io8 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XI. No. 265 



a. class. The coloring will be the same as in Hitchcock's geological 

 map of the United States. 



— The /07trnal of the Royal Society of New South IVa/es for 

 1886 contains a very interesting sketch of the history of the floods 

 in Lake George, by H. C. Russell. The lake has no outlet, and 

 since its discovery in 1820 it has been dry twice. According to re- 

 ports of the natives, the basin contained no water for some time 

 previous to 1820. In 1823 it reached its highest level, attaining a 

 maximum depth of twenty-four feet. Then it commenced to dry 

 up, and in 1838 and 1839 it contained no water. In 1840 four feet 

 ■of water were found in the basin, which, however, from 1845 to 

 1849, was again completely dry. During the ensuing ten years the 

 lake began to till, but in 1859 it was dry for the third time. Since 

 that time it steadily increased in size until 1874, when it reached 

 the same height as in 1823. This record is of great interest, as it 

 shows the alternating periods of humidity and dryness. It is partic- 

 ularly important in connection with Seibt'sand Bruckner's studies of 

 similar changes in the levels of lakes in the northern hemisphere, 

 which were noticed in No. 232 of Science. Bruckner arrived at the 

 conclusion that the whole of the northern hemisphere passed 

 through a dry period between 1830 and 1840. This was followed 

 by a period of increased humidity about 1850. A new dry period 

 developed between i860 and 1865, while after 1875 the precipita- 

 tion increased. The periodical changes of Lake George agree with 

 these results. From these and several other facts, Bruckner infers, 

 in reviewing Russell's paper, that the whole earth takes part in 

 these periodical changes. 



— Domingos Soares Ferreira Penna, the Brazilian naturalist, 

 died at Para, Brazil, on the 8th of January. During the last twenty- 

 five or thirty years not a naturalist has done any work in the Ama- 

 zon region who is not more or less indebted to Snr. Penna in one 

 way or another. Agassiz and Hartt and the members of the late 

 geological survey of Brazil were greatly aided by his valuable per- 

 sonal knowledge of the region, and by his useful suggestions. He 

 was at one time secretary of the province of Pani, and at the time 

 of his death was director of the Provincial Museum at Para. 



utian will be /ttrnished 



nt iviih the ckaracier of 



females, notwithstanding the fact that 129 males settle in these 

 colonies to each 100 females. 



To those who wish to follow this subject further, it may be in- 

 teresting to know that an enormous collection of statistics relative 

 to the Indian tribes of the United States was made under the 

 direction of Maj. J, W. Powell. The results of this census have 

 not been published, but the material is still available, and would fur- 

 nish a much better basis of comparison than the one chosen by 

 Professor Brooks. O. T. Mason. 



Washington, D.C., Feb. 27. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



' ,* Corres/iondettts are requested to be as brief as fossiile. Tlie 

 in all cases required as proof of good faiili. 



Twenty copies of t!ie number coutainin,^ his co 

 free to any correspondent on request. 



Tke editor will be glad to pubtisii any queries i 

 tlie iottrnal. 



Ratio between Men and Women. 



Prof. W. K. Brooks of Baltimore has discovered that a favor- 

 able environment tends to produce an excess of females among 

 animals and plants, and an unfavorable environment an excess of 

 males. If this be true, a race or species which is on the point of 

 -extinction should have an excess of males. 



The population of Australia consists of a small and decreasing 

 number of aborigines, and a prosperous and increasing population 

 of foreign settlers and their descendants, amounting, in all, to nearly 

 three millions of persons. As the native population is rapidly dis- 

 appearing, we should expect to find the males more numS-ous 

 -among them, as compared with the females, than among the inhab- 

 itants of foreign origin, provided other conditions are equal. For 

 each 100 females there were in Victoria, of native-born Australians, 

 ioOx% males; and of foreigners, exclusive of Chinese, 129^ males. 

 The ratio of males to females in the population of foreign origin is 

 therefore very much greater than it would be if it depended upon 

 the birth-rate alone ; and, as this modifying influence does not 

 affect the aborigines, an excess of males among them no greater or 

 even a little less than that found among the inhabitants of foreign 

 origin would indicate that the excess of male births is much greater 

 among them than among the people of foreign origin. Computa- 

 tion shows that the excess of males among the aborigines is, not- 

 withstanding these neutralizing influences, very much greater than 

 it is among the foreign population. 



For all Australia there are 143.72 aboriginal males to each 100 

 (females ; there are only 118.64 males of foreign descent to each 100 



Classification of Diphtheria. 



There is a very striking resemblance between the membrane of 

 diphtheria and the fungi that produce dry rot, or more especially 

 those forms that grow in living trees. A white or yellow leathery 

 substance is produced, sometimes known as 'punk,' — the Mcru- 

 Izus lachrymalis in dead wood, and some species of Polyporus in 

 the living. The hyphse, or roots, penetrate the cells of the wood 

 in every direction, producing disintegration and decay. 



Diphtheria is called an exudation, and classed as a bacterial dis- 

 ease, a Schizomycetes, when in fact it is a fungus of a higher order, 

 a HypJioinycetes. It grows on the surface, and spreads by libula- 

 tions, and its roots penetrate deeply into the tissue, producing 

 changes and decomposition, which becomes the soil for bacteria, 

 generating poisons that are absorbed and powerfully affect the 

 whole system. In this view its life-history has not been studied or 

 found out. It is known that the membrane can be transplanted, and 

 that the surface abrasions on which it grows are of a painful, smart- 

 ing kind. How it is propagated by spores is unknown. There is 

 evidently some peculiar condition required, as in the Merulius, 

 which will not grow unless an alkali is present. It may be that an 

 alkaline condition of the system is required, which is the reason of 

 the capriciousness of its infection. 



The treatment of the disease in this light assumes a new aspect, 

 and gives purpose to thorough local antiseptic applications ; i.e., 

 thorough eradication of the fungi before it can have time to poi- 

 son the system. P. J. F.arnsworth. 



Clinton, lo., Feb. 22. 



Sex and Consumption. 



I WAS delighted at seeing the main tendency of the article on sex 

 and consumption, that appeared in Science of Feb. 3. The views 

 that I have since 1882 been trying in vain to get investigated here, 

 appear to be receiving serious attention in your great country. 

 That this progress in a question of nothing less than the life or 

 death of a large multitude of the civilized world may not be checked 

 by the presence of one or two erroneous inferences in that article, 

 I shall be glad if you will permit me to point them out. 



Although for the present time it is true that the total male mor- 

 tality exceeds that of the female, yet that neither applies to all 

 periods of life, nor is the difference so great as to justify the term 

 ' protected ' to the female in any sense. From the age of five to 

 fifteen, the female mortality from consumption is much greater 

 than that of the male, and it is in the later periods of life that the 

 latter preponderates. Further, in the strictly rural districts the 

 female mortality exceeds that of the male ; and it is only within a 

 comparatively recent period that the total male mortality has ex- 

 ceeded that of the female, and that has been brought about by 

 men who had been brought up and engaged in country pursuits, 

 rushing into town employments. One word more. An organ that 

 is subject to hyperemia does not gradually waste away, and hence 

 we must look elsewhere for an explanation of the mode in which 

 those conditions of our civilization that tend to reduce the capacity 

 of the chest produce consumption. G. W. H.\mbleton. 



London, Feb. i6. 



A Worm in a Hen's Egg. 



The nematoid worm sometimes found in the white of the hen's 

 egg is not Ascaris luinbricoides, as your correspondent of last week 

 supposes, but a Heterakis, generally H. infle.xa, the normal habitat 

 of which is the fowl's intestine, but which occasionally wanders into 

 the oviduct. R. Ramsay Wright. 



Toronto, Ont., Feb. 28. 



