EVERYONE'S sympathies must be with the English "Society for Checking the Abuses of Public Advertis ing." At one of the meetings a speaker made an ex cellent suggestion. It was that the sympathy of all who are connected with the training of the young be enlisted. He would begin with the very young and impress the doctrine by slightly altered nursery rhymes. The rising generation would be taught to say, "Mary, Mary, quite contrary How does your railroad go? With Castor oil the view to spoil And Liver pills all in a row." Or again, "Never take it, never touch it, never buy it, baby mine, When you see it in big letters disfiguring the line."

THE question has been seriously agitated as to vhether the Röntgen rays affected the skin of the per son being photographed. The most striking testi mony to its influence is to be found in a letter to " Na ture " from the operator in charge of the X-ray demon stration at the Indian exhibition. Afterworking with the rays for several hours a day during nearly three weeks, blisters of a dark color appeared under the skin of his hands, which afterwards became much in flamed. The skin then peeled, the tips of the fingers swelled and the nails came off. The right hand, through which the rays were constantly passing, peeled three times and four of the nails were lost. It must be remembered that these unpleasant ef fects were in no way due to chemicals, but merely to the action of the rays upon the skin, producing an accentuated form of burn, and were only produced by long exposure to the rays. It now remains to be shown whether this active property can be utilized in any form of skin disease.

GOVERNOR PINGREE of Michigan has found by ex perience that there are a number of obsolete laws or so constructed as to be inoperative. He has accordingly offered a prize of twenty-five dollars to the student of the University of Michigan who will discover the great est number of these laws, and has appointed a com mission, consisting of a Circuit judge anda prominent lawyer, to decide the contest.

a delightful essay on " Genius in Children," in which the eccentricities which distinguished the boyhood of many famous men in letters and art are piquantly described. Hon. Albion W. Tourgee has a timely article on the financial problem which assails the in coming administration, entitled "The Best Cur rency." THE complete novel in the January issue of LIPPINCOTT'S is " Stockings Full of Money," by Mary Kyle Dallas. It is a tale of domestic relationships and affections, but turns on the mysterious disappear ance of two thousand dollars, and the various sus picions as to the thief. Henry Willard French, in "A Christmas Midnight in Mexico." narrates an adventure of the road which might have ended dis astrously. The other short stories are '• An Anony mous Love-letter," by Virginia Woodward Cloud, and •• Robert the Devil," by Claude M. Girardeau.

THE January number of SCRIUXER'S MAGAZINE marks the beginning of its second decade with an entirely new dress of type. The first article on Great Businesses is devoted to "The Department Store," by Samuel Hopkins Adams, a skillful journalist, who devoted many months to a study of the subject. " A Bystander's Notes of a Massacre " is a conservative and evidently truthful statement of simple facts by one who was following the routine of his daily life in Constantinople. The new serial by Richard Harding Davis, " Soldiers of Fortune," opens with greater vigor than any of his previous work.

WE notice some changes of appearance in the January ARENA, the type and place of authors' names and titles of articles being exchanged, and red ink is used in the table of contents. The paper of special interest in this number is, we think, that by A. B. Choate, a lawyer, on "A Court of Medicine and Surgery." WITH the number bearing date January 2, THE LIVING AGE begins its iwo hundred and twelfth volume. This sterling magazine loses none of its interest or value, but rather grows in excellence as its years increase — adding the experience of the past with full appreciation of the needs of the present.

LITERARY NOTES.

THE January number of the NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW contains a most carefully and tersely written paper by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge entitled "The Meaning of the Votes." Andrew Lang contributes

THE NATIONAL MAGAZINE for January opens with the third paper on "Christ and His Times." "Hans Holbein and House Decoration in Lucerne" is treated of by R. H. E. Starr. The fiction of the number is comprised in four short stories.