SCIENCE. 



FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1886. 



COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 

 Contagious pleuro-pneumonia has broken out 

 to such an extent in Illinois as to call for most 

 prompt and vigorous measures on the part of the 

 state authorities. This disease has prevailed in 

 this country to a greater or less extent among the 

 bovine species since 1845, when it was introduced 

 in Brooklyn from Holland. Kings county and the 

 city of Brooklyn have been hot-beds of this form 

 of cattle-plague from that time to the present. 

 The state authorities attempted some years ago to 

 eradicate it, but failed. The local health authori- 

 ties have also endeavored spasmodically to root it 

 out, but it still exists to a greater or less extent on 

 the western end of Long Island. We notice in 

 the daily press, that the owners of the distilleries 

 in the west who profit by the sale of swill to the 

 owners of the cows in the affected districts claim 

 that there is no danger from the milk of the 

 diseased cows, as they do not yield any. Tliis 

 claim is utterly without foundation. The milk 

 becomes reduced in quantity, but often continues 

 to be secreted throughout the attack. This effort 

 is made to delude the authorities and the public, 

 in the fear, that, if compelled to destroy such milk, 

 their revenue will be much reduced. The pro- 

 ducers of swill-milk need the closest watching. 

 Any one who will feed his stock upon such food 

 will not hesitate to palm off upon the public the 

 milk from the most diseased animals as being 

 ' pure Orange county milk,' The people of the 

 whole United States are affected by unwholesome 

 meat, which finds its way into the Chicago stock- 

 yards, and have a right to demand of the authori- 

 ties, municipal, state, and national, that every 

 precaution shall be taken to keep from the shambles 

 animals sick or suspected to be affected with any 

 disease which tends to produce sickness in the 

 consumers. Fortunately, there is little danger 

 from the milk for those at a distance, but the re- 

 frigerator-cars may bring to the door of every one 

 the meat of animals killed in the slaughter-houses 

 of Chicago. 



The supervisors of Kjngs county, N.Y., are 

 bearing the onus of the charge of interfering with 

 No. 191. — 188G. 



the proper care and recovery of the insane poor of 

 that county. Although a large sum of money has 

 been expended to purchase a farm at St. Johnland, 

 Long Island, with the object in view of removing 

 at the earliest possible moment the insane who 

 are now crowded in the Flatbush asylum, and 

 although every financial provision has been made 

 to erect cottages for their proper protection, stUl 

 this board neglects, week after week, and month 

 after month, to take such action as will make pos- 

 sible the attainment of this end so much to be 

 desired, and for which philanthropists have been 

 working for so many years. The general impres- 

 sion prevails that the supervisors are actuated by 

 motives which are, to say the least, very question- 

 able, and the press is calling the attention of the 

 grand jury to the matter. 



The notice that Hachette of Paris is issuing 

 a series of historical and archeological monographs 

 of French towns is important as showing the in- 

 creasing desire to make history something more 

 than a dreary record of rulers and wars, and to 

 make it tell the story of the people. In this series 

 the volumes on Blois, Tours, Rheims, Nimes, 

 Chartres, le Mans, Angers, Nantes, St. Malo, and 

 Dinard, are already published. In the records of 

 these towns and in their development are to be 

 learned valuable lessons, and much of by no 

 means antiquated social and political interest. In 

 centres like these the people's life was truly lived, 

 and it remains for the conscientious and industri- 

 ous historian to reveal it to us. In England, sim- 

 ilarly, the cathedral towns and the various shii-es 

 are receiving attention ; and American scholars 

 are describing our early town and village societies, 

 as well as tracing the development and adminis- 

 tration of our large cities. Thus history is made ; 

 and it is owing to the broader and clearer idea of 

 what history really means, which now prevails, 

 that students are turning in increasing numbers 

 to these important sources of information. 



Glanders is reported to exist among the 

 horses of Brooklyn and in a large stable at Coney 

 Island. It is believed to have been spread by 

 means of the watering-troughs, the affected animals 

 soiling the troughs with the discharge of the nos- 



