1886.] 



MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 



187 



was made, and after our business at 

 the custom-house had been dispatched, 

 we took possession and prepared to 

 land our apparatus and furniture. 



The house is small, but by using 

 all the rooms as work-rooms and 

 putting our beds in corners which 

 are of no other use, we have found 

 room for, all hands. It is a two- 

 story house, with the walls of stone 

 as far as the second floor, and of 

 wood above, nicely painted and pa- 

 pered, in good repair, with plenty 

 of doors and windows, a large stone 

 cistern of good, cool water, and, on 

 the second floor, a large veranda 

 overhanging the street in front ; for, 

 like all the large houses, it is close 

 to the street, which, as a sign on 

 the corner informs us, is Union 

 street. It is a narrow pathway 

 about five feet wide, of smooth 

 white limestone. 



We are near the corner of Broad- 

 way, and on one side of us all the 

 houses are large, well built, and in 

 good repair, with well-kept gardens. 

 On the other side the street gradually 

 narrows down to an unfenced foot- 

 path, which leads to the brush 

 through a jungle of rank vegeta- 

 tion, through which little thatched 

 huts are irregularly scattered. We 

 therefore have all the advantages 

 and comforts of the better portion 

 of the town, but, being on the bor- 

 der-line, we are sufficiently near the 

 more primitive and interesting por- 

 tion to establish a familiar acquaint- 

 ance with the people and to get an 

 inside view of their life. This we 

 accomplish the better, as one of the 

 members of our party, who is a 

 physician, finding that there is no 

 other doctor within a hundred miles, 

 kindly allows the people to call upon 

 him for gratuitous service in his pro- 

 fession. In a few days, as his desire 

 to help those who need him has be- 

 come known, we are besieged at all 

 hours by patients, who stand in the 

 street and call out, ' Is the pill-doc- 

 tor at home ?' He is now so fully 

 employed that his own studies are 



seriously obstructed, and he has been 

 forced to establish office hours. 



I am surprised to learn from Dr. 

 Mills that in this delightful climate, 

 where the temperature is almost uni- 

 form throughout the year, and the 

 thermometer seldom rises above 85 

 degrees or falls below 80 degrees, 

 there are many cases of consumption. 

 A death from this disease took place 

 in one of the little huts near our 

 house a few hours after our arrival. 



Our first day on the island ended 

 in a beautiful cloudless evening, with 

 a gentle breeze and a full moon, and 

 as we sat on our veranda and rested 

 after our hard day's woi'k the sun 

 set and in a few minutes the moon 

 and stars were in full splendor, for 

 we are so far south that the sun 

 drops straight down, and v\^e have 

 no twilight. As we sat and listened 

 to the mocking-birds, vs'hich were 

 singing on all sides, and watched the 

 long, graceful, fern-like plumes of the 

 tall cocoanut trees swaying against the 

 clear sky in the breeze and reflecting 

 the moonlight from their glossy sur- 

 faces, a feeling of perfect rest after 

 our long voyage stole over us, and 

 while everything reminded us of the 

 long miles of water between us and 

 our friends in Baltimore, we felt al- 

 most at home in our new home. 



We watched the half-naked negro 

 children at play in our street, and lis- 

 tened with great interest to wild mu- 

 sic which came from one of the huts, 

 and was, as we learned next day, the 

 song of friends gathered at the bed- 

 side of our dying neighbor; and, at 

 last, we ate our first meal of pine- 

 apples and bananas and sapodillos 

 and fresh cocoanuts, and then turned 

 in, happy in the thought that we 

 could sleep without holding on, and 

 delighted with our first experience of 

 a coral island. 



The Recent Meeting of the Amer- 

 ican Association. 



BY PROF. JNO. H. PILLSBURY, SMITH 

 COLLEGE. 



The Buflalo meeting of the Amer- 



