i884-j Analyses of Books. 551 
Siberia, and other regions where malaria is unknown ? We 
admit, however, that dirty people are less generally attacked by 
bugs, fleas, &c., than such as are thoroughly clean. We know, 
also, on unquestionable authority that tropical districts free from 
malaria are free from mosquitoes. A friend of ours, who 
spent some years on the West Coast of Africa, found that pro- 
tection from mosquitoes meant practically protection from fever. 
Mr. G. K. Gilbert, in a paper on the “ Response of Terrestrial 
Climate to Secular Variations in Solar Radiation,” sustains in a 
quantitative discussion, the proposition that an increase of solar 
radiation does not augment but diminishes glaciation. Such 
rise, though it increases total precipitation, diminishes snow- 
fall, .and very greatly increases the rate of melting. 
Mr. J. W. Chickering read a most interesting paper on the 
“ Thermal L cits of North Carolina.” The general opinion is 
that in one and the same district the temperature decreases 
gradually and regularly with increasing altitude. The late S. 
McDowell, of Franklin, Macon County, North Carolina, a dili- 
gent observer in botany and geology, states that in the valley of 
the Little Tennesee River, lying about 2000 feet above the sea- 
level, when the thermometer in the morning indicates a tempera- 
ture of about 26° F. the frost line extends about 300 feet in vertical 
height, but then comes a belt extending about 400 feet in vertical 
height upon the mountain side within which no frost is seen, 
delicate plants remaining untouched. Above this the frost re- 
appears. Mr. McDowell thinks that such belts exist in all 
countries traversed by high mountains and deep valleys. 
Another such belt has been traced for eight miles along the 
Tryon mountain-range in North Carolina, extending between 
the altitudes of 1200 and 2200 feet. Within this belt vegetation 
remains untouched by frost until the latter part of December, 
and snow does not lie within the belt when the country both 
above and below is covered. 
Mr. E. J. Farquhar, in a paper on “ Dreams in their Relation 
with Psychology,” discussed several theories of dreams, and 
found none of them quite satisfactory. He dissented from the 
opinion that the dream-state is devoid of originating power. He 
considered that all the aspects of the mind were capable of dis- 
playing themselves in dreams— judgment and moral sense less 
than others. This he explains on the principle that conservation 
and the struggle for existence apply among the mental faculties. 
Hence the true character of the mind may be seen more clearly 
by means of dreams than when awake. 
Mr. W. B. Taylor, in a memoir on the “ Rings of Saturn,” 
maintained that all the planets, without exception, have lost a 
very large amount of rotatory energy, which may be chiefly 
ascribed to the retarding effeCts of internal friction from solar 
tides. 
Mr. A. G. Bell gave a very interesting communication on 
