;6 4 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



where there are plenty of mosquitoes, gnats, 

 and black flies. The running water and 

 gravelly bottom answer the same purpose 

 in keeping the trout free from insects as 

 our hands do in keeping the mosquitoes 

 from us." 



Management of the Bedding in Sleeping- 

 Cars. A writer in the Sanitary Journal, of 

 Toronto, calls public attention to a source 

 of danger existing in the sleeping-arrange- 

 ments of certain railway-carriages. The 

 beds in each section are opened out at 

 night, after having been tightly closed for a 

 period of twelve or fourteen hours. " Into 

 these beds," says the author, " a stranger 

 enters, probably partially recovered from 

 some infectious disease, such as small-pox, 

 scarlet fever, etc. He makes his exit, and 

 at once these beds are closed and fastened 

 down carefully again until the following 

 night, when the same process of bed-making 

 is observed, with a change of sheeting, as 

 the case may be." The remedy suggested 

 by the author does not appear to be suffi- 

 cient : it consists simply of perforations in 

 the bed-casings, with openings outward, so 

 as not to communicate with the interior of 

 the coach. But, if by this plan the germs 

 of contagious disease are not destroyed, the 

 bedding at least will be aired to some ex- 

 tent, and this will be no slight advantage. 



A Neglected Naturalist. Under the title 

 of "A Neglected Naturalist," Mr. II. E. 

 Copeland contributes to the American Nat- 

 uralist a vindication of Constantine S. Rafi- 

 nesque against the aspersions cast upon his 

 scientific work by European and American 

 critics. It is charged that the work done 

 by Rafinesque only introduced confusion 

 into botany and zoology by needlessly mul- 

 tiplying genera and species. But, accord- 

 ing to the author, " thirteen genera, eight 

 sub-genera, and sixteen species of the plants 

 referred to in Gray's manual, are his. His 

 writings on conchology have been considered 

 worth editing by Binney and Tryon. Of our 

 reptiles and batrachians four genera and 

 six species bear his name. He described 

 four genera and four species that are re- 

 tained in the current literature treating of 

 our mummals. The genus Helmithcrus of 



birds was proposed by him." In 1820 Ra 

 finesque published a " Natural History of 

 the Fishes of the Ohio River." Mr. Cope- 

 land declares himself to be profoundly im- 

 pressed by the accuracy of the work of 

 Rafinesque as represented by this little vol- 

 ume. Of seventy-nine genera and one hun- 

 dred and fifteen species of fishes known as 

 inhabiting the Ohio and its tributaries twen- 

 ty-nine genera and thirty-seven species were 

 first described by this neglected naturalist, 

 and the eliminating of seasonal and sexual 

 forms from the rank of species, and the 

 identifying of more of his genera on a bet- 

 ter acquaintance with the fishes of the Ohio, 

 will constantly make the ratio greater. 



Marsh-Water as a Vehicle of Agne-Poison. 



In his volume on " Practical Hygiene " the 

 late Dr. Parkes adduces a number of facts 

 to show that marsh-water is a vehicle of 

 ague-poison. The more commonly-received 

 opinion, however, is that the air of marshes 

 is the sole cause of intermittent fevers. 

 Certain observations made at Tilbury Fort, 

 on the river Thames, appear to confirm Dr. 

 Parkes's view. In the "Army Medical 

 Blue-Book " it is stated that the troops at 

 Tilbury Fort are supplied with water col- 

 lected on the roofs of buildings, and stored 

 in underground tanks at or below high-water 

 mark. The officials at the neighboring rail- 

 road-station use spring-water pumped from 

 a well. Now ague has, for a long time, been 

 common among the troops at Tilbury Fort, 

 and almost unknown at the railroad-station. 

 During some cleansing and repairs to the 

 tanks, spring-water was obtained from the 

 latter source for several months together, 

 during which time ague disappeared from 

 among the soldiers at Tilbury, but on the 

 tank-water being again brought into use, 

 cases of ague again made their appearance, 

 the disease ceasing on discontinuing that, 

 source of supply. Samples of water from 

 these different sources were submitted to 

 chemical analysis, when it was found that 

 the amount of organic matter in the tank 

 water was greatly in excess of that in the 

 spring (railway-station) water, while the 

 presence of vegetable and fungoid matter 

 made it evident that there had been soak- 

 age of water from the surrounding marsh 

 into the tanks. 





