j\6 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



more, and in the first nine months of 1882 a 

 half more. In the back streets and alleys 

 of Southern cities, where the colored people 

 live crowded together, Bishop Penick says 

 that one may see " squalor, degradation, 

 dirt ; green scum in the gutters, dammed 

 with decomposing vegetables, and, it may be, 

 interspersed with a stray cat or dog that 

 came to his untimely end at some uncertain 

 period of the distant past. It does not take 

 a man who knows how to read a diploma in 

 Latin to see that here are conditions most 

 favorable for engendering diseases." Dur- 

 ing four years spent in Africa he observed 

 that " in his native state and scanty clothing 

 the African is the most cleanly person I ever 

 met. As a rule, he bathes twice a day and 

 oftener in warm water. Deformity among 

 them is as rare as among the birds and squir- 

 rels here " ; but, on the other hand, that 

 "no sooner did I begin to put clothes on 

 these people than their aversion to water as 

 an external application began to manifest it- 

 self, and punishment had to be resorted to 

 to compel those who used to be scrupulously 

 clean to keep moderately decent." Besides 

 the charitable motive for improving the sani- 

 tary condition of the negroes, there is another 

 side to the matter. " In other words," says 

 the bishop, " it is a matter of deep concern 

 to every thoughtful man, even if he looks no 

 higher than self-preservation, what kind of 

 diseases cling to those who cook our food, 

 nurse our children, make our beds, wash our 

 clothes, and porter our sleeping-cars. We 

 know that in all of these departments the 

 colored race play a prominent part." The 

 diseases arising from the filth of the back 

 streets and alleys may thus be brought 

 through the back door into homes whose 

 sanitary condition gives their inmates a sense 

 of security. 



The Salt-Beds of South America. — The 



salt-beds on the west coast of South America, 

 according to the description of Dr. Carl 

 Ochsenius, occur in a narrow strip along the 

 coast-fine of the rainless district, rarely ex- 

 ceeding twenty-five miles in width. The 

 district is bounded on the east by the Andes, 

 and extends into the coast Cordilleras on the 

 south. The author considers that, before 

 the upheaval of the Andes, salt began to 

 deposit in certain bays, which had been 



wholly or partially shut off from the sea by 

 the gradual formation of an intercepting bar. 

 Then, while the process of evaporation was 

 still incomplete, the district was raised by 

 volcanic action, and the mother-liquors from 

 the salt-lakes eventually escaped, running 

 down into the valleys, and, where they en- 

 countered no obstacle, reaching the sea. The 

 coast Cordilleras acted as a barrier in the 

 southern portion of the district ; while in 

 the northern part the liquors doubtless re- 

 turned to the sea. The volcanoes which pro- 

 duced the upheaval exhaled immense quan- 

 tities of carbonic-acid gas, by the action of 

 which a portion of the sodium chloride in 

 the mother-liquors was converted into sodium 

 carbonate. The coast in this part of Chili 

 is studded with small islands containing de- 

 posits of guano rich in ammonia. The guano- 

 dust is carried by the prevailing west winds 

 far into the country, where, on exposure to 

 the air, at a warm temperature, it would 

 gradually oxidize to nitrate, and, acting on 

 the sodium carbonate, would form sodium 

 nitrate, or Chili saltpeter. 



Eelics of the Chiriqnians. — From the 

 graves of the ancient inhabitants of Chiriqui, 

 on the Isthmus of Darien, great numbers of 

 relics in clay, stone, and metal have been ob- 

 tained during the past thirty years. A col- 

 lection of such objects, gathered mostly by 

 Mr. J. A. McNeil, is now deposited in the 

 National Museum. The Chiriquians seem to 

 have been skilled in the working of metals. 

 Gold, silver, copper, and tin — the latter in 

 alloys with copper, forming bronze — aie 

 found in the graves. Gold is the most im- 

 portant, and is found associated with all the 

 others in alloys or as a surface coating. The 

 objects consist to a great extent of represen- 

 tations of life-forms, in many cases more 

 fanciful than real, and often extremely gro- 

 tesque. They include the human figure and 

 a great variety of birds and beasts indigenous 

 to the country, in styles resembling work of 

 the same region in clay and stone. Gold, 

 pure and in the usual alloys, was also used 

 in the manufacture of other articles, such as 

 bells, beads, disks, balls, rings, whistles, 

 thimble-shaped objects, and amulets of varied 

 shapes. Bells are more generally made of 

 bronze, because, perhaps, of its greater de- 

 gree of resonance. The great majority of 



