September i8, 1891.J 



SCIENCE. 



157 



March quarters of 1838, 1845, 1847, 1853, 1855, 1864. 1865, 1866, 

 1875, 1890, 1891, which, with the exception of the third quarter 

 of 1849 (the cholera year), are the most fatal seasons on 

 record. 



There is no doubt that the sanitary condition of the district 

 greatly influences the results of the movements of the ground 

 water, and the greater the amount of disturbance or the number 

 of disturbances of the ground water in the course of the season in 

 insanitary districts, the greater and more marked the influence 

 upon health until the period arrives when the soil has been washed 

 free from its impurities, and the waters have accumulated in the 

 ground. 



Certain diseases have their allotted seasons and conditions 

 favorable for their development and spread, and there are a num- 

 ber of diseases usually most rife when the ground waters are 

 low, such as enteric fever, cholera, small-pox, diphtheria, and 

 others. 



The state of low ground water as being a condition accompany- 

 ing epidemics of typhoid fever is a matter of constant observation, 

 and it is a well-authenticated fact that all epidemics of this disease 

 in this country have occurred in periods only of low water, or 

 when immediately following a very low state of the ground 

 water. 



Ground water influences both small-pox and diphtheria in a most 

 marked manner, but in directly opposite ways, so that when one 

 of these diseases is present the other is absent. Small-pox is ac- 

 companied or preceded by intense dryness of the ground, while 

 diphtheria occurs only when the condition of the ground is one of 

 continued dampness. The year 1871 was a very fatal year from 

 small-pox in this country, and in that year the percolation experi- 

 ments showed that the ground was intensely dry. In 1876 an out- 

 break of small-pox occurred at Croydon, and continued until the 

 autumn of 1877. Outbreaks of this disease have subsequently 

 occurred in this place in 1881-83 and 1884-85. Since September, 



1885, there have been no deaths recorded from small-pox at Croy- 

 don, but diphtheria has been very prevalent during the whole of 

 that period, and the ground has been in a constant state of damp- 

 ness, so much so, that, with the exception of one month, October, 



1886, a measurable quantity of water flowed from the percolation 

 gauges every month during all this long period. The last outbreak 

 of small-pox in 1884-85 was preceded by seven months, and that 

 of 1881-83 by five months, when no water percolated through 

 the ground. 



Since the time when the author first observed this marked 

 coincidence between the dryness of the ground and out- 

 breaks of small-pox, he has learned from the report of Surgeon- 

 Major G. Hutcheson, M.D., Sanitary Commissioner of the North- 

 western Provinces and Oudh, that the counterpart of this has been 

 observed in India in reference to small-pox, which, it is stated, " is 

 controlled or kept in abeyance by damp and moistiu-e." 



The most marked incident in connection with ground water is 

 the remarkable parallelism between the deaths of children under 

 five years of age and the lowness of the ground water ; in fact, it 

 is found that the deaths in this case fluctuate inversely in propor- 

 tion to the volume of the water in the ground. 



In 1883 the excess of deaths was no doubt due to the direct pol- 

 lution of the water-supply of the district. And it should be ob- 

 served that since 1884 the low waters in this well are lower than 

 would be the case naturally, as since this period the waters have 

 been abnormally lowered by the escablishment of the New Croydon 

 Water Works Company's station at Addington. If the deaths 

 from diarrhoea are eliminated as being affected more by tempera- 

 ture than by conditions affecting the state of the ground water, 

 the paraUelism between the volume of water in the ground and the 

 death-rate becomes even more marked. 



This coincidence between the rates of mortality of children and 

 ground water occurring period after period is tantamount to posi- 

 tive proof that ground water, at least, if not the direct cause, is 

 the measure of the influences at work which seriously menace the 

 lives of young persons. 



Those who require further information upon this subject will 

 find it in the author's recent presidential address to the Royal 

 Meteorological Society. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



The Annals of Hygiene states that the legislature of Michigan 

 has recently passed a bill making it a misdemeanor, punishable 

 by fine and imprisonment, to manufacture or sell, give or deliver, 

 cigarettes of any kind of tobacco, or cigarette paper in books or 

 blocks for wrapping cigarettes. 



— The operations of the Geological Survey of Missouri during 

 the month of August were as follows: Examinations of the zinc 

 and lead deposits have been extended into Greene, Stone, Webster, 

 Howell, Oregon, Carter, Texas, Wright, and Shannon Counties; 

 inspections of iron ores have been made in Cape Girardeau, Bol- 

 linger, Wayne, Stoddard, Reynolds, Carter, Ripley, Shannon, and 

 Howell Counties; detailed mapping has been prosecuted in Macon, 

 Chariton, and Henry Counties, and about 70 square mUes have 

 been covered. The study of the Quaternary deposits has been 

 continued over the central portion of the State adjacent to the 

 Missouri River; and the mapping of the crystalline rocks has been 

 continued in Madison, St. Francois, Washington, Iron, and Rey- 

 nolds Counties, as has also the geological mapping in Greene 

 County. For the purpose of constructing models illustrating the 

 conditions of occurrence of ore bodies, detailed surveys have been 

 completed of two important u-on deposits. In the laboratory, 

 analyses have been made of clays and iron ores; in the office the 

 plotting of maps preparatory to publication has proceeded unin- 

 terruptedly, and work has been continued on the preparation of 

 the report on paleontology. With reference to future work, steps 

 have been taken towards securing for the State the determination 

 of the latitude and longitude of a series of points, which determina- 

 tions are necessary for the further prosecution of the detailed 

 mapping now in progress. 



— Persistent attempts have been made to produce a good arti- 

 ficial substitute for ivory. Hitherto none have been successful. 

 A patent has recently been taken out, says the Engineer, for a 

 process based upon the employment of those materials of which 

 natural ivory is composed, consisting, as it does, of tribasic phos- 

 phate of lime, calcium carbonate, magnesia, alumina, gelatine, 

 and albumen. By this process, quicklime is first treated, with 

 sufficient water to convert it into the hydrate, but before it has 

 become completely hydrated, or "slaked," an aqueous solution of 

 phosphoric acid is poured on to it; and while stirring the mixture 

 the calcium carbonate, magnesia, and alumina are incorporated m 

 small quantities at a time ; and lastly the gelatine and albumen 

 dissolved in water are added. The point to aim at is to obtain a 

 compost sufficiently plastic and as intimately mixed as possible. 

 It is then set aside to allow the phosphoric acid to complete its 

 action upon the chalk. The following day the mixture, while still 

 plastic, is pressed into the desired form in moulds, and dried in a 

 current of air at a temperature of about 150" C. To complete the 

 preparation of the artificial product by this process, it is kept for 

 three or four weeks, during which time it becomes perfectly hard. 

 The following are the proportions for the mixture, which can be 

 colored by the addition of suitable substances : quicklime, 100 parts ; 

 water, 300 parts; phosphoric acid solution, 1.05 sp. gr., 75 parts; 

 calcium carbonate, 16 parts; magnesia, 1 to 3 parts; alumina, pre- 

 cipitated, 5 parts; gelatine, 15 parts. 



— In a paper read before the American Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science at the recent meeting in Washington, Pro- 

 fessor Joseph James gave the results of a visit to Point Pleasant, 

 Ohio, made to ascertain the age of the rocks. The paper has just 

 been printed in full in the Journal of the Cincinnati Society of 

 Natural History. In it is given a notice of such papers as have 

 considered any of the rocks of south-western Ohio to be of earlier 

 age than the Hudson River group of New York. There are also 

 given the details of a section studied by him at Point Pleasant 

 during the summer of 1890. Vanuxem, in 1829, was the first to 

 correlate the Cincinnati strata with the Trenton of New York, and 

 he was followed in this by Conrad in 1841. In 1843 Hall referred 

 the rocks to the Hudson River group of New York. In 1865 Meek 

 and Worthen proposed for the series the name Cincinnati group. 

 This name was generally accepted, but in 1879 a committee of the 

 Cincinnati Society of Natural History advocated abandoning the 



