632 



sciEJsrcE. 



[Vol. VIII., No. 204 



As far as I am aware, this simple method is not 

 generally known or thought of ; nevertheless I am 

 inclined to the belief that it would become easy to 

 most jaersons after a little j^ractice, and it is certain- 

 ly very convenient, and greatlj' enhances the pleas- 

 ure of viewing the many fine engravings almost 

 everywhere to be seen. W. H. Pbatt. 



Davenport, lo., Dec. 14. 



Lavrs against quacks, 



I notice in your notes on the laM's regulating the 

 practice of medicine and surgery an omission to call 

 attention to the fact that a bill (senate, 485) passed 

 the senate last year, and would have jjassed the as- 

 sembly but for the late date of its introduction, 

 whereby it failed to be reached on the calendar. 

 That bill embodied the jooints of agreement of those 

 practitioners of medicine who have a legal status. It 

 was based iipon the bills introduced by the Medical 

 society of the state of New York, so far as they were 

 not concerned with the formation of a board of medi- 

 cal examiners. The State homoeopathic society has 

 directed its legislative committee to favor this bill if 

 again introdticed, as it i^robably will be. I do not 

 think that either of the judges you name would con- 

 sider the construction of the registration law adojjted 

 by the Medical society of the county of New York 

 as absurd ; nor would they differ in ojDinion from 

 the judges before whom that construction has been 

 maintained. 



You will admit, I think, — as frankly as you ad- 

 mitted that the society was justified in the prosecu- 

 tion that elicited 3'our comments, — that it is reason- 

 able to require registration of every physician in a 

 county who regularly practises or resides therein. 

 No registered ijhysician has been prosecuted for a 

 consultation or occasional act of jiractice in a county 

 wherein he was not registered. But the bill in question 

 specifically meets your criticism, and, if introduced 

 again, will be made even clearer on this point There 

 is an oiDportunity at the next session of the legislature 

 to codify the various acts restricting medical practice 

 into a simple statute, and fair criticism of the bill in 

 question will materially aid the purging of the statute- 

 book of the present clumsy enactments. 



W. A. PUEEINGTON. 



New York, Dec. 21. 



The Panama canal. 



The article with the above title, from the pen of 

 M. de Lesseps, copied by you in Dec. 3 issue from 

 The Scottish geographical magazine for November, 

 contaiDS some errors both of fact and of iufereuce. 



Commercially the needs for and uses of the canal 

 are misstated and overe.«timated. Trade must follow 

 certain routes, governed by the earth's form and 

 dimensions, and by the winds that blow or do not 

 blow. For fear of the calm belt in Gulf of Mexico, 

 the captain of a big ship, loaded with guano or ni- 

 trate of soda, would rather face the gales ofE Cape 

 Horn Because of the 'trades,' sailing ships from 

 India and Australia would still go home via Cape of 

 Good Hope. I have yet to meet a captain who 

 would not elect Cape of Good Hope rather than 

 Panama if loaded at a port even as far oast as Pbil- 

 ippines. A sailing-ship bound from San Francisco to 

 Liverpool would think twice before she paid any thin^ 

 to be put into the calms in land-locked water off 



Colon. Many captains have told me they would go 

 on around the Cape Horn. Many cargoes are put on 

 to sailing-ships, because they will be longer at sea 

 than if sent per steam. It is no uncommon thing 

 that a sailing-ship gets the same, and even more, 

 freight than a steamer, because of the exigencies of 

 the shipper or the condition of the market for mer- 

 chandise. Hence the assumption that any of his 

 '2' (p. 519), or that all of ' 1 ' or '3,' would seek 

 Panama, is unfounded. A fair estimate, grant- 

 ing the correctness of his figures, would throw 

 out '2,' and halve '1' and '3,' and leave, say, 

 rising 2,000,000 tons per annum. In the table 

 of distances, same page, London to Sydney, Havre 

 to Sydney, he conveniently forgets that that 

 trafiSc would use Suez rather than Panama. I fancy 

 it is not generally known that the entire traffic of 

 Suez is steam. There has never been an American 

 merchantman through Suez, nor a sailing-ship of any 

 nationality. The few sailers that have passed 

 through were towed not only through Suez, but the 

 entire distance to and from port of departure (Bom- 

 bay) and destination (Malta). Practically the entire 

 traffic on Suez is steam 



But M. de Lesseps does not refer to the most im- 

 portant factor in the problem. The evolution of the 

 marine engine is still progressing. Steamers of mod- 

 erate size and speed already approximate the ex- 

 penses of sailers, not counting the further saving in 

 interest on plant by reason of more frequent ' turns ;' 

 i.e., though a steamer may cost more than sailer, the 

 former makes more voyages in a year, i.e., earns 

 more freights. Before the Panama canal is finished, 

 I doubt not such progress will have been made in 

 compounding engines and in expansion of steam, 

 that few new sailers will thereafter be built. The 

 carrying-trade of the world will be done by steam- 

 ers, just as the passenger trade has passed into their 

 hands. Soon, as nations reckon life, sail will be 

 limited to cruising for pleasure, fish or whale, or sci- 

 entific research : even these will have steam power to 

 go and come to place of resort. This change might and 

 probably would throw the traffic of west coast 

 America with east coast America and Europe into 

 Panama canal ; but Australia and India with Europe 

 and America, never. Frank Goodwin. 



Framingham, Mass., Dec. 13. 



What was the rose of Sharon ? 



In Science for May 14 (vii. No. 171) is an article 

 headed 'What was the rose of Sharon?' Though 

 not familiar with either former or recent discussions 

 of the question, I am interested in recalling an ob- 

 servation of my own while riding over the plain of 

 Sharon on the road from Jaffa to Ramleh. It was 

 about the middle of the afternoon, Feb. 18, 1859. 

 The dark soil was for a considerable distance half 

 covered with broad patches of bright red flowers. 

 ' Roses of Sharon ! ' some one exclaimed. I forget 

 whether it was the United States consul from Beirut 

 or some one else of our party. As my impression 

 now is, several persons who were likely to know con- 

 curred in saying that these flowers were commonly 

 so called in that region. The flower which I gathered 

 aad pressed was afterwards identified by an Ameri- 

 can scholar as Anemone corouaria of Sibthorp's 

 ' Flora Graeca.' The color of the dried petals is now 

 a dark maroon. Fisk P. Brewer. 



Griunell, lo., Dec. 18. 



