Genre:

Regular Feature, Review

Publications reviewed:

Stillé 1885 Forbes 1885

Subjects:

Disease, Public Health, Popularization, Exploration, Natural History, Naturalists

    Observes that with the 'prevalence of cholera in virulent epidemic form in portions of Europe with which we have close commercial relations [...] grave apprehensions are reasonably entertained that it will reach our shores this year or early in the coming year' (965). Claims, as such, that 'it behoves us all, whether physicians or laymen, to be prepared for it', and recommends the 'timely treatise' written by Alfred Stillé as being of 'great value to non-professional men and women as a guide for the detection of the disease in its early stages, and for its safe and judicious treatment in those stages until experienced medical aid can be obtained'. While Stillé, 'one of the most experienced physicians of Philadelphia', insists that the diffusion of cholera has absolutely no 'relation to aerial causes, such as the direction or the velocity of the wind', he nevertheless concedes that 'its essential causation is as yet unknown'. (965–66) Praises a new book on the Malayan group of islands by Henry O Forbes as 'Eminently worthy of a place alongside Mr. Wallace's valuable volume, both as a spirited record of travel and an elaborate scientific study of the animated forms of that region, and also of its physical phenomena and characteristics' (966). The researches contained in the new book, moreover, 'embrace very considerable portions of the archipelago which were either not visited by Mr. Wallace, or were only briefly referred to by him, and of which Mr. Forbes now gives the first detailed account'. Also notes that the two men's 'scientific conclusions, though almost uniformly in accord, are the result of entirely independent investigations'. (967)