502 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIII. No. 334 



SCIENCE: 



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NEW YORK, June 28, iS 



No. 334. 



CONTENTS: 



A Good Record 



The Clark Electric Company's 



Apparatus 494 



The Ward Ram for War-Ships 496 



Sanitary Ceilings and Walls 497 



Notes and News 499 



Editorial S02 



River-Pollution in Connecticut. 

 Dr. H. Meyer on Stanley's Ex- 





The Lakes of the San Joaquin 

 Valley - 503 



The Camera Abroad 



Ellerslie Wallace 504 



Preparation and Properties of 

 Manganese 504 



Ethnology. 



Marriage Ceremonies of the Bilqula 505 



Health Matters. 



American Public Health Association 505 



Ice- Water 506 



The Mortality among Nurses 506 



Underground Water and B; 

 The Fly as a Disease-Carrier 



506 



Principles of the History of Lan- 

 guage 



Seraphita 



La Societe Frangaise 



Di-x-sep- 



507 



Among the Publishers 507 



Two YEARS AGO the Connecticut Legislature very commenda- 

 bly appropriated five thousand dollars, for the investigation of the 

 pollution of streams, intrusting the work to the State Board of 

 Health. The results of the investigations, carried on by Dr. S. W. 

 Williston, have shown the rapid and alarming increase of river- 

 contamination, a half-dozen of the rivers already being very greatly 

 or excessively polluted. The Naugatuck, for instance, — a stream 

 upon which are situated many of the large metal-manufactories of 

 the State, and with a summer-weather flow of about ten million 

 cubic feet at its mouth, — receives not less than twenty-five hun- 

 dred tons of manufactory refuse annually, in addition to the sewage 

 of about seventeen thousand people. At the last session of the 

 Legislature a like appropriation was intrusted to the Board of 

 Health for the investigation of the potable waters of the State, 

 which investigation will be carried on, under the direction of the 

 secretary, Dr. C. A. Lindsley, by Drs. H. E. Smith, T. G. Lee, and 

 S. W. Williston, of the Medical Department of Yale University, 

 and will include the monthly examination of potable waters, chem- 

 ically, bacteriologically, and microscopically, on essentially the same 

 plan as that so extensively and thoroughly pursued by Professors 

 Drown and Sedgwick for the Massachusetts Board of Health. 

 The results of the investigations cannot help but be valuable, as 

 hitherto scarcely any attention has been given to the subject in the 

 State, and many of the waters used for domestic purposes are at 

 times confessedly bad. 



DR. H. MEYER ON STANLEY'S EXPEDITION. 



Dr. H. Meyer, at a recent meeting of the Berlin Geographical 

 Society, delivered an interesting lecture on Stanley's expedition. 

 We learn from this experienced traveller that the region traversed 

 by Stanley was, up to this date, totally unknown. From his letter 

 the general outlines of its topography have become known. The 

 upper course of the Aruvimi is not the Nepoko, as Junker was in- 

 clined to think, but its source is in the Speke Mountains, north- 

 west of Lake Albert Nyanza, in which the source of the Welle- 

 Obangi is also situated. The length of the river is approximately 

 1,000 miles. Whether the Muta Nzige belongs to its system or 

 not, is doubtful. Stanley assumes that the latter belongs to the 

 Kongo basin, as the southern affluent of the Albert Nyanza, the 

 Semliki or Kakibi, is said not to come from the Muta Nzige, but to 

 rise in the mountains of Ruwenzori, which were discovered by 

 Stanley, and are described as a high snow-covered mountain about 

 fifty miles south of Lake Albert. It may be that it is the same as 

 the Gambaragara Mountains. If Stanley's observations, according 

 to which the level of the Muta Nzige is lower than that of the 

 Victoria Nyanza, be correct, it cannot belong to the system of that 

 lake. 



From the Kongo to the Albert Nyanza the country rises gradu- 

 ally, and attains an altitude of 5,200 feet close to the lake. There 

 is a sudden fall to the lake, which is 2,900 feet high ; and the high 

 range of mountains which is seen on the west side of the lake is 

 nothing else than the eastern slope of this plateau, Stanley found 

 the level of the Albert Nyanza considerably lower than at his first 

 visit, and expresses his opinion that this fact is a consequence of 

 the rapid erosion of the Nile at Wadelai, and the deepening of the 

 outlet of the lake. It is more probable that this lowering of the 

 lake-level is due to a change of climate, as all the lakes of Central 

 Africa show the same phenomenon. 



Stanley describes the whole region between the Kongo and the 

 Albert Nyanza as covered with an enormous forest 250,000 

 square miles in extent. This does not appear probable, as Stanley 

 travelled most of the time close to a great river, and met with open 

 country as soon as he left its course. On his former journeys he 

 has also concluded erroneously, from the appearance of the banks 

 of the Kongo, that the whole region is covered with dense forests,, 

 while it is to a great extent open land. 



A description of the vegetation of this country from so excellent 

 an observer as Dr. Junker, who reached the Nepoko coming from the 

 north in 1882, is of interest. He says, " Close to the river, on the 

 walls of its deep valley, and frequently beyond the upper edge of 

 the latter, dense forests are found. Scarcely a ray of the sun pene- 

 trates these dark masses of trees. The woods are sometimes as 

 wide as one or two miles. As every small river has a rim of such 

 forests, and the land is drained by a great number of brooks and 

 rivers, these forests, notwithstanding their narrowness, resemble 

 the extensive tropical woods "of South America." 



If we compare this description with Livingstone's, Grenfell's, Del- 

 commune's, Wissmann's, and other reports on the forests of Central 

 Africa, we will be safe in assuming, instead of Stanley's 25o,oo& 

 square miles of forest, about 25,000 square miles. 



The tribes inhabiting the region between the Kongo and Nepoko 

 construct conical huts. East of the Nepoko, Stanley found the 

 Mabode, who build square houses, and who were first described 

 by Junker. Farther east he met one hundred and fifty villages of 

 dwarfs, who are called Wambutti. He compares them to the 

 Tikki Tikki or Akka, who live a little farther north. Junker met 

 them among the Mabode on the Nepoko. They were called. 

 Achooa. 



Stanley's reports regarding the state of affairs in Emin's prov- 

 ince are very meagre. He confirms Emin's former report, that 

 there are fourteen stations which are garrisoned by two battalions 

 of regulars, who have 1,390 guns. Besides the regulars, Emin has 

 irregular soldiers, sailors, tradesmen, merchants, and servants, — 

 about 8,000 all told. Besides these, there are 1 0,000 women and 

 children. 



Evidently it is not the object of Stanley to take Emin home from 

 his province ; but, on the contrary, he intends to enable him to- 

 hold his own, and to enlarge his influence, by supplying him with 



