52 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XI. No. 261 



In 1834, or possibly later, Dr. Gray received an appointment as 

 botanist of the Wilkes expedition, which was expected to start for 

 the South Sea Islands ; but delay after delay, and a change in the 

 plans of the expedition, caused him to resign, and about this time 

 he received an appointment to the chair of botany in the University 

 of Michigan, then just established. He asked for a year's absence 

 in Europe, which was granted him, during which year he not only 

 made valuable purchases and collections for the library of the new 

 university, but gained the personal acquaintance of the leading 

 European botanists. He made himself also familiar with the type 

 specimens in the older herbaria, and came back fully equipped for the 

 work of his life, the examination of the North American flora, 

 the first volume of his ' Flora ' being completed in 1840. He never 

 occupied the chair at Michigan, but in 1842 accepted a professor- 

 ship of natural history in Harvard. The early years of his life in 

 Cambridge were naturally occupied with routine teaching, with 

 appliances which would be regarded as utterly inadequate at the 

 present time; but it was a small beginning, which has led to the 

 better-equipped Botanic Garden and to the establishment of an 

 herbarium. He continued his work as an instructor till 1872 ; but 

 during this time he found opportunities for carrying on his work on 

 the ' North American Flora,' for the preparation of his educational 

 treatises, and for increasing the popular interest in science. In ad- 

 dition to this, he devoted much time to the American Academy, in 

 which he always took the greatest interest. 



To the public not merely interested in the science of botany, 

 especially to the religious public, Dr. Gray is well known by his 

 writings on the relations of science and religion, and upon the 

 Darwinian theory. Darwin, in his letters recently published, refers 

 to Gray as one of the three or four whose judgment on his theory 

 was of more value to him than that of the world besides, including 

 with Gray, Hooker, Lyell, and Huxley. Darwin had been in cor- 

 respondence with Dr. Gray for years before the publication of his 

 great book, and had been gathering from him botanical facts bear- 

 ing upon his hypothesis ; and from the time of the appearance of 

 that volume Dr. Gray was one of the earnest advocates of the 

 theory as a fair working hypothesis. Many residents of Boston 

 and vicinity will recall the earnest discussion before the American 

 Academy, in the years i860 and 1861, between Dr. Gray and Pro- 

 fessor Agassiz on this great question. 



Dr. Gray was crowned with diplomas and honors from all the 

 principal universities of Europe, and during the past summer, while 

 travelling in England, received degrees from the Universities of 

 Oxford, Cambridge, and Edinburgh. He leaves no children, but a 

 widow, the daughter of the late eminent lawyer Charles G. Loring 

 of Boston ; and a host of friends in Cambridge and throughout the 

 country will feel that his death has extinguished a bright and cheer- 

 ing light in the world of thought, and has removed a most cherished 

 and valued friend and companion. 



HEALTH MATTERS. 



Sex and Consumption. 



Dr. Thomas J. Mays of Philadelphia has contributed to the 

 Medical News a very valuable paper on female dress as a deter- 

 mining factor in pulmonary consumption. He says that it is cur- 

 rently believed that more females than males fall victims to this 

 disease. Both Laennec and Louis held this view, at least so far as 

 France was concerned ; and Ancell, one of the most prolific and 

 exhaustive writers on the natural history of tuberculosis, concurs 

 entirely in this opinion. Sir James Clark's statistics, which were 

 collected from thirteen different localities in Europe and America, 

 showed in the aggregate more deaths from phthisis among females 

 than among males. Dr. A. James, in an interesting article on sex 

 in connection with phthisis, lately published in The Edinburgh 

 Medical Journal (March, 1886), arrives at the same conclusion. 

 It must be admitted, too, that, if the question of sex in relation to 

 pulmonary consumption be viewed from an a\ priori standpoint, 

 there are sufficient reasons for believing that the female is more 

 prone to the disease than the male, because she is generally con- 

 sidered to be the weaker, and because she is more exposed to the 

 causes which are known to give rise to it. She is confined within- 

 doors, where she naturally spends the greater portion of her life. 



and is, of course, subjected to the influences of impure air and bad 

 ventilation. She leads a sedentary life, is deprived of sunlight, 

 exercise, and undergoes the enervating processes of gestation and 

 lactation, while, on the other hand, the male is, as a general rule, 

 less or not at all exposed to most of such unheakhful conditions ; 

 and it is only when he is subjected to some of them, as. for instance, 

 to impure air, sendentary occupations, etc., that he becomes noto- 

 riously liable to pulmonary consumption. 



Dr. Mays has collected statistics for many of the American 

 cities, and also for other countries, and finds, that, so far as they 

 go, they establish the fact beyond a doubt, that in civilized life the 

 male sex is more liable to pulmonary consumption than the female. 

 He gives the following statistics : — 



Statistics of Sex in Pulmonary CoNstJMPTioN. 



Locality. 



Male. 



Female. 



Remarks. 



Chicago 1 . 



1:635 



i: 793 



Average for 6 years, 

 1869, 18B1-85. 



New York City, 1870 



I : 233 



1:318 





Massachusetts, 1880 



2.86^ 



3.28!« 



Per 1.000 males and 

 females respec- 

 tively. 



Boston, 1883-B4 . 



I :248 



1 : 251 



Rhode Island, 1884 and 1885 . 



1:380 



t : 351 





Philadelphia, 1884 and 1885 



I : 303 



I : 310 





Nashville, 1877 and 1878 . 



1:263 



I : 286 



Both white and col- 

 ored males and 

 females. 





I : 443 



1 : 422 



White males and fe- 

 males only. 





I : 142 



1 : 190 



Colored males and 

 females only. 



San Francisco, 1875-80 . 



I : 313 



1:418 



Average of 5 years. 



Sacramento 



I : 340 



t : 435 



Average of years 

 1874 and 1879. 



Cincinnati, i88^ . 



I : 325 



I : 4^3 





Baltimore, 1885 . 



I 1342 



1:381 





Scotland, 1871-80 



I : 423 



.:387 





England, 1872-81 . 



1:467 



I : 502 





London, 1843-46, decedents from 









consumption 



Si% 



47i« 



See 'Ancell,' p. 396. 



Basel and Zurich, 1877-84, de- 









cedents. from consumption 



s^■^% 



45-3^ 



See Dr. Schnyder in 

 Correspondenz 

 Blatt/iir Schnvci- 

 zer A erztey Nos. 



Cantons of Wallis, Waadt, Frei- 









burg, Lucerne, from 1877 to 







' 



1884, decedents from consump- 









tion .... 



S'-S% 



47-5* 



Ibid. 



Cities of Prussia, 1875-79 



1:236 



1:3.8 





County districts of Prussia, 









1875-79 .... 



1 : 314 



1:369 





Leading cities of New Jersey, 









1884, deaths from consump- 









tion in nine 



94 



84 





Hospital and Private Practice. 



Male. 



Female. 



Remarks. 



Dr. Flint, Sr., 669 cases . 



S05 



164 



See ' Flint on Phthi- 



Dr. Williams, i.ooocases 



625 



375 



SeT''Wimams on 

 Consumption.' 



First Brompton Hospital report, 









1848 .... 



61 



39 





Dr. Pollock's practice 



6o.75!« 



39-25* 





254 patients of Dr. Schnyder's, 







See Dr. Schnyder, 



coming from cities 



i6s 



89 



Cor. Blatt fUr 

 Schvjeizer A erzte, 

 Nos. 10, II, and 

 12, 1886. 



914 patients of Dr. Schnyder's, 









from the country 



537 



377 



Ibid. 



500 of Dr. Brehmer's cases 



319 



181 



See Brehmer, 'Die 

 Aetiologie der 

 chronischen Lun- 

 genschwindsucht." 



88 cases reported by Dr. 









Churchill of Paris 



59 



29 





67 cases reported by Dr. Thor- 









owgood 



34 



33 





Cases in Royal Infirmary, Edin- 







See Reynold's ' Sys- 



burgh, 1833, 1834, and 1835 . 



365 



217 



tem of Medicine," 

 vol. iii. p. 546. 



Consumptives in three Parisian 







hospitals, proportioned to the 









whole number of inmates 



I : 35 



I : 2t 



See "Ancell,* p. 397. 



550 deaths in St. George's Hos- 









pital in ten years 



388 



162 



Ibid^ p. 763. 



Chest Department of Phila. 









Polyclinic since Jan. 1885 



113 



88 





Brompton Hospital for Con- 









sumption, from 1842 to 1848 . 



2,682 



1,597 





1 These figures indicate a lower death-rate for Chicago than actually exists, be- 

 cause we are not able to obtain the male and female population of this city separately : 

 hence our estimate is based on the male and female population of Cook County, in 

 which it is located, and for comparative purposi 



