FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



285 



may wind up toward morning with a free 

 fight. " Then there is the Gumfoo dance, 

 one of the finest in?titutions in the v.-orld for 

 producing nightmare. Two men beat drums 

 with their hands, the one instrument produc- 

 ing a tum-tum and the other a rattle-rattle, 

 almost without intermission during the whole 

 night. At intervals of about a minute the 

 party utters a weird cry in some African lan- 

 guage, which startles you as you lie in bed 

 vainly trying to sleep. As hour after hour 

 passes your house appears to vibrate, the bed 

 shakes, and your spine feels as if made up 

 of loose segments." This and other dances 

 are connected with the Obeah, the witch 

 cult of the African. All the negroes and 

 most of the "colored people" have an in- 

 nate fear of the Obeah man, however much 

 they may deny it to the whites; and Mr. 

 Rodway tells of a captain of a creole cricket 

 club who was sure his side would win a 

 match game because a notable Obeah man 

 had oiled their bats. 



Causes of Sudden Deatb. — Cases of sud- 

 den death from natural causes are classified 

 by Dr. J. Dixon Mann under the three heads 

 of deaths which are due to the presence of a 

 disease universally recognized as one liable to 

 terminate with sudden fatality — when satis- 

 factory post-mortem evidence can usually be 

 obtained of the cause of death ; those due to 

 the presence of a disease which when fatal 

 does not usually end life abruptly — when the 

 post-mortem evidences are usually inferen- 

 tial rather than conclusive ; and deaths which 

 do not result from any ascertainable disease — 

 when no evidence is afforded by post-mortem 

 examination. Heart disease is responsible 

 for about half the whole number of sudden 

 deaths of adults. Apoplexy and other cog- 

 nate brain diseases rank second to it. Some 

 of the diseases liable to terminate thus may 

 exist without giving rise to any symptoms. 

 Especially is this the case with certain dis- 

 eases that have a prolonged course. The 

 diseases of the second class are quite numer- 

 ous, and, though several of them are usually 

 inhibitive of motion when fully developed, 

 they occasionally occur in a latent form, and 

 terminate suddenly without their presence 

 being even suspected. In some cases, with 

 these diseases, the issue may be determined 

 by an overloaded stomach. In a large num- 



ber of instances the victim was undergoing 

 some exceptional form of physical exertion 

 at the time. In most of the cases in which 

 death suddenly takes place without any cause 

 being revealed on post-mortem examination, 

 it is determined by some external causal in- 

 fluence either acting directly on the nervous 

 system or mediately on it by means of a very 

 slight and apparently totally inadequate phys- 

 ical impact. Therefore, in relation to this 

 group, the term " death from natural causes " 

 includes death arising from external and 

 possibly abnormal influences, which, how- 

 ever, can not be regarded as being essen- 

 tially lethal. Young children are especially 

 liable to sudden death in a number of ways 

 that do not obtain with adults. Infants die 

 very readily from suffocation. Convulsions 

 due to reflex irritation are a common cause 

 of infantile death ; and, finally, sudden death 

 may occur to young children without any 

 ascertainable cause. 



Work of the Smithsonian Instltntion. — 



Among the publications of the Smithsonian 

 Institution mentioned by Secretary Langley 

 in his annual report is the memoir of 

 Lord Rayleigh and Professor Ramsay on 

 the discovery of argon, for which achieve- 

 ments the authors were awarded the first 

 Hodgkins prize of ten thousand dollars. 

 A memoir by Prof. E. Duclaux, of Paris, 

 desciibes the methods and results of numer- 

 ous experiments on the chemical rays of 

 the sun by the exposure of oxalic acid to 

 their action, from which it appears that 

 the chemical activity and hygienic power of 

 the sun's rays are not related to the apparent 

 fineness of the day. The library has grown 

 to contain 35,912 numbers. Special mention 

 is made of the gift of Mr. S. Paleanof, of St. 

 Petersburg, of more than three hundred 

 volumes, mostly of Oriental works, with some 

 Arabic manuscripts and many rare Armenian 

 publications. The collection of Chinese coins, 

 etc., bequeathed by the late George B. 

 Glover, includes 2,025 specimens of Chinese, 

 Annamese, Siamese, Japanese, and Korean 

 coins ; amulets and bamboo tally sticks used 

 as money ; Chinese paper money ; foreign 

 coins in circulation in China; and molds for 

 casting coins — the series dating back to b. c. 

 770, and being continuous in the coinage 

 of each dynasty. The work of the Bureau 



