402 



SCIJEN^CE. 



[Vol. VIII., No, 196 



with tuberculosis, the tubercles in the liver con- 

 taining the characteristic bacilli of the disease. 

 Upon inquiry, it was found that the expectora- 

 tion of the consumptive person had been eaten by 

 the fowl. From the history given of the other 

 fowls, it is probable that they died from the same 

 affection. It has for some time been recognized 

 that the milk of tubercular animals could convey 

 this disease to man ; and, if the explanation just 

 given is a true one, a new source of danger, 

 hitherto unsuspected, exists. T-hat such a method 

 of communication is probable cannot be denied, 

 and should direct the attention of both physicians 

 and patients to the absolute necessity of the dis- 

 infection of the sputa of consumptives. 



The recent death of a lady in a Brooklyn 

 dentist's chair has already been reported in Science. 

 The coroner's jury, after an investigation, exon- 

 erated the dentist and his assistants. The lady, it 

 appears, had called to have a tooth extracted, and 

 the anaesthetic employed was the bromide of 

 ethyl. The patient became conscious after the 

 anaesthetization,but suddenly became unconscious, 

 and in half an hour was dead. The dentist testi- 

 fied that he had employed the bromide at least 

 once a day for nine months without previous 

 injurious result. The jury recommended that in 

 all doubtful cases patients should be thoroughly 

 examined by a competent medical man before the 

 administration of an anaesthetic for dental opera- 

 tion. Even this precaution will not always prevent 

 disastrous results, for numerous cases of death 

 after anaesthesia are recorded where a physical 

 examination revealed no organic disease. It 

 would perhaps be the best advice to give, that, 

 when so trifling a pain is to be borne as is caused 

 by the extraction of a tooth, persons should bear 

 it without an anaesthetic rather than run any 

 risk, no matter how trivial it may seem to be. 



ALLEGED EARLY CHINESE VOYAGES TO 

 AMERICA. 



Much interest was excited in the Societe de 

 geographie at Paris by a paper by Dr. Hamy on 

 ' The interpretation of one of the monuments at 

 Copan, Honduras.' This is a stone in the form of 

 a deep convex pie, with a round hoUow or cup in 

 the centre of the dome, from each side of which 

 a curved line extends to the margin, which is sur- 

 rounded by a border much like that put on pies 

 by pastry-cooks. The two curved lines form a 



sort of S-shaped figure. The whole stone is about 

 a yard and a half in diameter, and its depth about 

 a yard. The two curves are interpreted by Hamy 

 as the sign Ta6-Kai of the Chinese, which is 

 venerated by them as symbolic of the essence of 

 all things. Intercourse with China was inferred 

 by Hamy from this sign, corroborated for him 

 by the old story of Fu-sang, first broached by 

 De Guignes in the last century, and by the papers 

 of the late Charles Walcott Brooks on ' Japanese 

 wrecks on the north Pacific coast of America.' 



The, paper was discussed by Quatrefages, de 

 Charencey, Villemereuil, and others, the general 

 tendency being to accept the idea of intercourse 

 between China, Japan, and America at an early 

 date, especially as Brooks stated that wrecked 

 Japanese were able to communicate with the 

 Aleutian Islanders without an interpreter. 



We believe that the very wide hypothesis thus 

 broached, and which in one form or another has 

 had a certain currency for more than a century, 

 rests upon a totally insufficient foundation. That 

 wrecked Japanese, and possibly Chinese, from 

 time to time were cast on the shores of America, 

 is beyond question. The matter has been well 

 discussed by Horace Davis, and to his paper 

 Brooks is indebted for many of his facts. David- 

 son and others have also drawn attention to the 

 subject. But there is every reason to believe 

 that the wrecked people were, 1", nearly always 

 males, and incapable of colonizing ; 2°, were 

 either killed or enslaved by the Americans in ac- 

 cordance with a general usage; and, 3°, that neither 

 in arts nor language have they left any apprecia- 

 ble trace on American anthropology. The state- 

 ment of Brooks, that the Japanese and Aleuts 

 could communicate without an interpreter, is 

 true to this extent. I was present when the 

 aforesaid Japanese, three males, were brought to 

 the port of Unalashka, and took pains to inquire 

 into the assertion which was made to me at the 

 time. I found that the communications were 

 wholly by signs, and not by spoken language, as 

 the Aleuts could not understand a word of Japan- 

 ese without its accompanying signs. Second,. 

 Brooks, who was long consul in Japan, informed, 

 me that he had particularly searched into the mat- 

 ter of the voyage to Fu-sang, and that he had 

 conclusive evidence that the voyage which actual- 

 ly took place was to the well-known and still 

 existing province of Fu-sang in Korea (see Griffis* 

 work), and had no connection whatever with 

 America. Last, the mere presence of two simple 

 curved lines on a circular stone, taken by itself, 

 proves nothing as to their meaning, and still less 

 that they had any connection with the Chinese 

 symbol. 



