I884.J 
Analyses of Books. 
not merely the silting up of streams formerly navigable, but the 
increase of floods — one of the many evils with which our farmers 
have to contend. 
Two important papers, “ Is Enteric Fever ever Spontaneously 
Generated?” and “The Dissemination of Zymotic Disease 
among the Public by Tradespeople,” suggest reflections not 
altogether pleasant. It must be admitted thatwe have in these en- 
lightened days agencies for the transmission of infectious diseases 
unknown to our forefathers. Our public conveyances, our loan 
libraries, our distribution of tracts and circulars, and (if we may 
presume to utter such heresy) our School Boards, are all 
admirable devices for this purpose. It seems that according to 
the existing law a shop or a publichouse may remain open whilst 
there is zymotic disease on the premises, and the very persons 
who nurse the sick may attend to customers. We remember 
being much shocked, about twenty years ago, at discovering that 
in a back room, separated from a shop merely by a curtain, there 
was a case of malignant typhus. But the facts stated by the 
author — far too many for us to quote — are, if possible, even 
worse. He has detected a dairyman washing out cans with 
“ most offensive sewage-water,” and milking his cows into a 
pail which resembled a filthy pigs’ bucket. He asks why dairies 
cannot be placed under sanitary inspection as well as slaughter- 
houses ? Why indeed ? 
We should strongly advise all who wish to have healthy homes 
to read Dr. Fox’s little pamphlet. They will then see that as 
long as things remain in their present condition there is small 
cause to wonder if small pox, scarlet fever, and the like penetrate 
into families where, as far as is known, all the conditions of 
health are observed. 
The Principles and Practice of Electric Lighting. By Alan A. 
Campbell Swinton. London : Longmans and Co. 
This work, the author tells us, is intended to meet the wants of 
persons who use, or wish to use, the light, and of “the 
general scientific public who take an interest in all new disco- 
veries and inventions.” He avoids therefore, as far as possible, 
technicalities, and describes merely such machines and appli- 
ances as are of approved practical value. 
After an Introduction, in which the apparently slow progress 
of electric lighting is discussed, Mr. Swinton considers the theory 
of electric lighting, and explains certain technical terms which 
are practically indispensable. He then proceeds to an account 
of electrical, mechanical, and photometrical measurements. The 
