66o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



in the torrid zone, where the heat produces a general depletion of 

 energy for motor discharge, than in the temperate regions, where 

 the climate is exhilarating. The study, from the social standpoint, 

 too, leads lis to the same conclusion. The excess of crime in the 

 social whirlpools of our great cities is convincing, and especially the 

 careful study made by Morselli of the prevalence of suicide in the 

 different countries of Europe, interpreted in the light of what we 

 know of their social conditions. 



Yet, in considering the facts disclosed by the present paper, we 

 must not dogmatically assert that each is of the importance that 

 the figures indicate. In fact, it seems evident from a careful study 

 of the sheets, which show all the conditions together for the same 

 day — a thing impossible with the charts illustrating this paper — 

 that the various conditions for the day mutually react and interact 

 upon one another, certain combinations seemingly resulting in a 

 re-enforcement of the tendency to crime, while certain others in- 

 hibit it. Space forbids any full discussion of this phase of the prob- 

 lem in the present paper, but it very probably will be made the 

 subject of some future study. 



Author's Note. — The above paper was written more than a year ago. Since that 

 time the work of comparing the prevalence of crime with the meteorological conditions has 

 been carried on upon a much larger scale in the city of New York. An immensely greater 

 number of data have served to corroborate the earlier conclusions arrived at in this Denver 

 study, only in minor points — and those directly traceable to the very different climates — 

 proving at all in opposition to them. — New York, July^ 1S99. 



THE SURVIVAL OF AERICAK MUSIC IN AMERICA. 



By JEANNETTE ROBINSON MURPHY. 



FIFTY years from now, when every vestige of slavery has dis- 

 appeared, and even its existence has become a fading mem- 

 ory, America, and probably Europe, will suddenly awake to the 

 sad fact that we have irrevocably lost a veritable mine of wealth 

 througli our failure to appreciate and study from a musician's 

 standpoint the beautiful African music, whose rich stores will then 

 have gone forever from our grasp. 



During my childhood my observations were centered upon a 

 few very old negroes who came directly from Africa, and upon 

 many others whose parents were African born, and I early came 

 to the conclusion, based upon negro authority, that the greater 

 part of their music, their methods, their scale, their type of thought, 

 their dancing, their patting of feet, their clapping of hands, their 



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