Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 9.djvu/792

764 where there are plenty of mosquitoes, gnats, and black flies. The running water and gravelly bottom answer the same purpose in keeping the trout free from insects as our hands do in keeping the mosquitoes from us."

Management of the Bedding in Sleeping-Cars.—A writer in the Sanitary Journal, of Toronto, calls public attention to a source of danger existing in the sleeping-arrangements of certain railway-carriages. The beds in each section are opened out at night, after having been tightly closed for a period of twelve or fourteen hours. "Into these beds," says the author, "a stranger enters, probably partially recovered from some infectious disease, such as small-pox, scarlet fever, etc. He makes his exit, and at once these beds are closed and fastened down carefully again until the following night, when the same process of bed-making is observed, with a change of sheeting, as the case may be." The remedy suggested by the author does not appear to be sufficient: it consists simply of perforations in the bed-casings, with openings outward, so as not to communicate with the interior of the coach. But, if by this plan the germs of contagious disease are not destroyed, the bedding at least will be aired to some extent, and this will be no slight advantage.

A Neglected Naturalist.—Under the title of "A Neglected Naturalist," Mr. II. E. Copeland contributes to the American Naturalist a vindication of Constantine S. Rafinesque against the aspersions cast upon his scientific work by European and American critics. It is charged that the work done by Rafinesque only introduced confusion into botany and zoölogy by needlessly multiplying genera and species. But, according to the author, "thirteen genera, eight sub-genera, and sixteen species of the plants referred to in Gray's manual, are his. His writings on conchology have been considered worth editing by Binney and Tryon. Of our reptiles and batrachians four genera and six species bear his name. He described four genera and four species that are retained in the current literature treating of our mammals. The genus Helmitherus of birds was proposed by him." In 1820 Rafinesque published a "Natural History of the Fishes of the Ohio River." Mr. Copeland declares himself to be profoundly impressed by the accuracy of the work of Rafinesque as represented by this little volume. Of seventy-nine genera and one hundred and fifteen species of fishes known as inhabiting the Ohio and its tributaries twenty-nine genera and thirty-seven species were first described by this neglected naturalist, and the eliminating of seasonal and sexual forms from the rank of species, and the identifying of more of his genera on a better acquaintance with the fishes of the Ohio, will constantly make the ratio greater.

Marsh-Water as a Vehicle of Ague-Poison.—In his volume on "Practical Hygiene" the late Dr. Parkes adduces a number of facts to show that marsh-water is a vehicle of ague-poison. The more commonly-received opinion, however, is that the air of marshes is the sole cause of intermittent fevers. Certain observations made at Tilbury Fort, on the river Thames, appear to confirm Dr. Parkes's view. In the "Army Medical Blue-Book" it is stated that the troops at Tilbury Fort are supplied with water collected on the roofs of buildings, and stored in underground tanks at or below high-water mark. The officials at the neighboring railroad-station use spring-water pumped from a well. Now ague has, for a long time, been common among the troops at Tilbury Fort, and almost unknown at the railroad-station. During some cleansing and repairs to the tanks, spring-water was obtained from the latter source for several months together, during which time ague disappeared from among the soldiers at Tilbury, but on the tank-water being again brought into use, cases of ague again made their appearance, the disease ceasing on discontinuing that, source of supply. Samples of water from these different sources were submitted to chemical analysis, when it was found that the amount of organic matter in the tank water was greatly in excess of that in the spring (railway-station) water, while the presence of vegetable and fungoid matter made it evident that there had been soakage of water from the surrounding marsh into the tanks.