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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Schubin, Ossip. " Gloria Yictis ! " New York : 

 W. 3. Gottsberf.'er. Pp. 819. 



Bedgwick, W. T.. and Wilson. E. B. General 

 Biology. New York: Henry Holt «fc Co. Pp. 198. 



Janes, Lewis G. A Study of Primitive Chris- 

 tianity. Boston : Index Association. Pp. 320. 



Knox. Thomas W. The Life of Robert Fulton 

 and a History ol Steam Navigation. New York: 

 G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 507. 



Bastian, H. Charlton. Paralyses : Cerebral, Bul- 

 bar, and Spinal. New York: I). Appleton & Co. 

 Pp. 671. $4.50. 



Crehore, John Davenport. Mechanics of the 

 Girder. New York : John Wiley & Sons. Pp. 

 575. $5. 



Bartholow, Roberta. A Treatise on the Practice 

 of Medicine, hew York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 

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POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



Low Water in Wells and Typhoid Fever. 



— Dr. Ilenry B. Baker, of Lansing, Michigan, 

 supposes a close relation to exist between 

 typhoid fever and low water in wells. The 

 diagrams which he presents in his paper of 

 the prevalence of sickness from typhoid fe- 

 ver in Michigan, and the depth of the earth 

 above the ground-water in the wells during 

 six successive years, seem to show that, be- 

 ginning with June in each year, the sickness- 

 curve follows more or less closely the well- 

 water-curve. The author believes that one 

 of the causes, probably the principal cause 

 of sickness, is the contamination of the 

 water by the drainage from stable-yards, 

 privy-vaults, and cess-pools, which reaches 

 the wells more directly when the water in 

 them is low, and forms in them stronger 

 solutions than when it is high. On the 

 other hand, the curves in several years, 

 from January to June, show no such cor- 

 respondence. The difference in results is 

 explained by the frozen condition of the 

 ground in the winters when typhoid did not 

 prevail ; a condition which, while it tended 

 to reduce the quantity of water in the wells, 

 at the same time prevented percolation from 

 the surface sources of contamination. The 

 fever was more prevalent in the open winters 

 when percolation was not thus impeded. 

 Corroboration is given to these views by a 

 remark made by Dr. Foster Pratt, of Kala- 

 mazoo, at the meeting of the American 

 Medical Association in June, 1874, that 

 typhoid fiver was unusually prevalent in 

 Kalamazoo in a certain year in the autumn, 

 at about the time the water in the wells 

 was very low, and some wells became dry. 



Professorships of Physical Geography. 



— Professor H. N. Mozeley, in an address 

 at the Royal Geographical Society's recent 

 exhibition of geographical appliances, made 

 a plea for the establishment in the English 

 universities of chairs for teaching physical 

 geography apart from geology. He quoted 

 from letters which he had received from 

 German professors who are teaching under 

 a plan similar to the one which he proposes. 

 Among them is Professor Kirchhoff, of lJalle, 

 who said : " It is, no doubt, correct that 

 geology, in just the same way as geography, 

 is concerned with the earth and all its va- 

 rious parts. But the point of view on either 

 side is different. For example, while I am 

 delivering in Halle during four successive 

 semesters the course on geography, Profess- 

 or von Fritsch and two colleagues are lect- 

 uring to almost entirely different audiences 

 on mineralogy, crystallography, geology, and 

 paleontology. In summer, Professor von 

 Fritsch arranges excursions for geological 

 purposes, and many of the students take 

 part in these, because a problem of great 

 geographical importance is able to be solved 

 during these excursions, namely, the expla- 

 nation of the form of the land-surface as 

 resulting from its composition, and by means 

 of the history of its development. The two 

 sciences do, indeed, touch one another in 

 what is termed superficial geology, but from 

 this zone of contact they stretch wide apart 

 from one another. Geology discusses not 

 only the developmental history of the earth 

 in the Quaternary period, a matter which 

 concerns the geographer quite as much as 

 the geologist, but it discusses also that of 

 the most remote periods of the earth's an- 

 tiquity, investigates the petrographic struct- 

 ure and the organic life of every formation, 

 subjects which hardly concern the geogra- 

 pher at all. On the other hand, geography 

 has to deal not only with the land-surface 

 and the waters, but also with climate, the 

 flora and fauna, and human inhabitants, 

 both of the earth as a whole and of each 

 separate country, confining its view to the 

 present only — that is to say, to the Quater- 

 nary period. It might as well be said that 

 the existence of history as a subject at uni- 

 versities rendered geography unnecessary, 

 because it also has to do with the entire 

 earth's surface." 



