152 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
at an elevation of 5,340 feet; Chilete, on the Pacasmayo R. R., is sixty-five miles 
from the coast at an elevation of 3,700 feet. The breaking up of the earth and 
rocks, during the construction of the railroads, apparently filled the air with float- 
ing germs or mineral poison which entered the system through the lungs and was 
then carried to the capillaries where it took root and was nourished by the blood 
or caused an unusual growth to wash out the poison. As yet the point is unset- 
tled, although all discard the water theory. After the roads were finished and the 
ground settled the disease disappeared. 
At the time the varrugas disease was at its height, a fever resembling sporadic 
yellow-fever broke out on the Trans-Andine R. R. and by many was considered 
as one with the varrugas. Dr. Logan, ex-Minister to Chili, while in Chicago, 
wrote a work on the diseases of the west coast and had classed them as Varrugas 
or Oroya Fever. Happening to call on him at this time, the author being in the 
transition stage between the first and second varieties and having no fever nor 
having had any, proved that the diseases were two and distinct. 
" Mal de Siete Dias" (Seven Days Sickness). — On the coast of Peru 
as far south as the 12 th parallel of Lat. anger will so change the milk of a mother 
that it will cause the death of a child within seven days. Should a mother wish 
to free herself from the labor of raising her child she lets herself get angry, puts 
the child to her breast and the end is sure. It is an every day occurrence for a 
mother to send her child to a neighbor requesting that it be nursed, saying she had 
been angered by her servants, or children, or some one. In an hour or two the 
effect passes off and the milk becomes good even though left in the breast and a 
deadly poison but a short time previous. 
"Aire" (Air). — By this is understood a change of air that acts perniciously 
upon the human system, either in perfect health or debilitated by sickness. In 
the hospital of the Pacasmayo R. R., where from 100 to 180 sick and wounded 
were cared for, all would be doing well, wounds granulating and painless, 
convalescents happy in the thought that but a day or two more and they could go 
to their work. Suddenly, with no change of barometer, or thermometer, or 
electric tests, the wounds would turn black, gangrenous and painful, and the wards, 
so silent five minutes before, would be filled with groans, vomitings, and fevers. 
This would last for three days and then go as it came. At these times one would 
have the muscles of one side of the face contracted or the head drawn on one 
side or the body bent back or to one side. The least exposure in a draft at any 
time would be liable to cause these same effects, but at these times more readily. 
Often cooks and nurses were made ill, so that no one was free. Six years of 
careful observation failed to detect the cause. Chemical tests were made, the 
microscope used faithfully, thermometers, barometers, and magnetic machines 
watched. The Ocean's temperature and currents, as also the air's temperature, 
currents, force, direction, and weight noted four times a day, and we are free to 
confess, we acknowledge the fact, but why we never could detect. 
In Peru the cHmate being such that many sleep out doors, gives opportunity 
for an occurrence like the following which causes several deaths among children 
