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The second diagram presents in a graphic manner the comparative rate of mortality in and out of the hospitals. From it we find that the total number of deaths from cholera from Nov. 8 to Nov. 80 was 916, and that 843 of these took place in the city at lerge. We regret exceedingly that the total number of cases in the elty in not at hand for purposes of cumparison with those in the hospitals. The question of the ad- vantages of hospital treatment for such cases la still an open one in certain quarters, and may be settled In some measure by a study of this epidemic. The conclurlons to be drawn from the charta are that the outbreak was not an extended one, although It was widely diffused throughout the poorer parts of the city; that its virulence, as a whole, was equal to that of others, the rate of mortality being fully up to the average; and that the recent advances in sani- tary science are not yet so thoroughly perfected and crystallized that their application to practical pur- poses produces a vialble effect in the restraint of a pestilence, when occurring in a large city. What may be done in a smell community which is thoroughly under medical control le Illustrated by an account, by Mr. Gibert, of an outbreak of cholera at Yport, near Havre. The epidemic is as interesting and complete in its detalle as a laboratory experl- inent. The community is small and Isolated, con- talns sixteen hundred inhabitants, and is out of the direct line of travel. The source of the disease was traced with precision to two saltors who reached the village Sept. 28. One of them had had an attack of cholers at Cette; and on the day after his arrival at Yport be soaked like solled clothing, and hung it out to dry in front of his house, allowing the dirty water to rud along the street, From the nidus the disease started, and there oc- curred forty-two cases with eighteen deaths. Without following the account further, 11 will be Interesting to read Glbert's conclusions-justifiable, apparently, from the secount which he gives. They are,— 1. That cholera was brought to Yport. 2. That it was brought by insufficiently disinfected clothing, soiled by cholers dejecta. 8. Thet, after this clothing was washed, it became the agent of severe and raphil contamination, 4. That the cholera was propagated, by means of contagion, from house to house, without its being possible to attribute a single care to the transporta- tion of the specfic germ by the alr. 3. That the sanitary measures taken, although Incomplete, inasmuch as it was not possible to nepa- rate the sick from the well, were sufficient to stamp out the epidemic. 8. That the complete destruction of the cholera dejects, and the disinfection or destruction of all ef- fects soiled by them, seem to be sufficient to stamp out an epidemle of the disease, when it has not at- tained too great proportions. 7. That contagion by the air (the common accepta- tion of the term) appears to be an error; for nt Yport three nuns and three physiclans, or students lo med- icine, lived for a month under the most fevorable ■ Bevus scient, Dec. 6, 1884, No. 12, p. 734.

conditions for taking the disease by this channel. They all escaped, with no further precautions than taking their meals at a distance from the cholera patients, and avoiding the handling of molat and Boiled clothing. 8. The question of water has no bearing in thlo case, for the very good reason that the Yportale never drink any. AN AMERICAN COMMUNE. THERE is at present a wide-spread feeling, both among scholars and men of affairs, that the time las come for an abandonment of that economic method which consisted largely in verbal quibbles and scholastic controversies about definitions of conceptions, and for a sub- stitution in its place of a careful examination into the phenomena of this wonderful life of man in society which has received so little nt- tention from science. The question is asked, "Why not eindy economic phenomena as we study the phenomena of plant or animal life?" And surely it seems as interesting and as im- portant to observe the social life of man as that of outs in an ant-bill. It was with this convie- tion that Dr. Shaw undertook the preparation of this little voluine on Icaria; and he was fully conscious of the fact that he was treating communism from a new stand-point, as is shown by these words taken from the prefuce: - "A great number of books and articles have bean written in recent years. discussing Bociuliero and cont- muniam in the abstract: and there would he no reason for the present monograph if it also underwook to enter the Seld of general discussion. Such la not Its purpose or plan. "Certainly the most commnou de- feet in the current literature of social and political questions consists in the tendency to generalize too liastily. Too little diligence is given to searching for the facts of history, and to studying with minute at- tention the actual experiences of men. In the follow- Ing pages an attempt is made to present the bistory of a single communistic enterprise; ... 10 pleture its Inner life as a miniature social and political organien; to show what are, in actual experience, the difficulties which communistic society encounters; and to show by series of pen-portraits what manner of men the enterprise bas enlisted."

To prepare himself for his task, Dr. Shaw read the works of the French communist Cabet, the founder of Icaria, the publications of other Icarians, and passed a week with them. This volume is. then, a careful study, conducted in the spirit of modern science.

Icaria, with its romantic and interesting history, is an example of pure communism, and as such has important lessons to teach.

Icaria: a chapter in the history of communism. By Albert Shaw, PhD. New York and London, G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1884. 9-319 p. 16°.