POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



425 



The March of Fever and Ague. — Dr. G. 



n. Wilson, of Meridcn, Connecticut, review- 

 ing the history of epidemic intermittent 

 fever in Connecticut and other parts of New 

 England, traces in it the evidence of a regu- 

 lar progress in a particular direction, and by 

 successive advances from year to year. The 

 advance appears to be " independent of any 

 known or recognized influence, whether at- 

 mospheric, telluric, magnetic, or climatic, 

 and through the most diverse conditions of 

 surface, soil, humidity, and temperature, 

 general and local." The direction of the 

 movement appears to be toward the north- 

 east ; and in its invasion of Connecticut 

 " the ague crossed, diagonally but decided- 

 ly, every one of our main rivers. Starting 

 on the coast, west of the Housatonic, it 

 crossed its valley the next year, but did 

 not ascend it more than about fifteen miles 

 in as many years. It next crossed the Nau- 

 gatuck, within five miles of its mouth. 

 The Quinepiac it first reached and crossed 

 in South Meriden, sixteen miles from East 

 Haven; the Connecticut at Middletown, 

 twenty-five miles from the Sound ; and the 

 tributaries of the Thames in Coventry, forty 

 miles from the sea." In Rhode Island, also, 

 it entered at Westerly and passed through 

 the State to the northeast, leaving the south- 

 east and northwest parts unaffected. The 

 northeast course was pursued during fifteen 

 years, or till 1875, when the malarial influ- 

 ence had reached Windsor, on the Connect- 

 icut. After that time, the radiation, or 

 lateral spread of the disease, became more 

 decided, and it finally covered every town 

 in the State, passing the line of Massachu- 

 setts at Agawam in 1878. In the next four 

 years it had attacked all the towns in West- 

 em Massachusetts, and a few scattered over 

 the eastern part of that State, and had in- 

 vaded Vermont and New Hampshire, as 

 well as Rhode Island. " It is not too much 

 to suppose that it came over from Long 

 Island and New Jersey, and possibly far- 

 ther south, as well as from the same region 

 over Westchester County ; that its front 

 extends from the Hudson on the west to 

 Buzzard's Bay on the east; that it has 

 moved a hundred miles north and cast, and 

 still reaches out its favors to tho?e belated 

 north-men and down-Easters who have hith- 

 erto mocked us." 



Hygiene in Schools. — An article on this 

 subject in " The Sanitary Record," by John 

 W. Tripe, M. D., contains the following : 

 " Children are now taught, in public, ele- 

 mentary, and other schools, a number of facta 

 concerning the rivers, mountains, coasts, 

 etc., of foreign countries, and many other 

 things which do not immediately concern 

 them, while the merest outlines of the rela- 

 tions existing between the blood and the 

 various organs of the body, and of the 

 changes occurring therein, rarely form any 

 part of their education. It is not necessary 

 to tell children about the size of the liver, 

 the average weight and muscular power of 

 the heart, the diameter and length of the 

 great vessels of the body, the structure of 

 the eye, or any other similar facts ; but 

 surely it would be better for children, at 

 any rate in the advanced classes, to be taught 

 as to the action of fermented liquors on the 

 system, and on the organs by which they 

 are excreted from the body, the injurious- 

 ness of excesses in eating and drinking, and 

 such like facts, than commit to memory a 

 mass of information which they forget al- 

 most as soon as learned. They would also 

 be the better for being instructed in the 

 relations that exist between health and the 

 social habits and customs of those among 

 whom they will pass their lives. They might 

 also be told the reasons why high-heeled 

 boots, constricted waists, unwashed skins, 

 accumulations of refuse, and many other 

 things, are injurious to health as well as 

 opposed to comfort." 



How Buzzards find their Prey. — On 



the debated question as to the particular 

 sense by which turkey-vultures are directed 

 to their prey from great distances, Mr. Sam- 

 uel N. Rhoads brings strong evidence in the 

 " American Naturalist " in favor of the 

 sense of smell. In digging some sweet-po- 

 tatoes, he partly uncovered a spot where a 

 horse and cow had been buried some years 

 before. In a few hours afterward the spot 

 became the center over which buzzards hov- 

 ered by scores, during the whole of the fol- 

 lowing day, and less numerously for several 

 days afterward. It was a strangely inter- 

 esting spectacle, he says, " to behold them 

 swoop within a few feet of the horse-hades, 

 and rise again with slow, reluctant flaps. 



