264 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XL No. 278 



that is, from 24 to 40, — and of over 50 per cent as compared] with 

 the total population, both sexes, at the same ages ; this latter great 

 disparity being no doubt largely due to the casualties among women 

 during the child-bearing period. As the wear and tear of practice 

 begins to tell, this advantage is soon lost ; so that during the period 

 from 30 to 70 the death-rate of physicians is 8 per cent greater than 

 that of all males, and during the period from 40 to 70 it is more 

 than 1 1 per cent greater than that of both sexes. 



An examination of the causes of death reveals the result of the 

 exposure, irregular hours, broken rest, and mental anxiety which 

 are the lot of the average practitioner. 



In the grouped causes of death it is seen that consumption, dis- 

 eases of the respiratory organs (including 91 from pneumonia), and 

 Bright's disease caused 268 deaths, or more than one-fourth of the 

 total. If to these be added a share of the deaths from diseases of 

 the heart, — the sequela; oi rheumatism, — a fair estimate maybe 

 made of the effect of exposure to the vicissitudes of weather upon 

 the wear and tear of medical life. As a result of mental strain and 

 anxiety, of insufficient, irregular, and interrupted sleep, and similar 

 causes, is the total of deaths from diseases of the brain and ner- 

 vous system, embracing 43 from various forms of paralysis. In the 

 group of zymotic diseases (enteric fever given separately) there were 

 5 deaths from diphtheria, i each from small-pox and yellow-fever, 

 and 8 from traumatic infection (septicemia, etc.), all contracted 

 from attendance upon patients. 



Less creditable to the morale of the profession are the 18 deaths 

 from over-doses of opiates and narcotics, the 7 admitted suici-des, 

 and the deaths from alcoholism, direct and indirect, — 12 of the 

 former, and at least 8 of the latter. There is this to be said, how- 

 ever, in this connection : that the proportion of mortality from these 

 causes is steadily diminishing ; and my observation shows that this 

 diminution is largely the result of an amelioration of the conditions, 

 especially of country practice, due to better roads and methods of 

 locomotion, increased comfort in living, and less physical strain 

 upon the practitioner. Ten years ago the resort to stimulants upon 

 «xposure to the weather, and under the harsher conditions of prac- 

 tice which then obtained, was much more common than it is to-day. 

 And this is also true of the use of opiates and hypnotics. The 

 practitioner, familiar with their power to temporarily stimulate to 

 further endurance, or to produce sleep when nervous and exhausted, 

 had formerly greater temptation to resort to the use of these agents, 

 always ready to hand. 



While there is a total of 12 deaths reported during the ten years 

 as due to alcoholism direct, there has been only one in the last four 

 years ; and of the 18 deaths from over-doses of opiates and hyp- 

 notics in the entire period there has been only one in the last three 

 years. In addition to the amelioration in the conditions of practice 

 as a cause of this result, it is only fair to take into consideration 

 also the improved moral status of the profession in this State. 



Although the figures and deductions here submitted are believed 

 to be substantially accurate, — being, if any thing, understatements, 

 — they are offered only as a provisional contribution to the study of 

 the subject, which is by no means exhausted. The numbers under 

 observation, and the period covered, are greater than any thing 

 heretofore utilized for this purpose in this country, so far as I am 

 aware, and have cost much labor, which may be materially lightened 

 in the future by very little effort on the part of physicians in making 

 returns of death certificates, and by county clerks in forwarding 

 them to the office of the board. It is hoped that the interest which 

 this presentation of the subject may reasonably be expected to 

 arouse will lead to this result. 



Carpet-Beating in Paris. — The Conseil de Salubrite of 

 Paris has prescribed the following conditions under which the beat- 

 ing of carpets will be permitted in the city. The carpets must be 

 brushed and beaten in entirely shut-up rooms, and the dust depos- 

 ited on the floor will be washed with water containing some disin- 

 fectant of potent action. Strips of wool, etc., must be burnt imme- 

 diately. This action has been taken because of the nuisance caused 

 by the beating of carpets in the open air in the built-up portions of 

 the city, and because of the danger which is believed to exist, due 

 to the fact that many of the carpets come from houses in which 

 ■contagious diseases have prevailed, and that in the process of beat- 

 ing and shaking the gerins are dislodged. 



BOOK-REVIEWS. 



Discovery of the Origin of the Name of America. By THOMAS 

 DE St. Bris. New York, Amer. News Co. 8'. 50 cents. 



It seems almost as if the sober historian owed his thanks to a 

 class of half-learned wanderers on the outskirts of historical studies, 

 for keeping up with the unthinking a certain factitious interest in 

 early American history, and so to produce readers, who in the end 

 learn to distinguish the limits of historical evidence. One of these 

 happy enthusiasts fabricates as a designation for the precipices of 

 the Hudson the words L'anormec hcrgc, and of course finds Noruni- 

 bega along the Palisades. Another finds a rock in a river, — -it is 

 so unusual to find rocks in rivers, — and places Leifs-booths in Old 

 Cambridge, Mass. Another finds ' Amerrique,' or something else, 

 attached to a mountain, or presumably attached, and thinks Ves- 

 pucius is a humbug. Another finds a Peruvian tribe called by 

 something that sounds like ' America,' and says that the New 

 World was named in that way, it being no matter that the name 

 ' America ' was in use for the new continent years before Peru was 

 discovered. 



The latest of these whimsical revellers finds, that, after all, Co- 

 lumbus received his reward in having the name of his continental 

 ' find ' evolved from ' Amaraca,' — the spot, as he says, where the 

 great navigator first struck the mainland. This last writer has 

 printed a thick pamphlet called ' Discovery of the Origin of the 

 Name of America, — the Most Illustrious Aboriginal National 

 Name of the Continent, by Thomas de St. Bris,'— and undertakes 

 gravely the inore difficult task of convincing others, after he has 

 accomplished the far easier one of convincing himself. 



The new interest in the study of American history must be ac- 

 cepted, we suppose, with all its train of erratic followers. New inter- 

 ests are always handicapped with such impediments. It is useless to 

 follow Mr. St. Bris in all his gyrations. When he refers to the au- 

 thority of Wald-see-Miiller, and his story of the,application of the 

 name of ' America ' as history accepts it, there is something delicious 

 in his saying " that ideas of that age were often printed without the 

 slightest reason." We wonder if Mr. St. Bris ever heard that the 

 Spanish Government never recognized during the age of discovery 

 any name for the New World but the ' Indies,' when he tells us 

 that " Charles V., one of the most famous monarchs of the world, 

 gave his western hemisphere one of the most illustrious names of 

 antiquity ! " Mr. St. Bris has got yet to learn the alphabet of his- 

 torical research. 



Report of the Dairy Commissioner of the State of Ne-M Jersey, 

 1887. Trenton, State. 8°. 

 We have had occasion in the past to congratulate the people of 

 New Jersey on the fact, which we think is generally conceded among 

 sanitarians, that the reports published by the board of health of that 

 State occupy the very first rank in the reports of State boards 

 of health ; and that the work done by that board in improving the 

 sanitary condition of the State, not alone through the instrumentality 

 of beneficent laws, but also largely through the educational influ- 

 ences set at work by the State board, is of the highest order, and 

 cannot but be of immense value to the State, both in improving the 

 health of its people and the value of its property. To Dr. E. M. 

 Hunt, the secretary of the board, more than to any other one man, 

 is this due. Equally worthy of commendation is the work of Dr. 

 William K. Newton, the dairy commissioner of the State. The re- 

 port of this officer, which is before us, is the second which has been 

 published. It deals with the subject of oleomargarine, the sale of 

 ■ which is prohibited in the State, unless the seller informs the pur- 

 chaser what the article is, and presents him a printed notice bear- 

 ing the name of the article, with milk, and with foods and drugs. " 

 Penalties for the violation of the law to the amount of $3,100 have 

 been received during the past year. In the prosecution of those 

 who furnish impure or adulterated milk, $3. 900 have been collected 

 in fines. The report contains a number of interesting special re- 

 ports, among which are the following : ' Testing for Color in Oleo- 

 margarine ; ' ' Lard, its Aulteration and Detection ; ' ' Condensed 

 Milk ; ' ' The Composition and Methods of Analysis of Condensed 

 Milk,' by Prof. H. B. Cornwall ; ' Honey and its Adulteration ; ' 

 ' Analysis of Adulterated Honey,' by Shippen Wallace ; ' Vinegar 



