March 4, 1887.] 



BCIEJS'GE. 



213 



fifty-one plates, quarto. The contents are, 'Lucifer: 

 a study in morphology,' with eleven plates, by 

 W. K. Brooks ; ' The development of Renilla,' with 

 sixteen plates, by E. B. Wilson ; ' The life-history 

 of the Hydro-Medusae : a discussion of the origin 

 of the Medusae, and of the significance of meta- 

 genesis,' with eight plates, by W. K. Brooks ; ' Re- 

 port on the Stomatopoda,' with sixteen plates, by 

 W. K. Brooks. Only one hundred copies in all 

 will be issued. The price is fixed at seven dollars 

 and fifty cents net, delivered by mail, postage paid, 

 or by express at the expense of the purchaser. 



— The Smithsonian institution has received no- 

 tice from Col. J. H. Wood of St. Paul that he has 

 shipped to them the bodies of five persons — a 

 man, woman, and three children — taken from a 

 cave in the Bad Lands of Dakota by a miner. 

 The bodies are simply dried up, and are not petri- 

 fied, but are in a remarkable state of preservation. 

 Scientific men who have seen them say they be- 

 long to a race which existed two thousand years 

 ago. This will be a very important addition to 

 the collection of desiccated bodies now on exhibi- 

 tion in the national museum. 



— Dr. Baker, secretary of the Michigan state 

 board of health, has found that in that state 

 small-pox has been comparatively epidemic every 

 five years. In 1872 there were 302 deaths from 

 that disease, in 1877 there were 102, and in 1882 

 there were 100. He looks for its appearance in 

 the state again this year. 



— The statement is made that supernumerary 

 toes and fingers are very often met with among the 

 negro tribes living beyond the Orange Free State. 

 Dr. Stoekly mentions the case of a Caffre, eighteen 

 years old, who had six fingers on each hand. His 

 father, mother, four sisters, and a brother had 

 the same. His mother had also a double series 

 of toes on both feet. 



— The January meeting of the Michigan state 

 board of health was especially noteworthy by rea- 

 son of a report of a special committee which had 

 been appointed to confer with the regents of the 

 university relative to the establishment of a labo- 

 ratory of biology and hygiene at that institution. 

 As a result of the agitation of the subject, the 

 legislature of the state has been memorialized to 

 establish such a laboratory. 



— An unnamed fever is said to be very preva- 

 lent in Jerusalem, the patients being so numerous 

 as to fill a large hospital camp. As quinine is 

 said to be greatly in demand, we presume the 

 fever is of malarial origin. It is thought that the 

 spread of the disease is due largely to polluted 

 drinking-water and unwholesome food. 



— Reference was made in a recent number of 

 Science to the deaths which occurred in January 

 of the present year in the city of Troy, N.Y., from 

 the inhalation of fuel-gas. The Medical news con- 

 tains a history of these cases from the pen of Dr. 

 Bontecau, who assisted at the autopsies held on 

 the victims, and attended others who recovered. 

 The occupants of a row of dwellings were almost 

 all seriously overcome by the gas. When the 

 cause was discovered, the police aroused those who 

 lived in these houses, many of whom were found 

 sick. All the occupants of one flat were dead. 

 At the autopsies the solid tissues and the blood 

 were found to be of a cherry-red color, which is 

 characteristic of poisoning by carbonic oxide. The 

 composition of the fuel-gas which was used in 

 these houses is said to be, hydrogen 56, and car- 

 bonic oxide 44, parts in 100. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



*t* Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The 

 writer''s name is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 



On certain electrical phenomena. 



In Science of Feb. 18, Dr. Shufeldt relates some in- 

 tei'esting instances of accidental electrification. He 

 seems to imply, in his description of the phenomena, 

 that there is something mysterious or unusual in such 

 occurrences. If he will critically examine his facts, 

 possibly eliminating a few of them, T think he will 

 find nothing which is not easily accounted for, and 

 which has not been long recognized. I have amused 

 myself and many of my friends with this sort of 

 thing for many years. The electrification of a man 

 or a woman in moving about a room is a phenomenon 

 in which the individual is not to be counted, as it de- 

 pends entirely on the conditions existing at the time. 

 Everybody is ' susceptible ' if the conditions are 

 favorable. As Dr. Shufeldt states that he had never 

 observed such exhibitions in Washington, I may re- 

 mark that in two different houses in which I lived 

 in that city I observed them on innumerable occa- 

 sions. In one of these I arranged a couple of bent 

 wires in such a way that the spark passed between 

 them directly over the opening of a gas-burner, and 

 for several weeks matches were a useless luxury. In 

 another house that I know of, dancing-parties were 

 especially gotten up by the young people, that they 

 might be amused by the passage of the spark in 

 totiching hands. In the latter instance the phenome- 

 non was strongly marked during nearly all of a con- 

 tinuously cold winter. During the present winter, 

 in the house which I now occupy, accidental electri- 

 fication has several times reached such a point as to 

 be positively disagreeable. In moving across a room 

 to turn a water-faucet, or to touch a poker or any 

 other fairly good 'ground,' a long spark and an un- 

 comfortably strong shock would result. But this was 

 confined to no person or persons ; any one who hap- 

 pened in was affected in the same way, provided the 

 conditions were equally favorable. 



The necessary conditions are simply those which 

 are required for the successful performance of any 



