February 17, 1899.] 



SCIENCE. 



255 



In their present development they constitute 

 the most practical methods known, because 

 they are the most economic while they are also 

 adequately accurate. 



The succeeding article by Dr. Mathews on 

 ' Maps and Map Makers of Maryland' is of 

 much historic interest. Dr. Mathews has ably 

 assisted Professor Clark iu his effort to make 

 the Survey of Maryland a success, and to them 

 both, as well as to the Geological Commission, 

 belongs the credit of raising the standard of 

 economic surveys to a grade that few can reach 

 and none have surpassed. 



Bailey Willis. 



La vie sur lea hauts plateaux. Par le Professor 



A. L. Herrera et le Dr. D. Vergara Lope. 



Published by A. L. Herrera, Museo Nacional, 



Mexico. 1899. 4to. Pp. 786. Price, $6. 



This remarkable work won the Hodgkins 

 prize of the Smithsonian Institution, and now, 

 translated from Spanish into French, is pub- 

 lished in beautiful form through the munificence 

 of President Diaz, of Mexico, to whom it is ap- 

 propriately dedicated. 



Professor Herrera, as the best type of a man 

 of science, is an honor to our sister republic. 

 His epoch-making ideas on the subject of mu- 

 seums have been very influential in France. 



The present important volume is ou matters 

 for whose investigation the authors are most 

 advantageously situated, having lived that life 

 on the high plateaux of which they so ably 

 treat. 



The book opens with a chapter on the relief 

 of both continents ; the distribution of the great 

 plateaux ; their relations, ethnographic and 

 hygienic. Chapter II. is on the vertical distri- 

 bution of vegetable life and the phenomena of 

 adaptation in the species of high altitvides. 

 This is particularly rich in regard to the flora of 

 Mexico and especially the Valley of Mexico. 

 The action of the increased intensity of the sun- 

 light is exhaustively studied. 



Chapter HI. devotes two hundred pages to the 

 vertical distribution of animals, with the phe- 

 nomena of adaptation, and in particular the in- 

 fluence of rarefied air. A study is made of 

 mountain sickness as exhibited by animals. 



Chapter IV. passes to the vertical distribu- 



tion of mankind. Chapter V. is devoted to 

 anthropometry and physiology of man at high 

 altitudes. Worthy of note is the part on diges- 

 tion, illustrated by considerations on the food 

 supply of the City of Mexico. Chapter VI. is 

 very short, treating of atmospheric pressure in 

 geologic epochs and its supposed influence on 

 organic evolution. Chapter VII. is largely 

 taken up with experiments on the action of 

 rarefied air. Chapter VIII. is on combustion 

 and fermentation at high altitudes. Book II., 

 applications, begins with Chapter IX. , on typhus 

 and scrofula at high altitudes. But of intense 

 interest, of universal importance, is the matter 

 of Chapter X., on the treatment of tuberculosis 

 by altitude. 



Statistics prove that the maximum of mor- 

 tality from this dread destroyer pertains to low 

 regions, the minimum to high. In more than 

 60 cases the curve of mortality rises as that of 

 altitude descends. 



In Mexico, even among the poor and the 

 soldiers, there are less deaths from tuberculosis 

 than in the low regions of Europe. For a 

 thousand victims in regions below 500 meters 

 there are only 255 in regions above 500. In 

 Mexico out of 100 persons the parents of 3 will 

 have died of tuberculosis ; in Lima the parents 

 of 18. 



A residence at high altitudes is indicated for 

 persons with hereditary or any other predisposi- 

 tion toward tuberculosis ; for persons with de- 

 fective chest-conformation or respiratory ca- 

 pacity, or in whom inflammatory affections have 

 been incompletely cured. Even for animals 

 the data show at high altitudes a certain im- 

 munity against tuberculosis. 



In 1885 of 73,000 cattle killed at the general 

 abattoir of the City of Mexico only 45 were 

 tuberculous, while in England the proportion 

 rises as high as 20 in 100 



It is known, say our authors, that in tuber- 

 culosis the climate of high altitudes, even for 

 those far advanced, prolongs life. What is it, 

 then, that can diminish the number of cases 

 or help those already attacked ? Our authors 

 attack this momentous question in the true 

 spirit of experimental science. The illumina- 

 tion by the solar rays attains its maximum at 

 high altitudes, and experiment proves that light 



