JuxE 23, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



955 



950 species of native and naturalized forms 

 being noted, including seven indigenous 

 palms, several figs and thirty orchids. Many- 

 species are shared with the United States, but 

 most of our deciduous forest trees are want- 

 ing. The important geographical element of 

 distance shows its effect in the less number of 

 continental plants in the southern than in the 

 northern islands. Although the yellow fever 

 mosquito was found, thus making a properly 

 screened quarantine desirable at Xassau, the 

 absence of Anopheles indicates that, from the 

 standpoint of malarial diseases, the islands 

 are a good health resort; on a later page, the 

 islands are described as favorable for con- 

 sumptive cases also. The only marine forms 

 described in detail are fishes; these are noted 

 as having a popular interest for the tourist 

 because of their extraordinary colors and 

 forms, well seen when watched through the 

 floor of a glass-bottomed boat. Of reptiles 

 and batrachians, no less than 22 out of 35 

 species and subspecies are restricted to the 

 islands. Forty-four endemic species of birds, 

 out of a total of 204 species and subspecies, 

 are described in detail in their bearing on the 

 derivation of the Bahaman avifauna. Only 

 eight mammals are found whose presence is 

 not certainly due to man; these include rats, 

 mice, the rat-like hutia, raccoons and bats. 



The chapter on sanitary conditions is of 

 unusual and pitiful interest. Some of the 

 islands have only white inhabitants; some 

 have nearly all blacks; others are variously 

 mixed as to race. The island of Xew Provi- 

 dence, on which Xassau is situated, has a 

 well-civilized mixed population; the island of 

 Andros, the largest of the group, has a rela- 

 tively barbarous population of blacks. The 

 islands of only white population have many 

 degenerates. At Hopetown there has been an 

 excessive amount of intermarriage, and al- 

 though the original stock was good, the pres- 

 ent condition is deplorable, the climax being 

 found in a family of eight children, of whom 

 five are idiots. An instructive genealogical 

 tree is given in connection with this case. 

 Leprosy is not uncommon, but except at Xas- 

 sau there is no isolation of those suffering 

 from this dread disease. The expedition was 



provided with an excellent medical outfit, and 

 at each town a free dispensary was established 

 during the stay there. The people were timid 

 at first, but after gaining confidence they 

 came in throngs; when the party had to re- 

 turn to the schooner, it was with difficulty 

 that the outfit was packed up, and a way 

 forced through the crowd; the more deter- 

 mined invalids followed on boats, climbed on 

 board the schooner and begged to be cared 

 for. A special account is given of the most 

 important diseases met with. 



The chapter on the history of the islands 

 is a book of 160 pages in itself. After brief 

 description of the early buccaneering days, 

 special attention is given to the problems of 

 slavery, with sufficient indication of the 

 wretched treatment that too often occurred, 

 and little illustration of the obsolete argu- 

 ment that the conditions of the blacks was 

 then better than under freedom. Yet to-day 

 the condition of the people must certainly be 

 low, for one of the governors, recently ap- 

 pointed by the crown, thinks that there is not 

 enough good material in the islands to provide 

 the twenty-nine members of the l^slature 

 which is to share the government with him. 

 " What is wanted here," says the governor, 

 " is a system based on that so ably conducted 

 by l[r. Booker Washington, at Tuskegee, 

 Alabama, United States of America, and until 

 that or some similar scheme based upon indus- 

 trial training as the main factor in the educa- 

 tional method is adopted, I fear that no im- 

 provement in the condition of the large native 

 population in this colony will be manifested." 

 In view of all this, one must conclude that the 

 islands, with their mild and attractive climate 

 and the beauty of their oceanic setting, must, 

 nevertheless, be taken as illustrating the un- 

 fortunate and depressing consequences of 

 monotony and isolation. 



W. M. D. 



SOCIETIES AXD ACADEMIES. 



THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHES"GTOX. 



The 602d meeting was held May 13, 1905. 



3Ir. L. W. Austin read a paper on ' The 

 Specific Heat of Gases at High Temperatures,' 

 describing experiments made by Professor Hoi- 



