90 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVII. No. 419 



African and the American as complete as possible, it is 

 highly desirable that attention should be paid to the obtain- 

 ing of information regarding (1) the results of the intermar- 

 riage of Indian and negro, the physiology of the offspring of 

 such unions; (2) the social status of the negro among the 

 various Indian tribes, the Indian as a slave-holder, the 

 opinion the negro has of the Indian; (3) the influence of 

 the Indian upon negro, and of the negro lipon Indian, 

 mythology and folk-lore. 



While there seems little probability of data existing, to 

 any great extent, regarding the linguistic relations of the 

 Indian and the negro, it is reasonable to expect that much 

 relating to their physical anthropology, their social condi- 

 tions, and their folk-lore, may yet be made known. 



HEALTH MATTERS. 



Bone Grafting. 



Me. a. G. Miller, in the Lancet for Sept. 30, i-eports the history 

 of a case in which he used decalcified-bone chips successfully to 

 fill up a large cavity in the head of the tibia. In the New York 

 Medical Journal it is stated that a piece of the rib of an ox was 

 used, being first scraped and then decalcified in a weak solution 

 of hydrochloric acid. After cleansing by pressure, it was placed 

 for forty-eight hours in a carbolic-acid solution, one to twenty, 

 then removed, and cut into small pieces. During the scrapiag-out 

 of the cavity in the knee, preparatory to the grafting, a number 

 of small pieces of bone were removed. These were placed in a 

 solution of boric acid for use later in the operation. The cavity 

 was then stuffed with the decalcified-bone shavings, the pieces of 

 fresh bone being added last. The cavity thus filled was about two 

 inches in diameter. Granulation and healing took place rapidly : 

 the only pieces of bone that became necrosed were from the 

 patient's own body. Mr. Miller is convinced, from bis obseryation 

 of this case, that the healing of large hone cavities, the result of 

 injury or disease, is greatly facilitated by stuffing them with de- 

 calcified-bone chips; that these are superior to fresh bone; and 

 that fresh bone not only is of no use, but actually hinders the 

 process of granulation. 



Recent Saving of Life in Michigan. 



In a carefully prepared paper read before the Sanitary Conven- 

 tion at Vickaburg, the proceedings of which are published. Dr. 

 Baker gave official statistics and evidence, which he summarized 

 as follows : — 



"The record of the great saving of human life and health in 

 Michigan in recent years is one to which, it seems to me, the State 

 and local boards of health in Michigan can justly ' point with 

 pride.' It is a record of the saving of over one hundred lives per 

 year from small-pox, four hundred lives per year saved from death 

 by scarlet-fever, and nearly six hundred lives per year saved from 

 death by diphtheria, — an aggregate of eleven hundred lives per 

 year, or three lives per day, saved from these three diseases. This 

 is a record which we ask to have examined, and which we are 

 willing to have compared with that of the man who ' made two 

 blades of grass grow where only one grew before.' " 



To relieve an Overworked Brain. 



A Swiss doctor says that many persons who extend their mental 

 work well into the night, who during the evening follow atten- 

 tively the programme of a theatre or concert, or who engage 

 evenings in the proceedings of societies or clubs, are awaked in 

 the morning or in the night with headache {The Sanitary In- 

 spector). He is particular to say that he does not refer to that 

 headache which our Teutonic brethren designate Katzenjammen, 

 that follows certain convivial indulgences. This headache affects 

 many persons who are quite well otherwise, and i& due in part to 

 the previous excessive work of the brain, whereby an abnormal 

 flow of blood to that organ is caused, in part to other causes, for 

 example, too great heat of rooms, contamination of the air with 



carbonic acid, exhalations from human bodies, and tobacco- 

 smoke. 



For a long while the doctor was himself a sufferer from head- 

 ache of this kind, but of late years has wholly protected himself 

 from it by simple means. When he is obliged to continue his . 

 brain work into the evening, or to be out late nights in rooms not 

 well ventilated, instead of going directly to bed, he takes a brisk 

 walk for half an hour or an hour. While taking this tramp he 

 stops now and then and practises lung gymnastics by breathing 

 in and out deeoly a few times. When he then goes to bed, he 

 sleeps soundly. Notwithstanding the shortening of the hours of 

 sleep, he awakes with no trace of headache. There exists a clear 

 and well-known physiological reasoni why this treatment should 

 be effective. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



The Lecture Association of the University of Pennsylvania 

 announces a special course of illustrated public lectures by Mr. 

 Barr Ferree of New York, on Feb. 13, 17, and 19, on "The In- 

 fluence of Christianity on the Development of Architecture." 

 These lectures, which will be three in number, will treat of (1) the 

 basilica, the formative period of Christian architecture; (2) the 

 cathedral, the perfected form of Christian architecture ; and (3) 

 the monastic orders, the greatest Christian builders. 



^The Snow-Shoe Section of the Appalachian Mountain Club, 

 Boston, has arranged a winter excursion to Waterville, N.H., to 

 which members of the club and their friends are invited. The 

 main party will leave Boston, Monday, Feb. 16. by the nine o'clock 

 train from the Lowell Station. Others will leave Boston Thursday 

 evening, spend the night at Plymouth, and join the party at 

 WatervUle Friday morning. The return will be on Monday or 

 Tuesday, Feb. 23 or 24. The expense will not exceed $15. Com- 

 fortable rooms with stoves will be provided. 



— It is announced in the January "Proceedings of the Royal 

 Geographical Society " that a competent observer, Mr. J. T. Bent, 

 the explorer of Phcenician remains in the Bahrein Islands, has 

 decided on undertaking an expedition to the mysterious ruins of 

 Zimbabye or Zimbaoe, in Mashonaland, and other remains in the 

 interior of South Africa, with the object of thoroughly examining 

 the structures and the country in their neighborhood. The expe- 

 dition has the active co-operation of the British East Africa Com- 

 pany and the Ro3'al Geographical Society, and will be well 

 equipped for geographical as well as archaeological survey. It 

 was to leave England at the end of last month. 



— Mr. Robert Athelston Jlarr has resigned his position as 

 assistant in the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, to ac- 

 cept the professorship of civil engineering in the Virginia Military 

 Institute. Mr. Marr was born in Tennessee in 1856, was gradu- 

 ated at the Virginia Military Institute," entered the Coast and 

 Geodetic Survey in 1378, and since then has served with distinc- 

 tion in the triangulation and astronomical parties both on this 

 coast and in California and Alaska. The coast survey service has 

 lost an energetic and capable officer, and, while his colleagues 

 will miss him, they wish him every success in his new duties. 

 The vacancy caused by Mr. Marr's resignation has been filled by 

 the promotion of Sub-Assistant Isaac Winston to the grade of 

 assistant. Mr. Winston has for several years past had charge of 

 one of the geodetic levelling parties of the survey. 



— Among recent appointments of Johns Hopkins men, we note 

 that of Felix Lengfeld (fellow 1887-88, Ph.D. 1888) as professor 

 of chemistry and assaying in the South Dakota School of Mines; 

 C. W. Emil Miller (A.B. 1883, fellow 1883-85, Ph.D. 1886) as 

 professor of languages, VValther College, St. Louis, Mo. ; Augustus 

 T. Murray (fellow 1887-88, Ph.D. 1890) as Professor of Greek, 

 Colorado College; Charles L. Smith (fellow 1887-88, Ph.D. 1889, 

 instructor 1889-91) as professor of history, William Jewell College, 

 Missouri; Edward L. Stevenson (graduate student 1887-88) as 

 instructor in history, Rutgers College; Amos G. Warner (fellow 

 1886-87, Ph.D. 1888) as general superintendent of charities in the 

 District of Columbia, as provided by the recent congressional 

 appropriation for the district; and William K. Williams (Ph.D. 



