THE announcement of another famine in:
Bengal may be appreciated, when we re
mind our readers that Bengal has a popu-1
lation larger than the United States upon a
territory nearly as large as Texas. Thie
failure of the semi-annual rice crop is the
present occasion of suffi.ring, and has itseeh
been caused by a very dry season. Riceis
the staff of life of the Blengalese. and they
consume nearly all the production, no ma'
hoarding more than enough to 'upport hi
family six months. When, therefore, th
crop falls off even a third or a fourth, thol
laboring population finds its dietary piti
lessly reduced in equal proportion, and
they die by thousands. The starving In
dian is a peculiarly pathetic object. Hav
ing exhausted all means of preserving life,
he sits down by the road-side by thousands.
and dies in silence. Taught by its fatal
procrastination in 1866, when a million of
inhabitants died of hunger, the Indiar:
Government will propably take active
measures to relieve the distressed districts.
If all the Bengal presidency is threatened
the most active measures are likely to fal
short.
SIltiplying by Five.
Figures are extraordinary instrumentali
ties in the service of mathematicians. With
them they measure the dimensions of dis,
tant worlds moving swiftly on their orbits;
and even calculate the weight and densi4
ty of a .planet with a slate and pencil. Sc
accurate are those calculations that were it
possible to place Jupiter in a pair of scales. 1
they would verify their statements.
