NEW YORK, DECEMBER 2, 1892.

IMMUNITY FROM LEPROSY OF THE FIFTH GENERATION.

BY ALBERT S. ASHMEAD, M.D., NEW YORK.

THERE is a fact which, I believe, bears very directly and very strongly upon the subject of non-contagion of leprosy. It is recognized by all Oriental leprologists that every child of a leper has an inheritance of the disease, but diminished, and that after the fourth generation, if no healthy blood intervenes, the disease is entirely extinguished. There is about these matters a very interesting law in China, and consequently in Japan, the latter being, in spite of its western civilization endeavors, much more submissive to Chinese traditions than to European ideas. I find it expressed in Virchow's Archives by Dr. Friedel, in the following words:

"No marriage with children of leprous parents is allowed. If leprosy appears in a family formerly clean, all betrothals and contracts of marriage previously entered into are rescinded as a matter of course. Only when the betrothed or married persons suffer of the same degree and type of leprosy, for instance, if they are both of the fourth degree of generation, the alliance stands. Only equal degrees of age of the morbid cases are allowed to connect themselves by marriage. A leper of the fourth generation, even if he no longer shows any external marks of the disease, can only marry a woman of the same degree of age of the disease: their offspring is free from leprosy, and no longer forbidden human intercourse."

Here we have, then, a perfect immunity acquired in four generations, and the fifth generation restores the health of the race. There is certainly a connection between this extinction of the disease and the present immunity of Europe, after that part of the world had been a prey to leprosy during several centuries of the middle ages. Evidently in the west, simple isolation has unconsciously accomplished in the lapse of time what a rational legislation tries to bring about in the east. This legislation has probably preserved the populations of China and of the east in general from entire destruction. I do not mean to say that the rule is always and carefully adhered to, because in that case the disease would be extinct now; but the rule is sufficiently known, and sufficiently adhered to, to make its salutary consequences felt.

Isolation then, and exhaustion of the pathological principle, after the course of four generations, are the only methods known to us of acquiring immunity. Wherever the disease still exists, it is the violation of that law, with which all the Oriental priests and doctors are so familiar, that has kept it alive. I had occasion about a year ago to speak of these matters, at a time when there was very much and very silly newspaper talk about the danger arising from the presence of a few poor leprous Chinamen in New York. I beg permission to reproduce here my whole article which I sent at that time to the Tribune, and which was published Aug. 9, 1891.

"The recent appearance of several Chinese lepers in New York, and the fact that they are permitted to pursue their avocation for a time, at least, among us, suggests to me the following points which it may be useful to consider in our conduct towards individuals of that kind, which the abundant flow of immigration may bring to our shores:

"1. Leprosy in China is very frequent; in the province of Quangtung, of which Canton is the capital, alone, there are at least 10,000 lepers; in all the maritime provinces of the South it rages with the greatest intensity. It abounds, also, in Hankow, Central China. Outside of Canton, in its province, there are many

leper villages, also along the Yang-tse-Kiang, as has been noted by several European observers. As to the interior of China, our knowledge of leprosy, of course, is derived solely from indigenous information. We know that the disease is more frequent In Quang-tung, Quang-sae, Hoonan, and Fuh-kun. In Pekin leprosy is rare. It is a generally admitted fact that it has not spread beyond the regions where it is established. Of course, it should be a rule at San Francisco to obtain information as to the part of China where the Mongolian immigrant comes from, if such a thing is possible. At any rate, might not a certificate of health be required of him?

"2. The Chinese believe that the disease may be communicated by the contamination of food. This generally received opinion must seem to us strange at first; but the fact that the leprobacillus is found in greater abundance in the mucous membranes about the mouth, throat, and nose lends it a certain degree of plausibility. Now, the Chinese established among us preserve, as everybody knows, all the customs of their own country. One of these customs consists in grouping together and eating their rice from the same bowl with those chopsticks which are promiscuously used by the whole house. If there is really something in the Chinese views of food infection, the necessity of isolating a leper from his countrymen is evident.

"3. The Chinese Government believes that leprosy is contagious, but it does not seem as if the people shared in this belief. There are asylums to isolate lepers all around Canton; laws and regulations have been issued with the same views. Yet, in spite of the regulations, the leper may enter any city by paying a certain sum of money, which goes to the leper fund. Altogether the Chinese act as if they did not believe in contagion. Nobody thinks of refusing to buy from a leprous huckster; provisions are bought fearlessly in the store of a leprous caterer. The disease, we may therefore admit, cannot easily be communicated by contact. Yet if there is any danger in contact, then we may be sure that the Chinese among us, true to their traditional customs, as they are, will do nothing to diminish it.

"4. But even the Chinese believe, with many other Eastern nations, that leprosy is communicated by cohabitation. Their laws recognize this fact. Some strange superstitions show how much the people are convinced of it. It is a belief among the leprous women of China that a woman affected with leprosy can be cured by cohabitation with healthy males. Whether we admit the Chinese theory, or are inclined to doubt it, we cannot absolutely condemn it, and therefore should not legal obstacles be put in the way of such intercourse between the two races? At any rate a leprous Chinese should under all circumstances be sent back to his own country.

"5. To allow the leprous male intercourse with healthy women is simply to strengthen and nourish the lepro-bacillus. The strength of the latter is gradually attenuated as lepers breed with other lepers, so that after a certain number of generations the obligate parasite is extinguished. This is the law of hereditary transmissibility, which has influenced all Oriental legislation, inasmuch as marriage between recognized lepers is permitted, while between a leper and a healthy person it is prohibited. This tendency to further disease, produced by the admixture of healthy elements, may not be apparent at the first forthcoming generation. The disease sometimes skips a generation or two and remains latent, until the third or fourth, perhaps, it meets with susceptible material. As long as there is a leper here, unrestrained in his actions, there is evidently danger of his perpetuating the disease among us.

"6. It must not be believed that we are absolutely and under all circumstances safe from leprosy. It is true that European residents in China, even where their contact with the natives is very close, catch the disease only when they un-Europeanize themselves altogether, that is, eat and live with the natives on

the most intimate terms. But then, under these circumstances, they catch the disease. As there is no danger here of such identification of the two races, we need no protection from a board of health for our own persons; but if some restraint is not put upon the intercourse of the races future generations, even here, may have to pay for the imprudence of their fathers. It seems to me that it is the duty of our National Board of Health to send back to their own country the lepers who have it now in their power to poison several generations and to establish a horrible disease, to be exempted from which we have considered hitherto a precious privilege, and thanked God for it."

It follows from all that I have said that the danger from leprosy does not arise from any contagious action, but from the continual redintegration of the disease, which results from the intercourse of lepers with healthy individuals. Contrary-wise to what would happen in syphilis, this intercourse strengthens and perpetuates the evil. As a matter of fact, no greater difference can be imagined in the etiology of two diseases than that which exists between leprosy and syphilis. I may here call the attention of all dermatologists to the well-known Colles law. According to that law, a woman who bears a child to a syphilitic man acquires perfect immunity from syphilis. Now, nobody doubts, either in China or Japan, that a leprous woman bearing a child to a healthy father acquires some measure of immunity; while the child receives and transmits the susceptibility. This is a fact diametrically opposed to those which are included in Colles law.

An assimilation, in whatever degree of leprosy and syphilis, has been made by many otherwise acute observers. Yet, what a difference in regard to contagiousness; for instance, there is in the fact that one disease, breaking out at the age of puberty, spares the race, while the other congenital, appearing with the appearance of the individual himself (both parents being supposed to be syphilitic) would destroy the race. In leprosy the intervention of pure blood acts as a nourishment to the disease; in syphilis, it attenuates the virus. The attenuation of germs, when they are allowed their regular course, seems to me to be of more general application. It is believed in Japan, that a child of parents who enjoy immunity from small-pox, by having had the disease, possesses itself a natural immunity (not a perfect immunity) transmitted to it. This was the greatest obstacle to the introduction of vaccination into Japan: artificial immunity of the parents, they said, would interfere with the natural power of resistance of the child. Variolization (if I may coin the word) and syphilization were always popular in Japan, in consequence of these same traditions. The complete devitalization of our introduced vaccine virus, after a certain series of inoculations, when a new virus had to be imported, proves that these Orientals were right. The devitalization of the germ of syphilis, which has occurred in Japan, after thirteen centuries of syphilitic inoculation, proves also that a natural immunity is acquired by the very transmission of the disease.

Let me say now what I believe must be rationally deduced from all I have said: What is generally called contagiousness does not essentially belong to the disease itself, it is entirely in the individual who contracts it. Its measure is that of the resistance of the individual or of the race. In four generations of lepers, regulated as I have said, the power of resistance becomes complete. In an unconscious, blundering, mediæval way, the resistance has been acquired by Europe. There is no place for the idea of contagion in these facts.

THE INFLUENCE OF THE MOON ON RAINFALL A SYMPOSIUM.

I. BY MANSFIELD MERRIMAN, PH.D., LEHIGH UNIVERSITY, SOUTH BETHLEHEM, PA.

THE widespread notion regarding the influence of the moon on the weather has probably some slight validity. The dispersion of clouds in mountainous regions under the influence of a full moon has been noted by several observers, as also the peculiar movement of thunder-storms. Yet little evidence, except of a negative character, has been derived by a discussion of rainfall statistics, although the rainfall is an element probably quite as

liable to be influenced by the moon's changes as other elements. A series of observations, suitable in all respects for such discussion, is indeed difficult to find. The mean daily rainfall for a locality of wide area is not adapted to this purpose, for the moon's influence cannot be supposed to be the same under different topographical conditions. Even the daily records of rainfall at a single station may not be good ones if changes occur from time to time in surrounding buildings and trees, or if the gauge is placed at different positions in different years.

The observations of rainfall, taken at Bethlehem, Pa., by Mr. F. E. Luckenbach, during 1881-1890, are selected as the basis of a brief discussion, and they are believed to be free from the objections above noted. The amount of rainfall in each year was obtained for the day of new moon and for each of the three days preceding and following, and also for the other quarters. For each year a curve of rainfall throughout a lunar month of 28 days could then be drawn, and these curves were combined in various ways to endeavor to ascertain the features common to all of them. The following conclusions were derived: First, the new moon is liable to be followed by an increase in rainfall; second, the full moon is liable to be followed by a decrease in rainfall; third, the wettest period is generally at and preceding the full moon; and, fourth, the driest period is generally at and preceding the first quarter. These conclusions are, in general, most plainly marked in the years of least rainfall.

The first conclusion, that the rainfall is liable to increase after new moon, is perhaps the one most prominently observed in the curves for all the years. The frequency of rain, as shown by the number of days on which rainfall occurred, was also found to follow the same law. In the following table are given for each of the years the amount of rainfall on the two days before and on the two days after the day of new moon, as also the number of rainy days for each period. The number of new moons embraced in the table is 124, and in the last two columns are shown the number of times that this first conclusion was verified and the number of times that the opposite fact occurred. It is seen that every year except 1889 agrees with the conclusion as exhibited in the Rainfall for Two Days before and Two Days after New Moon.

The third and fourth conclusions, that the wettest period in the lunar month is near and before full moon, and that the driest period is near and before first quarter, are distinctly marked in the several mean curves. The mean result for the ten years is that 6.1 per cent of the rainfall occurred on the day of the first quarter and the two days before, while 13.3 per cent occurred on the day of the full moon and the two days before. In inches of rainfall the results for these two periods for several groups of years are as follows:

1885, there is a short paper, in which it is shown that over this country as a whole there is a preponderance of thunder-storms during the new moon. While in New Haven, Conn., special research on this question showed that in that place there was, from 1873 to 1880, nearly a half more rain just before and after new moon than full moon. A farther investigation for this whole country, also for 100 years at London, England, gave a negative result; that is, no effect from the phases of the moon. In 1889 an investigation on the lower California coast gave a preponderance of rain during full moon.

It has occurred to me that it would be advisable to calculate the data at Philadelphia, Pa., which is not far from Bethlehem, for this question. I first computed the data for fifteen years, 1871-1885, and afterward for the ten years 1882-1891, with the result given in the accompanying table:

1881-1890

--

Amount of rain day of and two days before and after.

1886-1890

These figures, like those previously given, indicate that the maximum rainfall occurs near full moon, and the minimum near the first quarter. It is impossible indeed to avoid the conclusion that at Bethlehem, Pa., during the years 1881-1890, the distribution of the mean rainfall seems to have been arranged with respect to the changes of the moon. If the moon really influences the weather it is to be expected that a connection will also be observed in other records, but it cannot be expected that the maximum and minimum rainfall in the lunar month will be similarly situated in all cases with respect to the times of change. I venture further the suggestion that, if the moon affects the rainfall, the greatest influence will probably be found in connection with thunder storms and local showers.

II.—BY H. A. HAZEN, WASHINGTON, D.C.

THERE is hardly an idea regarding the weather so firmly rooted and so widespread as this, that the moon has a rather marked effect in bringing about its changes. This paper by Professor Merriman is a very interesting contribution to the subject. I desire to add a little to what he says, as his conclusions are not the same as those reached by myself. This matter has been thoroughly investigated in England and Europe with a negative result, except that there seems to be a slight influence of the moon, or perhaps the tide, on the occurrence of thunder-storms, and that the full moon seems to have power to drive away clouds. All the feasts and festivals in Germany are at the time of full moon. This, however, may be as much for the benefit of the light as the lack of rain. In the U. S. Monthly Weather Review for October,

1 As Prof. Merriman's paper has not been seen, this must be regarded as an independent discussion of the subject and not a reply to that.-H. A. H.

It will be seen that in the first period of fifteen years there is a preponderance of rain at the time of new moon, which corroborates the result previously obtained at New Haven. In the second period, for the three days about each phase the result is similar to that of Professor Merriman, though the difference of two inches between new and full moon is very slight. When we take the five days about each phase, however, we see that the new moon has 13.5 inches more rain than the full. I do not advance these figures as proving any influence whatever. It must be almost inappreciable if there is any at all.

A word may be added regarding the influence of the moon in driving away clouds. I have detected this apparent influence many times by closely watching the moon. Of course, if this is a fact, it would show that there must be a tendency to less rain at the time of full moon. It should be borne in mind, however, that the minimum of cloudiness occurs in the evening or before midnight, and this complicates the phenomenon.

RECENT BOTANICAL EXPLORATIONS IN IDAHO.

BY D. T. MACDOUGAL, LAFAYETTE, IND.

IN various parts of the region occupied by the ranges, spurs and foot-bills of the Rocky Mountains are large areas which have never been explored by the naturalist. The species of the flora and fauna of such regions can, to a great extent, be approximated by a knowledge of the contiguous territory, especially if a similarity of climate prevails, but in all cases every natural area of land, such as a river, valley, or mountain range, gives to its forms of plant and animal life certain differences from all forms found in other localities. If the differences are of sufficient importance, they will constitute new species, and in many cases whole groups or genera peculiar to a certain region are found.

The exploration of certain areas invariably brings to light numerous undescribed forms of both plants and animals besides affording valuable information on the distribution and variations of known forms.

At various times collections and observations on the flora of the Rocky Mountains have been made by attachés of geographical and geological surveys, and by the various parties engaged in the exploration and survey of railroad routes across the continent, by individual workers under the direction of the several divisions of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, by representatives of various scientific societies, and by collectors working entirely independently.

The amount accomplished in this way cannot easily be estimated, but it may be suggestive to know that "The Systematic and Alphabetic Index of New Species of North American Phanerogams and Pteridophytes," published in 1891 by Josephine A. Clark, "Contributions from U. S. National Herbarium," Vol. I.,

No. 5, shows that, during the year of 1891, 677 new species and 133 new varieties of flowering and fern-like plants were described. Perhaps one-third of these are simply old forms re-arranged, but these figures indicate that more than five hundred new forms among the higher plants, with no mention of the vast number of lower forms, have been discovered in this one year. Among the areas within the boundaries of the United States unexplored by the naturalist, may be mentioned north-western Montana, northern and central Idaho. These regions have been at various times penetrated by Hudson Bay trappers, missionaries, hunters, gold and silver prospectors, but our knowledge of the topography is comparatively meagre, and the best government maps are not even approximately correct, especially in central Idaho, with which this article is particularly concerned. In general, however, the following description obtains. (See map.) The broader southern portion consists in great part of the arid "sage" plains of the Snake River Basin. The surface is chiefly basaltic lava overlying porphyritic trachyte. This entire region is character

ized by excessive changes of temperature.

----ROUTE.

SCALE.

BOUNDARY LINE

100 MILES.

DRAWN 8T CB.PETERSON.

The central portion is a huge mountain mass upreared in places to a height of 13,000 feet, reaching far above timber-line and bearing extensive banks of perpetual snow.1

The jagged slopes are covered with forests of cone-bearing trees, with dense thickets of underbrush on the lower slopes. The principal formations are lava, granite, and forms of limestone and quartz.

The most prominent of the numerous short ranges comprised in this group are the Salmon River, Lost River, Clearwater, Sawtooth, Pahsimeroi, Craig, and Seven Devils Mountains. Extending northward along the eastern border and joining this central mass directly are the Bitter Root ranges passing northward into the Coeur d'Alene Mountains, leaving to the westward the semicircular basin drained by the Clearwater and Palouse Rivers and by the tributaries of Lake Coeur d'Alene.

North of the 48th parallel, Clark's Fork of the Columbia River cuts its way through the ranges and expands into Lake Pend d'Oreille, a cliff-encircled sheet of water, forty-five miles long and

1 Dr. C. H. Merriam, "North American Fauna," No. 5.

ten miles wide, with a depth of 1,800 to 2,500 feet. Northward, between the forks of the Columbia River, are the snow-capped mountains surrounding the elevated Lake Kaniksu.

For the season of 1892, Dr. Geo. L. Vasey, chief botanist of the Department of Agriculture, planned a survey of the basaltic basins of the Clearwater and Palouse Rivers, the country around the lakes Coeur d'Alene and Pend d'Oreille and the adjoining mountain ranges to the eastward, and, acting under the direction of Dr. Vasey, in accordance with this plan, a party of botanists composed of J. H. Sandberg, A. A. Heller, and D. T. MacDougal, with J. G. Brunswick in charge of camp, outfitted at Lewiston at the head of navigation of the Snake River, and went into camp on the north bank of the Koos-Kooskia or Clearwater River, April 23.

The camp equipment consisted of four native horses ("cayuses"), a mountain-wagon, harness, riding and pack saddles, a wedge tent for storage and sleeping-room, and a large wall tent for the routine work. To this may be added the usual number of woolen and rubber blankets, tarpaulins, cooking apparatus, medicine chest, fire-arms, etc. For the preparation of dried plants, 6,000 driers, 11 by 17 inches, and several times as many sheets of fine Manilla paper of the same size, were furnished; in addition, several packages of envelopes, for the reception of seeds and small plants; portfolios, tin boxes for collecting specimens, a varied assortment of picks and large knives for uprooting plants from soil and rocks; note-books for the accumulation of data concerning the habits and distribution of plants, and movements of the expedition, and an aneroid of doubtful accuracy and limited usefulness. The general plan of work was to pitch the main camp in a favorable location, generally near a stream or lake, where good forage, fuel, and water might easily be obtained. From this place as a centre, the immediate neighborhood within a radius of three or four miles would be worked over; this area would then be extended four to eight miles farther by the use of saddle animals, the collector returning to camp each day. Still more extended excursions, so far as 40 miles in some cases, were made by boats and pack-horses carrying the smallest necessary camp outfit and a minimum of apparatus.

All flowering plants collected for preservation were placed in the drying sheets on the same day on which collected, if possible, and a daily change of driers made until safely dried. These prepared specimens were then shipped to Washington whenever transportation was available.

After the region accessible to the camp had been thoroughly worked, the expedition would then move its entire equipment fifteen to fifty miles and pursue the same method. In this manner the route was carried from the first camp on the Clearwater River to the southern edge of its basin in the Craig Mountains about May 20, camp being made at Lake Waha. Up to this time the weather had been extremely unfavorable to field work and preparation of specimens, the journal showing that during the first twenty-five days rain and snow storms had been encountered on twenty-three of them, it being, however, practically the end of the rainy season. At Lake Waha (elevation 2,500) the nights were extremely cool, and on the slopes a few hundred feet above it were huge snow-banks, in many cases a dozen feet thick. From Waha the expedition retraced its steps to the Clearwater camp, then up the Clearwater and its northern tributary, Potlatch Creek, making two camps on this stream and its branches. From here the route was through well-settled districts northward to the south-western part of Lake Coeur d'Alene, which was reached July 2, camps having been made near Moscow, Viola, and on Pine Creek. The expedition was joined at Moscow by Mr. G. B. Aiton, who participated for three weeks in the excursions made to the lower ranges on the east and isolated buttes in the basin. From the camp at Farmington Landing numerous bays and tributaries were explored by boat, and, by aid of one of the small steamers plying here, an excursion was made up the Coeur d'Alene River, and half the party ascended the St. Joseph River to near the head of navigation, forming a temporary camp near the base of Wessner's Peak at the ranch of Mr. C. P. Reid. An ascent of the mountain was accomplished July 6. Ice was found on lake near the summit, while snow-fields were numerous

and extensive although its highest part is far below timber-line. The expedition moved across the lake and passed Coeur d'Alene City, making a short stop on the north bank of the Spokane River, then northward, across a stretch of level prairie and the Northern Pacific Railroad, to the foot of a group of mountains whose highest peak is called Mt. Carlton. Sucker, Tesemini, and Fish Lakes were visited and some ascents were made.

In the latter part of July the camp was carried to the southwestern part of Lake Pend d'Oreille and located on the ranch of Mr. J. Lieberg, a miner and botanical collector who was of material assistance to the expedition in the excursions with packhorses made from this point to the mountains near the headwaters of the North Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River and to the top of Packsaddle Mountain on the eastern shore of the lake. The work here was carried on under great difficulties. The mountain slopes are very irregular, traversed by numerous cross cañons and covered with forests of spruce, fir, and pines, which have been in many cases invaded by fires throwing to the ground thousands of trees with the trunks lying across at every conceivable angle, forming extensive breast works, which on the lower slopes are thickly grown with Ceanothus and higher with Menziesia so thickly as to form a nearly solid wall. A passage through such places was effected only by the liberal use of the axe — cutting small trees too near each other to permit the pack-loads to pass and logs too high to be taken by the pack animals. At times an animal would attempt to pass between rocks or trees narrower than the load, or loose its footing and roll to the bottom of the cañon below, necessitating a halt and rearrangement of loads. Such occurrences wrought many accidents to apparatus, material, and temper, and oftentimes made an advance of two or three miles a very creditable day's work.

Vast forest fires were raging at this time over northern Idaho, adjoining parts of Washington and Montana; all of the valleys, cañons, and lower levels were filled with a layer of smoke so that from the double crest of Pack saddle Mountain, the tops of the neighboring peaks, as far as the eye could reach, appeared as islands in this sea of pitchy fog. These fires are of widespread prevalence and of yearly occurrence, destroying thousands of acres of forest annually and threatening, in conjunction with the extensive snow slides that descend from the higher slopes, an almost entire destruction of the timber, forestalling, to some extent, the piratical timber-thieves that infest its borders.

The final work of the season was done from the northern end of the lake from near Hope, Idaho, and here at the end of the season the camp was broken and the corps returned eastward by rail. Briefly summarized. the results of the expedition are as follows: The basins of Lakes Coeur d'Alene and Pend d'Oreille and of the Clearwater and Palouse rivers were explored; the botanically unknown area in Central Idaho now being limited on the south by the Snake River basin, on the west by the Snake River and the basin explored. About 25,000 specimens of dried plants were collected, representing nearly 1,000 species, many of them undescribed forms. Valuable facts concerning general distribution of plants were obtained, since the area explored is one where the Rocky Mountain flora meets and intermingles with the Pacific coast flora in a very interesting manner, while the opportunity afforded by numerous mountain slopes for the furthering of some problems of vertical distribution was not neglected.

BIRDS THAT SING IN THE NIGHT.

BY DR. MORRIS GIBBS, KALAMAZOO, MICH.

WE have no regular night-singers in Michigan, and, so far as I am able to learn, America does not equal the Old World nightingale, although we have diurnal songsters which excel. The famous English naturalist, Gilbert White, records three species of birds which sing at night in the British Isles. They are the reed-sparrow, which sings among the reeds and willows, the woodlark, singing in mid-air, and the nightingale, as Milton describes it,

"In shadiest covert hid."

There are several species of owls which roll forth or screech out their notes at night, and also numerous shore-birds and water

fowl that issue their varied calls, and, especially these latter, are to be heard during the season of migration, as most birds are partial to night travel spring and autumn. Then, too, our well-known whip-poor-will confines his not unmusical, but monotonous jargon to the hours of darkness, while the scream of the night-hawk breaks on the ear between the setting and rising of the sun. But these birds are not, strictly speaking, songsters, although their notes undoubtedly fill their requirements as to harmony and expression.

The plain, domestic little chipping sparrow sometimes favors us with its simple reverberating chatter in the darkest of nights. The notes hardly deserve the name of song, but heard issuing from the surrounding gloom, the simple refrain commands our attention from its oddity at the unusual hour. The wood-peewee not rarely quavers forth its plaintive effort, sounding in the deep shade like a wail from a departed spirit. This favorite singer is a remarkably early riser, as he is also late in going to rest, and I have sometimes thought that his musical efforts at night were the result of an error on his part an idea strengthened by the fact that the notes are rarely heard more than once during the night, and moreover the song is only occasional.

Two others, which are sometimes heard to burst forth in ecstatic melody, are the hermit and Swainson's thrushes. They are transients in my locality, but nest to the north of us. If I could describe the songs of birds, so that others could appreciate them as I do, I would feel that a partial acknowledgment had been made to the divine melody issuing from these birds' throats.

We often hear that the best singers are the ones of plainest plumages, but this is assuredly not so in all instances. If one

is permitted to listen to the sweet song of the scarlet tanager in the night, it will be acknowledged that the brilliant coat of the songster does not compare in point of excellence to the owner's refrain.

These birds are the only species which sing during darkness, in Michigan, that I have met with, and not one of them is a regular night-songster.

NOTES AND NEWS.

THE College of Physicians of Philadelphia announces that the next award of the Alvarenga Prize, being the income for one year of the bequest of the late Señor Alvarenga, and amounting to about $180, will be made on July 14, 1893, providing that an essay deemed by the committee of award to be worthy of the prize shall have been offered. Essays intended for competition may be upon any subject in medicine, but cannot have been published, and must be received by the secretary of the college on or before May 1, 1893. The Alvarenga Prize for 1892 has been awarded to Dr. R. H. L. Bibb of Saltillo, Mexico, for his essay, entitled “Observations on the Nature of Leprosy."

-W. J. Waggener, Professor of Natural Philosophy, State University of Colorado, Boulder, writes: During the present year, I have tried the experiment of making diagrams and pictures for projection by the magic and the solar lantern by printing the same with the ordinary printing press and engraved blocks, on sheets of transparent gelatine. The results were gratifying even beyond the expectations which I had long entertained for the process. It is safe to say that by this means excellent lantern-slides from diagrams and engravings of nearly if not quite all kinds can be made and multiplied as rapidly and almost as cheaply as paper prints. Having assured myself of the usefulness and the novelty of the process, I wish that its use may bring the unlimited benefits and pleasures of projected pictures to many who cannot afford the more expensive ones now in use. Especially I hope that all schools may soon be able to make use of this means of instruction. No patent will be asked for this process, but all are invited to make free use of it."

- Macmillan & Co. announce that the recently completed edition of Foster's "Text-Book of Physiology," in four parts, is to be supplemented by the issue of an appendix on "The Chemical Basis of the Animal Body," by A. Sheridan Lea, Sc. D., F.R.S. Dr. Lea is lecturer on physiology to the University of Cambridge, England.