2o8 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



in 1905 suggested that it was probably 

 of protozoal origin, and was communi- 

 cated by sand flies, as sleeping-sickness 

 is by the tsetse fly or malaria and 

 yellow fever by mosquitoes. Since that 

 time Dr. Sambon has made careful 

 studies in Italy and elsewhere, and his 

 views are accepted by a number of 

 leading authorities. He calls attention 

 to the analogy with malaria, especially 

 in its seasonal occurrence. While Dr. 

 Sambon has been able to produce no 

 experimental evidence of the causes of 

 the disease, Dr. W. H. Harris, of 

 Tulane University, has recently pub- 

 lished in The Journal of the American 

 Medical Association a note on experi- 

 mental production of pellagra in mon- 

 keys. These monkeys were injected 

 with filtrates, made through a Berke- 

 feld filter, obtained from cases of pel- 

 lagra shortly after death, and all 

 showed the typical symptoms of the 

 disease. 



As recently as 1906 Sir William 

 Osier in the sixth edition of his ' ' Prin- 

 ciples of Medicine" stated that the 

 disease has not been observed in the 

 United States. In the following year, 

 Dr. G. H. Searcy in Alabama and Dr. 

 J. W. Babcock and J. J. Watson in 

 South Carolina recognised the disease. 

 Their reports were received with skep- 

 ticism and even with ridicule, but now 

 pellagra is known to exist in no fewer 

 than thirty-three states and theie are 

 probably at present 30,000 cases. It 

 is strange that pellagra and the hook- 

 worm disease, both of which are so 

 prevalent and so disastrous in our 

 southern states, should have remained 

 until recently unrecognized. Both dis- 

 eases are preventable, and we may look 

 forward to a great advance in health 

 and social efficiency when they have 

 been brought under control in the 

 south. We should be grateful to the 

 General Education Board for the work 

 that it has accomplished in this direc- 

 tion, but the national government, the 

 states and the municipalities should 

 now take up the suppression of pre- 

 ventable diseases with all the resources 

 at their command. 



SCIENTIFIC ITEMS 



We record with regret the death of 

 Dr Horace Jayne, formerly professor 

 of vertebrate morphology in the Uni- 

 versity of Pennsylvania j of Professor 

 N. H. Alcock, professor of physiology 

 in McGill University, and of Dr. Philip 

 Lutley Sclater, from 1859 to 1902 sec- 

 retary to the Zoological Society of 

 London, distinguished for his work on 

 systematic zoology. 



Dr. Joseph Swain, president of 

 Swarthmore College, has been elected 

 president of the National Educational 

 Association ; Dean Gardner C. Anthony, 

 of Tufts College, president of the So- 

 ciety for the Promotion of Engineer- 

 ing Education, and Dean Victor C. 

 Vaughan, of the University of Mich- 

 igan, president of the American Med- 

 ical Association. 



In the article on "Ancient Man, his 

 Environment and his Art, ' ' which ap- 

 peared in the July number of The 

 Popular Science Monthly, Fig. 4 is 

 from a photograph by Professor V. 

 Commont, and Figs. 7-10 are from 

 photographs by Count Bggouen. 



The editor has received a letter from 

 Professor Karl Pearson, the Francis 

 Galton Eugenics Laboratory, Univer- 

 sity of London, under date of June 9, 

 in which he says: 



The following paragraph occurs in 

 your June issue in a paper by Pro- 

 fessor H. E. Jordan: "We are now in 

 possession of facts, thanks mainly to 

 the labors of Professor Karl Pearson 

 and his collaborators at the Galton 

 Eugenics Laboratory, and to Professor 

 Davenport and his staff of assistants 

 at the Eugenics Record Office, showing 

 that the inheritance of several scores 

 of human physical and mental traits 

 are in close conformity with Mendelian 

 formulae" (p. 580). Such a statement 

 will astonish those who are acquainted 

 with the work done here, and I feel 

 bound at once to state that, as far as 

 my experience reaches, I find no phys- 

 ical or mental trait with which we have 

 dealt here to be "in close accordance 

 with Mendelian formula?. ' ' The almost 

 amusing aspect of the matter is, that 

 the one paper in which I have dealt 

 with the mulatto was an endeavor to 

 show that Mendelian formula? did not 

 hold for him. 



