155 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [July, 



broader and more general conclusions can be drawn relative to diseases 

 not yet proved to be due to the same agents, why may we not expect 

 their theories to be presented with moderation and due respect for those 

 who do not accept them? On the other hand, why should men who 

 are, by their own unconscious confession, ignorant of the enormous 

 strides that have been made in the knowledge of the cause of many 

 contagious diseases, antagonize in a spirit of bitterness the conclusions 

 of those who have viewed these diseases from a different standpoint from 

 their own. This fact is worthy of consideration, and by all who do not care 

 to advertise themselves as either quacks or fogies is beyond controversy. 

 A new era in the study of contagious diseases has dawned upon us. 

 Active and impulsive minds make facts mean more than truth war- 

 rants, and conservative minds will adhere to notions long since ex- 

 ploded. But in a case where so much is involved as in the knowledge 

 and treatment of disease, and especially of such diseases as are liable to 

 prove great calamities, the combined wisdom of all intelligent scientific 

 men ought to conduce to results that shall bring blessing to afflicted men. 



o 



Asymmetry in the Human Embryo. — Mr. J. A. Ryder cites 

 M. C. Phisalix* as having discovered that the human embryo in its 

 very early stages lacks perfect symmetry, the left side being larger than 

 the right, especially in the region of the cerebral vesicles, and asking if 

 this is peculiar to man, and bears any relation to the functional predom- 

 inance of the right side over the left in the adult. 



Rusts. — Mr. H. L. Bolley contributes to the June number of the 

 Botanical Gazette an article on the sub-epidermal rusts, Puccima 

 coronata, Cda., and P. rubigo-vera, D. C, and their behavior on 

 different hosts. 



The Cause of Yellow Fever. — The March number of the Sani- 

 tarian copies from the Memphis Medical Monthly an article by E. 

 H. Andrews, M. D., entitled " Local Conditions and Yellow Fever," 

 in which he attempts to show from the discussion of the circumstances 

 attending the outbreak of the fever at Canton, Grenada, Memphis, and 

 Jackson, Miss., at periods from 1855 to 1 888, that the disease must have 

 been due to local conditions, and not to imported germs. These cir- 

 cumstances are such as afford exceedingly favorable conditions for the 

 development of such germs if on'ce introduced, and do not prove that 

 they may not have been introduced from without. 



The means of introduction of germs of bacteria, or even the bacteria 

 themselves, in appreciable quantities are so numerous that it is absurd 

 to suppose that every possibility is excluded, even when there seems to 

 be not strong probability that such circumstances have occurred. 



o 



Tuberculosis from Cows. — A committee of the Dominion Parlia- 

 ment has concluded its labors and, having decided that infection is com- 

 municated to man through the flesh and milk of cows, will recommend 

 precautionary legislation. 



* Etude d'un embryo humain de 10 millimetres. 



