398 



scwjsrcjE. 



LVoL. IX., No. 330 



are cool and wet. Bronchitis, pneumonia, and 

 asthma increase as the temperature falls, and 

 diminish as it rises. The damp, cold days of No- 

 vember, and the dry, cold days of the early 

 months of the year, have been most prolific in 

 cases of diphtheria. As to hydrophobia, the hot 

 ' dog-days ' of summer are generally considered to 

 be those during which this disease is most prev- 

 alent ; and this ancient belief is justified to some 

 extent by facts, although we must remember that 

 it shows itself to be independent, in its spread, of 

 a high temperature, as the mortality in London 

 during thirty years proves. The number of cases 

 is as numerous in December as in August. More 

 persons, doubtless, are bitten by dogs in hot 

 weather, because dogs are more irritable during 

 this season. We want an answer to the query as 

 to the percentage of cases of hydrophobia in those 

 who are bitten in each month of the year, before 

 we can determine with certainty the influence of 

 meteorological conditions on the disease. In this 

 section are also given directions for observing the 

 meteorological states and variations in the condi- 

 tions of the air, as to its pressure, temperature, 

 and moisture, the direction and strength of the 

 wind, and its electrical state. 



The last section of the book is taken up with a 

 consideration of the food, its impurities, and 

 methods of inspection and examination, including 

 the inspection of meat, poultry, game, fish, fruit, 

 and vegetables. Separate chapters are devoted 

 to tinned provisions, corn, flour, bread, and milk. 

 On the subject of tinned provisions, or ' canned 

 goods,' as we should call them, Dr. Fox says that 

 preserved Australian meats, and American tinned 

 fish, fruit, etc., are apt to become impregnated 

 with small quantities of lead from the solder and 

 tin, which frequently contain, as impurities, 

 arsenic and antimony. The vegetable and other 

 acids associated with these provisions have a 

 corrosive eJBfect, which is increased by the galvanic 

 action set up between the metals. In the chap- 

 ters on milk and its examination the author gives 

 numerous instances of disease caused by impure 

 milk or by that from sick cows. The evidence 

 that tuberculosis may be thus communicated is 

 very striking and very convincing, if, indeed, 

 there be any at the present day who, having 

 given the subject any consideration, doubt it. 

 Taken as a whole, this work of Dr. Fox is an ex- 

 cellent one, and should be in the library of every 

 sanitarian and physician. 



A PHYSICIAN of Caracas reports, that, during 

 an epidemic of yellow-fever which occurred in 

 that place, one of the victims was a monkey. After 

 an illness of four days, the fever proved fatal. 



SCIENTIFIC WRITINGS OF JOSEPH 

 HENRY. 



At last, although somewhat tardily, as it has 

 seemed to many, the regents of the Smithsonian 

 institution, by the publication of these volumes, 

 have enabled the general public to form a correct 

 estimate of the great services of its first secretary, 

 and have justified the opinion, long held by many 

 of his countrymen, that Joseph Henry was un- 

 questionably the first American physicist of his 

 time. The Smithsonian institution, with the 

 national museum, has been generally recognized 

 as a monument to his wisdom, foresight, and 

 patriotic self-sacrifice. How great this sacrifice 

 was, demanding, as it did, almost total neglect 

 of original research, — which he so loved, and 

 for which he was so well fitted, — will be clearly 

 understood on a perusal of these volumes. 



The published papers of Henry, especially the 

 earlier, and in many respects the most valuable, 

 have long been well-nigh inaccessible. In later 

 years he was too busy to follow the example of 

 other eminent philosophers in collecting, editing, 

 and republishing the work of his early years. 

 Although an avenue for such reproduction of his 

 numerous contributions to science was always 

 open to him in the publication department of the 

 Smithsonian institution, he never consented to 

 utilize the facilities which he had so thoughtfully 

 perfected for his fellow -workers, and which have 

 proved such a boon to science and to scientific 

 men. 



The two handsome volumes now issued, nat- 

 urally include a wide variety of subjects. The 

 collection of papers is divided into two parts : a 

 chronological arrangement is, in general, followed. 

 But in order to equalize the size of the two vol- 

 umes, the elaborate studies of and reports upon 

 various phenomena connected with the transmis- 

 sion of sound, made between ISHS and 1877, while 

 Henry was a member of the lighthouse board, are 

 inserted out of their regular order, in the first 

 volume. 



Part i. includes papers published while a pro- 

 fessor at Albany and afterwards at Princeton. 

 This record covers a period of twenty-three years, 

 from 1824 to 1846. It is contained in the first 260 

 pages of the first volume. Part ii. contains his 

 scientific work- during the remaining thirty-two 

 years of his life, while director of the Smithsonian 

 institution, from 1847 to 1878. Physicists will 

 generally be most interested in part i., which con- 

 tains nearly all of his original researches in elec- 

 tricity. 



Born only five years later than Faraday, much 



Scientific writings of Joseph Henry. 2 vols. Washing- 

 ton, Smithsonian institution. 8°. 



