220 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [October, 



Stauroneis Phoenicenteron. 



By WILLIAM N. HASTINGS, 



NASHUA, N. H. 



The accompanying drawing is of a diatom which I have for several 

 years been calling S. phoenicenteron. There are but two valves of it, 

 and as they are close together on the slide, were probably from the same 

 frustule. The diatom measures 310//, or about 3"^ of an inch. The 

 sides are absolutely straight, as represented. It is the only example I 

 have ever seen, though diligent search for others has been made in the 

 brook from which it came. 



If this is S. phoenicenteron, the one represented in Micro. Diction- 

 ary., plate 15, fig. 43 ; Bulletin of Tor. Bot. Club., 1889, plate XC, fig. 

 6; Amer. Mo. Micro. Journal., May, 1891, fig. 5, and perhaps else- 

 where, is not. 



Is S. phcEnicenteron so rare a plant that another has been mistaken 

 for it, or is this a new diatom "i 



Absence of Cancer Among Jews. — According to an English 

 journal, a lecturer at Owens College, Manchester, recently asserted 

 " that no Jew or Jewess has ever been found to suffer from cancer," 

 and that " the immunity of the Hebrew race from this terrible scourge 

 is attributed to their abstinence from swine's flesh." — Good Health. 



Italian Itch. — It is reported that the inhabitants of Norristown, Pa., 

 are alarmed at the rapid spread of a contagious disease called the 

 " Italian itch " or " scabies," occasioned by the presence of a minute 

 parasite transmissible from one person to another. The disorder here 

 is affecting all classes alike, and the best families and most refined peo- 

 ple are among the sufferers. 



It is traced to the imported Italian laborers who have recently been 

 employed in this neighborhood, and has spread both up and down the 

 line of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad and along the line of the 

 new Trenton cut-off from Morrisville to Glenloch. Wherever these 

 Italians have been they have left this trail of annoyance and suffering 

 behind them. 



Notes and coin are said to be most frequent means for its transmis- 

 sion, first from the Italians to the shop-keepers and then to the people 

 generally. The soft parts of the skin between the fingers and about 

 the wrists and elbows are most frequently affected. 



