atlas, The, 39
School Physical and Descriptive
Geography, A, 441

Slate Paper Outline Atlas, 150
Sl. te Paper Projection Atlas, 150
Statistical Atlas, The, 103
Volcanoes and Coral Reefs, 381
Wonders of the World, 201
GEOMETRY.

Euclid, A Sequel to the First Six
Books of, 248

GERMAN.

German Phraseology, 383

German Prepositions, 383

GRAMMAR.

Analytic Test Cards, The, 575

English Grammar and Analysis, A
Complete Course of, 383

Grammar and Analysis, The Im
perial, 35

Grammatical Exercise Books, The
Midland, 570
Grammar-Land, 381

Harry Hawkins, H' Book, 353
Illustrated English Grammar, An,
381

Sentences for Analysis for Use in
Schools, 99

Grammar, History, and Derivation
of the English Language, 246
HISTORY.

British Empire, A History of the,
512

English History Reading-Book, The
Young Student's, 515

Great Events in English History,

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Church Choir Manual, The, 307
Manual of Music, A, 149

Sight Singing, A Method of Teach-
ing, 101

Theory of Music, The Rudiments of
the, 146

Vocal Music, The National Method
of, 305

Vocal Music, The Notation of, 199
NEEDLEWORK.

Agonic-Eyed Needles, 570
Invariable Stocking Scale, 383

PERIODICAL LITERATURE.
Our Little Ones, 518, 569, 601
Universal Instructor, or Self-Culture
for All, The, 150, 197, 383, 517, 570
Wesleyan Methodist SS Magazine,
POETRY.

60r

Lays of Romance and Chivalry, 145
Missing Sheriff, and other Poems,
The, 249

Poetry for the Young, 569

Rhymes in Council, 569
Songs after Sunset, 305

POLITICAL ECONOMY.
Political Economy Reading Book,
A, 381

PRIZE BOOKS.
A Gem of an Aunt, 569
Alpine Climbing, 518
Beyond the Himalayas, 517
Boy's own Toymaker, The, 568
Canal Boy who became President,
The, 567
Claudine, 443

Distant Homes, 443
Fickle Flora, 443.

Good in Everything, 518

Great Heights attained by Steady
Efforts, 518

Hero of Brittany, The, 443
Hofer, the Tyrolese, 569
Holidays Abroad, 443
Holly Berries, 570
Hurricane Hurry, 518
Kilkee, 601.

Out on the Pampas, 443
Our Birthdays, 443
Peter the Whaler, 569
River Singers, Th, 601
Rocket, The, 518
Salt Water, 442

School Days in Paris, 442

Search for Franklin, The, 518
Stolen Cherries, 443
Stories about Dogs, 518
Tempered Steel, 518

We Four, 518
William Tell, 518

READING Books.
Bell's Reading Books, 513
Descriptive Geography Readers, 351
Geographical Reader, A Third, 352
Geographical Reader, An Introduc-
tory, 353

Geographical Reader, The London,

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Animals: Their Nature and Uses,
250

Natural History, Plates, 515

IV.-Alphabetical

List of

Firms, etc., who have
Advertised in t.is
volume.

Adair, H., ccccxviii, cccclxii, dxxxi,
dlxxviii, dcxx.

Allen and Co., W. H., ccix, dxxvii.
Austing and Sons, iv, ccxi, ccccxv,
cccclxxv, dcxxiii.

Banks and Ashwell, dlxxvii.
Birkbeck Bank, cclvi, cccxii, ccclx,
ccccxiv, cccclxx, dxxviii, dlxxvii,
dcxxiii.

Blackie and Son, cccclxix.
Blackwood and Co., J., cccclxxi.
Blanchard, W., cccxii.
Bond, M., cccxv, ccclxiii, ccccxvi.
Brodie and Middleton, dxxx,
dlxxviii, dcxxiii.

Brown and Son, A., cxliv, cclix.
Cambridge University Press, xv,
cccxv, ccclxiii, cccclxxv, dxxxi,
dlxxvii.

Cameron, R. M., dxxvi.
Cassell, Petter, Galpin and Co.,
ccclviii, cccclxviii.
Chambers, W. and R., cvii, clxii,
clxxii, ccx, cexi, cclvi, ccclxii,
ccccxvii, cccclxxvi, dlxxv.
Collins, Sons and Co., W., iii.
Cornwell, Dr., vii,cclx, dxxvii, dlxxv.
Crosby, Lockwood and Co., iv, clxi,
ccx, dxxviii.

Curtis, J. C., B.A., xiv, cxii, ccclxi,
ccccxvii, dixxx.

Darlow and C., d'xxv, dcxv.
Davis, Dr. W., dcxxi.

De La Rue and Co., dxxviii.
Educational Musical Instrument Co,
dlxxviii.

Educational News Co., ix.

Eyre and Spottiswoode, ccccxx,
cccclxxi.

Fielding, H., dxxx.
Fletcher, J. S., cccclxxi.
Fowler, L. N, dcxxiii.

Gall and Inglis, xiii.

Gill and Sons, xviii, cvii, ccccxv.
Griffith and Farran, cclx, dxxiv.
Guest, W. H., ccx.

Harrison, T., dxxviii, dlxxvi, dcxxiii.
Hawes, G., dxxx, dlxxvi, dcxx.
Heywood, J., cix, clx, ccccxiv.
Hopkins, Dr., ccccxv, dxxviii,

dcxxiii.

Howard, D., ccxii, cclvi, cccxii,
ccclx, ccccxv.

Hodder and Stoughton, ii.
Hudd, H. J., cix, clx, ccx, cclvi.
Hughes, J., iv, xiv, xv, xvi, cviii,
clxii, clxiii, clxiv, ccxi, ccxii,
cclvii, cclviii, cccxiii, cccxiv, ccclxi,
ccclxii, ccccxvi, cccclxx, cccclxxiii,
cccclxxiv, dxxvii, dlx, dlxxv,
dlxxix., dcxxi.
Isbister, W., xliv.
Jarrold and Sons, dxxx.
Jennings, J., ccxí, cclviii, cccxii.
Johnston, W. and A. K., xx, clxii,
cclx, cccxvi.

Keefe, J., dxxx., dcxxiii.

Kegan Paul and Co., ccix, cclv.
Kent and Co., iil.

Knight, W. T., cix, clx, ccx, oclvi,

cccxii.

Laurie, T., xviii, ccccxiii, cccclxix,
dxxv.

Longmans and Co., dcxvi to dcxx,
dcxxi.

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cccclxxi, dxxxi, dlxxvii.
Milne, J. V., Henley House, cccxii.
Moffatt and Paige, xi.

Morrison, C., cccxii, ccclx, ccccxv.
Morrison and Gibb, vii.

Murby, T., x, dxxxii.

National Thrift Society, ccclix.
National Society, i, xlv, cix, clx,
dlxxvii, dlxxx.

Ne son, T., and Sons, xix, dcxiv.
Noble, J. S., dlxxviii.

North of England School Furnishing
Co., dxxx.

Osborne, E. C., ccccxv, cccclxxii,
dxxviii.

Partridge and Co., S. W., dlxxvii.
Pearson, W. W., cclvi, cccxii.
Perry and Co., ccxii, cclviii, cccxii,
ccclx, ccccxv, cccclxxii, dxxviii,
dlxxviii, dcxxiii.

Philip and Son., G., xiv., cxii, ccclx,
ccclxiv, ccccxiv, ccccxviii, cccclxx,
dxxv, dlxxiv.

Poole, W., cccclxxi.

Rogers, T., ccxi, dxxviii, dlxxix.
Saville and Co. (Pearce), ccccxiv,
cccclxxii.

Schoolmaster, The, v, dlxxix.
School Beard Chronicle, ix, cix, clx.
Scholastic Sewing Machine Co.,
dlxxviii.

Scholastic Musical Instrument Co.,
ccix, cclv, cccxi, ccclix, ccccxiii,
cccclxix, dxxv, dlxxv, dcxv.
Shepherd, W., xi, cvii, clxii, celviii,
ccclx, cccclxxv.

Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., clxii,

ccxi.

Slipper, J. S., cclv, cccxi, ccclix.
Smith, Elder, and Co., xiii, ccccxiii,
dcxx.v.

Spencer, W., cccclxxii, dxxvi.
Stanford, E., dexxiii.
Stewart and Co., W., vi., dcxxii.
Strahan and Co., xvii, cxi, clxiv,

ccxi, cclx, cccxvi, ccclxiv, ccccxx,
cccclxxvi, dxxxii.

Swan Sonnenschein, and Allen, viii,
ccccxviii.

Systematic Bible-Teaching Deposi-
tory, vii.

Teachers' Bicycle and Tricyle Co.,
dxxxi.

Theobald E., ccccxiii, cccclxix,
dxxv, dlxxv.

Thomas, S., dlxxviii.
Walker and

Co., J., ccclix.,
cccclxxvi, dxxvi, dcxv.

Ward, Lock, and Co., xii, celv,
cccxi, ccccxii.

Wesleyan Methodist Sunday-School
Union, ii, ccccxix, dxxix.
Westminster School-Book Depôt,
xi, cccclxxv, dxxvi, dlxxvi.
Whitehead and Son, J., ix, cx.
Willcox and Gibbs, ccix, cclv, cccxi.
Wood, R. S., dxxxi, dlxxvi.

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THE

Practical Teacher

A MONTHLY EDUCATIONAL JOURNAL

Edited by JOSEPH HUGHES

'Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much,
Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.'-CowPER.

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VOL. I. No. 1.

Health at School.

No. I.-INTRODUCTORY.

MARCH 1881.

BY ALFRED CARPENTER, M.D. (LOND.), C.S.S. (CAMB.), President of the Council of the British Medical Association.

THE

HE Hygiene of School Life, or as it is called in common parlance, 'Health at School,' is of paramount importance in connection with the subject. of Political Economy and the prosperity of the nation. It must be taken into consideration by all those who are in any way connected with the education of the young, and especially by the teacher himself. It is fully equal to that of the hygiene of the nursery. Its responsibilities are even greater: both have been very much neglected in the past by all classes of the community.

It is in the dawn of life that decided impressions are immediately made upon the ductile material of the human constitution which will make or mar the framework as well as the delicate machinery of the future man. Those impressions may lead him on to a life of happiness and health, or to one of unhappiness, which will be to some extent consequent upon the ill-health and low bodily vigour which insanitary surroundings may produce. If the impress is put on too heavily, the result may be disastrous. The form of the body itself; the shape of a limb; the development of an individual organ; the cultivation of a sense, may be each and all interfered with in the early days of childhood: the influence thus brought to bear may stamp its impress upon the child, and determine the result as to certain careers which it shall not follow. How many curved spines are due to wrong habits contracted in school! How many eyes have been deprived of their accommodating power by indulgence in positions which it is the teacher's duty to disallow! The error of the nurse or of the teacher may mar or even destroy the noblest work of God.

The damage which results from a misunderstanding or an ignorance of the first principles of the laws of health is manifested very clearly by statistical evidence so far as total loss is concerned, but it tells us very

VOL. I.

PRICE 6D.
POST FREE, 7D.

little of that partial mischief which so often follows from neglect of nature's laws. It is thoroughly well proved by repeated reports, that out of every 1000 children born into the world in populous districts, at least 150 depart this life before they have lived a twelvemonth. Yet is it not the birthright of every child that it should enjoy perfect health, and reach a good old age without being subjected to the influence. of hereditary diseases? The passions and the ignorance of our forefathers still produce an influence, and at the present day lust and disease are daily robbing an immense multitude of that birthright which belongs to them. It is in diminishing the incidence of this mischief that Health at School' requires deep consideration. Nearly one-half of all the deaths which actually take place are those of children under five years of age. It would be waste of time to illustrate these statistical facts by reference to individual cases, but for the sake of example I may mention Birkenhead; the report for that township is now before me. For some years past, upwards of fifty per cent. of the deaths from all causes were those of children under five years of age. That is, one-half of the population never had the opportunity of going to an elementary school at all, for they were not' in existence at the age of five. The deaths of persons over sixty years of age were twelve per cent. only. Of late years, general hygienic measures have been adopted by the local authority in that locality. These measures have reduced the death-rate of young children to forty per cent. of the gross mortality, and have raised that of those above sixty years of age to twenty per cent. This result shows what may be done by corporate action when well directed; but no action taken by a local authority can reduce infant mortality to anything like a moderate standard unless there is at the same time an extension of hygienic knowledge among the masses; until parents and guardians know something of the first principles of sanitary laws, the reduction in infant mortality will not be great.

The bearing of these points upon 'Health at School' is shown in the fact, that it is sometimes asserted by intelligent people that this infant mortality is a good thing, that it weeds out from the masses the weak, the delicate, and the diseased, and leaves behind it the

A

stronger and better developed part of the population; that it eliminates the unhealthy, and is a benefit to the rest of mankind; and that it gives a teacher a better material to work upon: that there is a good side in the mortality among infants as well as a bad one.

This argument is an unsound one. If the effect of unhealthy states of the community were limited to those who die, there might be something said for it by the student in political economy, if we left out of the problem all reference to the morality of the result. It is certain that the unhealthy condition which leads to this great infant mortality tends at the same time to lay the foundation for mischief in a large portion of those who pass the age of five years. These fundamental stages will develop in an increasing ratio as time goes on, and the want of true sanitary knowledge in the nursery finds its practical demonstration in the production of manifest disease in the individual long after the nursery has been left and even the state of pupilage in elementary schools passed through. School life may bring this hidden diathesis into light sooner or later, according to the conditions under which that school life is carried on. It may bring out to the surface and expel it from the constitution on the one hand, or it may on the other hand fan it into activity and hasten its development into a very manifest disorder, or even into a fatal disease. This result will be brought about in one way or the other according to the correctness or otherwise of the principles upon which the surroundings of the school as to its sanitary condition have been laid down, and the customs which may be indulged in by the scholars or insisted upon by the teacher. There is something more in Health at School' than simply preventing the spread of epidemic or of enthetic disease. There is something more than meets the first thoughts which arise when we speak of the presence or absence of this or that form of epidemic, something which specially excites the dread of the teacher when the examinations of his scholars are about to commence. In addition to this there is a minus quantity in the matter which may or may not be great in the inhabitants of a particular district, but which will tell more or less upon the general health of every school, according to its surroundings and the customs which are followed within its walls. This minus quantity represents the depreciation in the general health which is certain to belong to some or all of the children, and will be the measure of their constitutional tendency to take on epidemic influences whenever they are presented to them either within or without the school buildings themselves. This minus quantity will be comparatively harmless in a properly arranged and well conducted school, but it becomes of serious importance in one in which insanitary surroundings and insanitary principles are allowed to be present; our duty therefore is not only to keep out all epidemic or infectious influences, but to raise the health tone of the whole body of scholars, so that this minus quantity may be gradually decreased and an approach made to a really healthy level. There therefore is an element to be considered which is altogether outside the question of infectious diseases, and yet is intimately mixed up with them. If this minus quantity in the matter of general health is considerable whenever the germs or exciting cause of infectious or epidemic disease find admission into a given school, they will manifest themselves with greater or less intensity according as this minus quantity is

considerable or otherwise. If no such germs or exciting causes of specific diseases are imported into a school at any particular time or season, yet its arrangements may be such as may prepare for the reception and propagation of an infectious malady elsewhere than within the school. The managers may have made every practicable arrangement for the exclusion of specific forms of disease, but they may be at the same time assisting to increase the minus quantity in the matter of general health and damaging the community, whilst they may be pointing all the time to the efficiency of their arrangements in excluding such diseases as scarlatina or diphtheria from among their scholars.

This element is altogether outside the so-called germ theory or the glandular theory as applied to epidemic or infectious diseases, and hitherto has not been at all considered upon its merits. Thus, although no germ of a particular disease or particle of morbid matter may be distributed by a given school, it may yet be the means by which the general debility of the neighbourhood may be increased. It may add to the number of deaths in a given district from tubercular diseases, simply because the foci of that particular form of malady which are to be found more or less in the constitutions of the children of all classes have been allowed to increase in quantity, by the want of good hygienic surroundings in the school-house and class-rooms. If the construction of the buildings and the principles pursued in the school had been carried out on sound foundations, different results would have arisen. These foci of disease, which are something like particles of ice in a stream, the surface of which has been reduced to a temperature slightly below the freezing-point, increase or decrease according as the minus quantity in the matter of general health rises or falls. If this minus quantity disappear, the foci of disease dwindle away, and may be at length so dwarfed as to be incompatible with any future growth. It is probable that these foci of tubercular disease are to be more or less found in nine-tenths of the younger portion of our population; and the duty of the school authority is not only to prevent the spread of infectious diseases among their scholars, but also to prevent the increase of this morbid matter which already exists in the frame of those submitted to their care. Taking one illustration for our consideration, and looking at the foci as if they were of microscopic particles of ice in a stream, the temperature of which stream rises or falls according to its surroundings; so school life adds to or diminishes the size and number of these foci in a given constitution, until they are enabled either to assert their individuality by collective action, or are so dwarfed and diminished as to altogether lose the influence which they were about to obtain. It should be thoroughly understood that the whole population of the country is more or less infected with morbid products. These have resulted from a long-continued disobedience to the first laws of health, either in relation to hygiene or to the general nutrition of the body. These tendencies are transmitted from parent to child just as much as other conditions which belong to race. It is more than probable that if the parentage of each child could be traced back to four generations, some one or more of the thirty persons to whom a particular child has been indebted for its existence would

be found to have been the subject of some disease capable of transmitting a hereditary taint. These taints may be classed under several heads. There is the tubercular, the syphilitic, the gouty, the rheumatic, and the cancerous taint. It is in the power of school hygiene to interfere with the development of these taints, to dwarf them by the arrangements of the school, to prevent their increase by the teachings of the master, and to oust them from the dominion they now hold upon the constitution of man. I am not about to assert that all these hereditary taints are to be removed by attention to 'Health at School.' At least one-half of the deaths which occur now-a-days is caused by diseases which are connected in their origin with the tubercular diathesis, and it is more especially with this taint that school hygiene has to grapple. The sanitary or insanitary condition of the school and its surroundings have in days gone by, and are even still adding to this. The tendency to tubercular disease is often fanned into activity by ill-directed school life, and just as it can be increased by wrong steps, so it can be diminished by right ones.

There is therefore much more in the question of 'Health at School' than is implied in its ordinarily accepted meaning, something more than arises from a consideration of the means to be taken to exclude the foci of infective diseases or to limit epidemic influences. We have to diminish in our raw material the germs of mischief which are already there; and just as we try by education to prevent the growth of evil mental passions, so we ought to try and prevent the growth of those germs of evil which are likely to undermine the health of the future men.

Our duty, therefore, is to dwarf these germs, to diminish the chances of their development after the child has left the school-house, as well as to prevent the intrusion of infectious agencies which are capable of spreading from child to child.

Anecdotal Natural History.

No. I.—THE SQUIRREL TRIBE.

BY REV. J. G. WOOD, M.A., F.L.S., Author of Homes without Hands,' 'Nature's Teachings,' etc., AND THEODORE WOOD,

A

Joint Author of 'The Field Naturalist's Handbook.'

LMOST everybody is familiar with the common squirrel (Sciurus Europaus), that reddish-brown. animal with the bushy tail which is so plentiful in nearly all our woods and forests, where it sometimes works considerable mischief. And even those people who have never been fortunate enough to see it in its native haunts, springing from tree to tree, and gambolling merrily among the branches, must have noticed the unfortunate specimens exhibited for sale by the itinerant hawkers who pervade the streets of the metropolis and other large towns.

Besides the British species there are many other squirrels found in different parts of the world, Australia being the only continent where none are known to exist.

Particular attention is drawn to this point, because in nearly all travellers' accounts of Australia we read of the flying squirrel among the quadrupeds inhabiting

that land. In fact, however, the so-called squirrels are not squirrels, nor even rodents, but are Marsupials, belonging to the great group of Phalangists. The mistake arises from the natural errors made by travellers and colonists, who name every creature they see after the inhabitants of their own country.

South Australian colonists talk and write with marvellous composure of wolves, bears, monkeys, bats, cats, squirrels, rats, and mice as inhabiting the country. Similarly American writers sadly bewilder the tyro in zoology by mentioning American buffaloes, lions, tigers, and panthers, all these creatures being strictly confined to the old world. The 'Robin' again, so often mentioned in American literature, is not our English redbreast, as is usually assumed, but an erroneous name for the migratory thrush, a bird far larger than the redbreast and belonging to a totally different group.

The squirrels belong to the great division of the rodents, which comprise nearly a third of all the known mammalia. The animals of this group are distinguished by the possession of two powerful chisel-edged incisor teeth in each jaw, formed for cutting or gnawing away hard substances, and which are replaced by fresh material as fast as they are worn away. power of these incisor teeth is strikingly exemplified in the beaver, which has been known to gnaw its way through logs no less than eighteen inches in diameter.

The

Were there not some means of replacing these teeth as quickly as they are worn down, the death of the animals would speedily follow, as they would shortly starve from their inability to procure food. In order to avoid this, the teeth are continually forced forward from the jaw by the formation of fresh substance at the base, which is secreted by a pulpy substance at the root of the tooth. Now, as this growth takes place whether the teeth are used or not, it follows that, unless they were in constant use, they would soon increase to an inordinate length, and before very long would project from the mouth. Such an event does occasionally occur, when by some accident one of the incisor teeth has been broken short off. The corresponding tooth in the other jaw, finding no resistance to its growth, continues to increase until it sometimes forms a perfect circle outside the mouth, usually resulting in the death of its owner by preventing it from feeding.

Without some means, however, of preserving the chisel-like sharpness of these teeth, the mere replacement of wasted substance would be of little use. In order to obtain the desired result, the teeth are constructed after a very singular fashion.

The body of the tooth is composed of pure ivory, coated on the outer surface with a thin layer of enamel, which being of a very much harder nature, is not worn away with the same rapidity. Besides this, the ivory nearest the enamel is harder than the rest, and the softer parts being easiest worn down, the edge of the tooth always keeps the same proportions, the actual cutting being performed with the edge of the enamel.

Our carpenter's chisels are constructed on exactly the same principle, the chief portion of them being composed of soft iron, while a very thin plate of steel is laid along the back and forms the cutting edge of the tool.

So much for the characteristics of the rodents as a

whole. Now for those of that branch which are known as squirrels.

The true squirrels are scientifically known as Sciurida, or shadow-tails, a title derived from two Greek words, the former signifying a shade and the latter a tail This refers to the habit in these animals of carrying the tail over the back, as though to protect the body from the rays of the sun, a position always adopted except when running or leaping. They are remarkable among the rodents as possessing particularly perfect clavicles or collar-bones, which enable

them to use the fore-paws to a certain extent after the manner of hands. This is especially the case in carrying food to the mouth, when the paws are managed with extraordinary dexterity. In eating a nut, for example, a squirrel, by the aid of its fore-paws and teeth alone, will break the shell and peel the kernel to the full as successfully as a skilful human being furnished with crackers and penknife. And it does so as follows. Holding the nut close to the teeth, it gnaws away at the point of the fruit until it fairly pierces the outer shell. It then dexterously inserts the edge of

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the upper teeth into the aperture, and splits away the shell just as an idle boy does with his knife when opening nuts in school hours. By means of its handlike paws, it then holds the kernel against its upper teeth, and rapidly turning it round and round, strips off the whole of the peel before beginning to devour it.

With the exception of the jaws and the adjacent parts of the head, the skeleton is exceedingly slight and fragile in order to suit it to the rapid movements of the animal.

To furnish the squirrels with the means of ascending the trees in which they spend the greater portion of their existence, the long toes are provided with sharp, curved claws, which can be inserted into the smallest crevices of the bark, and thus secure a firm foothold.

The rapidity and ease of their aerial motions is something astounding. A squirrel will gallop up a perpendicular tree trunk fully as fast as a cat can run on level ground, and will throw itself from branch to branch with the most perfect recklessness. And even if it misses its mark, it simply extends its limbs and

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