698 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



obliged to adapt himself to the evolution of 

 society. If he fails to respect that freedom 

 of thought, of belief, of action, which our 

 civilization makes necessary in all social re- 

 lations, he finds it necessary to seek other 

 fields where social evolution is not suf- 

 ficiently advanced to make him an inter- 

 loper. The same spirit in society which has 

 caused the aboUtion of the birch rod in 

 school, except in cases of peculiarly low 

 personal organization, has caused the abo- 

 lition of espionage in colleges and univer- 

 sities. In calling the attention of your 

 readers to the methods by which success is 

 attained in institutions like Amherst, where 

 not only the right but the duty of self-gov- 

 ernment among students is insisted upon, 

 you are aiding the work of educational re- 

 form, and all such efforts are entitled to the 

 acknowledgment of those whose work is 

 education. W. Le Conte Stevens. 



40 West Foetieth Street, New Yokk, \ 

 July 23, ISSl. f 



INFORMATION WANTED. 



Messrs. Editors. 



Will you permit me through the col- 

 umns of your journal to ask for a scrap of 

 information that I have been unable to ob- 

 tain from any books at my command, or 

 from any other source. Infesting the isl- 



ands of Lake Erie is an insect which from 

 all accounts plagues human beings in much 

 the same manner that the chiscoe or chisrre 

 commonly called jigger of the South is 

 said to. The islanders call this insect a 

 " midget," also a " jigger," and say that it 

 is most numerous in bushes or the under- 

 growth of the woods ; that it is almost in- 

 visible to the naked eye ; and that when it 

 effects a lodging on the human body it bores 

 through, and lies under, the skin, causing 

 the very annoying and sometimes painful 

 " bites " that are experienced by visitors 

 to the islands. I have frequently suffered 

 from these " bites," which are far more dis- 

 tressing than the most aggravated mosquito- 

 bites, but have never been able to find anv- 

 thing of the little pest that gives them. I 

 am told, however, that, if a " bite " is ex- 

 amined as soon as it begins to itch, the 

 " midget," an infinitesimal yellow insect, 

 may be seen in its center. The "midget " 

 seems to be unlike the chigoe of the West 

 Indies and South America, judging by cyclo- 

 pedic accounts of this latter insect, only in 

 the respect that it does not, as far as I have 

 been able to discover, rear its progeny 

 under the skin it bores into. Perhaps you, 

 or some of your readers, will be kind enough 

 to inform me what the " midget " is, its true 

 name, etc. Respectfully, 



Dean V. R. Manlet. 

 Toledo, Ohio, July 16, 1881. 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



THE LESSONS OF THE BOSTON ''LA- 

 DIES' DEPOSIT.'' 



THE " Atlantic Monthly " did well in 

 publishing in its July issue two 

 articles on the "Ladies' Deposit," a 

 fraudulcDt banking concern in Boston, 

 of which 80 much was said last year. 

 One of these articles, by Mr. Henry A. 

 Clapp, gives a liistory of the scheme, and 

 is e\ndently written with care and with 

 good knowledge of the facts. The other 

 paper is by Miss Mary Abigail Dodge, 

 who had some experience with the insti- 

 tution, and she presents the feminine 

 side of the case. As the excitement of 

 the affair is now passed away, and we 

 have the main facts fairly before us, it 

 seems proper to look a little into the 

 lessons it teaches ; and to do this it will 

 be desirable to recall briefly its lead- 

 ing features. In this we follow the 

 statements of Mr. Clapp. 



By whomsoever planned, the scheme 

 of the " Ladies' Deposit " was carried 

 out by a woman named Howe, and she 

 was undoubtedly its master-spirit. The 

 revelations at the sequel show her to 

 have been a vulgar female impostor, a 

 clairvoyant, and fortune-telling advent- 

 uress, who had run a long career of 

 petty crime in New England. She first 

 married a half-breed negro, or Indian, 

 named Solomon, who is now living in 

 Rhode Island. They lived together 

 some thirteen years, but the marriage 

 was void on account of the law against 

 the union of persons of different colors. 

 She next married a man named Lane, 

 or Chase, Mr. Solomon being a diligent 

 promoter of the second union. Lane 

 is said to have died at sea, when she 

 married Florimund L. Howe, a house- 

 painter and dancing-master, who is her 

 present husband. The pair adventured 



