March 22, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



215 



low, and others. Salicylic acid and its salts are prohibited, as are 

 also boracic acid and borax, glycerine, and alum. A list of harm- 

 less coloring-matters is given. The pamphlet also contains a list of 

 periodicals, official reports, and general and monograph volumes of 

 the greatest importance in connection with the detection of adul- 

 teration of food and drugs. This bibliography is exceedingly valua- 

 ble, and, we should judge, very complete. 



The Surgeon-General and the National Board of 

 Health. — The " Annual Report of the Supervising Surgeon- 

 General of the Marine Hospital Service of the United States for the 

 Fiscal Year 1888," has just been published. It contains the cus- 

 tomary statistics of this branch of the national service, and, in addi- 

 tion, a considerable amount of interesting matter in reference to 

 the recent epidemic of yellow-fever in Florida, with photographic 

 illustrations of the camps of refuge, and a map of Jacksonville 

 showing the streets and sewers. It is much to be regretted that 

 the supervising surgeon-general should, in an official report, have 

 attacked the National Board of Health, and the excellent work 

 which it did during the days when it had the power and the means. 

 He charges Dr. Bowditch of Boston with " special pleading for a 

 pet object," when, in September last, he expressed in a public letter 

 the wish that a new birth might be granted to the national board 

 with greater powers. The supervising surgeon-general speaks of 

 this letter as being " ingeniously constructed," and further says that 

 unfortunately the facts do not bear out the statements therein con- 

 tained. If men of the standing and reputation of Dr. Bowditch 

 can be thus attacked in governmental reports, we shall wish that 

 some censorship may be established to which these reports shall 

 be submitted before they are permitted to go forth with the official 

 sanction. 



Temperance Instruction in Public Schools. — The re- 

 port of the Department of Scientific Temperance Instruction in 

 Public Schools for the year 1888 shows that twelve million children 

 in this country are now under compulsory temperance education 

 laws ; that is to say, that the law has provided the education in 

 favor of total abstinence that results from learning the nature and 

 effects of alcoholic drinks and narcotics. This report further shows 

 that there is no New England State without such a law ; New 

 Jersey is the only Middle State that has not enacted such a law ; 

 ten Southern and two Western States are still unprovided in that 

 regard. The Act of Congress of 1886 brought all the Territories 

 under the law. Those interested in this subject will find reports 

 from the different sections of the country of the work done, and the 

 difficulties to be met and overcome in States in which as yet com- 

 pulsory laws have not been enacted. 



Diphtheria and Sanitation. — If the reports which the 

 newspapers publish in reference to the sanitary condition of Gallit- 

 zin, Penn., are true, it is not a matter of surprise that diphtheria, 

 once introduced, should prevail in epidemic form. In a population 

 of only two thousand people, one hundred deaths from this disease 

 are said to have occurred since November. The disease is attrib- 

 uted to the disregard of the common rules of sanitation. The town 

 has no water-supply. The outhouses and wells stand close together, 

 and, since the McCoy mines have been opened, over half the wells 

 in the town have gone dry. The inhabitants have used water from 

 the few remaining wells that have become impure. Fortunately 

 there is an excellent State board of health in Pennsylvania, which 

 will at once take the matter in hand. 



ETHNOLOGY. 



The Blackfoot Sun-Dance. 



Much has been said regarding the barbarous dances of the 

 Blackfeet and their neighbors, but the majority of reports have been 

 made on hearsay. Therefore an authentic description of the cere- 

 monies by an eye-witness, who is, moreover, thoroughly conversant 

 with the native language, must be highly welcome to students of 

 primitive man. The Rev. Dr. John McLean has presented such 

 a description to the Canadian Institute of Toronto. It is one of 

 the important results of the establishment by the British Associa- 

 tion, of a committee for the study of the Indians of the Canadian 



North-west, that missionaries begin to improve their opportunities 

 of observing native customs, and of making available their studies 

 of native languages. 



The sun-dance is celebrated every summer. Last summer, when 

 Dr. McLean visited the Blood Indian camp, he found the sun-lodge 

 erected. There were by actual count one hundred and ninety- 

 eight lodges, comprising about two thousand souls. An old man 

 was riding through the camp, calling upon the people to attend the 

 ceremonies. In a lodge near at hand, a medicine-man was deco- 

 rating the persons who were to undergo the rite of torture. In 

 arranging their head-dress, before putting it on, he passed his 

 hand around it four times, praying. In the sun-lodge the sacred 

 fire was burning, and this was used by the people for lighting their 

 pipes. No child or woman was allowed to supply the fuel ; but 

 young men who had performed some valorous deed, especially the 

 stealing of horses from a hostile tribe, felt it to be an honor to at- 

 tend to this duty ; and none but the brave are qualified for this 

 work. On the sacred pole were placed, in the form of a cross, two 

 bundles of small brushwood taken from the birch-tree. The pole 

 was decorated with sacrifices to the sun of clothing and various 

 kinds of Indian goods. The cross evidently refers to the four 

 winds, from its four points, as does the number 4, which is re- 

 garded as the sacred number. In the bower made of light brush- 

 wood sat a woman who gave the festival that year, her husband, 

 and a medicine-man. These persons were fasting and praying; 

 and, during the full term of the continuance of the ceremonies, very 

 little food was partaken of. In the mornings they were allowed a 

 short smoke and a little water ; and in the evenings a few of their 

 friends brought a small quantity of food hidden under their blan- 

 kets, and, without exposing it to view, it was eaten in silence. The 

 medicine-man had a crown of leaves upon his head. His body was 

 painted, and without any clothing, save a long strip around his 

 loins. At short intervals he arose and danced, keeping time to the 

 motions of his body with a small bone whistle, which he blew upon 

 incessantly, producing a series of monotonous sounds. In the 

 evening the woman prayed to the sun for good health for the peo- 

 ple, protection in danger, good crops, and a bountiful harvest of 

 wild fruits. The virgins came in the evening, and prayed for a 

 long time for blessings from the sun. During the day the ceremo- 

 nies consisted of dramatic representations of heroic adventures by 

 single individuals, and contests with the Crow and Sioux Indians 

 by war-parties. One chief borrowed several guns from his friends, 

 and a large number of Indian war-implements and native trinkets. 

 Stepping forward that all the people might see him, amid profound 

 silence, he addressed the assemblage. Holding a gun aloft, he 

 told how, in a contest with an enemy, he had slain him and taken 

 his gun. The band of musicians beat on their tomtoms in token 

 of applause. Each article that he had represented his various vic- 

 tories, and each had its separate story, which was narrated at first, 

 and the same routine gone through. When he had finished, the 

 whole assemblage joined the musicians in applauding the speaker. 

 Many warriors during the day related their brave deeds in the same 

 manner. 



Sham-fights were engaged in, which were representations of ac- 

 tual battles. Five or six warriors appeared as Crow Indians, and 

 the same or a less number were the Blood Indian warriors. A sin- 

 gle horse represented that they had been on horseback, and this 

 was decked in its war-paint. One of the men, the hero of the battle, 

 acted as instructor of the ceremonies to the others. Four times 

 they entered the lodge, and then the fight began. They fired their 

 guns over the heads of the people ; the Crow Indians fell one by 

 one ; and when they had been scalped, amid the laughter and ap- 

 plause of the audience, the scene was at an end. Berries cooked 

 in fat were brought in by the women in pails and pots ; and for a 

 short time eating, smoking, and conversation were the duties of the 

 hour. Occasionally some old lady would call out the name of a 

 young man, and declare his noble qualities before the people ; and 

 another would urge the young men to emulate the heroic deeds of 

 their fathers, and go to war. 



Presents of bracelets, finger-rings, and ear-rings were made to 

 some of the women. The chief warrior carried in his hand the sa- 

 cred pipe, which he first held aloft with the stem toward the sun, that 

 he might have the first-fruits of every thing ; and still holding it. 



