40 EXTRACTS FROM FOREIGN PERIODICALS. 



The question regarding the influence of Rice-grounds on the public health has 

 not yet been investigated with all the care it deserves, and independently of 

 theories, prejudices and local interests. It should fall into the hands of an indi- 

 vidual accustomed to collect the numbers of the population, and to weigh them 

 with a degree of judgment which is not common, and of which we find examples 

 in the writings of Parent du Chatelet, Villerme, or Benoiston du Cha- 

 teauneuf. Since the time when M. Julio, Prefect of the ancient province of 

 Sesia, reported on the mortality of the Bice-grounds of the neighbourhood of 

 Verceil, and when M. De Candolle gave a correct extract in his returns ad- 

 dressed to the minister of the interior, that department of statistics in which the 

 advances of population are noted has made considerable progress. The mortality 

 as compared with the population has been acknowledged insufficient to express 

 the physical condition of nations : it depends too much on the proportional num- 

 ber of births. The longevity of old men is an exception which rather proves a 

 great destruction of young and less vigorous men. The number of centenaires 

 (individuals a hundred years old) is almost in an inverse ratio of the average 

 length of life to which we should attend, correcting all the numbers by an atten- 

 tive examination of the emigrations and immigrations of each locality. The 

 proportion of names properly and improperly entered, as well as the mean sta- 

 ture of the individuals at the time when the growth is always completed, that is 

 at the age of twenty-eight or thirty, are considerations by means of which the 

 salubrity of a country should be ascertained. 



The Sardinian government has established a statistical committee, the mem- 

 bers of which give us hopes of a work worthy of confidence. We understand 

 that they propose particularly examining the mortality of the Rice countries of 

 Piedmont. 



As regards the shore of the Mediterranean in the south of France, the ques- 

 tion is much more simple. This long line of marsh is already unwholesome and 

 little productive. The culture of Bice cannot greatly increase the number of 

 fevers, already considerable, and assuredly it should enrich the people, give them 

 better clothing, better habitations, more substantial food, which necessarily has 

 a favorable effect on health. Moreover, this part of France does not grow much 

 Corn. It is obliged to procure provisions from a distance, and will therefore gain 

 by the introduction of a culture which will perhaps afford the greatest quantity 

 of food which can be produced in a given space. — Bibliotheque Universelle de 

 Geneve, Nouvelle Serie. 



2. Food of the Horse. — M. Felix Vogeli of Lyons published in 1836, in 

 one octavo volume (Paris : Anselin), a work entitled, " Flore Fourragere, ou 

 Traite complet des Alimens du Chevcd." The first part, observes a French jour- 

 nal from whose pages we have frequently quoted, treats of the ordinary food of 



