SCIENCE. 



FRIDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1886. 



COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 



A GOSSIPY WRITER in the Nineteenth century 

 magazine has given us an interesting article on 

 what girls read. He refers, of course, to English 

 girls, but most of his data and all of his conclu- 

 sions suit our young women quite as well as their 

 British cousins. He shows that authors for girls 

 have been developed, and form quite as distinct a 

 class as Reid, Verne, Hughes, and others who 

 write primarily for boys. Among this class he 

 enumerates Mesdames Alcott, Dodge, Marshall, 

 Banks. Browne, Beale, Symington, Owen, Sewell, 

 Wetherell, Holmes, Meade, and Yonge. To Miss 

 Alcott the writer himself awards first plade, and 

 speaks very highly of her books. He finds that 

 an unnatural tone pervades much, if not all, of 

 the current literatui-e for girls, and says its teach- 

 ing may be summed ujj thus : " If you are wicked, 

 you must reform ; and when you have reformed, 

 you will die." Good biographies, he continues, 

 form the best reading for girls, for " fiction should 

 lend relief to girl-life, biography should impart 

 high-principle and poetry grace." Some interest- 

 ing statistics are appended to the article, being 

 made up from answers by one thousand girls be- 

 tween the ages of eleven and nineteen. 



The answers to the two questions, ' Who is your 

 favorite author?' and 'Who is your favorite 

 writer of fiction ? ' are added, together with the fol- 

 lowing resultjthose names receiving fewer than five 

 votes being omitted : Dickens receives 330 votes 

 Scott, 226 ; Charles Kingsley, 91 ; Charlotte M 

 Yonge, 91 ; Shakspeare, 73 ; E. Wetherell, 54 

 George Eliot, 41 ; Lord Lytton, 41 ; Longfellow, 31 

 A. L. O. E., 30 ; Canon Farrar, 22 ; Thackeray 

 18 ; Verne, 16 ; Macaulay, 13 ; Miss Alcott, 12 

 Mrs. Stowe, 11 ; Tennyson, 9 ; Carlyle, 6 ; Ruskin, 

 6 ; Charlotte Bronte, 5. The above, being the vote 

 received by the principal authors, is curious in 

 several respects. First, it is odd that authors 

 whose works are classic should so far outstrip 

 those who appeal especially to a girl audience. 

 This may be explained either by saying that the 

 girls put down names of authors whose works 



No. 195. — ISSG. 



they knew they should read rather than those 

 whose works they actually do read ; or it may be 

 that the parents and teachers generally recom- 

 mend such authors as Dickens and Scott, and that 

 their advice is more generally followed than is 

 usually believed. Again, it is curious to see 

 Longfellow so far ahead of Tennyson, Carlyle, and 

 Macaulay, in a list made up by English girls. 



The question has often been asked, For 

 what purpose were mosquitoes created? Dr. 

 Finlay of Havana seems to have answered the 

 question, in part at least, by announcing that the 

 mosquito is one of the active agents in the spread 

 of yellow-fever. The doctor's theory is, that the 

 sting of the insect, after penetrating the skin of 

 a yellow-fever patient, retains on its exterior the 

 germs of the disease, which may thus be con- 

 veyed to the next person it attacks. As a result 

 of his study, he finds that every mosquito that 

 stings may be considered a fecundated female, 

 and will probably deposit its eggs within a few 

 days after its bite, provided it can find water in 

 which to deposit them. The young mosquito 

 will be developed in about three weeks. As the 

 eggs are deposited in the locality where the female 

 stung its victim, the young would also be pro- 

 duced there, and, finding the yellow-fever patient 

 near by, would sting him, become infected, and 

 carry the germs to other human beings. Dr. 

 Finlay believes that yellow-fever is not trans- 

 mitted through the air nor by contact, but by 

 inoculation, largely by means of the mosquito. 

 He regards the disease as incapable of propagation 

 wherever tropical mosquitoes do not or are not 

 likely to exist ; ceasing to be epidemic at the 

 same limits of temperature and altitude which 

 are incompatible with the functional activity of 

 the insect, and spreading wherever the mosquito 

 abounds Dr. Finlay reports, as confirming his 

 views, that in the summer of 1885 mosquitoes 

 were scarce in Havana, but were very numerous 

 in the autumn, and that, although the summer was 

 unusually hot, yellow-fever cases were few in 

 number, but in October and November increased 

 considerably. The subject which has been thus 

 brought to the attention of medical men and sani- 

 tarians is one which, it would seem, admits of 



