440 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. IX., No. 222 



of Condroz and the upper old red {Ibid., p. 26, 



nri)- 



8. "The congress, not wishing to pronounce any 

 Yiew on the scientific question of the proper 

 division of the Permian and carboniferous, pre- 

 serves the classification as it now is " (Ibid., p. 

 31, 114). 

 As to the tertiary and the eruptive rocks, no action 

 was taken ; but, for the purpose of bringing out the 

 map, sufficient discretionary power was lodged with 

 the committee (Ibid., p. 32, IJIf 8 and 14). 



This is all, and it does not look much like an at- 

 tempt at usurpation. 



As for the colors and symbols used on the map, 

 they are purely tentative, and designed to furnish 

 a test on a sufficiently large scale to enable all defects 

 to be seen and subsequently corrected. 



Peesifob Feazee. 

 Philadelpliia, May 2. 



City feeding of milch-co-ws. 



In Science for April 29 is an editorial note on the 

 use of distillery slops in feeding milch-cows, in 

 which you say, "It is well settled that distillery 

 swill in any amount is an unnatural food for milch- 

 cows, and that the milk produced from animals so 

 fed is unwholesome and injurious." Will you please 

 indicate the source of the ' ample evidence ' which 

 you claim ' will demonstrate ' ' that distillery swill is 

 totally unfit food for milch-cows ? ' I have tried to 

 keep informed upon this subject, but have failed to 

 find any trustworthy evidence to supiDort your prop- 

 ositions. On the contrary, milk from swill-fed cows 

 is often of better quality — so far as we are able to 

 demonstrate this chemically — than milk fi-om cows 

 poorly pastured. The important j)ointto remember, 

 it seems to me, is that the animals should be well 

 stabled. It is as important to the health of cows 

 that their habitations should be clean, dry, warm, 

 and well ventilated, as it is to human beings. If 

 boards of health would see to this, the swill-milk 

 problem woiild bother them in a much less degree 

 than it does at present. Geoegb H. Eohb. 



Baltimore, May 2. 



[In the report of E. H. Bartley, M.D., chief chemist 

 of the Brooklyn board of health, made in 1886, oc- 

 curs the following paragraph : " The very objection- 

 able practice of feeding distillery waste — a practice 

 that three years ago was, during the cold weather, 

 almost universal — has been almost broken up. This 

 result alone is of incalculable benefit to the con- 

 sumers of milk, as such milk is without doubt a 

 dangerous food for infants, especially in warm 

 weather." In other reiDorts by Dr. Bartley the ques- 

 tion has been fully discussed, and the evidence 

 therein contained seems to be conclusive on the un- 

 wholesomeness of this food. Some ten years ago 

 the sanitary superintendent of Brooklyn communi- 

 cated with the health officers of the large western 

 cities where distillery swill was extensively used in 

 the feeding of cows, and received from them state- 

 ments which satisfied him that this material was en- 

 tirely unfit for the food of milch-cows. As a result 

 of this investigation into the subject, together with 

 the experience had in Brooklyn and its vicinity, 

 swill- feeding has not been permitted within the juris- 

 diction of the Brooklyn board of health. The New 

 York state penal code, section 662, provides that a 

 person who keeps a cow for the production of milk, 



and feeds such cow upon any food that produces 

 impure or unwholesome milk, is guilty of a misde- 

 meanor pu.nishable by fine and imprisonment. Sec- 

 tion 669 states that the words ' impure and unwhole- 

 some milk' shall include all milk obtained from 

 animals in a diseased or unhealthy condition, or 

 which are fed on distillery waste, usually called 

 ' svnll,' or upon any substance in a state of putre- 

 faction or fermentation. The most recent law passed 

 by the New York state legislature touching this 

 question is chapter 183, laws of 1885. This act 

 declares that milk from animals fed on distillery 

 waste is " unclean, unhealthy, impure, and unwhole- 

 some." We think that the general opinion of sani- 

 tarians is that the feeding of distillery waste to 

 milch- cows should be prohibited rather than en- 

 couraged, which will be the effect of the Philadelphia 

 regulation if enforced. — En.] 



Queries. 



1. Akcheological AND ethnological collections. 

 — I am aware that considerable ethnological work is 

 done by private persons and institutions in America, 

 but the results of their researches are difficult to 

 obtain. The queries of Science seem to me an ex- 

 cellent means of getting information which it would 

 be difficult to obtain in any other way. Readers of 

 Science will oblige me by informing me of name and 

 place of private and public archeological and eth- 

 nological collections, particularly in the western 

 parts of the United States and Canada. — Feanz, 

 Boas, 47 Lafayette Place, New York. 



2. Gaseous bnemata in the teeatment op con- 

 sumption. — I desire to obtain results of the new 

 treatment of pulmonary consumption and phthisic 

 by gaseous enemata, for publication in The polyclinic. 

 The correct therapeutic value of this method can 

 only be arrived at by the collection of statistics, and 

 I therefore request any one who has administered 

 the gas to communicate the result to me, the formula 

 used, and any special information that may be use- 

 ful. — Henky Lefpmann, editor of The polyclinic, 

 P.O. box 791, Philadelphia. 



3. Oeigin of consumption. — I have been much 

 interested in the theory of consumption which has 

 been suggested by Mr. Hambleton, and which was 

 described in Science, ix. No. 221, but cannot agree 

 with all his inferences. He says that the natives of 

 America, Africa, and the South Sea Islands were en- 

 tirely free from consumption till they came into in- 

 timate relationship with civilized Europeans, and 

 that the disease then came among them because they 

 adopted the habits of the civilized nations. This 

 seems to me to be a very weak argument. The same 

 is true of syphilis, small-pox, measles, and other 

 diseases, and yet I presume no one would explain 

 their introduction in this way. Is not the fact stated 

 by Mr. Hambleton one of the strongest arguments 

 in support of the contagious theory of consumption ?■ 

 Not until the germ, the bacillus tuberculosis, was in- 

 troduced, did the disease occur, and then it spread 

 among the natives in the same manner as small-pox 

 and other communicable diseases. That narrow 

 chests and impeded respiratory movements are con- 

 ditions favorable to the production of consumption 

 no one doubts, but that they can actually produce 

 the disease seems incredible. — Medicus. 



