428 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIII. No. 846 



resembles the frambesia or yaws of the West 

 Indies. The body swells and breaks out into 

 ulcers, which have often the appearance of mul- 

 berries, and the patients become exceedingly 

 loathsome. It is infectious by contact, but is 

 also communicated, according to the theory of 

 the country,- in a manner that defies all precau- 

 tion. The eye sometimes is partially affected, and 

 a small fly is then attracted by the discharge; 

 this insect comes loaded with the contagious 

 matter, and communicates it to the next person, 

 on whose face he happens to light. 



It will be noted that Walsh agrees with 

 Koster's statement' that the disease is trans- 

 mitted by a certain " small fly from which 

 every precaution is oftentimes of no avail " 

 and that the eye is the part most likely to he 

 affected. 



An earlier account of this means of infec- 

 tion is found in J. G. Stedman's "Narrative 

 of a Five Tears' Expedition Against the Ee- 

 volted Negroes of Surinam, in Guiana on the 

 Wild Coast of South America," London, 1796. 

 On page 274 of volume II. he writes: 



The yaws, a most disagreeable disorder, by 

 many compared to the venereal disease, renders 

 the patient a shocking spectacle, all covered over 

 with yellow ulcers. To this last mentioned loath- 

 some malady most negroes are subject, yet but 

 once only in their lives, in which, and in being 

 very infectious, it resembles the small-pox: in- 

 deed, if a fly which has been feeding upon the 

 diseased (and they are generally covered with 

 them) lights upon the slightest scratch on a 

 healthy person, it communicates this dreadful 

 disorder, which always confines him for several 

 months. 



The earliest references to this disease which 

 I have chanced upon are from William Piso. 

 The first occurs under the heading De Lue 

 Venerea on page 35 of his De Medicina Bra- 

 siliensi in " Historia Naturalis Brasilise," by 

 William Piso and George Marcgrave. Under 

 the heading De Lue Indica the same facts are 

 given almost verbatim on page 43 of Book II., 

 De Natura & Cura Morborum, Occidentali 

 Indise, imprimis Brasilise, familiarum, in 

 Pise's " Historise Naturalis & Mediese Indiffi 



''Italics by the present writer. 



'See "Note," etc., November 4, 1910. 



Occidentalis," one of the component parts of 

 " De IndisB TJtriusque Ee Naturali et Medica," 

 by William Piso and Jacob Bont. The first 

 was published at Leyden and Amsterdam in 

 1648, the second at Amsterdam by the Elzevirs 

 in 1658. 



That part of the account of the disease 

 which is of interest to the general reader 

 translates as follows : 



Concerning the Venereal (or Indian) Disease 

 (or Plague). This is a disease which occurs not 

 only in children as a result of inheritance from 

 their parents, and is contracted not only by infec- 

 tion in sexual union, but even by lighter contact. 

 It originates chiefly in fetid and decaying food, 

 and in rancid and corrupt drink. It rages not 

 only among Negroes and Indians, but also among 

 Portuguese and Dutch. The whole body is in- 

 fested with schirrhous tumors and virulent ulcers. 

 This disease is indeed endemic in that region 

 [Piso was writing of northern Brazil] and by 

 both Spaniards and Brazilians is called Buhas. 



Careful search failed to show any reference 

 to insects as agents of transmission. 



E. W. GUDGER 



State Nobmal College, 

 Gbeensboeo, N. C. 



a theory of sex determination " 

 Mrs. Laura A. Calhoun, a woman of cul- 

 ture, who has had considerable experience in 

 the breeding of animals in California, ven- 

 tures on the strength of this experience and 

 that of others to propose and develop a theory 

 of the conditions determining sex. 



Her main thesis is set forth in these words : 

 " The sex of the embryo in man and the 

 higher animals is determined in the ovary 

 from which the ovum in question is devel- 

 oped. In the normal female, the ovary of the 

 right side yields ova which on fertilization 

 develop as males, and the ovary of the left 

 side yields ova which are potentially female." 

 From this arises the practical deduction 

 that sex can be determined at will, through 

 the service of gravitation. For the pros- 

 pective mother to lie on the right side should 



' " The Law of Sex-determination, and its Prac- 

 tical Application," by Laura A. Calhoun, The 

 Eugenics Publishing Company, New York. 



