October 14, 1892,] 



SCIENCE. 



213 



faring; people had extended their journeys, if not their colonies, to 

 that comparatively remote quarter. This interesting relic has been 

 ably worked up by Professor Pauli, who may be said to be at the 

 head of living Etruscologists. 



About the time that the Etruscans settled in Italy, a people of 

 closely similar nanse, the Tursha, appear in Egyptian history as 

 bold invaders and daring warriors. They are mentioned in the 

 inscriptions of Meneptah II. and Ramses III , and by most writers 

 are considered of the same stock as the Turseni, Tyrrheni, Tursci, 

 or Etruscans. They were allies with the Libyans, and entered the 

 Fayoom with these in the Ramesside period from the Libyan terri- 

 tory to the west. Professor Krall accepts this identification, but 

 adds the cautious and just remark, that we have no positive knowl- 

 edge of the language spoken by these Libyan neighbors of Egypt at 

 the time mentioned. Of course, if they were the Tursha, and these 

 were the Etruscans, we should see our way much more clearly. 



CREMATION OF CHOLERA CORPSES. 



BT ALBERT S. ASHBIEAD, M.D., NEW TORK. 



Let me add a few words to the article of mine, entitled "Crema- 

 tion of Cholera Corpses," which you published Sept. 3. 



I said in the New York Tribune, Sept. 33,' that religious preju- 

 dices should not interfere with the enforced cremation of cholera 

 corpses. 



This is what Professor Stille writes to me about the subject: 

 "In regard to cremation, I have no doubt of its being the proper 

 way to dispose of the dead, and that it originated, as all sanitary 

 laws did, not in divine command, but in human wisdom derived 

 from experience. 



' ' If the Egyptians had possessed fuel, I have no doubt they 

 would have burned their dead, and that the Jews would have 

 followed them in this as in most of their sanitary laws, e.g., cir- 

 cumcision, unclean meats, etc. Of course, with Greeks, Romans, 

 and Christians the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead (most 

 distinct, of course, in the last) led to the preservation of inhuma- 

 tion. 



"There are many persons even now who believe in the literal 

 resurrection of the actual body, albeit they are at a loss to give a 

 reason for this popular belief. After all, I doubt if cremation of 

 the dead will become usual. Superstition will hinder it among 

 the ignorant, and tenderness among the refined." 



There are in the history of the treatment of infectious and con- 

 tagious diseases three periods. 



1. There was a barbarous period when every, let us say, leper, 

 was considered as outside of the pale of humanity, without any 

 right to the sympathy of his fellow-men, only not killed because 

 there is a law of the Decalogue against killing. The leper, as we 



1 To THE Editor of the Tribune : No more salutary measures have ever 

 been taken against the spreading of cholera than the burulDg of the cholera 

 corpses at Swinburne Island. It is evident that as long as the bacillus has 

 not been entirely destroyed it will live to flght again. However deep it may 

 be buried, at some time it will reach the surface again, get mixed with the 

 water we drinb , and cultivate itself in the human body. Why then should a 

 measure so necessary for our safety be limited to such uncared for bodies as 

 those who are found on vessels stationed at quarantine in the bay ? The 

 same danger threatens ua from the bodies of those who die in the city. There 

 is no use in saying that they will be burled in metallic coIBns. Metal may 

 keep the enemy in harmless seclusion for a longer time, but not forever. 

 Moreover, metal renders the process of putrefaction slower, and keeps the 

 bacillus which feeds on the corpse longer alive. There is probably no 

 difference in regard to the danger arising from buried germs, whether the 

 corpse be buried In wood or in Iron. Therefore, It is evidently a duty of a 

 board of health which cares truly for the public welfare to enforce cremation 

 of all cholera corpses in the city as well as on the ships. Religious prejudices 

 can really not interfere with that ; the body reduced to ashes can resuscitate 

 as well as the body burled, for it is clear that any corpse long before the gen- 

 eral resurrection of the dead will be reduced to a condition entirely similar to 

 that which cremation brings about. Or, It It Is only the routine of the ignnrant 

 that stands in the way, it Is the right and the duty of the educated and learned 

 to Impose by law and by force what Is necessary to the welfare of the whole 

 community. If we must bury our corpses, let us at least bury them In the 

 most rational way possible. Wood decays, Iron rusts or bursts, but earthen- 

 ware Jars are absolutely impermeable, and even Indestructible. These have 

 been used for more than a thousand years by the royalty and higher classes 

 of Japan, and as we are. Just now, teaching the Japanese so much, It Is only 

 fair that, when they are entirely In the right, and have given a great deal of 

 thought to the matter, they should teach ua something, too. They put Ver- 

 million with the cadsver ; we might use bichloride of mercury. 



have chosen him as the representative of this class of wretches, 

 was condemned to solitude, absolute isolation ; if he came by 

 chance within hail of any fortunate healthy brother or sister, he 

 had to ring a bell which he was obliged by law to always carry 

 about him, in order to let them know that somebody was ap- 

 proaching who had no right to approach his fellow-being, and 

 whose presence was an involuntary menace of death ! These men 

 were utter outcasts, enemies to be kept off as wild beasts are, 

 completely neglected; when they were found dead, their carcasses 

 were buried — that was the only duty which society performed in 

 their behalf. 



3. The second may be called the Mediaeval-Christian period. 

 Then something was done for them, in fact everything which 

 those dark centuries knew how to do. Misericordias were formed, 

 societies of St. Lazarus, etc. Asylums, hospitals were established. 

 Of course, the greatest service the men of that time thought that 

 they could render their unfortunate brethren was — prayers, the 

 ceremonies of religion. For the aetiology was — visitation of God, 

 punished sin, etc. In a time of epidemic the sanitary measures 

 consisted in holy processions with banners flying, crosses, candles, 

 holy- water; also relics, such as the seamless coat of Treves, a 

 thousand ugly images of the Virgin meeting the traveller at every 

 step. Have not we seen here in New York thousands kissing a 

 bone? 



3. The third period is the age of reason, the sanitary period, 

 when superstition, ignorance, and fanaticism must be kept in 

 check, brought to bay, utterly ignored, in every question of public 

 health. We know now what we have to do; there is no excuse 

 for not doing it. If, with the knowledge we have, we pander to 

 the ridiculous pretentions of those who stupidly try to keep up 

 the regime of the Middle Ages, we are simply criminal. 



SOME POINTS IN CHRONOLOGY. 



BY R. W. MCFARLAND. 



The diflBculties met with in chronology are best understood by 

 those who have given most attention to the subject. In ancient 

 times each nation was a law unto itself, touching the method of 

 counting time or registering great events. 



The Egyptians, several thousand years B.C., knew that the 

 year was very nearly 36oJ days. They, however, dropped the 

 fraction and retained only the whole number. It is said on good 

 authority that this error of one-quarter was allowed to remain, 

 so that by losing one-quarter of a day each year the seasons would 

 slide forward around the whole heavens in 1461 years. By this 

 slow motion of the seasons through the year, the festivals of the 

 gods in like manner would be celebrated in all the seasons, to 

 the end that all the gods should be honored equally and in exactly 

 the same way. 



The Roman calendar was amended by Julius Csesar, 46 years 

 B.C., with and by the aid of an Alexandrian astronomer. We use 

 what is substantially the Roman calendar. It would not be 

 proper in this place to enter into an explanation of the minutiae 

 of many points in doubt or in controversy. The immediate cause 

 of Caesar's reform was the vicious habit of the pontiffs in calling 

 out or proclaiming the beginning of the months in such a way as 

 to serve political ends or emergencies. Of course most people 

 who are conversant with the derivation of words know that the 

 word " calendar " is from the Latin calare, to call, or to proclaim. 

 As a consequence of the reformation by Coesar, the year 46 B.C. 

 was made to consist of 445 days, and is sometimes known as the 

 year of confusion. The year 45 B.C., the first of the reformed cal- 

 endar, coincided in the main with the year 708 of the city of 

 Rome. This is the Julian calendar which was followed in general 

 by the Latin Empire, and was naturally adopted by the various 

 nations after their incorporation into the Roman dominions. The 

 old Egyptian year of 365} days was merely transferred to a more 

 northern region, and into a far wider territory. It was not till 

 long after the conversion of the Emperor Constantine to Chris- 

 tianity in the year 320, viz., in the early part of the sixth cen- 

 tury, that the proposition was made to count the assumed date of 



