FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1886.

COMMENT AND CRITICISM. SMALL-POX IS REPORTED to be quite prevalent in Brooklyn. During the past three weeks, twentytwo cases have been reported at the health office of that city. While this should not excite alarm, it should arouse all persons to the necessity of being vaccinated. This applies not only to parents whose children have never been vaccinated, but also to adults who have never been re-vaccinated since their infancy or childhood. We are in little danger in this country of suffering from the attacks upon this method of prevention of a most loathsome disease by the antivaccinationists, but we are always in danger of outbreaks of small-pox so long as there is public apathy and neglect in obtaining the necessary protection. So long a time has elapsed since small-pox prevailed in the United States, that there are doubtless tens of thousands who are to-day unvaccinated; and, should this disease once become disseminated, it will find so many victims that a wide-spread and long-continued epidemic may result. The experience of Canada two years ago should be a lasting warning to every nation, state, and city throughout the civilized world. Three thousand deaths in Montreal, and five hundred infected houses, was the tribute paid by one city alone to the anti-vaccinationists.

IN ALL, 3,372 members and associates presented together 522 papers during the recent meeting of the German association of physicians and naturalists. The American association for the advancement of science registered at Buffalo 450 members and associates, including ladies, and had a programme of 247 papers. One thing, however, must not be ignored in this connection. The geological congress of Germany held its annual meeting at Darmstadt, two days after the naturalists and physicians adjourned, and most of the geological papers were undoubtedly reserved on that account. Similar drawbacks may have existed for the other sections of exact sciences, which would naturally interfere with the presentation of a large number of papers, more so, as the whole

No. 196.-1986.

organization is merely one for social intercourse primarily. The unstability of such an association is, however, beginning to be understood; and a committee of twelve has been appointed to report on a new constitution next year at Wiesbaden, and a permanent organization similar to those of England and America, will, in all probability, be the result. The city of Berlin appropriated about eighteen thousand dollars for the entertainment of the visitors, and the generosity and courtesy of the individual citizens cannot be lauded too highly. With the exception of hotel accommodations, which were poor at best, every thing was done by the local committee to make their guests comfortable, - in view of the large numbers present, no small undertaking indeed (3,372 members and associates, and 1,475 ladies). There was also an exhibition of scientific instruments and apparatus designed expressly for the visitors. Every thing pertaining to medical and sanitary science, electrical appliances, microscopes, model collections for school purposes, geological maps and models, etc., found here its place in the welladapted halls of the Academy of fine arts. It seems that the German scientists are strongly in favor of helping in the formation of an international scientific congress, and any movement made in that direction will receive a most hearty support.

ANOTHER INSTANCE tending to establish the contagiousness of tuberculosis is reported in the Gazette médicale of Paris. It appears, from the account there given, that a young man living in a small French village contracted bronchitis. He subsequently married a healthy girl. Within a year he died of consumption, and soon after his widow also developed the disease. Their child, not long after, became a victim to the same disease. Not far from the home of this family resided a robust young woman who had at infrequent times visited her sick neighbors, but had never staid with them any time. She had, however, eaten the flesh of fowls which had died at the farm of the invalid, and, believing that these were most nutritious when partially cooked, had eaten them in this condition. About this time another fowl died, and an examination showed it to be affected

with tuberculosis, the tubercles in the liver containing the characteristic bacilli of the disease. Upon inquiry, it was found that the expectoration of the consumptive person had been eaten by the fowl. From the history given of the other fowls, it is probable that they died from the same affection. It has for some time been recognized that the milk of tubercular animals could convey this disease to man; and, if the explanation just given is a true one, a new source of danger, hitherto unsuspected, exists. That such a method of communication is probable cannot be denied, and should direct the attention of both physicians and patients to the absolute necessity of the disinfection of the sputa of consumptives.

THE RECENT DEATH of a lady in a Brooklyn dentist's chair has already been reported in Science. The coroner's jury, after an investigation, exonerated the dentist and his assistants. The lady, it appears, had called to have a tooth extracted, and the anaesthetic employed was the bromide of ethyl. The patient became conscious after the anaesthetization, but suddenly became unconscious, and in half an hour was dead. The dentist testified that he had employed the bromide at least once a day for nine months without previous injurious result. The jury recommended that in all doubtful cases patients should be thoroughly examined by a competent medical man before the administration of an anaesthetic for dental operation. Even this precaution will not always prevent disastrous results, for numerous cases of death after anaesthesia are recorded where a physical examination revealed no organic disease. would perhaps be the best advice to give, that, when so trifling a pain is to be borne as is caused by the extraction of a tooth, persons should bear it without an anaesthetic rather than run any risk, no matter how trivial it may seem to be.

It

ALLEGED EARLY CHINESE VOYAGES TO AMERICA.

MUCH interest was excited in the Société de géographie at Paris by a paper by Dr. Hamy on 'The interpretation of one of the monuments at Copan, Honduras.' This is a stone in the form of a deep convex pie, with a round hollow or cup in the centre of the dome, from each side of which a curved line extends to the margin, which is surrounded by a border much like that put on pies by pastry-cooks. The two curved lines form a

sort of S-shaped figure. The whole stone is about a yard and a half in diameter, and its depth about a yard. The two curves are interpreted by Hamy as the sign Tae-Kai of the Chinese, which is venerated by them as symbolic of the essence of all things. Intercourse with China was inferred by Hamy from this sign, corroborated for him by the old story of Fu-sang, first broached by De Guignes in the last century, and by the papers of the late Charles Walcott Brooks on Japanese wrecks on the north Pacific coast of America.'

The paper was discussed by Quatrefages, de Charencey, Villemereuil, and others, the general tendency being to accept the idea of intercourse between China, Japan, and America at an early date, especially as Brooks stated that wrecked Japanese were able to communicate with the Aleutian Islanders without an interpreter.

That

We believe that the very wide hypothesis thus broached, and which in one form or another has had a certain currency for more than a century, rests upon a totally insufficient foundation. wrecked Japanese, and possibly Chinese, from time to time were cast on the shores of America, is beyond question. The matter has been well discussed by Horace Davis, and to his paper Brooks is indebted for many of his facts. Davidson and others have also drawn attention to the subject. But there is every reason to believe that the wrecked people were, 1o, nearly always males, and incapable of colonizing; 2°, were either killed or enslaved by the Americans in accordance with a general usage; and, 3°, that neither in arts nor language have they left any appreciable trace on American anthropology. The statement of Brooks, that the Japanese and Aleuts could communicate without an interpreter, is true to this extent. I was present when the aforesaid Japanese, three males, were brought to the port of Unalashka, and took pains to inquire into the assertion which was made to me at the time. I found that the communications were wholly by signs, and not by spoken language, as the Aleuts could not understand a word of Japanese without its accompanying signs. Second, Brooks, who was long consul in Japan, informed me that he had particularly searched into the matter of the voyage to Fu-sang, and that he had conclusive evidence that the voyage which actually took place was to the well-known and still existing province of Fu-sang in Korea (see Griffis' work), and had no connection whatever with America. Last, the mere presence of two simple curved lines on a circular stone, taken by itself, proves nothing as to their meaning, and still less that they had any connection with the Chinese symbol.

The temptations of such unbridled hypotheses are the curse of anthropology, and it is extraordinary that such a veteran as Hamy should become entangled in their meshes.

W. H. DALL.

AN ARCHEOLOGICAL FRAUD. AN interesting vase, purporting to be ancient Mexican in origin, was offered for sale some months ago to the American museum of natural history by a collector, and was reserved for possible purchase, and exhibited in the cabinet of that institution. Its grotesque features and the symmetrical and effective combination and arrangement of its ornamentation make it a very noticeable object; but a closer examination destroys the

the highly modern character of the handle in design is flagrantly recent. The artist was unfortunate, also, in selecting a crocodile for this conspicuous coigne of vantage,' as that great reptile does not frequent the tierra templada of Mexico, and would be only used in art decoration of the aborigines of the hot and lagoon intersected lowlands. The numerous and equidistant circles seen in the photograph on the surface of the cover are fraudulent. The rim of the vase immediately below the cover, upon which the cover rests, is probably a separate piece from the body of the vase, and is too rectangular in its setting on the neck of the same, though very nearly this is seen in genuine examples. Its circular ornamentation is not Aztecan. The body of the vase is very meretricious, if the author of this unique object

first pleasurable impressions by raising serious doubts as to its virtual antiquity. It may be serviceable to collectors generally to call attention to this striking instance of very probable fraudulent work, as it is a most elaborate effort of the potter, and to indicate its points of divergence from the veritable specimens of Aztecan aboriginal workmanship. The piece purported to be preColumbian.

Beginning at the top of the vase, the cover almost instantly excites suspicion. It is too symmetrically convex and too cap-shaped, while

is unnaturally constricted, and the cavity of the vase too globose, in the style of modern ceramic objects of this description. The Aztec moulded the expanded portion or receptacle, in vases of this character, more gradually upwards into the neck, producing a long slant, not a sudden break. The extraordinary collar of masks, which is almost a chef d'oeuvre in its way, is a copy immensely improved upon, of similar conceits in genuine antiques, one of which can be seen by New York students in the Metropolitan art

museum, in Dr. Lamborn's collection. But inspection detects glaring contrasts in execution and in detail. The triangular entablatures over the masks are too large and too regular, the masks themselves are not after the trigonometrical style of the Aztec potter, and the mustachelike flaps on the upper lips are strangely inconsistent with any claims for the object as a genuine relic. The expanded flattened chins are anomalous.

The body of the vase, as seen in the cuts, is handsomely ornamented by a face in relief and two semi-disk-shaped annular handles. The face, both as seen in profile and in full view, is not Mexican, and is much too pretty. The fillet surmounting the head should be drawn more closely about the sides of the face, and the Vshaped ends are too large and coarse. The disks attached to the fillet are placed too high, above instead of at or below the ears, and the pendant tassels are abnormally cumbrous. Dr. Plongeon, who agreed with the writer as to the suspicious character of the vase, says that the longitudinal and horizontal bars of these tassels are too few, as they should be respectively five and seven. The handles are very dubious, both from size and ornamentation, while their thin, sheet-like texture is unusual. The legs of the vase are too far under the body of the vase, as in most instances, where present, they sprout from farther up the sides of the object, holding it on inclined supports, and are more usually three in number. The cabalistic ornamentation about and under the vase is significantly coarse and overdone.

The stand, which is seldom found in Mexican pottery, is too elaborate, too highly incised, and false in ornamentation; the markings on its upper surface suggestive of calendar-stones, etc., are simply trifling; and the drop-shaped pellets stuck about it at top and bottom are out of place. The serpents used upon it are wrongly placed ; their universal position, I think, being in profile, with usually gaping mouths, while the scroll design between them strikes one as a piece of ingenious but unsuccessful counterfeiting. The whole piece is also too systematically punctured in every part. Since the writer was led to suspect the genuineness of this marvellous production, he has learned from Prof. A. S. Bickmore that Mr. Charnay, in conversation with him, pronounced it a fraud. The aggravated offences so often perpetrated on archeologists by money-making tricksters make it desirable to publish every counterfeit of any importance, both as a warning to the community, of cheats, and as a guide and protection to the less suspicious collectors.

L. P. GRATACAP.

A PETROLEUM STEAMER. THE petroleum trade between this country and Europe has assumed such large proportions. that cheaper means of transportation than the ordinary plan of carrying the oil in wooden casks or metal cases are desirable. Attempts in this direction have been made by fitting ships with cylindrical or rectangular iron tanks, but to this method there were many grave objections. With cylindrical tanks, no matter how closely packed, the result is, that, allowing for the weight of the tanks themselves, the vessel can carry but little more than half her dead-weight capacity. Rectangular tanks, fitting more snugly together, are better in this respect. But in both systems there is considerable loss by leakage; and in the spaces between the tanks, inflammable and explosive gases may be generated, becoming a source of danger.

The attention of ship-builders having been drawn to this important subject, the result is, that a new type of steamer has been devised and constructed for the special purpose of carrying oil in bulk. The Gluckauf, the first vessel of the new type, was built at Newcastle-on-Tyne, to the order of a German firm, and launched last June. She recently completed her first round trip between this port and Germany with a full cargo of oil, and sailed a few days ago for Bremerhaven with her second cargo. The experiment has proved a complete success; and it is stated that other steamers of the same kind, with such modifications of detail as experience suggests, will be built, thus to some extent revolutionizing the oilcarrying trade.

The Gluckauf is an iron steamer three hundred feet in length, and of three thousand tons burden. Externally she has the appearance of an ordinary freight-steamer, except that her smoke-stack is much farther aft, and her half-deck extends forward of the mainmast. Internally she presents some novel features. The coal-bunkers, boilers, and engines are at the extreme stern, in a compartment entirely separated from the rest of the vessel by a water-tight bulkhead. Forward of this bulkhead she is divided into eight oil compartments-four on a side-by transverse and longitudinal bulkheads extending from the ship's bottom to the main deck, two feet above the water-line. From each of these compartments a trunk about eight feet square extends up through the 'tweendecks. These trunks allow of expansion or contraction of the cargo from variation of temperature, and also carry off all volatile gases which may be formed. When loaded, the oil fills the compartments, and extends halfway up the trunks, so that the only surface of oil exposed to

the air or to change of position by the rolling of the ship is that in the trunks. As the cargo is in contact with the skin of the vessel, its temperature will never differ materially from that of the sea. As the bulkheads are water-tight, or rather petroleum-tight, the vessel is practically unsinkable; and, as there is scarcely any woodwork about her, the risk of fire is reduced to a minimum. The Gluckauf is provided with powerful pumping appliances, so that her cargo can be loaded or discharged in a single day, which is another very economical feature as compared with the slow process of handling casks or cases. Altogether the new type of steamer admits of a great reduction in the cost of oil transportation; the only drawback to the system being that such a vessel can get no return cargo, being compelled to make one-half of every round trip in water ballast. But this is not a very important point, as most of the vessels at present in the oil-trade between this port and Europe bring back nothing but empty oil-casks.

THE GUADALAJARA POTTERY.

IN a recent number of Science the editor, in commenting upon the anthropological section of the American association, says, Its popularity is at once a good and an evil; its good consists in attracting general attention to the variety and importance of the problems connected with man; its evil, in that this variety and interest are apt to give admittance to papers of too vague and pointless a character, which have no place in the sciences, and neither bring nor suggest any thing new." It may be suggested, in connection with these facts, and bearing upon them, that in a meeting of that character, as well as in the ordinary routine of scientific work, two distinct classes of men are working together, the collector and the systematizer. From each of these an increased degree of accuracy, as well as greater comprehensiveness, is demanded by the steady advance of science. If we are to reconstruct the history of the past from a study of the present, it is especially necessary that the collector understand the demands resulting from previous researches. Nowhere in the world is better systematizing work in anthropology done than in the United States; and, in order to bring about the reform hinted at above, it is only necessary that the men who take the field as collectors understand the wants of those in charge of our great museums. Officers of the army, navy, and civil service, members of the consular and diplomatic corps, missionaries, and private citizens, show the greatest willingness to enlarge the collections in our museums; and

the information they desire as to how their work shall be most effective should be furnished them.

One of the rules prevailing under the new order of things is, make your observations and collections exhaustive. When Professor Putnam, or Dr. Matthews, or Mr. Holmes describes a mound, a Navajo silversmith, or a savage potter, he adopts the method of the anatomist at the dissecting-table, and leaves out not a single item of description. In fact, a good mechanic, with the aid of one of their monographs, can reproduce the thing described. After reading such a description, if one opens a grave or a mound and finds certain pottery or rude jewelry, he is in a position to begin reconstructing the whole social fabric of those who made them.

The accompanying sketches have been prepared for the purpose of showing the results of collecting according to the rule mentioned. Last summer, in the interest of the national museum, Dr. Edward Palmer visited Panteleon Panduro, the noted potter of Guadalajara, Mex., and succeeded in procuring samples of the clay used, in different stages of preparation; the spatulas, brushes, polishers, and scrapers employed; a model of the kiln in which the pottery is fired; and samples of handiwork in various stages of finish. If the tools and the objects collected were placed in the hands of a skilled potter, together with the manuscript description of the process of manufacture, he would have no difficulty in putting himself into technic sympathy with Panduro.

An excellent lesson in the history of civilization is taught by this particular exhibit. You have before you the hand-worked paste, the stonepolisher, the rude wooden shaping and marking tools of the ancient Aztec and Maya workman. The open furnace, in which the ware can be hardened but not glazed, cannot be much further advanced than those of Panduro's ancestors.

One interesting feature shown by the collection is the fading-out of aboriginal forms and patterns, and the substitution of those belonging to civilized life. The modern Guadalajaran delights in statuary, and his portraitures are astonishingly lifelike. His copies of modern vessels are graceful, and delicately ornamented. An amusing feature in the work of the potter is that he does not model en bloc, as we do, but makes his bodies, heads, etc., separately, putting the parts together and clothing the figure afterwards.

In zoological language, this exhibit is an ontogenetic study. It is the biography or life-history of a single operation. The collection of a hundred such exhibits, from every part of the world, and the comparison of their details, would enable the philosophical ceramist to study pottery philo