OCTOBEB 30, 1885.] 



SCIENCE. 



375 



Milk has also many times been the medium 

 thi'ough which the typhoid poison has been dis- 

 seminated. Impure water has been used to wash 

 out the milk-cans, if, indeed, it has not served 

 other purposes, and the milk has thus become in- 

 fected. A striking example of this medium of 

 contagion was the outbreak of typhoid at Maryle- 

 bone, London. Witliin a few weeks 123 families 

 were attacked. Mr. Radcliffe traced the cause of 

 this outbreak to milk, which came from a par- 

 ticular farm on wliich "water used for dairy pur- 

 poses contained excremental matters from a 

 patient suffering from enteric fever, immediately 

 before and at the time of the outbreak." 



Epidemics occurring at Edinburgh, Glasgow, 

 Bristol, and Dublin have also been ti'aced to milk. 

 These facts should sth- up all health officials to the 

 vital importance of the most rigid scrutiny of the 

 milk supplied to the people under their charge, 

 and should lead our judges to inflict the severest 

 penalties upon those detected in the adulteration 

 of tills most essential food. 



That this disease may be contracted by those 

 who nurse the sick is possible, but if this ever 

 occurs it is extremely rare. The discharges from 

 the intestine are believed to contain the infective 

 material; and in the present state of our knowledge 

 to bury these discharges in the ground, or to cast 

 them into the sewer without previous disinfection, 

 must be looked upon as criminal. It is not diflB- 

 cult to understand that the infective material of 

 such undisinfected discharges may cling to the 

 interior of drain pipes and sewers, and through 

 defective plumbing find admission to the dwell- 

 ing and sleeping rooms of the well. This is doubt- 

 less the explanation of the origin of those cases 

 which are ascribed to sewer-gas. 



Typhoid fever is eminently a disease of the 

 autumn, and its greater prevalence at this season 

 of the year is attributed by some to the decay of 

 vegetation ; others claim to have found its preva- 

 lence to depend upon the rise and fall of the gi'ound 

 water. Just how far these conditions affect the 

 prevalence of the fever is a matter of conjecture, 

 and as they are entirely beyond our control we 

 must in our endeavor towards prevention and re- 

 striction pay strict attention to cleanliness in all 

 its forms, and especially to the thorough disinfec- 

 tion of the discharges from patients. For this 

 purpose the committee on disinfectants of the 

 American public health association recommend 

 solutions of chloride of lime, of chlorinated soda, 

 or of bichloride of mercury. 



In our cities the typhoid patients are largely re- 

 cruited from the ranks of those of ample means, 

 who during the summer spend their time in the 

 country, and often at the most fashionable water- 



ing places. It is notorious that these resorts are, 

 as a rule, unsanitary in their appointments. The 

 crowding of human beings in such places, with 

 the consequent accumulation of human waste, 

 would, it would seem, help to account for the 

 large representation of typhoid fever victims in 

 the ranks of their patrons. A study of typhoid 

 cases with reference to this point would be inter- 

 esting and doubtless instructive. 



MAN AND THE MASTODON. 



The finding of the tusks, teeth, and portions of 

 the skull of a mastodon last November in North- 

 borough, Worcester county, Mass., has led to the 

 important discovery of a human skull, in close 

 connection with the remains of the mastodon. 

 The facts briefly stated are as foUows : Mr. Wm. 

 U. Maynard, while having a ditch dug through a 

 peat bog on his farm in Northborough, near the 

 Shrewsbury line, last November, found portions 

 of the skull and teeth of a mastodon lying on the 

 hard pan under eight feet of peat. The specimens 

 were exhibited to the members of the Worcester 

 society of natural history and Worcester society of 

 antiquity, by Dr. F. W. Brigham, to whom they 

 had been given by Mr. Maynard. The teeth were 

 afterwards taken to Cambridge by Mr. Thomas A. 

 Dickinson, an officer of the Natural history society, 

 and were pronounced by Mr. J. A. Allen, of the 

 Museum of comparative zoology, to be those of a 

 mastodon about two-thirds grown. An account 

 of the discovery was written soon after by JNIr. 

 Franklin P. Rice of Worcester, and printed by 

 the natural history society. A figiu-e of one of 

 the teeth is given. 



Early in the present month, arrangements were 

 made with Mr. Maynard by members of the two 

 societies named, acting under the direction of Dr. 

 W. H. Raymenton, president of the natural history 

 society, to make further excavations in the peat 

 bog for the purpose of finding the rest of the bones 

 of the mastodon. While digging eighteen feet to 

 the southwest from the spot where the mastodon 

 skull was found the preceding season, the work- 

 men exposed the top of a human skull, which was 

 at once taken up by Dr. Raymenton, who was 

 superintending the work ; and he states that the 

 skuU, which he worked out of the enclosing peaty 

 matrix with his fingers, was resting on its basal 

 portion directly on the blue clay and stones. The 

 under jaw was found, teeth downward, about 

 eight inches to the south of the skuU, and in im- 

 mediate contact with the clay. The evidence of 

 several witnesses is conclusive on these points. 



Dr. Raymenton and Mr. Dickinson immediately 

 informed me by letter of the discovery ; but, owing 



