4 NATURAL SCIENCE [July 



organic injury it causes. But not a word of explanation on these 

 points was given by his opponents. Dr Sambon attributed the 

 mortality of the tropics to three diseases — dysentery, haematinuria, 

 and malaria. These are, undoubtedly, due to specific organisms 

 which are especially prevalent in the tropical zone, but are not 

 necessarily connected with the heat. If the existing white mor- 

 tality and the past degeneration of races long subjected to the 

 effects of these maladies are simply due to them, then there is good 

 hope for the future. Dr Manson cited the case of that most 

 repulsive of diseases, elephantiasis, which was once one of the 

 terrors of the tropics, and was then charged to the climate. 

 But Manson has shown that elephantiasis is due to the organism 

 known as Filaria ; he has worked out the life-history of the parasite, 

 and shown how it enters the human body. People being thus 

 warned have only themselves to thank if they now contract 

 elephantiasis. This case gives us good hope that, when the life- 

 histories of the haematozoa of malaria, dysentery, and haematinuria 

 have been similarly worked out, the diseases will be brought 

 similarly under control. That is the hope for the future, and what 

 is wanted is more knowledge of the biology of the parasites. Malaria 

 is now being admirably studied by the medical schools of Borne and 

 Vienna. Haematinuria is the most obscure and deadly of African 

 diseases, and it will continue to entail on England lamentable 

 sacrifices of life and money until it can be dismissed as Manson 

 has dismissed the fear of elephantiasis. Most of the doctors who 

 find their way to our African tropical protectorates are medical 

 sportsmen and not medical biologists. They probably could not 

 focus a high-power microscope if they tried. An institute for the 

 study of tropical diseases is urgently needed, and would pay as a 

 policy of imperial insurance. 



Foi? the Lady Cyclist 



In the June number of the Scottish Medical and Surgical Journal, 

 Dr J. W. Ballantyne gives a valuable digest of forty-five papers that 

 have been written on bicycling for women. On the whole it appears 

 that the advantages, from a physiological point of view, wholly 

 outweigh the disadvantages, if these be guarded against by proper 

 precautions. These latter are chiefly associated with the choice of a 

 machine, the essential point being that the seat should be suitably 

 placed and adapted to the anatomy of the female pelvis. " It should 

 be pretty well forward, and when the cyclist is erect in the saddle 

 her heels should touch the pedal when lowest, her feet being in the 

 horizontal position. The commonest faulty position is having the 

 saddle too low and too far back ; on the other hand, the saddle too 

 high is also wrong, causing over-stretching of the knee and ankle. 



