THE SANITARIAN AND THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
The Sanitarian, established in 1873, and The Popular Science Monthly, established in 1872, are the two oldest journals in English devoted to the diffusion and popularization of science. When the Sanitarian was founded there was no journal occupied with sanitary science and public health, and the attention paid to these subjects was comparatively small. The Sanitarian has witnessed and promoted one of the most important movements of the nineteenth century. There is more accomplished now for the prevention of disease than for the cure of disease. The 'germ theory' and other discoveries of modern science have led to the forging of weapons more powerful than those used in any other warfare. The mortality of infancy and childhood has been reduced to one half. Infection and contagion are subject to control. The plague, malaria, yellow fever, even consumption, have lost their mysterious terror. We know their causes and can set bounds to their ravages.
The Sanitarian was established by Dr. A. N. Bell, and has been conducted by him for thirty-one years. Dr. Bell is now in his eighty-fourth year, and though vigorous in mind and body, he has earned the right to rest from the labor of conducting a monthly journal. As there are now in the country numerous medical and other journals which give adequate attention to sanitary service and preventive medicine, it has seemed to Dr. Bell that the cause which he lias served can be best advanced by merging the Sanitarian with The Popular Science Monthly. While the Monthly is concerned with all the sciences, it has always aimed to pay special attention to the important field of preventive medicine, and should do so more effectively in the future with the support of the editor, contributors and readers of the Sanitarian.
Dr. Bell has assured his reputation not only by the fifty-two volumes of the Sanitarian, but also by many other services tending to promote the health of the people. He was born in Virginia on August 3, 1820, and studied at the Harvard Medical School and the Jefferson Medical College. He became surgeon in the navy in 1847, and by services in the Gulf of Mexico, the West Indies and the coast of Africa he became familiar with yellow fever and other diseases. In 1847 he first used steam as a disinfectant, and he early urged the view that yellow fever is not directly contagious, thus greatly simplifying and improving quarantine regulations. As physician, as quarantine officer, as author and as editor, Dr. Bell has earned the gratitude and esteem of all who are interested in the health and welfare of the community.
THE JUBILEE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN.
The University of Wisconsin celebrated during the second week in June its fiftieth anniversary and at the same time President Van Hise was formally installed. Michigan, California and Wisconsin form a group of universities which almost rank with Harvard, Yale and Columbia. The great state universities are indeed the more distinctively American, and it is quite possible that the future belongs to them. Millionaires may become less liberal in their gifts, whereas the people of a state are likely to lake increasing
