POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



715 



young children at this festive season over- 

 fed and with a short allowance of sleep, are 

 common instances of the victims of ' cold.' 

 Luxury is favorable to chill-taking ; very 

 hot rooms, soft chairs, feather beds, create 

 a sensitiveness that leads to catarrhs. It is 

 not, after all, the ' cold ' that is so much 

 to be feared as the antecedent conditions 

 that give the attack a chance of doing harm. 

 Some of the worst ' colds ' happen to those 

 who do not leave their house or even their 

 bed, and those who are most invulnerable 

 are often those who are most exposed to 

 changes of temperature, and who by good 

 sleep, cold bathing, and regular habits, pre- 

 serve the tone of their nervous system and 

 circulation. Probably many chills are con- 

 tracted at night or at the fag-end of the 

 day, when tired people get the equilibrium 

 of their circulation disturbed by either over- 

 heated sitting-rooms or underheated bed- 

 rooms and beds. This is especially the 

 case with elderly people. In such cases the 

 mischief is not always done instantaneously, 

 or in a single night. It often takes place 

 insidiously, extending over days or even 

 weeks. It thus appears that ' taking cold ' 

 is not by any means a simple result of a 

 lower temperature, but depends largely on 

 personal conditions and habits, affecting es- 

 pecially the nervous and muscular energy of 

 the body." 



How and irhere Malaria tbrlres. — The 



health-oflBcers of New Britain, Connecticut, 

 have made an instructive report concerning 

 the prevalence of malarial diseases in that 

 town, and their connection with certain sup- 

 posed causes. The causes of malarial and 

 other miasmatic diseases are not identical, 

 though they are similar, and the two classes 

 not infrequently occur in a given locality at 

 the same time ; and the hygienic measures 

 required to prevent them all are the same. 

 The essential conditions for the development 

 of malaria appear to be: the presence of 

 the malarial germ ; a high temperature and 

 dry atmosphere; and favorable conditions 

 of the soil ; and the absence of either of 

 them will suspend or prevent the action of 

 the poison. We have power only over the 

 third condition. " A generous rain in the 

 vicinity has, we think, invariably suspended 

 its action. And yet a previous condition of 



moisture ia essential to its manifestation. 

 All deposits of vegetable matter, such as 

 muck, sink-drainage, heaps of decaying veg- 

 etable matter, or even wet, spongy land, fur- 

 nish the essentials for its support ; but it is 

 requisite that the soil shall have been very 

 wet, or covered with water some portions of 

 the year." A generous crop of grass, and 

 perhaps of other vegetable substance, has 

 been known to prevent malaria. In 1880 

 nearly all the families in the neighborhood 

 of some lots which were largely a deposit 

 of muck had malaria. The lots were 

 plowed, dragged, and sowed with grass-seed, 

 and the appearance of the crop of grass and 

 weeds was attended by a disappearance of 

 chills and fever. Two or three other in- 

 stances are mentioned in the same town, in 

 which fever-and-ague was banished by giv- 

 ing a similar treatment to tracts of swampy 

 and mucky soil. Another case is specified 

 where malaria was prevented by the drying 

 up of the sewerage and sink-water which 

 usually found its outlet through a system of 

 ditches cut in muck. Preparations were 

 making to lay tiles in the ditches and fill 

 them up, but, before this was done, a heavy 

 rain washed them out, and " caused the pre- 

 vailing sickness to abate as suddenly as it 

 had commenced." From the first, malaria 

 has not prevailed in those parts of the city 

 where vegetable deposits and filth have been 

 absent, and the health of the streets in 

 which sewers have been laid has been re- 

 markably good. 



Can Dogs be taught to read ? — Under 

 the title " Instinct," Sir John Lubbock writes 

 as follows in a recent number of the " Spec- 

 tator " : 



" Sir : Mr. Darwin's ' Xotes on Instinct,' 

 recently published by my friend Mr. Eo- 

 manes, have again called attention to the 

 interesting subject of instinct in animals. 

 Miss Martineau once remarked that, consid- 

 ering how long we have lived in close asso- 

 ciation with animals, it is astonishing how 

 little we know about them, and especially 

 about their mental condition. This applies 

 with especial force to our domestic ani- 

 mals, and above all, of course, to dogs. I 

 believe that it arises very much from the 

 fact that hitherto we have tried to teach 

 animals, rather than to learn from them— 



