Comparative Zoology. 16. The fauna of the North Atlantic, compared with one another, and with that of other parts of the world, by Prof. Verrill. 17. The plants of the sea, by Prof. Eaton. 18. The physics of the sea, by Prof. Joseph Lovering, Professor of Natural Philosophy, Harvard University. 19. Physical hydrography, by Prof. Mitchell, of the United States Coast Survey. 20. Chemistry of feeding and breathing, by Prof. W. Gibbs, Rumford-professor of Physics, Harvard University. 21. Chemistry of the sea and air, by Prof. James Crafts, Professor of Chemistry at the Boston Technological Institute."
The Causes of Typhus.—As causes predisposing to typhus, medical writers usually enumerate mental depression, anxiety, fear of contagion, intemperance, insufficient nutrition, and overcrowding. Now, during the sieges of Paris and Metz, the inhabitants of those two cities were subject in an extraordinary degree to all these conditions, if in the case of Metz we except the fourth; and yet not a single case of the disease occurred among either the citizens, the refugees, or the soldiers. The beleaguering armies of the Germans, on the contrary, whose sanitary condition was infinitely better, were constantly ravaged by typhus. This conflict of facts with theory has led Dr. Chauffard, of the Paris Academy of Medicine, to investigate the subject of typhus anew, and we here give the chief results of his inquiry. According to him, the epidemics of typhus which have broken out in France had always a foreign origin, and the disease has never been able to become endemic in that country. The epidemic of 1814 was brought in by the defeated armies of the North, on their return from Russia and Northern Germany, and that of 1855-'56 was imported by the troops returning from the Crimea. But soon they died out on French soil, and hence the author conjectures that in the French race and on French soil there is something which is antagonistic to typhus. He inclines to regard this disease as localized, so far as its origin is concerned, just like cholera, or yellow fever. Then, to show that his conjecture as to race immunity is not without foundation, he states that in New Orleans the yellow fever commits its greatest ravages among the whites, the cholera among the negroes. Then, too, the negro race can better resist the morbid influences of marshy soil, than can the white. To show how different may be the effects of the same morbific influences on diverse races of men, the author cites the case of an Egyptian vessel entering the port of Liverpool in the worst possible sanitary condition. The crew were all sick—but no typhus. But the Englishmen who visited the ship were nearly all seized with that disease. On the high table-lands of Mexico, typhus is endemic and frequent, typhoid fever very rare. On the contrary, at an altitude of less than 2,000 feet above the sea-level, typhoid is abundant, typhus rare. Even on the table-lands, however, newly-arrived French soldiers were attacked by typhoid; but, when they had become acclimated, they were seized only by typhus. The author replies to the objection that might be drawn from the occurrence of typhus in prisons and among convicts condemned to the galleys, by claiming that such outbreaks of supposed typhus are really only typhoid fevers of an unusual character. In fact, ever since French physicians had, after the Crimean War, an opportunity for more closely studying true typhus, prison epidemics are not often characterized as outbreaks of that disease. The author then examines certain cases where undoubted typhus has made its appearance spontaneously, as it might be supposed, on French soil, and explains the occurrence by importation from foreign countries. Our brief abstract is far from doing justice to this highly-important paper, and we commend the entire essay, as found in the Revue Scientifique, to the attention of our medical readers.
Habits of Right and Sperm Whales.—In the American Naturalist, Prof. N. S. Shaler notes some of the prominent characteristic habits of right and sperm-whales, on the authority of an old whaler, Captain John Pease, of Edgartown, Massachusetts. The calving-time for the right-whale, he says, never begins until July 1st, and by the 3rd or 4th of the month every female is accompanied by her calf. The affection of the right-whale
