Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 32.djvu/146

136 Greene, William H. Wurtz's Elements of Modern Chemistry. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company. Pp. 770. $2.50.

Marks, William Dennis. Kystrom's Pocket-Book of Mechanics and Engineering. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company. Pp. 670. $3.50.

Knox, Thomas W. Decisive Battles since Waterloo. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, Pp. 477.

Ridgway, Robert. A Manual of North American Birds. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company. Pp. 630, with 124 Plates. $7.50

Jackson, Edward P. A Manual of Astronomical Geography. Boston: D. C. Heath & Co. Pp. 73.

Munroe, Charles E. Notes on the Literature of Explosives. No. XIII. Pp. 24.

Land, Dr. C. H. Detroit, Mich. The Inconsistency of our Code of Dental Ethics. Pp. 32.

Lewis, T. H. Incised Bowlders in the Upper Minnesota Valley. Pp. 4.

Hay, O. P., Irvington. Ind. On the Manner of Deposit of the Glacial Drift. Pp. 8. The Red-Headed Woodpecker a Hoarder. Pp. 4.

Holmes, Mary E. The Morphology of the Carinæ upon the Septa of Rugose Corals. Boston: Bradlee Whidden. Pp. 31, with Sixteen Plates.

Everhart. Professor Edgar. Infant Food and Infant Feeding. Houston, Texas. Pp. 20.



Recent Advances in Sanitary Science.—According to a review of the subject in "Nature," the principal fields in which advance has been recently made in sanitary science are the etiology of such diseases as Asiatic cholera, typhoid fever, diphtheria, and tubercular disorders of the lungs. The organism observed by Koch may not yet have been proved to be the actual cause of cholera; but it has been shown to be different in its mode of growth from all other organisms asserted to be identical with it, and is therefore diagnostic of the disease. In any event, the validity of the measures relied upon to prevent cholera from breaking out and spreading is not affected by the results of Koch's researches. While no micro organism has yet been found which can be asserted to be the peculiar origin of typhoid fever, the view that that disease arises from a specific contagion, and is not propagated de novo, is gaining ground; and we have learned so much regarding the mode of origin and spread of the disease, that the discovery of its active cause would probably not greatly affect the measures now taken for its prevention. No results that can be exactly formulated have been obtained respecting diphtheria. It is not invariably dependent on insanitary conditions, and some facts indicate that the presence in the air of products of coal-combustion is unfavorable to it. The character of the seasons when it is most prevalent favors the theory that its specific contagium is a mold or fungus, which flourishes most strongly in a damp and smokeless air. Koch's discovery of the Bacillus tuberculosis as the specific contagium of tubercular disease places that malady in the class of contagious disorders. The fact that milk has been found capable of conveying disease directly or indirectly suggests the prudence of boiling it whenever suspicion of danger exists. Advances in domestic sanitation have mostly been limited to applications of principles already ascertained, especially in the drainage and water-supply of dwellings. The belief is steadily gaining ground that water once polluted by sewage can not be regarded as safe for drinking. The introduction of constant supplies of water into towns has been of great benefit. The separation of rainfall from sewage is growing in favor. The purification and utilization of sewage are receiving increased attention. The present condition of knowledge on the subject demands that sewage should, wherever it is possible, be utilized on land, as manure, in the production of crops and dairy produce; failing in this, it should be freed from its solids by precipitation, and then purified on land laid out as filter-beds. In all cases, efficient purification, not the production of crops, should be the controlling object.

Chinese in America.—Professor Stewart Culin, in the American Association, described the characteristics of the Chinese immigrants in America. They all come from the departments of Kwang Chan and Shan-King, in the province of Kwantung. They describe themselves as "Puntis," or natives, as distinguished from the tribes called "Hal-Kus," or "Shangers," who seldom emigrate, and divide themselves into the people of the Sam-Yup (three towns) and those of Sz'-Yup (four towns), from terms applied to different divisions of their native province. The people of the different districts show distinguishing peculiarities of speech and customs. Representatives of some twenty or thirty clans only are found among the immigrants. The stores 