August 31, 18S3. 



SCIENCE. 



263 



hand and habitation of man. On the prairies 

 and in the pine-woods the atmosphere yet 

 retains a large share of its pristine jjuiity : in 

 the cities it is the reverse. Kspeciallv is it 

 vitiated in the large and ra|iidl_v growing cities 

 of St. Paul and Minneapolis, whose systems 

 of water-snp|ily, drainage, garbage-removal, 

 and sanitary inspection, cannot keep i)ace with 

 their increase of population. Tliis fault will 

 be remedied in time, however, when the 

 authorities shall have learned tliat the dou- 

 bling or trebling of a city's people in a decade 

 brings with it new responsibilities as well as 

 new prosperitj-. It is an easy and pleasant 

 thing to boast that one's town is gaining popu- 

 lation at the rale of a thousand a month, and 

 that the values of real estate are rising ac- 

 cordingly ; but the real-estate owner is slow 

 to appreciate the uecessitj- of advancing the 

 salaries of city officials, and the appropriations 

 for city improvements, with corresponding 

 alacrity. Minneapolis, although built upon 

 the flat surface of the prairie, has admirable 

 opportunities for drainage into the adjoining 

 gorge of the Mississipi)i River; but its dila- 

 toriness in this and other works of sanitary 

 improvement has been severely punished by 

 the scourge of typhoid-fever. The prevalence 

 of this disease has caused Minneapolis at times 

 to stand at the head of the column of death- 

 rates of the cities of the United States. 

 AVliile there may be malaria in ilinuesota, — 

 and, indeed, the term is sometimes found in 

 the re|)orts of the physicians, — it is by no 

 . means the popular disease that it is in the south 

 and east, where it is almost the fashion. A 

 person may spend a year there without hearing 

 the word mentioned ; and that immunity alone 

 should be enough to stimulate emigration in 

 that direction. 



Dryness of atmosphere is claimed for Min- 

 nesota ; and if we consult onh* the amount 

 of rainfall, whose annual value ranges from 

 twenty to forty inches, there is api)arent jus- 

 tice in this claim. But the manner as well as 

 the amount of the jjluvial piecipitation must 

 be considered. They have in that state a 

 good deal of the lachrymose English weather, 

 in which a drizzling dampness takes the i)lace 

 of the short, sharp, and decisive showers of 

 equatorial lands. At the close of a rainy day 

 the observer will go to his rain-gauge, and 

 find its bottom scarcely covered. The effect 

 of effort without accomplishment is always a 

 de|)ression of spirits in the looker-on ; and 

 this rule is never truer than when applied to a 

 rainy da^'. Those who spent the month of 

 October, 1881, in Minnesota, will reraemlier 



it as a season of almost continual storm, 

 during which, even when there was no absolute 

 lainfall, there was an unwholesome mist float- 

 ing in the air. Occasionally the sun shone, 

 but not with sufficient power to make an ira- 

 liression. Farm-labor was almost suspended. 

 The potatoes rotted in the ground, and the 

 wheat grew in the stack. The streets of Ven- 

 ice were scarcely more liquid than the streets 

 of St. I'aul. Uanger-siguals were erected 

 in the fashionable avenues to warn teamsters 

 away from fathomless depths of mud. Hack- 

 ney-coaches were stalled there, and their 

 horses were detached, leaving the vehicles 

 to be extracted by the processes of engineer- 

 ing. So imi)assable were the roads, that the 

 fuel-snpply was unequal to the demand, and 

 invalids were obliged to go to bed to keep 

 warm, and public schools were closed because 

 their puj^ils were frozen out. 



Still the rainfall of this month was less than 

 four inches and a half. Many a single shower 

 in the warm latitudes precipitates an equal 

 amount of water. Indeed, there are records 

 of rains in which as much water has fallen in 

 one day as falls in Minnesota dining the year; 

 but, as a light rainfall does not necessarilj- 

 mean a dry atmosphere, neither does an exces- 

 sive precipitation invariably make a wet one. 

 The water may flow away quickly, leaving no 

 sign ; and the next day the smi may shine as 

 brightly as ever. Belter, therefore, for the 

 lungs, is an occasional drenching than a per- 

 petual drizzle. While it must be admitted 

 that the weather of the October just quoted, 

 although not so bad as that of the September 

 preceding, was yet exceptional in the extreme, 

 still such exceptions could hardl}' occur in a 

 very dry climate. 



The student of jihysical geography would 

 scarcely expect to find the climate of Minne- 

 sota a dry one. An average of such statistics 

 as the writer has at hand indicates that rain 

 or snow falls at least every third day in St. 

 Paul. The slate is almost directly under the 

 influence of the C4reat Lakes, and is itself 

 threaded with rivers, and dotted with lakes. 

 Of the latter there are eight thousand worthy 

 of the name, besides innumerable ponds. Two 

 large river-systems receive their waters from 

 the drainage of this region. The swamp- 

 lands of the state pl.av an important part in 

 its area, as the maps of the land-oirice show. 

 A large share of its forests are afloat upon 

 ancient marshes. Cranberries and rheumatism 

 abound. The Bed Biver region is celebrated 

 for its floods. At one tinie that stream was 

 jjopularly said to be thirty miles wide ; and 



