Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 22.djvu/438

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424
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Charles Darwin. Memorial Notices, reprinted from "Nature." London: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 82. Price, 75 cents.

A Whimsical Wooing. By Anton Giulio Barili. From the Italian by Clara Bell. New York: William S. Gottsberger. Pp. 88.

Experimental Physiology. Its Benefits to Mankind. By Richard Owen, C.B., M.D., F.R.S., etc. London: Longmans, Green & Co. Pp. 216. Price, five shillings.

Youth: Its Care and Culture. By J. Mortimer Granville. New York: M. A. Holbrook & Co. Pp. 107.

The Scientific and Technical Reader. London: T Nelson & Sons. Pp. 400. Price, 2s. 6d.

The Factors of Civilization, Real and Assumed. Considered in their Relation to Vice, Misery, Happiness, Unhappiness, and Progress. Vol. II. Atlanta, Georgia; James P. Harrison & Co. Pp. 359.

Text-Book of Geology. By Archibald Geikie. London: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 971. Price, $7.50.

The Coues Check-List of North American Birds. Second edition. Boston: Estes & Lauriat. Pp. 165.

The Diseases of the Liver, with and without Jaundice. By George Harley. M.D. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son & Co. Pp. 751. Price, $5.

Novissimum Organon: The Certainties, Guesses, and Observations of John Thinking-machine. By James Ferdinand Mallinckrodt. St. Louis: Hugh R. Hildreth Printing Co. Pp. 116.

Quintus Claudius: A Romance of Imperial Rome. By Ernst Eckstein. From the German by Clara Bell. In two vols. New York: William S. Gottsberger. Pp. 616. Price, $1.75.

Dress and Care of the Feet. By Dr. P. Kahler. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 39.


POPULAR MISCELLANY.

Mortality in Town and Country.—Professor Finkelnburg attempted to show, in a paper read at the recent Sanitary Congress in Cologne, that cities are not of necessity less healthy than country districts, and that, where they appear to be so, the fact can generally be attributed to local influences affecting the hygienic or economical condition of the population. The analysis and comparison of adult male and female mortality and infant mortality bring out many interesting facts. The male population of the cities is described as being less healthy than the female population, and liable to consumption and affections of the heart, brain, and kidneys. In Cologne, the mortality among women over thirty years of age is not only less than among men, but is less than the death-rate among women of the same ages in other parts of the Cologne district. Similar results are shown at Bonn. The deaths of men from consumption show a marked predominance in the centers of the textile and metal industries. The fact that a similar result appears in country districts where labor of a similar character is carried on is presumptive evidence that the mortality is associated with the industrial activity of the towns. Epidemic diseases seem to show an excessive urban mortality only in the case of young children. Infant mortality appears to reach its highest point where the population is most dense, and the proportion of female labor in the factories is most considerable. A more favorable condition, however, seems to prevail in those districts where domestic labor is general. It is proved with a certain amount of clearness that infant mortality varies according to the dwelling accommodation in towns and the amount of parental care which circumstances permit. This result is not a sure guide as to all diseases, for which diarrhœa and similar disorders contribute a notable proportion to urban mortality in general; deaths from diphtheria and whooping-cough in the Rhine provinces are more numerous in the country than in the towns. Professor Finkelnburg also notices that the mortality in cities increases in the summer and fall, while the increase in the country takes place during the winter and spring.

Indians of the Hudson Bay Territory.—Dr. John Rae has furnished the Society of Arts with some information about the native tribes of the Hudson Cay Company's Territories, which is all the more valuable because it is thirty years or more old; for it brings us nearer to the original condition of the tribes before they were affected as much as they are now by intercourse with the white men. Dr. Rae divides the native tribes of the Territory into the Innuits, or Esquimaux, of the Arctic sea-board down to Labrador; the Dené Dinjié, eleven tribes east of the Rocky Mountains and south of the Esquimaux; the Algonquins, twelve tribes; and the Hurons-Iroquois, of Lake Huron, the Ottawa River, and the Province of Quebec. The Wood Crees, one of the principal tribes on Hudson Bay, are a fine, docile race, with comparatively few faults, and these injurious only to themselves. They are very fond of strong drinks, and have a great dislike to agricultural labor on their own account, although they work very well for