NOTES. 



287 



communications, the establishment of a li- 

 brary, and the dissemination of knowledge 

 through publications and by other means. 



The Messrs. Merriam, publishers of Web- 

 ster's Dictionary, issue a circular calling at- 

 tention to the misleading way in which a 

 cheap reprint of an old edition of Webster's 

 Unabridged Dictionary is being advertised. 

 It is the edition of 1847, the copyright of 

 which has expired by the lapse of forty-two 

 Tears. It lacks all the words that have been 

 added to the language since 184*7, and these, 

 especially in the department of science, have 

 been many ; it contains numerous etymolo- 

 gies that have been proved erroneous by the 

 results of later research ; it lacks the tables 

 of biographical, geographical, and other in- 

 formation, which are appended to recent edi- 

 tions of Webster, and it has no illustrations 

 in the body of the volume. The reprint is 

 produced by some method of photogravure, 

 giving blurred letters, very trying to the eyes, 

 and the paper and binding are so flimsy that 

 the book must fall to pieces with very little 

 use. It is not the current edition of Web- 

 ster's Unabridged Dictionary, as its publish- 

 ers wish the public to believe — it is not even 

 the "original" edition, as it explicitly claims 

 to be, for that was published in 1828. 



The most interesting feature of Dr. R- 

 W. Shufeldt's report to the American Or- 

 nithologists' Union on Progress in Avian 

 Anatomy for the Years 1888-1889, is the 

 announcement that a Handbook to the 

 Muscles of Birds has been prepared by the 

 author, and is in the press of Macmillan & Co. 

 It is based on studies of the raven. Several 

 monographs, mostly technical, by Dr. Shu- 

 feldt and other authors, American and for- 

 eign, are mentioned in the report. Among 

 them is one by Mr. F. A. Lucas, on the Skele- 

 ton of the Extinct Great Auk. 



A clear and forcible article on The Sup- 

 pression of Consumption, by G. W. Hamble- 

 ton, is published in Science for April 25th. 

 Dr. Hambleton deems the most important 

 step in suppressing this disease to be to re- 

 duce its production. The means which he 

 recommends for this end are almost entirely 

 hygienic, and are based on the theory that 

 consumption is produced by conditions that 

 impede the respiratory functions. The chief 

 of these are compression of the chest, and 

 the presence of dust in the air inhaled. His 

 statements are well fortified by cases which 

 he has treated successfully, including his 

 own. 



The first fossil found in the " Cheyenne 

 sandstone " of Kansas — which is considered 

 referable to the Trinity division of Arkansas 

 and Texas — is described by Mr. F. W. Cragin 

 as a part of a cycad, similar to those from 

 the Purbeck Dirt-beds of England, but dif- 

 fering from them in form and in the size of 

 the petioles. A leaf of Platanus, found in a 



stratum of very fine, soft chalk of supposed 

 Niobrara Cretaceous age, is described by the 

 same author as of interest, both on account 

 of its preservation in a kind of rock in which 

 land vegetation is rare, and because it con- 

 tributes evidence that chalk is sometimes 

 formed very near land, and if so, then pre- 

 sumably in water of but moderate depth. 



The increase of leprosy in British Guiana 

 is attracting attention. It was introduced 

 by negroes from Africa, and added to by 

 immigrants from India in 1842 and 1858, 

 and from China in 1861 and 1862. One 

 Indian tribe was infected with it fifty years 

 ago from the negro colony, but no other 

 tribe has had it. Mr. J. D. Hilles, of Deme- 

 rara, who has investigated the subject, is 

 convinced that the disease is communicable 

 by marriage or cohabitation, and by inocula- 

 tion or contact. He has seen cases that un- 

 doubtedly arose by contagion. 



The investigations of Dr. Th. Kocher, of 

 Berne, on goitre, while they do not clear up 

 the question of the origin of the disease, 

 cast a dim light upon it. Comparing the 

 water of the parts of his canton in which 

 goitre is common with those parts that are free 

 from it, the author found considerable quan- 

 tities of organic or organized material in it. 

 In certain goitrous parts, particular families 

 having access to special water-supplies free, 

 or relatively so, from this organic material 

 are free from goitre, although breathing the 

 same air, living on the same soil, engaging 

 in the same occupations, and eating the same 

 food with their goitrous neighbors. Hence, 

 he concludes, the organic factor is the one 

 that determines the prevalence of goitre. 



Mr. Joseph Thomson commends the semi- 

 civilized region forming the central area of 

 the Niger basin as one of the most promis- 

 ing fields for commerce in all tropical Africa. 

 It is densely populated, and is divided into 

 powerful and, for Africa, well-governed em- 

 pires, in which life and property are fairly 

 secure. The people have made some ad- 

 vance in civilization, and are famed for the 

 excellence of their manufactures. Inland 

 trade is organized, an efficient transport 

 service exists, labor is abundant, the Niger 

 presents an uninterrupted water-way to the 

 very heart of the region, and the country is 

 healthy, for Africa. 



A large stump of Syringodendron alter- 

 nans, discovered some time ago standing in 

 the coal mines of St. Etienne, France, is 

 about ten feet high, three feet in diameter 

 at the starting-point of the roots, and twenty 

 inches in diameter at the top. The roots re- 

 semble the fossil Siigmaria. The trunk has 

 the cicatrices and flutings of the Sigillaria, 

 and the leaves seem to have been linear. In 

 a prostrate tree (upper part) of the same 

 species a few feet from this one, the leaf- 

 scars were more clearly marked, but smaller. 



