178 



SCIJ^J^CJE. 



[Vol. VIII , No. 186 



excluded, disinfected, or admitted according to the 

 discretion of the local health officer. A great deal 

 of unwarranted hostile criticism has been indulged 

 in with reference to rag-disinfection in the port of 

 New York. At a time when an epidemic of 

 cholera was imminent, the health officer of that 

 port consulted with the health officials of the 

 neighboring cities, and of the state, and the action 

 which he took in reference to the disinfection of 

 rags was based upon that conference, and has re- 

 ceived the endorsement of the sanitary authorities 

 of the country. While New York has from the 

 very first b^en vigilant, other cities have been 

 careless and negligent ; and that contagious dis- 

 ease has not been introduced by means of infected 

 rags, is due to good luck rather than to good 

 management. That there should be some federal 

 control of such matters goes without saying, for, 

 while state rights are to be respected, there is such 

 a thing as carrying that principle too far. The 

 right to permit contagion to enter and ravage the 

 country, because a quarantine would be expensive, 

 is not a right which any state can claim as guaran- 

 teed it by the constitution. If the general govern- 

 ment can restrict the sale of oleomargarine, it can 

 certainly be no great stretch of its powers to adopt 

 :such general measures as will apply to all its ports 

 of entry, by which commerce and the public 

 health are at the same time protected. 



Dr. Harrington, of Boston, has recently had 

 under his care four patients suffering from 

 chromium poisoning. The iirst case was that of 

 a cap-maker, who, after handling and cutting a 

 large quantity of dark-blue cloth for the manu- 

 facture of military caps, began to suffer from an 

 intolerable itcliing of the hands, face, neck, and 

 scalp, which was followed by ulceration, causing 

 running sores. The symptoms disappeared after 

 she ceased work upon this cloth, and returned 

 when she renewed her work upon it. The second 

 case was that of a clergyman, who was similarly 

 affected after wearing a pair of brown woollen 

 gloves. The other cases were young children, 

 who had, previous to the appearance of the first 

 symptoms, put on for the first time new suits of 

 brown woollen clothes. An analysis of the goods 

 in all the four instances revealed chromium. The 

 chromium mordants are now being extensively 

 employed in dyeing, much more so than former- 

 ly, and the range of colors produced by their aid 

 is very great, including brown, brownish red, claret 



red, olive, yellow, old gold, purj^le, blue, black, buff, 

 and gray. Dr. Harrington, at the conclusion of 

 his paper describing these cases, read before the 

 Massachusetts medical society, says that it is yet 

 to be determined whether in these cases the com- 

 pounds formed by the mordant and the dye-stuffs 

 are in themselves the active poison, or are decom- 

 posed by the secretions of the body, with libera- 

 tion of simple chrome coinpounds. 



THE BUFFALO MEETING. 



The least that can be said of the meeting of the 

 American association for the advancement of 

 science which has just closed, is that it was thor- 

 oughly enjoyable. The arrangements made by the 

 local committee for the entertainment of the asso- 

 ciation were admirably adapted to proinote the ob- 

 jects of the meeting. The simple habits of the 

 members led them to welcome I'ather than to re- 

 gret the absence of official festivities dn a large 

 scale, but prepared them to enjoy the hospitalities 

 tendered by leading citizens and organizations, 

 which were noteworthy both for their ample scale 

 and their unostentatious simplicity. On the ex- 

 cursions to Grand Island and to Niagara, every 

 opportunity for pleasure and profit was afforded 

 without in any way troubling the members by de- 

 tailed programmes or burdensome attentions. 



The smallness of the meeting was its only dis- 

 appointing feature. The beautiful summer climate 

 of Buffalo, its central position between the east 

 and the west, and the prospect of a visit to one of 

 the grandest a nd most interesting of natural phe- 

 nomena, just freed from the onerous exactions 

 which such a visit used to entail, would, it was ex- 

 pected, attract one of the largest assemblages of 

 members that had yet been witnessed. Yet, not 

 one-fourth of the membership was found at the 

 meeting. The paucity of southern members was 

 especially noteworthy. One great purpose of the 

 organization is to bring into contact the intellec- 

 tual element of the north and the south as well as 

 of the east and the west, and the association can 

 render no more worthy service than that of pro- 

 moting education as well as research in every 

 quarter of our land. It is much to be desired that 

 workers and educators in the south should point 

 out to their colleagues in the north how that stim- 

 ulus of personal contact, sympathy, and atten- 

 tion, so necessary to the fulness of intellectual de- 

 velopment, can best be secured to their section. 



The scientific outcome of the meeting is, on the 



