map is found in the relations of race to the tendency to death from this disease. The proportion of annual deaths from cancer per hundred thousand living population was, in round numbers, twenty-eight for the whites, and thirteen for the colored. That is to say, cancer is more than twice as prevalent among whites as it is among colored in the same localities, for these figures apply only to the south. On the other hand, cancer appears to cause a greater proportion of deaths in persons of Irish and German parentage, than it does among the rest of the white population, the indi and the contrast was much stronger in former years than it is at present; but this cannot be explained solely, or even to any great extent, by difference of temperature, because scarlet fever has often been epidemic in the tropics, and, on the other hand, in many localities in temperate climates it is among the rarest of diseases. Diphtheria has been unusually prevalent in the northern portion of the United States for several years. During the census year it caused 2374 deaths out of every 100,000 deaths from all causes, while in England, for the year 1880, the deaths CHART III.-SHOWING THE DISTRIBUTION OF DEATHS FROM CONSUMPTION AS COMPARED WITH DEATHS FROM KNOWN CAUSES. cations being that between the ages of fifteen and sixty-five, the Germans are especially liable to cancer; more so than the Irish, and decidedly more so than the average white population. Now when we remember that the greater part of the colored population is in the south, and the greater part of the Irish and German population is in the north, we have another reason for the differences in mortality caused by this disease in the two sections. Scarlet fever is most fatal in the north, and, here again, the influence of race comes in, because in the negro race the mortality from this disease appears to be very low. This disease has always been much rarer in the south than in the north, from diphtheria were 532 per 100,000 deaths from all causes; that is to say, the comparative mortality from this disease in England was less than onefourth that of the United States for the same period. Diphtheria, again, is essentially a disease of the north, but especially of the north-west. It causes an excessive mortality in children of German parentage, sufficiently so to show that here again the influence of race comes into the problem, although, probably, only indirectly, that is to say, it is probable that it is the habits of a peculiar class of people which favors the propagation of the disease rather than any physical peculiarities in the structure of their bodies. Consumption is a vague term, and, as used in the census, no doubt includes many cases which were not true tubercular phthisis. It is reported as causing 12 per cent of all the deaths, or more than any other single cause. In England and Wales, in 1880, it caused a little over 9 per cent of all the deaths. Such wholesale ratios are, however, of little interest or value. There are very great differences in the liability to this disease in different parts of the United States, as the map (chart iii.) makes evident; and it is from a study of the causes of these differences in the data derived from large masses of people, combined with sumption and that of pneumonia (chart iv.) is very striking. Here, again, we find that race peculiarity is an important factor in the problem, the proportion of deaths from pneumonia among the colored being much greater than it is among the white. While we must consider the difficulties in the way of the improvement of the science and art of medicine, difficulties due to ignorance, to indolence, to conflict of interests, and to the eternal fitness of things, the existence of such difficulties is not a matter to be bemoaned and lamented over. CHART IV.-SHOWING THE DISTRIBUTION OF DEATHS FROM PNEUMONIA AS COMPARED WITH DEATHS FROM KNOWN CAUSES, clinical histories and experimental laboratory work, that we have good reason to hope to obtain knowledge, not only of the causes of this disease, but of better methods of prevention and treatment than are now at our command. It causes a greater mortality among the Irish than in other white races, and, perhaps, a greater mortality among the colored than among the white. Next to consumption, pneumonia is reported as causing the greatest number of deaths in the United States during the census-year, giving a ratio of 8.3 per cent of all deaths, as against 4.8 per cent in England and Wales in 1880. Here, again, the local distribution of deaths is interesting, and the contrast between the map of con These obstacles are the spice of life, the incentives to action, the source of some of the greatest pleasures which it is given to man to experience. As each man has special opportunities and duties, if he can only recognize them, so it is with guilds, with professions, and with nations. I have tried to indicate to you some of these opportunities which are presenting themselves to my colleagues, your brothers, in the lands beyond the sea, and I hope that I shall not be considered rash, or vainglorious in saying that I believe they will so use those opportunities as to return compound interest for what they have received from the storehouse of our common inheritance. JOHN S. BILLINGS. FRIDAY, AUGUST 20, 1886. COMMENT AND CRITICISM. THIS AND THE TWO SUCCEEDING numbers of Science will be largely given up to the reports of the meeting of the American association at Buffalo. In this number is given the address in full of the retiring president, Prof. H. A. Newton of Yale, and, with this, abstracts of several of the vicepresidents' addresses. We are also able to present our readers with a portrait of Prof. Edward S. Morse, of Salem, the incoming president. Professor Morse, was born at Portland, June 18, 1838. His career as a scientific man is one of the results of the enthusiasm aroused by the elder Agassiz, Professor Morse being one of the well-famed group of young Americans who came about Agassiz during his first years in this country. Professor Morse's investigations of the molluscoids, worms, and lower arthropoids, his marked success as a lecturer in biology, his enthusiastic study of Japan and the Japanese, which he has partially set forth in his admirable 'Japanese homes and their surroundings,' are the works which lead us to congratulate the association on their choice. CAPITALISTS AND LABORERS. THE adjustment of the relations between capitalists and laborers is the greatest problem presented for solution in the present age. It is one that has baffled the skill of the wisest men in times past. There is a bitterness and alienation between these classes that threaten the peace of society and the stability of government. There are millions of discontented people to a greater or less extent under the influence of socialists, who openly publish doctrines subversive of all good government, and contrary to religion and morality. Their leaders are bold and reckless, and avow their purpose to disturb society in order to make what they call a just division of property. Quotations, from writers worthy of confidence, were given, in order to show that the condition of the laborer is far better in all respects than it was fifty years ago. In the increase of wages, and the Abstract of an address before the section of economic science of the American association for the advancement of science at Buffalo, Aug. 19, by the Rev. Joseph Cummings, LL.D., of Evanston, Ill., vice president of the section. No. 185.-1886. lessening of the hours of toil, he gains from fifty to one hundred per cent in money returns. Advantages of education, comforts, and privileges, and means of relief from sickness and pain, that formerly were unknown, are now common. This improvement in the condition of the poor gives no reason for the haughty rebukes of their employer, nor for his advise to them to be content with their condition. With all our boasted advantages of modern civilization, the condition of a large portion of the laboring classes is pitiable. Thousands have no employment, and thousands more are compelled to live on a mere pittance, and submit to conditions destructive of all manhood and nobility of spirit. In New York city there are two hundred thousand women and girls employed in ninety-two trades. They earn from four to eight dollars per week. Hundreds of cases are reported where women work from fourteen to seventeen hours per day at from four to seven dollars per week. Loss of time, from ill health and inability to obtain work, reduces their earnings till they barely sustain life. Many persons receive twelve and a half cents a day. Many of them are wronged, and on various pretexts deprived of their pay. The rules of many factories are abusive and degrading. The home life of such laborers is pitiable, being passed in circumstances where decency and womanly respect are impossible. About nineteen thousand tenement houses accommodate about fifty persons each, and some of them three times as many. The condition of a large number of the poor is a reproach to our age. It is a sore evil that has resulted from the effectiveness of machinery. It separates the wageworkers into a permanent class, making it more and more difficult for them to rise above it. The improved condition of the laborer makes him more restless, gives him new views and higher wants, which he seeks to gratify. He now longs for more rational living, better food, better clothing, a better house, the education of his children, and time for self-improvement. While his circumstances have improved, he sees greater improvement in those of others. The product of the union of capital and labor is greater than formerly, and the laborer demands as his just due a larger share. The causes of discontent among laborers are serious and wide-spread. One cause is the difference in views as to the relations between em |