A MIDSUMMER HEAT IN MAY. 043 



tributed over Paris. The iDinneipal object of the inquiries will obviously 

 be the investigation of the relations between the general state of the pub- 

 lic health and the impurities found in the atmosphere and in drinking wa- 

 ter. The epidemic of typhoid fever which prevailed in Paris last autumn 

 furnished the occasion for some preliminary researches of this kind, which 

 M. Marie Davj^has described to the Paris Academy. The experiments were 

 chiefly made at the Price Eugene Barracks, Avhich the war authorities had 

 caused to be evacuated for disinfection. The water of an artificial dew got. 

 into the infirmary, which was inhabited several days before, was found very- 

 pure; but on scratching the floor of this infirmary, and of the rooms at. 

 difl"erent heights, a dark powder was detected, which, on being brought into 

 water, showed a multitude of thread-like vibriones, having a slow, undula- 

 tory movement, and vibrating points which were rapidly displaced. The- 

 window sills of certain halls, particularly, gave an abundance of microsco- 

 pic alg83, vibriones, bacteria, and monads. It is clear that when the troops- 

 were in the building these powders, raised by the tramping of feet and 

 other causes, must have got mixed with the air that was breathed, and with, 

 the food and the drink. The ground of certain quarters of Paris contain- 

 them also, but in less quantities; but no trace of them is found in the sub- 

 soil, and the rooms of the Montsouris Observatory are also exempt. M.. 

 Marie attributes the epidemic in question to such living powders accumu- 

 lated during summer on the ground and walls, and producing their morbid 

 effects when the change of season rendered the conditions favorable. — Bos- 

 ton Journal of Chemistry. 



A MIDSUMMER HEAT IN MAY. 



For the past few days we have been experiencing a remarkable temper- 

 ature for May. From a gradual and natural thermometric rise, which con- 

 tinued until the 9th, a sudden fall of temperature occurred, which brouo-ht 

 back memories of Avinter and caused many to anticipate a rather late 

 spring. On the 10th and 11th the thermometer at JNew York where ex- 

 posed in the afternoon to the air in free circulation, recorded only fifty-two 

 degrees. At the same time of day on the 12th it rose to fifty-seven, and on 

 the 13th to sixty-five degrees. But during these days it was noticed that a 

 remarkable rise of temperature was taking place in the ISTorthwest where 

 the pressure was low, as well as in the Southwest, where the heat of the 

 afternoon had increased to over eighty degrees. At this time Ave received 

 intelligence that a A^olcanic disturbance had occurred in the Pacific Ocean 

 causing a series -of earthquake Avaves to break on that coast. The enor- 

 mous liberation of heat resulting from this disturbance has undoubtedly 

 much to do with the phenomenal temperature that followed. On the 14th 

 the isotherm of 70 degrees ran northward of the Middle and New Eno-land 

 States and across the Lower Missouri Yalley, but northAvard still smaller 



