recreation; but we can well understand that the proverbially improvident mariner has not always had his health looked after by an Anson or a Cook, and that many a festive tar who induced the unsophisticated Indian maid to join him in worship at the shrine of Venus Porcina carried in the innermost recesses of the folds of his pendulous and sea-beaten prepuce the remnants of former Bacchanalian festivities performed in the questionable temples of Venus and Bacchus in Portsmouth or London. Consumption, as such, was neither imported nor propagated by Europeans into those islands, its original entry being in the shape of syphilis. Had it been the ancient mariners of old Phoenicia in the days of its circumcision, or the circumcised marines of the ancient Atlantean fleets from the sunken continent of Plato, instead of the uncircumcised sailors of modern England, that first and since visited those islands, it is safe to say that consumption would not now exist there. From this, it may be well to inquire what would be the relation between the Jewish race and consumption; were circumcision among them to be done away with, would it not be greatly on the increase? The weight of testimony is evidently convincing that the Jew has a greater longevity and stronger resistance to disease, as well as a less liability to physical ills, than other races; that all these exemptions or benefits are not altogether due to social customs is evident; how much circumcision may have to do in inducing these favorable conditions can be better appreciated by a consideration of how circumcision affects those of other races, and more particularly how its performance works changes in the individual in his general health and condition, and in doing away with many physical ailments that the individual was previously subjected to. So that the Jew cannot be said to be a loser by his observance of this rite, and he and his race have been well repaid for all the sufferings and persecutions that its observance has subjected them to. As observed by John Bell, "The preservation of health and the attainment of long life are objects of desire to every man, no matter in what age or country his lot is cast, nor by what arbitrary tenure he holds his life. They are the wish of the master and the slave, of the illiterate and the learned, of the timid Hindoo and the warlike Arab, of the natives of New Zealand not less than of the inhabitants of New England,--an indispensable condition for the greatest and longest enjoyment of the senses and propensities; for the widest range and exercise of intellect and gratification of the sentiments, whether these be lofty or ignoble, health, in any special degree, has ever been a fit subject of contemplation and instruction by the philosopher and legislator. Their advice and edicts on the means of preserving it have frequently been enforced as a part of religious duty, and, at all times, civilization, even in its elementary forms, has been marked by laws on