116 



THE AMERICA]^ MONTHLY 



[June, 



dried about half an hour in the air of 

 a well-warmed room, and then sealed 

 in a cell, so that the degree of dessi- 

 cation would be the same, and the 

 measurements were made the same 

 evening, independently. The doctor 

 used a J^ Spencer (homogeneous im- 

 mersion, N. A. 1.35) with an ampli- 

 fier and I -inch eye-piece, giving a 

 power of about 2000, and I a ^"^ 

 Spencer (homogeneous immersion, 

 N. A. 1.25) with a |-inch eye-piece, 

 power 11^62. He measured twenty- 

 five corpuscles, the average being 

 ^^^ij^-inch and I measured fifty with 

 an average of 3Y'^9-inch, the difter- 

 ence between our measurements be- 

 ing only 97f-g'o^o^, an amount far too lit- 

 tle to measure, this being only the j 

 finale of a considerable amount of 

 similar experiment in the same direc- 

 tion. I feel pretty well convinced that 

 the cobweb micrometer does not offer 

 sufficient advantage in point of accu- 

 racy to compensate for its additional 

 cumbersoraeness and expensiveness. 



Henry L. Tolman. 

 Chicago, 111. 



EDITORIAL. 



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Vol. V {1884), Nos. 2-12, Ji.oo. 



Some City Sanitation. — We do 

 not know that the majority of our 

 readers are especially interested in 

 sanitary matters which do not im- 

 mediately concern them, but they 

 will, at least, be surprised, and per- 

 haps amused, at the vast influence 



the microbes of disease have come to 

 exert in the legislation of the city of 

 New York. The following quota- 

 tion from the JVezv 2'ork Herald 

 will explain itself. It seems that the 

 public welfare demands that the nu- 

 merous telephone and telegraph wires 

 in the city should be placed under 

 ground. As this is a matter of con- 

 siderable expense, the companies pre- 

 fer not to comply with the regulation. 

 The Board of Health and certain 

 eminent physicians who should (and 

 probably do) know better, have thus 

 conspired to defeat the plan of under- 

 ground wires : — 



' The Board yesterday received from 

 Drs. Fordyce Barker, Alfred L. Loomis 

 and H. B. Sands the following letter:—^ 



' Our attention has been called to the 

 proposed action of the various telegraph, 

 telephone, messenger and electric com- 

 panies for placing wires under ground 

 during the ensuing season, in compliance 

 with the provisions of a law passed at the 

 last session of the Legislature, which made 

 it compulsory that all electric wires in the 

 city of New York should be placed under 

 ground by the ist of November next. 



' In this connection we are very much 

 impressed with the bearing which this 

 proposed action may have upon the pub- 

 lic health of this city, as a simultaneous 

 tearing up of the various streets and 

 avenues for the purpose of complying 

 with the provisions of the above law will, 

 in our opinion, be very detrimental to the 

 health of the city, inasmuch as the under- 

 lying structure of our streets is composed 

 of material more or less saturated with 

 coal gas and other noxious gases, which, 

 when let loose, will contribute to the un- 

 healthfulness of the city. 



' We are more apprehensive on this sub- 

 ject just at the present season than possi- 

 bly at any other time, for the reason that 

 we may not unreasonably expect to have 

 a visitation of cholera here during the 

 summer months, and the above result 

 would certainly tend to make the sanitary 

 condition of the city more difficult to per- 

 fect." .... 



' The Health Commissioners, after the 

 reading of the letter, adopted the follow- 

 ing preamble and resolutions : — 



' Whereas the attendon of this Board 

 has been called by several eminent phy- 

 sicians to the danger to the health of the 

 city likely to result from the general open- 



