The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1891-06-05
JUST A LITTLE KNOWLEDGE.

The Possession of 1t Does Not Pay Very
Well in the Long Run.
''It doesn't pay to know just little
about things" said one of those men
who are always after general informa-
tion." Judging from experiance l
thoroughly agree with the gentleman
who said, "A little knowledge is danger
Gus thing For example, + have never
been able to eat an egg with thorough
relish-though exceedingly fond of them
for their fiavor-since learned that the
little spot on one side of the yelk, toward
the butt end, is the germ of the chicken.
You may cook an egg in what fashion
you please, but whether it is boiled
poached or fried, you will find that germ
always conspicuous, when once you
know it is there, and you cannot eat the
egg until you have carefully removed it.
1t would add considerably to my happi-
ness if could believe today what was
taught in the nursery, that the white of
an egg makes the bones of the subsequent
fowl and the yelk the flesh, instead of
knowing, as l do, that both are merely
the food by the consumption of which
the germ is developed.
''But that is only very minor in
stance. My slight knowledge of patho-
logical anatomy, amounting to the mer-
est smattering, is a source of continual
distress to me. Though an abste1nious
man. on the whole, 1 cannot indulge in a
glass of any alcoholic beverage without
realizing that l am subjecting my sys-
tenn to the action of heart stimulant'
which accelerates the pulsations of that
organ injur1ously. The slightest sensa-
ton of any sort about my chest causes
me to imagine. despite myself, that the
tubercular bacili are beginning to get
in their deadly work upon my pulmona-
ry system.
Presumably it is only a trifing inter
costal rheumatism, but l am none the
less uneasy. A similar feeling in the
small of my back makes me think of
Bright's disease. Supposing that swal-
low an orange seed by accident, it oc-
ours to me at once that there is a chance
for its getting into certain useless sac
attached to the stomach, where, if it
does, it will occasion inflammation that
is necessarily fatal before long. 1 know
that my intestines are prey to certain
vermiculor parasites, as are those of
every one else; but they do not occasion
me SO much annoyance as the possibili-
ty, always existing, that painful concre-
tlons of lime may be forming in my
bladder or my liver.
"a superficial knowledge of physiology
takes much of the poetry out of exist
ence and removes large part of the
gliding from the sublunary gingerbread,
as one might say. Having acquired it,
man realizes rather painfully that he
is largely an elevated animal after all,
though hitherto he has imagined himself
chiefly mind.
''Supposing that ones partner in the
german is thin girl, he cannot help
figuring her out as an articulated skele-
ton and setting an estimated price upon
her as Il preparation in that guise. This
does not apply, however, when she is an
acknow wledged heiress
Imagination is always opposed to
facts, and by as much as the latter are
calculated to dispel agreeable illusions;
they are destructive of happiness There
fore am inclined to think that however
desirable knowledge may be respecting
things with which one has no personal
and intimate concern, it is most com
Portable to know very little about ones
self and ones environment. Drink deep
or taste not the Pierian spring. Wash
ington Star