220 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 110. 



ture there is also some doubt. Some au- 

 thorities hold that a high degree of humid- 

 ity is necessary for the epidemic extension 

 of the plague, while others maintain the op- 

 posite view. Certainly the occurrence of 

 many outbreaks at high altitudes in Kur- 

 distan, Arabia, China and India makes it 

 clear that a moist atmosphere is not always 

 an essential in the spread of the epidemic. 

 The present outbreak in India, coming at a 

 time when medical men in that country and 

 all over the world are thoroughly alive to 

 the importance of studying the climatic re- 

 lations of the disease, will undoubtedly re- 

 sult in giving us much additional informa- 

 tion in this connection. The occurrence of 

 this outbreak in India at a time of famine 

 recalls the fact that the plague 1815-21 

 Broke out in the island of Cutch in a dis- 

 trict where there had been a famine a short 

 time before. 



CHINOOK WINDS IN THE NORTHWEST. 



The conditions under which chinook 

 winds occur in the Northwestern States is 

 well illustrated on the Portland, Ore., 

 weather map for December 3d, last. At 5 

 a. m., Pacific time, on that day an area of 

 low pressure was central over the ocean 

 northwest of Washington, extending over 

 British Columbia and northern Washing- 

 ton, while an anticyclone was central near 

 Salt Lake City. This distribution of pres- 

 sure naturally resulted in a flow of air from 

 the south and southwest over the States of 

 Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. 

 The temperatures were from 46° to 50° 

 west of the Cascade mountains, and from 

 24° to 32° east of them. The effect of the 

 mountain ranges in causing an adiabatic 

 warming of the descending air is well shown 

 in the course of the isotherms of 40° and 

 60°, which run north and south parallel 

 with the mountains in Washington and 

 Oregon, and in the direction of the 30° 

 isotherm, which turns eastward across 



northern Idaho, running south of Helena, 

 Mont., where the wind was south and came 

 across the Rockies, and then turning north- 

 ward east of Havre. Our chinook winds 

 are similar to the well-known foehn winds 

 of Switzerland. In both cases they appear 

 as warm and dry winds, blowing down from 

 mountain ranges, and when they occur in 

 winter have the habit of rapidly evapora- 

 ting the snow which may be on the ground 

 at the time. In Switzerland this habit has 

 gained for the foehn the characteristic name 

 of Schneefresser. In the United States the 

 snow-eating quality of the chinook is well 

 known, and is an extremely important fac- 

 tor in clearing away the snow blockades on 

 railroads and in removing the snow from 

 the stock ranges. 



R. DeC. Ward. 

 Hakvaed Univeesity. 



CUBBENT NOTES ON ANTHBOPOLOGY. 

 ETHNOLOGIC MEDICINE. 



The principles of the general develop- 

 ment of the arts applied to medicine is the 

 subject of an article by Dr. J. H. McCor- 

 mick inthe^??ierica?i Antiquarian tov AxigxiBt 

 last. He points out that in many tribes, 

 geographically remote, at the same stage of 

 culture, similar ideas and methods in refer- 

 ence to the practice of medicine and the 

 power of drugs prevailed. Magical formu- 

 las were adopted for the cure of disease, 

 and mysterious and eccentric remedies were 

 in vogue, all quite analogous in like stages 

 of culture everywhere. The conjurations 

 of the ancient Egyptians, mutatis mutandis, 

 would pass for those of the Cherokees or 

 Nahuas. 



The author draws the just inference that 

 those who assert that such similarities are 

 evidences of historic unity, and that they 

 should be explained by some ancient com- 

 munity of culture, do not correctly appre- 

 hend modern psychology. This teaches, as 

 its basic principle, that like conditions lead 



