Sybarite

“ Rather, this venerable fellow is the companion of the advanced Sybarite. He is a product of extreme artificiality; he has nothing in common with nature. Moreover, he induces, so his enemies assert, the fell Podagra or gout. ”

“ And yet," he added thoughtfully, "you had no chance—none whatever."
"How's that?" said Penfield, staring.
"You couldn't have won against me to-night," P. Sybarite ingenuously explained; "it could not be done: I am invincible: it is—Kismet!—my Day of Days!"
Penfield laughed discordantly.
"Maybe it looks that way to you. But aren't you a little premature? You haven't banked that wad yet, you know. Any minute something might happen to make you think otherwise."
"Nothing like that is going to happen," P. Sybarite retorted with calm conviction. "The luck's with me at present!" ”

“ Er mebbe yo'd perfuh—"
"Enough!" said P. Sybarite firmly. "A mere bite and a glass are enough to sustain life."
"Ain't that the troof?"
Chuckling, the negro waddled away, returned, and offered the guest a glass brimming with amber-tinted liquid.
Poising the vessel delicately between thumb and forefinger, P. Sybarite treated himself to one small sip—an instant of lingering delectation—another sip. So only, it is asserted, must the victim of the desert begin to allay his burning thirst; with discretion—a sip at a time—gingerly. ”

“ The Sybarite, whose night's rest was disturbed by a doubled rose leaf, deserves to be pitied almost as much as the young man who, when he was benighted in the snow, was reproached by his severe father for having collected a heap of snow to make himself a pillow. ”

“ P. Sybarite enquired.
"Not so's you'd notice it," the boy returned bravely.... "First time anything like this ever happened to me," he went on. "Funny sensation—precisely as if somebody had lammed me for a home run—with a steel girder for a bat ..."
"Must be tough!" said P. Sybarite blankly, experiencing a qualm at the thought of a soft-nosed bullet mushrooming through living flesh.
"Guess I can stand it.... Where are we?"
P. Sybarite took observations."
"Forty-seventh, near Sixth Avenue," he reported finally.
"Good: we'll be home in five minutes." ”

“ Moving to the wall, he pressed a call-button, and simultaneously whipped a revolver into view. "I hope you're not armed," he protested sincerely. "It would only make things messy. And then I hate to have my employees run any risk—"
"You are summoning a posse, I take it?" enquired P. Sybarite, likewise on his feet.
"Half a dozen huskies," assented the other. "If you know your little book, you'll come through at once and save yourself a manhandling."
"It's too bad," P. Sybarite regretted pensively—and cast a desperate glance round the room. ”

“ The shipping clerk presently controlled his mirth sufficiently to permit unctuous enunciation of the following cryptic exclamation:
"O you Perceval!"
P. Sybarite turned pale.
"You little rascal!" continued George, brandishing the envelope. "You've been cunning, you have; but I've found you out at last.... Per-ce-val!"
Over the cheeks of P. Sybarite crept a delicate tint of pink. His eyes wavered and fell. He looked, and was, acutely unhappy.
"You're a sly one, you are," George gloated—"always signin' your name 'P. Sybarite' and pretendin' your maiden monaker was 'Peter'! ”

“ With but one thought, he hurled on, swung round to the head of the stairs, saw his man at the bottom, pulled up to aim, and....
Beneath him a small rug slipped on polished parquetry of the landing. P. Sybarite's heels went up and his head down with a sickening thump. He heard his pistol explode once more, and again visioned a reeling firmament fugitively coruscant with strange constellations.
Then—bounding up with uncommon resiliency—he saw the street door of the house close behind the fugitive and heard the heavy slam of it. ”

“ The retreat of the Brigade had been cut off by the breaking of the canal bridge the previous evening, so the Battalion had to retire to the east, and not to the west. As the Subaltern marched along he reflected with grim amusement on the ease with which the most confirmed Sybarite can get accustomed to hardships. At home, if he did anything early on an empty stomach, he very soon felt faint and tired. Now, this was taken as a matter of course; one was only too glad to restore the circulation to the limbs, cramped with the cold and damp of dawn. ”

“ Had those afflicted ones, who so deeply commiserated the forlorn lot of this poor widower, been enabled at that moment (Asmodeus-like) to look upon his saddened face, and form their own opinions, unbiassed either by prejudice or pity, they could hardly have decided that the events of the past month had told very severely upon this young British Sybarite. ”

“ and thus a Sybarite would be worth at least thirty Lacedæmonians. ”

“ P. Sybarite replied, finding it.
"And I suppose I—"
"You're quite right; you've had enough. Alcohol is nothing to help mend a wound. If your friend Higgins permits it, when he comes—well and good.... Meanwhile," he added, taking a seat near the head of the couch, and fixing his youthful relation with a stern enquiring eye—"what were you doing in Dutch House the night?" ”

“ Not that he found it difficult; the Monastery fire-escape was a series of steep flights of iron steps, instead of the primitive vertical ladder of round iron rungs in more general use. There was even a guard-rail at the outside of each flight. Consequently, P. Sybarite gained the eleventh floor platform very readily.
But there he held up a long instant, dashed to discover his task made facile rather than obstructed.
The window was wide open, to force whose latch he had thoughtfully provided himself with a fruit knife from Peter Kenny's buffet. ”

“ It is reported that the Sybarites used to invite their neighbors' wives a whole twelve-month before to their entertainments, that they might have convenient time to trim and adorn themselves; for my part, I am of opinion, that he who would feast as he should ought to allow himself more time for preparation than they, it being a more difficult matter to compose the mind into an agreeable temper than to fit one's clothes for the outward ornament of the body. ”

“ The only people who have no crumpled rose-leaves under them are those who have no repose, but stay striving on amid the heat of the city while the prey of the crumpled rose-leaf is suffering among the hills or by the sea. Those home-keeping Sybarites, composing seven-eighths of our urban populations, immune from the anguish of the rose-leaf, form themselves the pang of its victims in certain extreme cases; the thought of them poisons the pure air, and hums about the sleepless rest-seeker in the resorts where there are no mosquitoes. ”

“ Sybarites bathe in wine, and Nonconformists drink water; but we are not concerned with these frantic exceptions. ”

“ In fact, its bracts are found so often as to be considered by some authors as of quite normal occurrence. Contrasted with those of the above mentioned species of Sisymbrium, they are not seen at the base of all the flower [638] stalks, but are limited to the lowermost part of the raceme, adorning a few, often ten or twelve, and rarely more flower-stalks. Moreover they exhibit a feature which is indicative of the presence of an abnormality. They are not all of the same size, but decrease in length from the base of the raceme upward, and finally slowly disappear. ”

“ Clinically there are many points of difference between syphilis as seen in the native races of tropical regions and as observed in Europeans at home, and it would seem advisable to do more work along the line of spinal fluid examinations. The examination of the spinal fluid for syphilis should include a Wassermann test using several concentrations ranging from 0.2 to 1.0 cc., a globulin estimation, cell count and Langes colloidal gold reaction,—the last not being necessary however, unless positive findings are obtained in one or more of the other tests. ”

“ All that is needed is to take a syringe with a very fine aperture—an injecting syringe is the best—and by its aid to force into the holes a solution of corrosive sublimate in spirits of wine—say a large teaspoonful of the powdered salt to a pint of spirits. The rapidity with which the poisoned spirit permeates the wood is wonderful, and in a short time it may be seen oozing out of twenty or thirty holes at once. ”

“ While a moth was feeding on a drop of syrup in a strong light, a powerful lens revealed drops, of liquid, mingled with bubbles of air, passing alternately up and down the two lateral tubes of the proboscis. At the same time the upward current of syrup in the central tube was by no means steady and continuous.
When this organ is not in use, it is beautifully coiled into a close spiral which lies between the labial palpi. The length varies considerably in different insects, and consequently the number of turns in the spiral must differ also. ”

“ These alkaloids are most developed in the ovaries and testes, and in the spawning season. They are also found in the liver and sometimes elsewhere in the body. In many species otherwise innocuous, purgative alkaloids are developed in or about the eggs. Serious illness has been caused by eating the roe of the pike and the barbel. The poison is less virulent in the species which ascend the rivers. It is also much less developed in cooler waters. For this reason ciguatera is almost confined to the tropics. ”

“ At b in fig. 177, A, the basal portion of a rootlet is shown in organic connexion with the outer cortex. The rootlet-bundles are given off from the stele as in other examples of Stigmaria; each bundle consists of a triangular strand of xylem with an endarch protoxylem at the narrow end accompanied by a portion of the secretory tissue as in the leaf-traces. As in Stigmaria ficoides the rootlets are attached to the outer cortex above a cushion of small cells. ”

“ Since the distant days of this patriarch of materia medica the Provençal peasant has retained his faith in the remedy revealed to him by the Greeks, who came from Phocæa with the olive, the fig, and the vine. Only one thing is changed: Dioscorides advises us to eat the Cigales roasted, but now they are boiled, and the decoction is administered as medicine. The explanation which is given of the diuretic properties of the insect is a marvel of ingenuousness. The Cigale, as every one knows who has tried to catch it, throws a jet of liquid excrement in one's face as it flies away. ”

“ Fig. 139.—Numbfish, Narcine brasiliensis Henle, showing electric cells. Pensacola, Florida.
The purpose of the alkaloids producing ciguatera is considered by Dr. Pellegrin as protective, saving the species by the poisoning of its enemies. The sickness caused by the specific poison must be separated from that produced by ptomaines and leucomaines in decaying flesh or in the oil diffused through it. Poisonous bacteria may be destroyed by cooking, but the alkaloids which cause ciguatera are unaltered by heat. ”

“ The inherited form at times presents itself in two types closely simulating those due to tuberculosis. Like the bacillus of tuberculosis, the syphilitic germ attacks every structure and organ of the body. Its reversal of the principle of individuation, causing excessive cell formation, produces more decidedly demonstrable effects. As syphilis is more apt to attack the central nervous system than tuberculosis, it would seem that it is a greater race-deteriorating factor. ”

“ Later stage in the development of Sigillaria; Syringodendron with Stigmariopsis. (After Grand’Eury.)
The next stage is that in which the undifferentiated bulb becomes swollen at the base and develops four primary roots (fig. 207 B, C) which grow obliquely downwards and produce numerous rootlets. Meanwhile the parent rhizome gradually decays, finally setting free the aerial stems which are now provided with spreading and forked roots (fig. 208) such as we are familiar with in English specimens as Stigmaria ficoides, but which in the French specimens show the features of Stigmariopsis. ”

“ Other observers maintain that the amoebae may pass through the walls of the intestine, through the peritoneal cavity, and so on to the liver where they give rise to typical abscesses.
Syphilis. — It has long been recognized that syphilis is a specific infective disease, but although characterized by fever, anaemia, and increased growths of tissue followed by rapid degeneration and ulceration of tissue, it is only within quite recent years that a definite parasitic organism, present in all cases of typical syphilis, has been isolated and studied. ”

“ It should be stated that in one variety of the Complement Fixation Test, namely, the “Wassermann Test for Syphilis” in human beings, an antigen is used which is not derived from the specific organism (Treponema pallidum) which causes the disease nor even from syphilitic tissue. It has been determined that alcohol will extract from certain tissues, human or animal, substances which act specifically in combining with the syphilitic amboceptor present in the blood. ”

“ Peculiarities of the Germ.—Many interesting facts about the Spirochæta pallida explain peculiarities in the disease of which it is the cause. Many germs can be grown artificially, some in the presence of air, others only when air is removed. The germ of syphilis belongs in the latter class. The germ that causes tuberculosis, a rod-like organism or bacillus, can stand drying without losing its power to produce the disease, and has a very appreciable ability to resist antiseptic agents. If the germ of syphilis were equally hard to kill, syphilis would be an almost universal disease. ”