March 12, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



451 



despite the protests of responsible superintend- 

 ents and engineers. 



The methods of sewage disposal in use on the 

 Continent are discussed in a generally accurate, 

 though non-technical fashion. The Paris and 

 Berlin sewage farms are described in course. 

 The Geunevilliers irrigation fields in the 

 sandy peninsula opposite St. Denis are not, as 

 might perhaps be inferred from Mr. Shaw's 

 statement, directly controlled by the munici- 

 pality, but the individual occupants regulate 

 at will the amount of sewage turned into the 

 trenches. At Berlin the sewage farm system 

 has achieved its most brilliant success. A great 

 variety of crops is grown upon these farms; on 

 one farm roses are cultivated for the purpose of 

 manufacturing the perfume attar of roses. 



The housing of the working classes deservedly 

 receives a good deal of attention, particularly 

 in connection with the author's study of the 

 German cities, where the overcrowding is in 

 some cases almost incredible. In Breslau in 

 1885 no fewer than 150,000 people out of a 

 population of 287,000 lived in habitations con- 

 taining only one room that could be warmed. 

 In Berlin in 1890 the average number of in- 

 habitants in a dwelling house (Grundstiick) was 

 73 as against an average of 67 in 1885. The 

 point is taken, however, that the German mu. 

 nicipal authorities have the facts of the case 

 well in hand and are trying to remedy the evil. 



Our author notes here and there various in- 

 teresting facts relating to the general sanitary 

 oversight and organization in European towns. 

 The control of food supplies, the supervision of 

 abattoirs and the disinfection service all receive 

 merited attention. Where so much is included 

 it would be ungracious to remark the omission 

 of some interesting and important topics. 



The chapter on Hamburg and its Sanitary 

 Reforms takes careful note of the wave of reform 

 that has lately swept over the great port. The 

 dearly-bought lesson of the cholera outbreak of 

 1892-'93 has not been thrown away, and the 

 energetic administration of Dr. Dunbar and his 

 staff of expert assistants has not only made a 

 brilliant success of the attempt to purify the 

 Elbe water, but has also wrought great im- 

 provement in the general sanitary condition of 

 the city. The story is told by Mr. Shaw in his 



best vein. "We trust, however, that the follow- 

 ing statement: "In July, 1893, the imperial 

 health authorities at Berlin issued a warning 

 to the municipal governments of the country 

 not to supply their citizens with a drinking 

 water containing more than 100 cholera germs 

 to the cubic centimeter" (p. 398), will not be 

 taken as a literal transcript of the German 

 decree. Mr. Shaw should have been told that 

 all germs netted in the Elbe were not cholera 



^ ■ Edwin O. Jordan. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 TOREEY BOTANICAL CLUB, JANUARY 27, 1897. 



The scientific program was as follows : 



Dr. H. H. Rusby, ' Remarks on some Sola- 

 nacese.' 



Mr. A. A. Tyler, ' The Origin and Functions 

 of Stipules. ' 



Dr. J. K. Small, ' Aster gracilis NuttalL' 



Mr. George V. Nash, ' New and Noteworthy 

 American Grasses.' 



Dr. Rusby exhibited a number of Solanaceous 

 plants and remarked upon their relationships. 

 It was pointed out that the general appearance 

 and chemical and physiological characteristics 

 of these plants frequently fail to indicate their 

 structural affinities. Oestrum and Sessea, Atropa 

 and Datura were cited as illustrations of the 

 separation of otherwise naturally related groups 

 through their possession respectively of baccate 

 and capsular fruits. Nicotiana was referred to 

 as connecting those tribes having a radical 

 symmetry with the tribe Salpiglossidte, having a 

 bilateral symmetry and thus connecting the 

 family with the Labiales. The Androcera and 

 Andropeda sections of the genus Solanum were 

 instances of the appearance of this bilateral 

 symmetry in a widely separated part of the 

 family where radial symmetry is the otherwise 

 invariable rule. 



Dr. Britton discussed the subject and re- 

 marked upon this instance of development of 

 two divisions of a group along different lines, 

 in this case through baccate and capsular fruits. 

 He cited similar parallelisms in other families 

 tending to produce different resulting charac- 

 ters, as in Capparidacese, and remarked that an 

 indication of the lines along which these genera 



