MISCELLANY 



33i 



One of the Kansas species measures 18 

 feet between the tips of its wings, while the 

 expanded wings of the other would cover 

 an expanse of 25 feet. 



These animals had strong, claw-bearing 

 digits, and a short tail, with slender heads, 

 and teeth indicating carnivorous habits. 



"We may imagine them," says Prof. 

 Cope, " napping their leathery wings over 

 the waves, and plunging, often seizing many 

 an unsuspecting fish ; or, soaring at a safe 

 distance, viewing the sports and combats of 

 the more powerful saurians of the sea. At 

 nightfall they may have suspended them- 

 selves from cliffs by the claw-bearing fingers 

 of their wing-limbs." 



Origin of Cholera. According to a re- 

 cent paper by Mr. B. G. Jenkins, on the 

 origin and distribution of cholera epidemics, 

 of which Nature gives an interesting ab- 

 stract, the ancients were not so far wrong, 

 after all, in their belief that the heavenly 

 bodies were intimately connected with the 

 origin and course of disease. Instead of 

 one " home " of the cholera in the delta of 

 the Ganges, this writer holds that there are 

 seven, all situated on or near the Tropic of 

 Cancer. These are equally distant from 

 each other, and, while that at the mouth of 

 the Ganges is the most important, the others, 

 which are to the east of China, to the north 

 of Mecca, on the west coast of Africa, to 

 the north of the West India Islands, to the 

 west of Lower California, and among the 

 Sandwich Islands, are well marked, and 

 have all been the starting-point of " cholera- 

 streams" 1,400 miles in breadth, which took 

 either a northwesterly or southwesterly di- 

 rection, or both. After pointing out the 

 rise and progress of the disease within the 

 limits of these several streams, the author 

 mentions the curious cases of ships at sea 

 being suddenly attacked by cholera; and 

 again, the instances of ships sailing along 

 the coast of India being struck by the dis- 

 ease when at the same place, explaining 

 them on the supposition that the ships had 

 been sailing within the limits of the cholera- 

 streams ; for,' when they got outside the 

 limits, the disease suddenly ceased. He 

 called attention also to the fact that all the 

 places recorded by Dr. Gavin Milroy as un- 

 affected hitherto by cholera, lie outside 



these streams, or in their possible, but not 

 actual, extension. 



Leaving this part of the subject, he next 

 discusses the origin of the disease, declaring 

 that " cholera is intimately connected with 

 auroral displays and with solar disturb- 

 ances." Instancing the observed periodicity 

 of the sun-spots, of the diurnal variation in 

 the amount of declination of the magnetic 

 needle, of the earth-currents, and of the 

 aurora?, he traces a curious coincidence in 

 the periodicity of cholera epidemics, ex- 

 pressing the belief that they have a period 

 equal to a period and a half of sun-spots. 

 He adds : " My own opinion, derived from 

 an investigation of the subject, is that each 

 planet, in coming to, and in going from, peri- 

 helion more especially about the time of 

 the equinoxes produces a violent action 

 upon the sun, and has a violent sympathetic 

 action produced within itself internally 

 manifested by earthquakes, and externally 

 by auroral displays and volcanic eruptions, 

 such as that of Vesuvius at the present 

 moment ; in fact, just such an action as de- 

 velops the tail of a comet when it is coming 

 to, and going from, perihelion ; and, when 

 two or more planets happen to be coming 

 to, or going from, perihelion at the same 

 time, and are in, or nearly in, the same line 

 with the sun being, of course, nearly in 

 the same plane the combined violent ac- 

 tion produces a maximum of sun-spots, and 

 in connection with it a maximum of cholera 

 on the earth. The number of deaths from 

 cholera in any year for example, the deaths 

 in Calcutta during the six years 1865-70 

 increased as the earth passed from perihe- 

 lion, especially after March 21st, came to 

 a minimum when it was in aphelion, and in- 

 creased again when it passed to perihelion, 

 and notably after equinoctial day ; thus af- 

 fording a fair test of my theory." 



The Yellowstone National Park. Inter- 

 esting details of the Yellowstone National 

 Park reservation are given by F. V. Hayden, 

 United States Geologist, in his fifth annual 

 report on the Geology of the Territories, 

 just published. 



By act of Congress, approved March 1, 

 1872, a tract of land in the Territories of 

 Montana and Wyoming is set apart and re- 

 served for a national park. It is situated 



