I< 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. X. No. 246 



were found sick ; measles, diphtheria, scarlet-fever, scrofula, and 

 syphilis being the prevailing diseases. In nearly every instance the 

 sick children were not only without proper medical attendance, but 

 were living in places rendering complete recovery to the majority 

 almost impossible. To give the sick children the benefit of fresh 

 air, 6,312 free tickets were distributed for the excursions of the St. 

 John's Guild Floating Hospital, where they and their parents were 

 gfiven a sufficient quantity of good foods. Twenty-four very sick 

 children were sent to a hospital on Staten Island, where they re- 

 mained for a week or two. In the final report of one of these 

 physicians, he gave it as his opinion that the great death-rate among 

 children under five years of age was attributable to over-crowding, 

 filth, filthy habits, and bad drainage. He says, " Upon a hot sum- 

 mer's day to enter a room in a rear house, whose walls were 

 cracked and besmeared with refuse, and perhaps dead vermin, oc- 

 cupied by a family of six or eight, harboring three or four boarders, 

 upon the floor of which might be seen soiled linen, particles of food, 

 and children, with a mother standing about the red-hot stove, 

 washing and cooking, and perhaps attending to a sick child, lying 

 in a dark bed-room, suffering from cholera-infantum, diphtheria, or 

 scarlet or typhoid fever, was a spectacle frequently indeed brought 

 to my attention." Another physician observed a great number of 

 cases of diseases of the eye and ear, especially among those sub- 

 jected to bad hygienic conditions. All the houses, without exception, 

 were overcrowded and in a filthy condition, the rear houses being 

 dark and badly ventilated. In one apartment having three rooms, 

 from twelve to fourteen persons were often found ; in some of these, 

 father, mother, and grown-up sons and daughters all sleeping in 

 one room, without any regard for delicacy or decency. A third 

 member of this visiting corps describes the small yard of a rear 

 tenement, containing an open cesspool, around which groups of 

 sickly children were playing; these children being stunted in 

 growth, pale, and, as a rule, having some form of ophthalmia. Of 

 thirty children found in one of these small yards, only one could be 

 said to be in vigorous health. 



Cause of Typhoid-Fever. — Investigations made by Beumer, 

 Peiper, and others seem to have demonstrated that a ptomaine pro- 

 duced by the typhoid-bacilli when injected into animals may cause- 

 a disease resembling typhoid-fever. This ptomaine was discovered 

 by Brieger, and named by him ' typhotoxine.' It is this substance, 

 and not the germ directly, which is the cause of typhoid-fever in 

 man, according to the most recent theory. The London Medical 

 Record, in commenting on these researches, draws the following 

 conclusions from them : " i. The symptoms and alterations ob- 

 served in animals in which cultures of typhoid-bacilli had been in- 

 jected are due to the toxic substances secreted by these bacilli. 2. 

 The noxious germs, which secrete the typhotoxine, are repro- 

 duced in the intestinal canal. From these the ptomaine is taken up 

 by the circulation, and carried to all the organs liable to be affected 

 by this poison. 3. It is most probable that the same takes place 

 in abdominal typhoid-fever of man. 4. A first infection induces 

 immunity against the injurious effect of a later infection, even 

 of large quantities of the toxic substance. 5. Further experi- 

 ments and careful clinical investigations are necessary in order 

 to establish a scientific support of the theory of immunity from 

 infections of sterilized cultures containing not more than a de- 

 termined quantity of typhotoxine. 6. In case this theory be an 

 ascertained fact, the reproduction of the same immunity in man 

 would be justified by commencing with \'ery minute doses of 

 typhotoxine, which would be gradually increased according to the 

 results obtained." 



A Test for the Cholera-Bacillus. — Bujwid, in the Zeit- 

 schrift fur Hygiene, describes a chemical test for the detection of 

 the presence of the cholera-bacillus. He adds to a bouillon-culture 

 of the bacillus from five to ten per cent of ordinary muriatic acid. 

 In a few minutes a rose-violet color appears, which increases in in- 

 tensity for half an hour. It remains unchanged for several days. 

 This re-action occurs in bouillon-cultures ten to twelve hours old, 

 and in gelatine-cultures after twenty-four hours. The coloring is 

 increased by heat. It is claimed by Bujwid that this color is 

 characteristic of the bacillus of Asiatic cholera, and distinguishes it 

 from all others. 



BOOK -REVIEWS. 

 The Elements of Political Economy, wiih Sojne Applications to 

 Questions of the Day. By J. LAURENCE Laughlin. New- 

 York, Appleton. 12°. 



The author of this work is impressed, as many other people are, 

 with the importance of a more general training in economic science. 

 Almost all of the questions with which our national government 

 will soon have to deal are of an economic character, or involve 

 economic considerations; while the conflict between labor and cap- 

 ital shows the importance of economic science in purely industrial 

 affairs. To supply the needed information, it will be necessary to 

 introduce the study of economics into our high schools and acade- 

 mies, and for this purpose good elementary treatises are necessary. 

 Such treatises, however, are by no means numerous ; and hence a 

 work like Professor Laughlin's is to be welcomed. It is intended 

 as an introductory work merely, and for the use of schools : " The 

 main topics are treated, the fundamental principles are empha- 

 sized, but no effort is made to produce a detailed and exhaustive 

 treatise " (p. vii.). The author's object, we think, has been success- 

 fully accomplished. The adaptability of the work to school 

 use must, of course, be tested by actual practice ; but it certainly 

 has many of the qualities that such a work ought to have. The 

 division and arrangement of topics are excellent, and the style 

 clear ; while the choice of matter is appropriate to an elementary' 

 treatise. The work is divided into two parts, the first demonstrat- 

 ing the principles of the science, the second applying them to the 

 economic problems of the day. The doctrines and method of the 

 work are those of the standard English school. Indeed, that school 

 seems to have been followed a little too strictly; for, though its 

 method is the leading and most productive one, yet the compara- 

 tive and historical methods have their uses. 



Professor Laughlin gives the usual definitions of ' wealth ' and 

 •value,' and the usual afccount of the agents of production. He 

 lays special stress, however, on the important function in contem- 

 porary industr)' of the skilful industrial manager. In treating of 

 exchange, he follows Mill in the main, while adopting something from 

 Cairnes on the subjects of supply and demand, and foreign trade. 

 On the subject of distribution he holds the views that have prevailed 

 generally among English writers, with the fiction of the wages fund 

 left out. He argues that " the proportional shares of lalDor and 

 capital out of the product will depend upon the relative scarcity and 

 abundance of labor and capital " (p. 186); while "the productiveness 

 of a country's industries determines whether the general level of 

 wages shall be high or low" (p. ig8). Interest, or the share of the 

 capitalist, he considers a reward for abstinence merely, while the 

 profit of the industrial manager is treated as the wages of a supe- 

 rior kind of labor. 



In the second or practical part of the work. Professor Laughlin 

 seeks to apply economic principles to such questions as socialism, 

 taxation, free trade, and others, while recognizing that such ques- 

 tions cannot be settled by economic considerations alone. His 

 remarks on the subjects of money and taxation, if generally read, 

 can hardly fail to be useful. He condemns socialism, as all econo- 

 mists do, and holds that the prosperity and advancement of the 

 working-classes depend on their own mental and moral improve- 

 ment. He favors individualism, and deprecates undue interference 

 by the State, holding that " it is high time that the weak and nar- 

 row-minded recourse to the State for legislation on every conceiv- 

 able subject should be abandoned for a greater growth of self-help 

 and a more independent and self-confident manhood" (p. 349). 

 The book may be commended not only for schools, but also for 

 private students, and we should be glad to see it extensively read 

 by the working-people. 



Animal Life in the Sea and on the Land. By Sarah Cooper. 

 New York, Harper. 12°. 

 It is impossible to give, in large type, in the space of about three 

 hundred double-leaded, duodecimo pages, a satisfactory account of 

 several hundred species of animals, from the lowest to the highest. 

 Yet this is what the author attempts in this volume ; and she throws 

 in, besides, a chapter on coral-reefs, and many pages about fossils. 

 The result is a curious cross between a grammar-school text-book 



