December 30, 1887.] 



SCIENCE. 



315 



overflowing. He did not deny that Indian wheat would for many 

 years remain a substantial item in the annual wheat imports, but 

 there was no indication that the amount of it would increase at any 

 thing like an alarming rate. With the e.xtension of railways, new 

 wheat-growing districts would be tapped, but the supply of easily 

 available land was by no means unlimited, and the drawbacks and 

 disadvantages were far more numerous than most people supposed. 

 He then commented upon the likelihood of the yield decreasing and 

 the quality degenerating by too frequent growth on the same land. 

 He believed that the land was not seriously impoverished by the 

 native systems of rotation, or by the practice which they had of 

 growing mi.Ked crops ; but it would be strange if they altered those 

 time-honored practices, and grew wheat year after year with suc- 

 cessful results, as if the land were in the condition of virgin soil. It 

 had been the history of every great wheat-grov^fing region that the 

 yield and quality came down if the land was not kept up by manur- 

 ing, as in England. He cited America as a typical example. The 

 point where the best wheat grew had steadily marched westward, 

 and he claimed that it had left as a record of its course the ruins of 

 disused and deserted mills. It is not perfectly clear wherein he has 

 evidence of this. Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace, the author of 

 •" Russia.' and now private secretary to the viceroy of India, related 

 an excellent illustration of the case in point. A district in southern 

 Russia was suddenly stricken with the wheat-growing mania. For 

 a few years the yield, for size of grain, quality, and quantity, was 

 simply marvellous ; in a few more years the excess in every way 

 became normal ; and in yet a few more years, the produce dimin- 

 ishing in ever)' respect, it became impossible for wheat-growing to 

 continue, and the people had to go back to their rye-crops and 

 other coarser grains. He dealt with the character of the wheats 

 grown in India, and commented upon their inferiority in several 

 respects. 



Sir James Caird, in thanking Professor Wallace for his interest- 

 ing lecture, said that he thought Mr. Wallace had not given as 

 much credit as they deserved to the various agricultural departments 

 in India for their exertions. But in a country so populous, and 

 with an agricultural practice to a certain extent established by a 

 long line of experience of climate and soil, the cultivators have not 

 been slow to avail themselves of the extending facilities of trans- 

 port, which, in regard to cost on the great railway-lines in India, 

 are now brought very much on a par with the charges in America. 

 An increasing demand, caused by facility of transport, has stimu- 

 lated production, and has shown that instruction in the art of agri- 

 culture is not so much required as access to good markets. India 

 has a great variety of products, and though wheat interests British 

 agriculturists more than any other, cotton stands highest on the 

 list of exports, next to it opium, then oil-seeds, then rice, and fifth 

 wheat. But wheat had, no doubt, gained the most increase of any. 

 The rapid extension of exports of native produce from India in the 

 last ten years is, indeed, very remarkable. The total value in 1877 

 was sixty-five millions sterling, and in 1886 eighty-five millions, — 

 an increase of nearly thirty per cent. There could be no great de- 

 ficiency in the knowledge of the cultivators where such a result was 

 possible ; and probably the best aid that the government of India 

 could give to native agriculture would be to proceed steadily with 

 the construction of railways in all the richer parts of that vast country 

 which are still without them. With regard to a continued supply of 

 •wheat to Europe, he agreed with Professor Wallace that there is 

 neither the same facility for its increased production as in America, 

 nor the same likelihood of a surplus. The population of India and 

 the native states at the last census was two hundred and fifty mil- 

 lions. It is believed to be increasing at a rate which, in ten 

 years, might add twenty million more mouths to be fed. This in- 

 crease must be provided for, and the periodical return of famines 

 must not be forgotten. We are within a short period of the time 

 when one will be due. He did not, therefore, think that Europe 

 could depend on India so much as America for future supplies of 

 wheat. 



HEALTH MATTERS. 

 Quarantine Systems. 



The quarantine systems of the United States were fully discussed 

 at the Memphis meeting. For years that of New York has been 



regarded as the best which could be found along either coast, and 

 its methods have been copied by the quarantine officers of other 

 ports. The condition, however, in which the quarantine arrange- 

 ments were found to be, when the ' Alesia' and ' Britannia' ar- 

 rived last fall with cholera on board, has done much to destroy the 

 confidence which up to this time had been reposed in the New 

 York system. For the defects which then existed, and many of 

 which doubtless still exist, the responsibility has not yet been deter- 

 mined. The health-officer places it upon the governor of the State, 

 inasmuch as he has vetoed appropriations which were needed to 

 put the hospital islands and appliances in fit condition to receive 

 immigrants suffering from epidemic disease. On the other hand, it 

 has been attempted to throw the blame on the health-officer him- 

 self for not supplying what was needed at his own expense. This 

 latter criticism is unjust. He is not called upon, either as a matter 

 of obligation or duty, to expend the amounts necessary to remedy the 

 defects, and certainly there is no precedent for it either at the port 

 of New York or elsewhere. 



During nearly fifteen years of active connection with health or- 

 ganizations, the writer can recall but one instance in which a sani- 

 tary official paid out of his own pocket the amounts necessary to 

 prosecute sanitary work, when the authorities failed or refused to 

 appropriate public funds for that purpose. That official was Dr. 

 Davenport of Boston, chemist and milk-inspector of the board of 

 health. The amount expended was, if we remember correctly, 

 more than three thousand dollars, and the last we heard he had not 

 been repaid. If there are other instances, we should be glad tu put 

 them on record. 



The Philadelphia committee reflected very severely on the man- 

 agement of the quarantine authorities at New York, and their com- 

 plaints have not been fully met. It appears, however, that cholera 

 has not spread from the hospital islands, and it is to be hoped that 

 the measures taken to extinguish it have been successful. The 

 systems at Baltimore and Philadelphia have been condemned as 

 entirely inadequate to the task of coping with epidemic disease 

 should it make its entrance at either of these ports. These defects 

 were the foundation for the request, made especially by Western 

 sanitarians, that a national quarantine system should be organized, 

 whose restrictions should be similar at all the ports of the United 

 States, thus leaving no port unprotected, but keeping such a vigi- 

 lant watch over all, that cholera and yellow-fever might with cer- 

 tainty be excluded. 



The quarantine system of Louisiana has been brought to such a 

 state of perfection by Dr. Joseph Holt, president of the State Board 

 of Health, that it is now looked upon as the best in the United 

 States. A description of this system was given by Dr. Holt at the 

 Memphis meeting, and is a part of the report of the committee on 

 disinfectants. In this description the writer says there are three 

 maritime approaches to New Orleans, — the Mississippi River, the 

 Rigolets, and the Atchafalaya River. The two latter are closed 

 against all vessels from quarantined ports, compelling such to use 

 the Mississippi as the only available route to New Orleans. The 

 quarantine is a system composed of three stations, the first of which 

 is an advance-guard inspection station situated at Port Eads, one 

 hundred and ten miles below New Orleans. Here vessels are 

 boarded by the medical officer, who inquires as to their sanitary 

 record and present condition. If from a non-quarantined port, and 

 all is well, they go to the city. If a vessel comes from a quaran- 

 tined port, but gives no evidence of present or past sickness among 

 passengers or crew, she proceeds to the upper station, seventy 

 miles below the city, where she is subjected to sanitary treatment. 

 If, on the other hand, the vessel gives evidence of being infected, 

 she is sent to the lower station, located on Pass i I'Outre, one 

 hundred and three miles below New Orleans. The sick are at once 

 removed to a hospital. The vessel, with the well on board, is 

 thoroughly disinfected by the aid of the quarantine tugboat. The 

 atmosphere below decks is completely replaced with one heavily 

 charged with sulphurous oxide, and wherever possible a solution of 

 bichloride of mercury is applied to effect thorough disinfection. 



In speaking of this treatment. Dr. Holt says, " A ship known to 

 be infected with one of the three great pestilential diseases — small- 

 pox, cholera, or yellow-fever — can stand and must endure extraor- 

 dinary treatment, even if clothing is wetted and some articles 



