POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



861 



experience, Mr. Rankin suggests, -would an- 

 other time remove the risks that were in- 

 curred ; and he has not the shadow of a 

 doubt that there is yet a great future in 

 Africa for the elephant, especially when the 

 stage of capturing and taming the native 

 species has been reached. 



Co-operation of Medical Officers and 

 People in Sanitary Objects. The Sanitary 

 Aid Association of St. Leonard's and Hast- 

 ings, England, during nine years of work 

 among a population of thirty-five thousand, 

 has secured a co-operation between the peo- 

 ple and the sanitary officers, under which 

 the spread of all infectious diseases has been 

 effectually prevented. This it has done by 

 tact in the exercise of its functions as a 

 medium between the medical officers and 

 the people. It seeks, first, to guard against 

 popular jealousy of inquisitorial inspection. 

 The teachers of the schools are expected to 

 make weekly returns of all absentees, with 

 the cause of absence if known ; if the cause 

 is not known, some fit person is deputed to 

 make a friendly casual visit to the family, 

 without any suggestion of suspicion of fever, 

 and report the information received to who- 

 ever acts as sanitary manager. The case is 

 then put into the hands of the health officer, 

 and his endeavors are furthered by explain- 

 ing to the mother that she shall receive, for 

 the strict performance of the processes of 

 disinfection taught her, assistance, to be al- 

 lotted according to the circumstances of the 

 family. The assistance may come in the 

 form of a milk allowance, beef-tea, wine, or 

 whatever may be ordered by the medical at- 

 tendant, a nurse, or a person to do the wash- 

 ing, or, where no want exists, of little deli- 

 cacies and comforts which may be given 

 without offense. It should always be con- 

 nected with Obedience, by the persons as- 

 sisted, of the inspector's orders, and should 

 be accompanied, through the period of ill- 

 ness, by,the promise of suitable help at the 

 end. The greatest difficulties the medical 

 officers have to meet arise from the desire 

 of the poor to conceal their cases, for fear 

 of injuring their business ; but, under the 

 operation of this system, every family that 

 enjoys the benefit of its application and finds 

 out what help and reliei it gives tells the 

 neighbors, and so it is brought about that 



the medical officer becomes himself the poor 

 man's accepted friend. The St. Leonard's 

 and Hastings society has never incurred a 

 failure during all the years of its working ; 

 yet so unobtrusive have been its operations 

 that one who should go down to inquire at 

 random about it, without having a list of 

 its allies, would have difficulty in discover- 

 ing its existence. By adhering to and avow- 

 ing the principle that it has no more right 

 to interfere with the persons it visits than 

 they with its members, by using persuasion 

 and sympathy instead of threats, it has re- 

 duced the number of unmanageable cases 

 to one a year ; and has always brought even 

 these around by taking care in conversing 

 with the persons to give full information re- 

 specting disinfection. Thereupon, they turn 

 around and act upon the information they 

 have gained, so as to show how well they 

 can do without their visitors. 



JYumber of Species of the Orang-Ou- 

 tang. The number of species of the orang- 

 outang has been placed variously at from 

 one to four. The upholders of the one-spe- 

 cies theory have doubted whether the char- 

 acteristics that were regarded as indications 

 of specific differences might not really have 

 arisen from the examination of skulls of 

 different ages. To contribute to a solution 

 of this doubt, Mr. Frederick A. Lucas has 

 examined the large collection of orangs of 

 Professor Henry A. Ward, and compared 

 the notes taken by Mr. William T. Horna- 

 day, while collecting orangs, and has satis- 

 fied himself that the views of the advocates 

 of one species are correct. He previously 

 believed that there were two species. lie 

 adds to his notes on the subject the sug- 

 gestion that " they point clearly to the fact 

 that it is extremely dangerous to form a 

 species from observations of one or two 

 skulls," and that they render it very proba- 

 ble that many fossil species have been based 

 on individual or sexual peculiarities. 



The Law of Land Formation on our 

 Globe. Professor Richard Owen, of Xew 

 Harmony, Indiana, has observed some coin- 

 cidences in the arrangements of continental 

 lines and in the location and direction of 

 elevations and depressions of the surface 

 of the earth, which have suggested to him 



