476 



LITERATURE, AMERICAN, IN 1890. 



and cultivation in gelatinous meat-infusion in 

 forty-two cases of post-mortem examination in 

 India ; and in numerous other cases of dejections 

 in Egypt, India, and Toulon giving a hundred 

 cases in which the organisms were found. This 

 was the only form of micro-organism that was 

 constantly present in the disease. It was present 

 in greatest numbers in acute and uncomplicated 

 cases, and in the parts most affected ; while it 

 was never present in other diseases, and had not 

 been found outside of the body where no cholera 

 was in the neighborhood. Dr. Koch declared 

 that no other conclusion could be arrived at than 

 that these bacilli are the cause of cholera. 



In the water of a tank whence the inhabitants 

 of a village near Calcutta derived their supplies 

 for drinking, cholera bacilli were found in con- 

 siderable numbers when the cholera epidemic 

 was at its height. At a later period, when there 

 were only a few cases of illness, the comma 

 bacilli were few, and found only at one part of 

 the tank. This was the only instance in which 



these bacilli were found outside of the body. 

 Dr. Koch maintained that the natural history of 

 the disease corresponds with the various charac- 

 teristics of the organism in question. In experi- 

 ments subsequent to this report. Dr. Koch suc- 

 ceeded in producing cholera by inoculation in 

 some of the smaller animals. A bill was unani- 

 mously passed by the German Parliament, in 

 1884, awarding 135,000 marks to Dr. Koch and 

 his companions in this research. 



In 1890 he announced that he had discovered 

 a prevention or remedy for tuberculous diseases, 

 which consisted in inoculating the patient with 

 a certain lymph, the composition of which was 

 not disclosed. (See TUBERCULOUS DISEASES.) 



The principal published works of Dr. Koch 

 are " Etiology of Splenic Fever " (1876) ; " Re- 

 searches on Diseases of Wound Infections" 

 (1878): "Inoculation for Splenic Fever" (1882); 

 " Contributions to the Etiology of Tuberculosis " 

 (1882) ; and contributions to transactions of the 

 German Health Bureau. 



LITERATURE, AMERICAN, IN 1890. 



During the year, in which book production was 

 unusually active, falling but little short of that of 

 that of 1886, America produced a few books of 

 lasting value amid a vast number that were in- 

 inferior as much, perhaps, as she had a right to 

 expect. The record of travel and exploration 

 completed in 1890 will make the year memorable 

 for all time, and successful books also mark 

 other departments. Of the total 4,559 books re- 

 corded in 1890, against 4,014 in 1889, 3,080 were 

 entirely new, nearly one third being novels ; 

 while of 3,533 made in this country, 2,800 were 

 the work of American authors and translators, 

 or adaptations by Americans to meet American 

 needs. Only 733 were reprints, for the most part 

 of paper-bound novels, and importations from 

 England of books already in process of manu- 

 facture were also unusually few ; while the pas- 

 sage of the International Copyright bill by the 

 House of Representatives during the year gave 

 stronger promise for the future of a more marked 

 individuality in our national literature. 



Fiction. In 1890 there were printed 1,118 

 novels, of which 835 were new, the number being 

 equally divided between American and foreign 

 authors. The leading book of the year, as in 

 1889, was from Mrs. Margaret Deland, her " Sid- 

 ney " proving as great a success as " John Ward, 

 Preacher," and being considered by some an ad- 

 vance beyond that work, but good work was also 

 done by other known and (for a time) unknown 

 writers. From William I). Howells we had " The 

 Shadow of a Dream," unsatisfactory as most of 

 that author's works, but equal to the best in ar- 

 tistic treatment, and from Henry James, " The 

 Tragic Muse," in some respects, for him, a new 

 departure. F. Marion Crawford told " A Cigar- 

 ette Maker's Romance," brief and pathetic, in 

 his own inimitable way ; while Lafcadio Hearn's 

 " Youma, a Story of a West Indian Slave," was 

 a masterpiece of its especial kind. The scene of 

 "Walford," by Mrs. Ellen Olney Kirk, was 



laid in a New England manufacturing town ; 

 while Henry Harland (Sidney Luska) produced 

 " Two Women or One ? from the MS. of Dr. 

 Leonard Benary," extravagant but amusing, and 

 " Two Voices," two short stories. " A Waif of the 

 Plains " and " A Ward of the Golden Gate," by 

 Bret Harte, belong to his earliest and best style ; 

 while Mrs. Amelia E. Barr published " Friend 

 Olivia" and "The Household of McNeil," a 

 Scottish story. Mrs. Van Rensselaer Cruger made 

 her debut as an authoress, under the pseudonym 

 of " Julien Gordon," in "A Diplomat's Diary," a 

 charming story of European life, followed by 

 " A Successful Man," purely American ; and 

 another sensation was occasioned by the publica- 

 tion, also anonymously, of "The Anglomaniacs," 

 a fine piece of satire by Mrs. C. Burton Harrison. 

 A second novel by the same lady was " Flower 

 de Hundred." a story of a Virginia plantation. 

 The Black Forest in the ninth century formed 

 the background of Arlo Bates's " Albrecht " ; 

 while the problem of the negro is the real basis 

 of "Pactolus Prime," by Albion W. Tourgee. 

 Stories of army life by Capt. Charles King were 

 " Starlight Ranch," " Sunset Pass, or Running 

 the Gantlet through Apache Land," and " The 

 Colonel's Christmas Dinner." the last edited by 

 him merely. "A Web of Gold," by Katherine 

 Pearson Woods, the acknowledged authoress of 

 "Metzerott, Shoemaker," is strongly Socialistic 

 in tone; while among books called forth by 

 " Looking Backward," of Edward Bellamy, are 

 " Looking Further Backward," by Arthur Dud- 

 ley Vinton, and " Looking Farther Forward," by 

 Richard Michaelis, both able and pungent re- 

 plies : and " Ca?sar's Column, a Storv of the 

 Twentieth Century," written by Ignatius Don- 

 nelly under the name of Edmund Boisgilbert, 

 M. D. " One of Berrian's Novels," by Mrs. C. 

 H. Stone, is. presumably, a foretaste of those we 

 shall have in the future, when "An Experiment 

 in Marriage," devised by Charles J. Bellamy, 

 shall have proved a success. Two other works 



