34 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. Y., No. 101. 



The second diagram presents in a graphic manner 

 the comparative rate of mortality in and out of the 

 hospitals. From it we find that the total number of 

 deaths from cholera from Nov. 3 to Nov. 30 was 916, 

 and that 343 of these took place in the city at large. 

 We regret exceedingly that the total number of cases 

 in the city is not at hand for purposes of comparison 

 with those in the hospitals. The question of the ad- 

 vantages of hospital treatment for such cases is still 

 an open one in certain quarters, and may be settled 

 in some measure by a study of this epidemic. 



The conclusions to be drawn from the charts are 

 that the outbreak was not an extended one, although 

 it was widely diffused throughout the poorer parts of 

 the city; that its virulence, as a whole, was equal 

 to that of others, the rate of mortality being fully up 

 to the average; and that the recent advances in sani- 

 tary science are not yet so thoroughly perfected and 

 crystallized that their application to practical pur- 

 poses produces a visible effect in the restraint of a 

 pestilence, when occurring in a large city. 



What may be done in a small community which is 

 thoroughly under medical control is illustrated by an 

 account, by Mr. Gibert, of an outbreak of cholera at 

 Yport, near Havre. 1 This epidemic is as interesting 

 and complete in its details as a laboratory experi- 

 ment. The community is small and isolated, con- 

 tains sixteen hundred inhabitants, and is out of the 

 direct line of travel. The source of the disease was 

 traced with precision to two sailors who reached the 

 village Sept. 28. One of them had had an attack of 

 cholera at Cette; and on the day after his arrival at 

 Yport he soaked his soiled clothing, and hung it out 

 to dry in front of his house, allowing the dirty water 

 to run along the street. 



From this nidus the disease started, and there oc- 

 curred forty-two cases with eighteen deaths. Without 

 following the account further, it will be interesting 

 to read Gibert's conclusions — justifiable, apparently, 

 from the account which he gives. They are, — 



1. That cholera was brought to Yport. 



2. That it was brought by insufficiently disinfected 

 clothing, soiled by cholera dejecta. 



3. That, after this clothing was washed, it became 

 the agent of severe and rapid contamination. 



4. That the cholera was propagated, by means of 

 contagion, from house to house, without its being 

 possible to attribute a single ca«e to the transporta- 

 tion of the speefiic germ by the air. 



5. That the sanitary measures taken, although 

 incomplete, inasmuch as it was not possible to sepa- 

 rate the sick from the well, were sufficient to stamp 

 out the epidemic. 



6. That the complete destruction of the cholera 

 dejecta, and the disinfection or destruction of all ef- 

 fects soiled by them, seem to be sufficient to stamp 

 out an epidemic of the disease, when it has not at- 

 tained too great proportions. 



7. That contagion by the air (the common accepta- 

 tion of the term) appears to be an error; for at Yport 

 three nuns and three physicians, or students in med- 

 icine, lived for a month under the most favorable 



: Revue scient., Dec. 6, 1884, No. 2"., p. 724. 



conditions for taking the disease by this channel. 

 They all escaped, with no further precautions than 

 taking their meals at a distance from the cholera 

 patients, and avoiding the handling of moist and 

 soiled clothing. 



8. The question of water has no bearing in this 

 case, for the very good reason that the Yportais never 

 drink any. 



AN AMERICAN COMMUNE. 



There is at present a wide-spread feeling, 

 both among scholars and men of affairs, that 

 the time has come for an abandonment of that 

 economic method which consisted largely in 

 verbal qnibbles and scholastic controversies 

 about definitions of conceptions, and for a sub- 

 stitution in its place of a careful examination 

 into the phenomena of this wonderful life of 

 man in society which has received so little at- 

 tention from science. The question is asked, 

 " Why not study economic phenomena as we 

 stud}' the phenomena of plant or animal life? " 

 And surely it seems as interesting and as im- 

 portant to observe the social life of man as that 

 of ants in an ant-hill. It was with this convic- 

 tion that Dr. Shaw undertook the preparation 

 of this little volume on Icaria ; and he was 

 full}' conscious of the fact that he was treating 

 communism from a new stand-point, as is shown 

 by these words taken from the preface : - — 



" A great number of books and articles have been 

 written in recent years, discussing socialism and com- 

 munism in the abstract ; . . . and there would be no 

 reason for the present monograph if it also undertook 

 to enter the field of general discussion. Such is not 

 its purpose or plan. Certainly the most common de- 

 fect in the current literature of social and political 

 questions -consists in the tendency to generalize too 

 hastily. Too little diligence is given to searching for 

 the facts of history, and to studying with minute at- 

 tention the actual experiences of men. In the follow- 

 ing pages an attempt is made to present the history 

 of a single communistic enterprise; . . . to picture 

 its inner life as a miniature social and political or- 

 ganism; to show what are, in actual experience, the 

 difficulties which a communistic society encounters; 

 and to show by a series of pen-portraits what manner 

 of men the enterprise has enlisted." 



To prepare himself for his task, Dr. Shaw 

 read the works of the French communist Cabet, 

 the founder of Icaria, the publications of other 

 Icarians, and passed a week with them. This 

 volume is, then, a careful study, conducted in 

 the spirit of modern science. 



Icaria, with its romantic and interesting his- 

 tory, is an example of pure communism, and 

 as such has important lessons to teach. 



Icaria : a chapter in the history of communism. By Albert 

 Shaav, Ph.D. New York and London, G. I'. Putnam's Sons, 

 1884. 9 + 219 p. 16*. 



