4^6 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



in the death-rates of England, Sweden, the 

 city of London, etc. The result is a demon- 

 stration of the alteration for the better 

 that has taken place in modern times in 

 the rate of mortality from these causes. 

 Diagrams prove graphically that a marked 

 diminution in the death-rate has taken 

 place, especially in the last half century, 

 or since the efforts at prevention and re- 

 striction of infectious diseases have become 

 systemized. Facts are brought out in Mr. 

 Willetts's presentation showing that the 

 theory of M. Carnot, that the saving of life 

 from infectious diseases is only apparent, 

 and is made up for by an increased mortality 

 from certain other causes of death, is un- 

 tenable, for the death-rate from all causes 

 declined during the period under examina- 

 tion. The doctrine of Malthus, likewise, that 

 the effect of diminution of the death-rate is 

 to cause the population to press more closely 

 upon the limits of subsistence, is negatived 

 by the fact which appears that the rate of 

 pauperism has declined in England coinci- 

 dently with the fall of the death-rate. It 

 also appears that the population is increas- 

 ing least rapidly where good sanitary condi- 

 tions have prevailed. The effect of sanitary 

 improvement is thus seen to lie, not in the 

 direction of an over-production of the hu- 

 man race, but toward a better regulated and 

 governed increase. 



Expansion in Public Documents. The 



latest report of the State Mineralogist of 

 California furnishes an interesting object 

 lesson as to the manner in which literature is 

 prepared at the expense of the Government. 

 The report relates, or is supposed to relate, 

 to mining. The Governor of the State, in his 

 message, objected to the voluminousness of 

 this as well as some of the other department 

 reports, saying that none but the unemployed 

 and those directly interested and expecting 

 to derive personal benefit from them could 

 find time to read them ; intimating that too 

 little time was devoted by their authors to 

 condensing their statements ; and suggesting 

 that while the printing of the mineralogical 

 report would cost ten thousand dollars, " two 

 thousand dollars worth of intelligent editorial 

 work bestowed upon the manuscript would 

 have saved four times that amount in the cost 

 of printing, and the volume would have been 



of greater value to those interested. People," 

 he added, " will not read long, tedious reports, 

 and if it were not for the condensed state- 

 ments given out through the press the people 

 of the State generally would have very little 

 information in regard to our public institu- 

 tions." An appropriation having been made 

 for the purpose, the material was put into 

 the hands of an editor for condensation. He 

 found several of the articles that had been 

 prepared not directly related to the subject, 

 though possibly of scientific value and doubt- 

 less suitable for publication through other 

 channels, such as an academy of sciences, a 

 geographical or an ethnographical society. In 

 some cases the same ground was covered by 

 the special reports of two or more assistants ; 

 in other cases matter was substantially re- 

 peated from previous reports, while no at- 

 tempt had been made in either category to 

 prune any excrescences. The manuscript 

 showed no signs of having been edited, aside 

 from the mere paging of the leaves and ar- 

 ranging in order. In parts of the manuscript 

 that had been copied in the office, errors of 

 copyists entirely unfamiliar with mining af- 

 fairs had been retained without revision or 

 attempt to correct them. Finally, the editor 

 reduced the 2,307 pages of manuscript, large- 

 ly type-written, to about 844 pages, or 954 

 pages if an article on mining law, valuable 

 but not relating exclusively to California, is 

 retained ; and in doing this believes that he 

 has retained all the matter proper for the re- 

 port. This excessive expansiveness is not 

 found in the public documents of California 

 alone. We have observed it in those of the 

 United States in more than one department. 



The Soda " Lake " of Wyoming. As de- 

 scribed by H. Pemberton, Jr., and George 

 P. Tucker, there exists a deposit of sulphate 

 of soda, locally known as a " lake," about 

 fourteen miles southwest of Laramie, Wyo. 

 The deposit is composed of three of these 

 lakes lying within a stone's throw of one an- 

 other the Big Lake, the Track Lake, and 

 the Red Lake having together a total area 

 of about sixty-five acres. They are the prop- 

 erty of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, 

 are connected by a branch of that road with 

 the main line at Laramie, and are generally 

 known as the Union Pacific Lakes. In these 

 lakes the sulphate of soda occurs in two 



