:40 



NA TURE 



ypeb. 7, 1884 



to be dryness. The number N, for the unattainable 

 conditions assumed, comes out negati\e. 



Another disease which tlie village watchman may be 

 trusted to recognise in most instances is cholera. Cases 

 of severe diarrha:a are doubtless frequently returned as 

 cholera, but this does not sensibly iinpair the value of the 

 registers, since the two diseases are usually prevalent 

 about the same time. The mortality from cholera is 

 subject to an annual variation quite as distinct as that of 

 small-pox, but there are two maxima, in April and August, 

 with a slight diminution between these months. The 

 averages for the five years are : — 





Feb. 



March April May June 



1304 9027 6541 63^4 



July Aug. Sent. I'd Xuv. Pec. 



5735 8129 4839 4665 1514 426 

 From the records of the army, police, and jail depart- 

 ments, extending over a longer scries of years, it appears 

 that the n-axiraum niortahty from cholera usually occurs 

 in the rainy season. The secondary maximum in April 

 becomes the principal one in this table on account of the 

 excessive prevalence of cholera in April 18S0. This 

 epidemic was popularly attributed to the immense number 

 of Hindu pilgrims assembled at the great religious fair of 

 Hardw.-ir, the disease having been caught from some in- 

 fected persons in the crowd and spread abroad over the 

 country as the pilgiims returned to their homes. The 

 Sanitary Commissioner with the Government of India, 

 however, does not accept this view, but seems to attribute 

 the disease or its dissemination to some occult atmospheric 

 influence. Whatever may ultimately prove to be the 

 nature of the disease, there can be little doubt that in the 

 North-West Provinces it is to a great extent dependent 

 upon heat and moisture, being ahnost unknown in the 

 cooler months of the dry season. To estimate the 

 relative effects of these two atmospheric conditions, we 

 may employ the formula — 



n-N+al-^^h; 

 the letters having similarsignifications to those mentioned 

 with the previous formula. Combining the months in 

 groups of four, commencing with December, we get three 

 equations which give the following approximate results : — 

 a = 281 ; /3 = 45 ; N - - 20,076. The principal effect 

 is that due to high temperature ; while at the tempera- 

 ture assumed for A'— zero F. — that number comes out 

 negative. That is to say, in a perfectly dry atmosphere 

 cholera would disappear at a temperature considerably 

 above freezing, about 70° F., in fact, if we may judge 

 from these tables. In the cold weather months, indeed, 

 cholera never assumes epidemic proportions in the North- 

 West I'rovinces ; but when the poison, whatever it may 

 be, is widely disseminated, as in the beginning of 1S82, 

 after the great mela or religious fair at Allahabad, it 

 remains nearly quiescent, manifesting itself only in a few 

 sporadic cases until the commencement of the hot weather 

 in April, when it breaks forth with alarming rapidity. 



Deaths by violence are also, as a rule, unmistakable. 

 In the Sanitary Commissioner's tables two causes of 

 death are given which both come under this head— 

 suicide and wounds — the latter presumably including only 

 the results of murder and manslaughter, as there arc 

 separate headings for accidents and wild beasts. The 

 average numbers of these deaths recorded each year 

 are — 



Jan. Feb. March April May June 



Suicide ... 105 109 196 26S 246 24S 



Wounds ... 105 94 loj 119 125 12S 



376 



19S 



378 



lioth series exhibit a distinct annual variation, notwith- 

 standing some irregularities which would probably dis- 

 appear if we had larger nmnbers to deal with, and in 

 both the phases are similar, the minimum being reached 

 in the middle of the cold weather, and the maximum in 

 the hot season and rains. lioth forms of death by 

 \ iolence are, in fact, manifestations of the same cause, 

 irritability of temper ; for suicides in India are, as a rule, 

 not the result of a fi.xed melancholia, three-fourths of the 

 cases being those of young married women, who, finding 

 life unbearable under the daily and hourly sting of the 

 mother-in-law's tongue, end it at last by jumping dox\n a 

 well. 



The monthly totals given in the last table may be 

 approximately represented by the formula — 



n = a{t - x) \ &h, 

 since they seem to depend both on temperature and humi- 

 dity. In this formula x would be the temperature at which 

 crimes of violence would disappear. Grouping the months 

 in fours, commencing with November, we get three equa- 

 tions which give a = 7'2,/S = 2'0, and.r = 48'4° F. Crimes 

 of violence in India may therefore be said to be proportional 

 in frequency to the tendency to prickly iicat,^^idX excruciat- 

 ing condition of the skin induced by a high temperature 

 combined with moisture. Any one who has suffered from 

 this ailment, and knows how it aft'ected his temper, will 

 readily understand how the conditions which produce it 

 may sometimes lead to homicide and other crimes. .And 

 any one who has been in India in the cold weather and 

 seen to what an abject condition the ordinary native is 

 reduced by a temperature of 60° or so can believe that 

 there is probably some truth in the arithmetical result 

 above given, that about 48' crimes of violence would disap- 

 pear, for at such a temperature nobody would possess a 

 sufficient store of energy to enable him to commit crime 

 of any graver description than petty larcenv. 



'S. A. Hill 



npHE new work of Dr. Agardh, forms the third part 

 ^ of a series of monographs of algse, two parts of 

 which have already appeared. The first part contains 

 the genera Caulerpa, Zoinaria, and certain groups of 

 Sargassum ; the second contains the Chondariaces! and 

 Dictyoteje. The Ulvaccas form the subject of the present 

 monograph. This work should have special interest for 

 algologists, from the circumstance that in it the author 

 has expressed his views, and the reasons on which they 

 are founded, concerning the much-debated question 

 whether Bangia, Porphyra, Goniotrichum, and Erythro- 

 trichia belong to the Florideje or to the Ulvacere. The 

 fact that Dr. Agardh still retains them among the Ulva- 

 cea: is a sufficient proof that he is not convinced by the 

 perusal of Dr. Berthold's work (noticed in NATURE, 

 vol. xxvii. p. 385), and the statement of the latter that they 

 belong to the Floridea:. 



Dr. Agardh discusses the subject at some length, calmly 

 and dispassionately ; and, considering his immense expe- 

 rience in the study of al;aj, his opinion is deserving of 

 much consideration. It may be as well to give the reader 

 some idea of the arguments upon which the author has 

 grounded his opinion. He relies principally, it will be 

 seen, upon the assumed difference of the reproductive 

 organs in the Ulvacea; and in the Florideie, namely, on 

 the sporidia endowed with motion (zoospores) in the true 

 UlvacecE ; and on the antheridia, cystocarps, and tetra- 

 spores of the Florideas ; the antheridia and cystocarps 

 being considered by Thuret and others as sexual, the 

 tttras; ores as asexual. 



' "Til Alsernes.Syslematik." N'ya bidrag af J. G. Agardh (Tredje aWel- 

 niiigen). Lunds Arsskrifl, torn. xi,\. 



Dr. L. Rabenhorst's " Kryptogamen-FIura von Deutschland. Oest^rreich. 

 und der Schweiz." Zweiler Uand : *' Die Meeresalgen Deulsch!ands und 

 Oeslerreic*'s " Bearbeitet von F. Hauck. 4—6 Lieferung. (Leipzig: 

 l-duatd Kuinnie', 1813.) 



