180 Miscellanea. 
On tHE Repropucrion or Lives sarrER AMPUTATION IN THE 
Human Supsect. By Dr. Simpson. 
Dr. Simpson showed that the power of reproducing and repairing 
lost parts was greatest in the lowest classes of animals, and de- 
creased as we ascended higher and higher in the scale of animal life. 
He then pointed out that the human embryo approached in this, as 
in other respects, the physiological life and powers of the lower 
animals; and, consequently, when the arm or leg was amputated 
during embryonic existence, as not unfrequently happened from 
bands of coagulable lymph, and the results of disease, the stump 
structures reproduced a small rudimentary hand or foot—as the crab 
or lizard does. He showed various casts and drawings of cases of 
hands thus reproduced; and two living examples were exhibited.— 
Proceed. Brit. Assuciation, 6th August 1850. 
On THE GEOGRAPHICAL DistrRIBUTION OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 
AS INDICATEED BY NaturaAL PHEeNnomENA. By Mr. A, Kura 
JOHNSTON. 
StncE the time of Hippocrates a belief has existed that the 
development of the moral and physical faculties of man is dependent, 
not on original organization only, but also cn the atmosphere by 
which he is surrounded, and the nature of the soil on which he is 
reared; and modern researches in physical geography, combined 
with statistical investigations in medical science, have confirmed 
this opinion. Sweden furnished the first tables of mortality; since 
then England, France, Prussia, and the United States of America 
have each contributed systematic statistical returns; and thus a vast 
mass of material has been accumulated, from which valuable con- 
clusions may be deduced, especially since it is known that, during a 
similar series of years, the same diseases reappear with the most 
astonishing regularity, both as to periodicity and extent, and with 
reference to moral as well as physical causes. 
The charts exhibited showed that endemic fever, including remit- 
tent and intermittent fever, prevails in North America, the West 
India Islands, the west coast of Africa, Syria, South Italy, the 
Tonian Islands, and in general in the low marshy districts of warm 
countries. Yellow fever is endemic in North America and the West 
India Islands, between latitude 5° and 40° N., its northern limit in 
Europe being the latitude of Gibraltar. Diseases of the digestive 
organs are most prevalent in India, West and East Africa, the Cape 
of Good Hope, England, Guiana, &c. Disease of the liver greatly 
predominates in the East Indies; while consumption is most con- 
spicuous in Great Britain, Newfoundland, Canada, and Jamaica. 
