April 9, 1886.] 



SCIENCE. 



335 



limestone simultaneously with the precipitation 

 of the metallic salts. 



In chapter vi. a very interesting comparison is 

 drawn between the silver-lead deposits of Eureka 

 and those of Leadville and other localities in 

 America and Europe, but no exact counterpart 

 of these remarkable ore-bodies is anywhere dis- 

 covered. 



SEWERAGE AXD HEALTH. 



Mr. Erwx\~ F. Smith, in the Annual report of 

 the Michigan state board of health, has shown 

 the beneficial effects of thorough systems of 

 sewerage on the health and mortality of cities. 

 The work is based upon a large amount of data, 

 chiefly drawn from European cities owing to the 

 paucity and imperfection of American statistics. 

 The author accepts the system of water-carriage 

 as altogether the safest and best. A comparison 

 of fifteen ]arge cities without sewerage, with as 

 many sewered, shows a remarkable difference in 

 mortality. Thus in the first series the average 

 death-rate was 35.8 per thousand inhabitants, 

 while in the latter it was only 26. One of the 

 most striking instances is that afforded by Chicago, 

 where the death-rate has fallen off from 37.91 to 

 21.40, with the use of good water-sewerage. In 

 the majority of cases, like results have been ob- 

 served, and in only a few has the mortality re- 

 mained unchanged. In England the decrease 

 within late years in general mortality has been, 

 perhaps, most noticeable, and in no country does 

 sewerage receive greater attention. Most espe- 

 cially is there a direct connection observed between 

 good sewerage and typhoid-fever and cholera. 

 In Munich the mortality from the former of these 

 causes has decreased from 1.82 to .17 per each 

 thousand inhabitants. In Berlin, since 1879, the 

 typhoid mortality has fallen off two-thirds ; and 

 it was further found, that, out of every 43 non- 

 sewered houses, there was one death, as against 

 137 houses that were sewered. New York and 

 Brooklyn have the best water-supply and general 

 sewerage system of any of our large cities, and 

 the death-rate from typhoid-fever has been 

 correspondingly low, — in New York, during the 

 last decade, only .28 ; and in Brooklyn, .15. Con- 

 trasting these figures with those of some large 

 non-sewered cities, a remarkable difference is ap- 

 parent. In Palermo and Turin, with defective 

 water-supplies, the deaths from this cause were as 

 many as 1.2 and .8. In St. Petersburg, without any 

 proper disposition of sewage, the mortality was 

 1.06 in 1883, and .93 in 1884. It may be well to 



The influence of sewerage and water-supply on the death- 

 rate in cities. By E. F. Smith. Lansing, State, 1885. 8°. 



mention, that, in general, Russian mortality is 

 frightfully high, in some provinces reaching 62 

 per thousand. With cholera similar results bring 

 the conclusions that unsewered cities suffer se- 

 verely, while sewered cities escape, and that locali- 

 ties subject to typhoid-fever are the ones likely to 

 be visited by cholera. This last is especially sig- 

 nificant, and behooves the earnest attention, at 

 the present time, from American cities where the 

 known typhoid mortality is great. As regards 

 diphtheria, the author concludes from the study 

 of abundant data that there is no direct relation 

 between them. Finally, the author concludes that 

 "it is entirely within bounds to say that the 

 general introduction of proper sanitary measures, 

 meaning thereby the provision of an abundant 

 supply of pure water and the proper disposal of 

 excreta, would reduce the annual loss in the 

 United States from one single cause, the pre- 

 ventable typhoid-fever, in money value, at least 

 $25,000,000 a year, — enough, in the course of a 

 few generations, to sewer every city and village 

 from the Atlantic to the Pacific." 



ABBOT'S SCIENTIFIC THEISM. 



Dr. Abbot's purpose is to expound a theory ac- 

 cording to which the universe is the direct mani- 

 festation of the indwelling thought of God, — "a 

 universe in which the adoring Kepler might well 

 exclaim in awe unspeakable, ' O God ! I think 

 Thy thoughts after Thee,' — a universe which is 

 the eternally objectified Divine Idea, illumining 

 the human intellect, inspiring the human con- 

 science, warming the human heart" (p. 214). 

 This theory he regards as the best expression of 

 the outcome of scientific thought, and he accord- 

 ingly seeks to present his doctrine in close rela- 

 tion to the facts of scientific experience. Science, 

 namely, discovers in the world objective relations, 

 and finds these relations united in more or less 

 completely understood groups or systems ; science 

 therefore, thinks Dr. Abbot, properly concludes 

 that the world as a whole must be one rationally 

 comprehensible system of relations. But a com- 

 prehensible system of relations is, he affirms, in- 

 conceivable apart from an intelligence that creates 

 the system or that expresses itself in this system : 

 hence the world must not only be intelligible, but 

 intelligent; and therefore " the universe per se is 

 an infinite self-consciousness " (p. 155). This, in 

 the briefest summary, is Dr. Abbot's positive doc- 

 trine. 



Organic scientific philosophy. Scientific theism. By 

 Francis Ellingwood Abbot, Ph.D. Boston, Little, Brown 

 <& Co., 1885. 16°. 



