682 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. II. No. 47. 



division of the rootstalk. A still more 

 difificuit case is the Bilsted (lAquidambar 

 styracifiua). This tree can change its phyl- 

 lotaxy with its branching ; it may divide at 

 the ground, sending up two stems, both of 

 the same or of antidromic phyllotaxy; each 

 stem may produce branches of both kinds, 

 and the branches may bear secondary 

 branches of their own or different spirality. 

 Within any one branch, the phj'llotaxy is 

 definite, at f divergence, one way or the 

 other, for the bud scales of the annual inno- 

 vations, as well as for all the leaves ; and 

 the order does not change within a branch, 

 but between a bi'anch and its sub-branches 

 the order may or may not change. On the 

 upper surface of the horizontal branches 

 are the cork ridges which curve (irreg- 

 ularly) to right or left in harmony with the 

 phyllotaxy of that branch. 



The only explanation that occurs to me 

 as possible is that Bilsted may have a latent 

 tendency to produce both orders of phyllo- 

 taxy, that some slight inequality of nutri- 

 ment may determine which shall start first, 

 and that whichever gets the start is able to 

 retain the preponderance for the particular 

 branch, and the same influence is felt by 

 the cortical growth. But the severe stric- 

 tures of Sachs (History of Botany) on the 

 old literature of phyllotaxy is a wholesome 

 caution not to be speculating beyond the 

 evidence; his criticism, however, is directed 

 against theories invented by mathemati- 

 cians, and not against those that would 

 arise from a consideration of the plant's 

 ontogeny. G. TVIacloskie. 



Princeton College, October 25, 1895. 



TYPHOID FEVER DISSEMINATED THROUGH 

 THE MILK SUPPLY. 

 The relation of milk to the spread of in- 

 fectious diseases has been most strikingly 

 shown in an epidemic of typhoid fever that 

 occurred at Stamford, Conn., during this 

 year, the ofiicial report of which has been 



recently issued by Prof. H. E. Smith. The 

 evidence gathered shows beyond all ques- 

 tion that the the disease was propagated by 

 means of the milk supply, so that the epi- 

 demic possesses unusual interest for students 

 in bacteriology and hygiene. 



The epidemic broke out in April, and 

 within six weeks 386 cases were reported 

 in a town of about 16,000 inhabitants. Of 

 this number, 65 cases or 16.8% were five 

 years old or under, while over one-third of 

 the total number were under ten years of age. 



The mortality statistics of the State of 

 Connecticut for the last 1.5 yea,rs show that 

 less than lO^o of the total number of deaths 

 from typhoid have been under 10 years of 

 age. In view of this, the large number of 

 cases in early childhood has a peculiar sig- 

 nificance in explaining the origin of the epi- 

 demic, as the infection of the milk supply 

 would be more apt to manifest itself in in- 

 fants than in adults. As soon as the milk 

 supply was suspected, its sale was prohib- 

 ited, and in fifteen days (about the usual 

 period of incubation of this disease) after 

 this prohibition went into effect the num- 

 ber of new cases dropped from an average 

 of over ten a day to less than two. It was 

 further shown that out of the total number 

 of 386 cases, 352 or 91.2% lived in families 

 that were supplied with milk from the same 

 dealer. In 14 other cases milk from this 

 same dealer was consumed by parties at a 

 cafe and bakery. In 8 of the remaining 

 cases milk was supplied the parties by the 

 producer from whom the milk peddler ob- 

 tained his supplj'. This makes a total of 

 97.1% of all cases that received the milk, 

 either directly from the producer or indi- 

 rectlj^ through the milk dealer who peddled 

 the milk. As the milkman in question only 

 supplied about 9 % of the total amount used 

 in the town, the number of cases that de- 

 veloped on his route is of especial interest. 



The evidence of a contaminated milk sup- 

 ply was overwhelming, but how to account 



