The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-03-12

N HERE is well established cus- NY tom among criminals and other
 people who have little respect for their persons, leving or dead, to beuueath their bodies to medical colleges to be dis be very desirable legacy among medi- cal students and of course the more re- markable the man was who owned the brain the more interesting it is to ex- anime this wonderful human machine af- ter the vital spark has ceased to glow. Science benefits by this custom. Young students learn more about the human body than they knew before, while older students also profit greatly, but after all it appears that the men who dispose of their bodies thus show at least scant re- spect for the mortal frame which has served them so well through life. Of course we cannot have surgery unless we have dissection and 1t is far better that bodies should be willed to medical stu dents than that graves should be vio- lated during the night
 The man who thus gives away his body to be cut to pieces must have queer ideas regarding death. or else he has none at all. Perhaps the latter is more often the case. Under such circumstances a man may be actuated by true scientific zeal or perhaps he merely desires to show his supreme contempt for earthly things. Cremation may be considered in the same light. While 1t makes no differ ence to people after they are dead wheth- 
 merely thrown away there is an appear ance of hearlessness about cremation which probably accounts for the fact that 1t is not more generally practiced.
 A power plant has been installed in Philadelphia which will do away with forty fire engines and will protect an area of 425 acres. The hydrants can send a stream of water to the top of the high est sky scraper in Philadelphia and inc new plant seems destined to revolutionize modern methods of fighting fire. There will be ten pumps in the plant, each of which will throw 12OO gallons of water a minute against pressure of 300 pounds to the square inch. Each pump is driven by an engine of 2S0 horse power and hv a system of especially constructed mains 1t Is possible to afford ample protection to the district covered.
 When these plants are installed in all the large cities, according to the predic uons of some enthusiasts, the old fine fireman will be figure of the past. Of course there will be f1remen, for some one will have to direct the streams of water and look after the pumps, but the picturesque hero who Is the idol of the small boys and makes a thrilling ride to fires, clinging to his smoking engine or driving the plunging horses, will have to step down and out. There will no longer be place for him. Yet before All this comes to pass it would be well to remem- Der that the hydrants which will throw streams of water so high must be so placed that they will be out of danger from falling buildings and leaping flames so that the firemen will not have to rise their lives in order to make the connec- tions and direct the streams of water against buildings.
 A great many thinking persons agree that 1t is perfectly natural and human for imperfect mortals to make mistakes. Yet when one begins to think of the lit- tie blunders that make up our daily lives 1t Is astonishing how many there are and how many are made in such high places that they are noised about from one end Of the land to the other. Just now while congress Is in session and incidentally doing very little business, Washington correspondents are kept on the jump to record all the amusing breaks made by both senators and representative. A great many of our distinguished states