this side of the Atlantic. A cure for whooping-cough, in use not only in England but in North Germany, consists in putting into the mouth of the whooping child a newly-caught fish, and then letting it go again. The cough is communicated to the fish. Another cure for the same malady consists in passing the child nine times under and over a donkey. To charm away warts, an elder-shoot is to be rubbed over them; then as many notches are cut on the twig as there are warts. The twig is buried, and as it rots away the warts disappear. There are persons still living who have been stroked by a hanged man's hand for the sake of dispelling tumors. In Devonshire there is a superstition that, if a person suffering from any disease throw a handkerchief in the coffin of a suicide, the disease will be cured as the handkerchief rots away. In other localities, the fore-foot of a hare, worn constantly in the pocket, is considered a potent charm against rheumatism. A like practice is found in this country, a horse chestnut taking the place of the hare's foot. In some places the anti-rheumatic talisman is a potato. Bread baked on "Good Friday" is supposed to possess wonderful curative virtues. Such bread, it seems, never grows moldy. It is often kept for years, sometimes as many as twenty. It is most effectual when taken grated in brandy. Nor is it only for man's ailments that Good Friday bread is medicine; it is also considered good for some of the complaints of animals—for instance, it cures "the scours" in calves.
Climate at Great Altitudes.—The "Little Annie gold mine," in Rio Grande County, Colorado, is doubtless the highest gold mine worked anywhere on the globe, its elevation being 11,300 feet above sea-level. An interesting account of the climatic conditions lure existing is given by Professor C. E. Robins, in the "Kansas City Review of Science." The geographical position of the camp is 37° 28' 18" north, and longitude 106° 30' west—that is to say, it is in the latitude of Syracuse, the most southerly city of Europe; but, owing to the elevation, the climate is arctic. The mean annual temperature in 1877–’78 was 26·95° Fahr., the maximum being 69° (July), and the minimum -24° (November). The mean maximum was 50·4°, and the mean minimum 4·58° for the twelve months. Snow fell every month except July, 1877; few nights are without frost; the fall of snow is about twenty-four feet per year. The dry atmosphere is scarcely ever chilly. Even when the temperature is as low as -10°, the air is generally still. From the middle of November to the middle of June locomotion is performed on snow-shoes—runners of the Norwegian pattern. Absolutely cloudless days are very common. On the 11th, 12th, and 13th of August, the sun, moon, and several stars were visible from 10 a. m. to 2 p. m. Of a lunar rainbow, seen on the evening of August 4th, the same year, Professor Robins says that "it appeared about 9 p. m., the moon being full; and it lasted fifteen minutes. The chromatic scale was complete in the primary, and the secondary arc was perfectly defined around the entire semicircle. The upper outlines of the mountains were but faintly discovered through the blackness of the storm, while the valley of the North Alamosa was flooded under the arch by an inundation of intense light, brighter than that under the most brilliant aurora, but golden." Of parhelia there are about half a dozen striking exhibitions every year. Meteors are frequent, but the author has not observed either paraselence, aurora borealis, or mirage.
The Seeds of Disease.—It is believed by Pasteur that he has discovered the germs which produce puerperal fever and malignant pustule. The primary organism which engenders puerperal fever he describes as presenting itself in the form of cells united to each other in series of two, four, or six, and each having an average diameter of two thousandths of a millimetre. Of the researches which have resulted in the demonstration of the germs of malignant pustule we take the following account from the "Medical and Surgical Reporter": "M. Pasteur's researches on malignant pustule have proved to him that the disease was produced by the presence of the bacteridium discovered in 1860 by M. Davaine, and this demonstration was made by the application of the method of culture which
