158 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVI. No. 918 



of this paper to indicate which species are avail- 

 able in a living condition, specific localities where 

 they may be found and so far as possible to give 

 some idea of their abundance. 



While a paper of this kind is of necessity in- 

 complete, it is hoped that it may be of service to 

 prospective investigators by pointing out what 

 material they would have at their service under 

 ordinary conditions at Beaufort. 



The full paper is published in the current num- 

 ber of the Bulletin of the North Carolina State 

 Board of Health. 



The Value of Vital Statistics and their Melation 



to Public Sealth: Wareen H. Booker, State 



Board of Health, Ealeigh. 



Vital statistics are valuable to the nation, since 

 they enable us to study at close range the general 

 movements of mankind, and to measure quickly 

 the effect of any line of action on these movements. 

 We should know as much concerning life and 

 health conditions throughout the state and country 

 as we now know about crop and weather conditions. 



Vital statistics are valuable to the individual in 

 many legal questions involving facts concerning 

 births and deaths. 



Students of medicine and sociology find the 

 study of vital statistics very profitable. 



The greatest value of vital statistics is found in 

 connection with their relations to public health 

 work. They indicate the kind of work that is 

 most needed; also the efficiency of that work. 

 Cities, tovras and localities having abnormally high 

 preventable death rates can readily be found and 

 shown where and how to take the necessary steps 

 to reduce these death rates. Eeduoed death rates 

 will eventually form the measure of public health 

 work. 



The full paper will appear in the current num- 

 ber of the Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific 

 Society, 

 Further Notes on the Yellow-fever Mosquito at 



Maleigh, N. C: C. S. Brimley, Raleigh. 



Describes their great abundance during the sum- 

 mer of 1911, and gives possible reasons for the 

 same. 



This paper is published in the current number 

 of the Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific 



Mace Preservation: Eev. George W. Lay, Eector 

 of St. Mary's School, Ealeigh, N. C. 

 All nature is one, and there is unity in the one 



plan that includes natural science and religion. 



Natural science has turned over part of its sub- 



jects to other departments, e. g., light and sound 

 belong to psychology as well as to physics. In 

 eugenics natural science must go beyond the purely 

 moral forces of evolution, and include the mental 

 and moral forces of mankind. Environment must 

 likewise include the mind and will of man as well 

 as things purely natural. 



The two great forces which govern natural evolu- 

 tion are the appetites, which secure the preserva- 

 tion of the individual in one case, and of the race 

 in the other. Nature works preeminently for the 

 race and is prodigal with individual life. When 

 the mind of man enters into the methods that are 

 applied to the breeding of the lower animals, a 

 new element is added. He has used both the above 

 laws in breeding and has sacrificed the individual 

 to the race, as nature does. The results have been 

 beneficial, and have been attained much more 

 quickly than could be the case under nature alone, 

 and have been in accordance with a preconceived 

 plan. The resulting breeds are better suited to 

 their environment only in case the mind of man 

 is added to the purely natural forces as a part of 

 that environment. 



In eugenics, which is the effort to improve the 

 breeding of human beings, the moral and religious 

 principles of mankind are added as a new force 

 to those previously mentioned. Here man has 

 largely disregarded the natural forces that sacrifice 

 the individual to the race, and has therefore 

 worked only to preserve the individual. The result 

 has been a partial failure, since the natural forces 

 that preserve the race, largely at the expense of 

 the individual, have been ignored. 



The scientist and moral teacher must learn from 

 each other and help each other. The scientist must 

 recognize mental and spiritual things as true forces 

 in the evolution of the human race, and the moral- 

 ist must recognize that both the purely natural 

 forces, working through the two kinds of appe- 

 tites whose misuse leads to the deadliest sins, and 

 on whose nature the two great sacraments are 

 founded, are no less a part of the divine plan than 

 those spiritual forces which constitute the special 

 function of religion. We can not interfere with 

 the great plan of the universe, or use any of its 

 forces, unless we consider it as a whole, whose 

 parts are in complete and necessary harmony. 



To be published in full in the Bulletin of the 

 North Carolina State Board of Health. 



Notes on the Larvce of the Marbled Salamander : 

 E. W. GuDGER, State Normal College, Greens- 

 boro. 



