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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Comparative Zoology. 16. The fauna of 

 the North Atlantic, compared with one an- 

 other, and with that of other parts of the 

 world, by Prof. Verrill. 17. The plants of 

 the sea, by Prof. Eaton. 18. The physics 

 of the sea, by Prof. Joseph Lovering, Pro- 

 fessor of Natural Philosophy, Harvard Uni- 

 versity. 19. Physical hydrography, by 

 Prof. Mitchell, of the United States Coast 

 Survey. 20. Chemistry of feeding and 

 breathing, by Prof. W. Gibbs, Rumford- 

 professor of Physics, Harvard University. 

 21. Chemistry of the sea and air, by Prof. 

 James Crafts, Professor of Chemistry at 

 the Boston Technological Institute." 



The Causes of Typhus. As causes pre- 

 disposing to typhus, medical writers usu- 

 ally enumerate mental depression, anxiety, 

 fear of contagion, intemperance, insufficient 

 nutrition, and overcrowding. Now, dur- 

 ing the sieges of Paris and Metz, the inhab- 

 itants of those two cities were subject in 

 an extraordinary degree to all these condi- 

 tions, if in the case of Metz we except the 

 fourth; and yet not a single case of the 

 disease occurred among either the citizens, 

 the refugees, or the soldiers. The belea- 

 guering armies of the Germans, on the con- 

 trary, whose sanitary condition was infinite- 

 ly better, were constantly ravaged by ty- 

 phus. This conflict of facts with theory 

 has led Dr. Chauffard, of the Paris Acad- 

 emy of Medicine, to investigate the sub- 

 ject of typhus anew, and we here give the 

 chief results of his inquiry. According to 

 him, the epidemics of typhus which have 

 broken out in France had always a foreign 

 origin, and the disease has never been able 

 to become endemic in that country. The 

 epidemic of 1814 was brought in by the 

 defeated armies of the North, on their 

 return from Russia and Northern Germany, 

 and that of 1855-56 was imported by the 

 troops returning from the Crimea. But 

 soon they died out on French soil, and 

 hence the author conjectures that in the 

 French race and on French soil there is 

 something which is antagonistic to typhus. 

 He inclines to regard this disease as local- 

 ized, so far as its origin is concerned, just 

 like cholera, or yellow fever. Then, to show 

 that his conjecture as to race immunity is 

 not without foundation, he states that in 



New Orleans the yellow fever commits it3 

 greatest ravages among the whites, the chol- 

 era among the negroes. Then, too, the ne- 

 gro race can better resist the morbid influ- 

 ences of marshy soil, than can the white. 

 To show how different may be the effects 

 of the same morbific influences on diverse 

 races of men, the author cites the case of 

 an Egyptian vessel entering the port of 

 Liverpool in the worst possible sanitary 

 condition. The crew were all sick but no 

 typhus. But the Englishmen who visited 

 the ship were nearly all seized with that dis- 

 ease. On the high table-lands of Mexico, 

 typhus is endemic and frequent, typhoid 

 fever very rare. On the contrary, at an 

 altitude of less than 2,000 feet above the 

 sea-level, typhoid is abundant, typhus rare. 

 Even on the table-lands, however, newly- 

 arrived French soldiers were attacked by 

 typhoid ; but, when they had become accli- 

 mated, they were seized only by typhus. 

 The author replies to the objection that 

 might be drawn from the occurrence of 

 typhus in prisons and among convicts con- 

 demned to the galleys, by claiming that 

 such outbreaks of supposed typhus are 

 really only typhoid fevers of an unusual 

 character. In fact, ever since French phy- 

 sicians had, after the Crimean War, an op- 

 portunity for more closely studying true 

 typhus, prison epidemics are not often char- 

 acterized as outbreaks of that disease. The 

 author then examines certain cases where 

 undoubted typhus has made its appearance 

 spontaneously, as it might be supposed, on 

 French soil, and explains the occurrence by 

 importation from foreign countries. Our 

 brief abstract is far from doing justice to 

 this highly-important paper, and we com- 

 mend the entire essay, as found in the 

 Revue Scientijique, to the attention of our 

 medical readers. 



Habits of Right and Sperm Whales. 



In the American Naturalist, Prof. N. S. Shaler 

 notes some of the prominent characteristic 

 habits of right and sperm-whales, on the au- 

 thority of an old whaler, Captain John Pease, 

 of Edgartown, Massachusetts. The calving- 

 time for the right-whale, he says, never be- 

 gins until July 1st, and by the 3d or 4th of 

 the month every female is accompanied by 

 her calf. The affection of the right-whale 



