this element of meteorological science the consideration it deserves. For, although temperature may be first in importance in its influence on living beings, yet, for evident reasons, the approach to or removal from the point of saturation in the atmosphere must exert great power for good or evil.

On the distribution of temperature at the surface of the earth, a mass of most valuable facts are offered to the reader-concluding with a table giving the mean annual temperature, the mean for the seasons, and that for the coldest and hottest months for 524 localities. Here, as everywhere indeed, the encyclopedic character of the book is shown, which will bring it often into the hand as a work of reference.

The influence of temperature on mortality, and on the proportional number of some diseases, the power of resistance possessed by the organism to excess of heat and cold, the phenomena of congelation, &c., are briefly discussed in the ninth book, but more fully under various heads throughout the second volume. With reference to congelation, he holds it shown that race and nationality have predisposing or protecting influences; that inaction or sleep are predisposing causes; and that its occurrence "depends less on the intensity than on the quality of the cold." He supports this by the experiences of the French during the retreat from Constantine in 1836, and the Bou-Thaleb expedition in 1843-of which Mr. Shrimpton has written an account, detailing 355 cases. On neither occasion did the thermometer fall much below 32° Fahr.; but M. Boudin is of opinion that the combination of wet and cold in both of these instances developed the results. The seventh and eighth books are occupied with botanical and zoological geography. The last contains some valuable remarks on parasitic animals, more particularly in reference to the endemicity of some of them.

"Such are the hydatids of the liver in Iceland, which attack a seventh of the population of that island; the distoma hæmatobium in Egypt, which is perhaps the veritable cause of the endemicity of vesical catarrh and calculous affections in that country. Such, also, is the tania, which reigns almost over the whole extent of the African continent, from the shores of the Mediterranean to the Cape of Good Hope. At Geneva, a fourth of the inhabitants have had, or will have, the bothriocephalus; whilst at Zurich only the tænia solium is seen. In the east of Europe the Vistula separates the two varieties; on the right bank reigns the bothriocephalus, on the left the tænia solium."

The tenth book deals with the electrical phenomena of meteorology. To the consideration of these nearly 140 pages are given. The medical history of lightning, which occupies the greater part, is, so far as we know, the only one in existence. It develops a succession of the most peculiar and unexpected announcements. For the collection of these, indeed, M. Boudin appears to possess a singular gift. He frequently contents himself with the mere narration of occurrences or opinions, giving the source, and abstaining from all comment. The reader is left, therefore, to receive or not as he may think fit. Many without doubt will hesitate. The witnesses will often be considered incompetent, or at any rate insufficient, when speaking to such unlooked for and often astounding events. But the whole does not rest on such evidence; and the book will be found to contain a great deal that is trustworthy and valuable and even things that at first sight may appear merely to possess a fanciful interest, probably are of some practical value, and may prove suggestive in future inquiries.

As briefly as possible we shall sketch the contents of this book. As compared with the country, towns, and especially the larger and more populous ones, appear to possess an immunity from accident to life by lightning. Thus between 1800

and 1851, not a single death by lightning was recorded in Paris; and in 1786 it was calculated that out of 750,000 deaths in London during thirty years, two only had been produced by this agency. During a century, only three persons were killed by lightning in Göttingen, and two in Halle. Comparing these numbers with the total deaths from this cause, and with the fact that 25 per cent. of all

happen under trees, he holds,it reasonable to conclude "that lightning finds more victims in open country than in cities." Another "most curious phenomenon, beyond contradiction, is the tendency it has to strike the same places and the same edifices at different epochs." Of this Dr. Boudin produces several illustrations, and quotes M. Pouillet in support and explanation.

"An arid soil, composed of a thin layer of vegetable earth, under which thick formations of dry sand, of lime, or granite are found, does not attract the lightning, because it is not a conductor to electricity..... And the houses participate to a certain point in the privilege of the soil. . . . . But if under this arid and dry soil, at the depths of many tens of metres, there be great metallic beds, vast caverns, sheets of water, or only abundant springs, the thunder clouds exercise their action on the conducting matters, the lightning is attracted, and it explodes in leaping over the interval; the dry crust is not an insurmountable obstacle; then ruin to the constructions which occur on its passage, be they of wood or stone."

With regard to the frequeney of accidents by lightning, fatal to human life in France, he tells us that from 1835 to 1852 inclusive, 1308 persons were killed.

"This number," he says, "which is clearly the minimum, and which does not, moreover, include the individuals injured, rendered infirm, or crippled, gives a yearly average of 72 persons killed by lightning. In no case does the number fall below 48, while it rises in 1847 to 108, and in 1835 to 111."

M. Boudin thinks that the persons injured are at least twice as numerous as those killed. Some United States statistics show the injured to be to the killed as 5 to 1. Many more men than women are killed, and not in France only, but also, though not in so marked a proportion, in Sweden (1815 to 1840) and in England (1838 and 1839). He seems to think that this is not explained by the greater exposure of men in the fields, but still he does not think we are warranted in concluding "that, all things being equal, woman runs less danger than man ;" but he considers the question as "worthy of being submitted to the test of observation." And he quotes the following peculiar passage from Arago, declining, however, to maintain its rigorous exactitude :"

"In two conditions altogether alike," says Arago, "one man, by the nature of his constitution, runs more danger than another. There exist persons who arrest abruptly the communication of electricity, and do not feel the shock, even when they occupy the second place in the file. These persons, by exception, are not conductors of the electric fluid. Exceptionally, then, we must rank them amongst non-conducting bodies, which lightning respects, or which, at least, it strikes rarely. Differences so marked cannot exist without there being also shades of difference; but every degree of conductibility corresponds, during the storin, to a certain measure of danger. The man who is as conducting as metal will be as often struck as metal; the man who interrupts the communication in the chain will scarce have more to fear than if he were glass or resin. Between these limits there will be found individuals whom the lightning will strike as readily as wood or stone. Thus, in the phenomena of thunder, all does not depend on the place which a man occupies; the physical constitution of the man plays also a certain part."

This may possibly be true. The authority is a high one. But the distribution of the sexes in the list of deaths from this cause appears to us not only not necessarily connected with it, but also quite explicable on the ground of greater exposure. For England, at any rate, we should feel inclined to deem this sufficient.* The statistics for Sweden show in their total no very striking difference (57 to 3.8), and for five years (1846-50) the sexes are exactly in the same proportion. His English figures, again, apply only to two years, and have therefore not much value. As one would expect, "the configuration of the soil and its mountainous character" exercise an influence on the frequency of accidents, which, for instance,

[It is to be remembered that women do more field-labour in France than in England.-ED.]

in proportion to the population, are much rarer in the departments of the Eure and Seine than in those of the Dordogne, Lozere, High Loire, and Low and High Alps. Less danger is run in the house than in the fields, and in towns, than in the country:

"Out of 53 killed in France in 1853-4, whose position at the moment of the accident is precisely noted, only 10 (that is less than one-fift!) were struck in the inside of a house or barn, and 43 (or more than four-fifths) in the fields or on the road. And it is scarcely to be admitted that, at the time of the storms, only one-fifth of the population were housed and the other four-fifths in the fields."

Not one of these was killed in the capital town of a department, and only one in that of an arrondissement-viz., in Nantua, with a population of 3,750. 15 of the 34 killed in the fields in 1853 were struck below trees. The statistics of nine years in France show not one accident in the months of November, December, January, and February, and the maximum occurs pretty steadily in June, July, and August. In 1853 and 1854 by far the greater number of deaths occurs between nine A.M. and nine P.M., being almost seven times as frequent during the day as during night. "The minimum, represented by zero, corresponds to the period from eleven P.M. to three A.M., and the maximum to that between three and seven P.M." On the same day, and sometimes even at the same hour, accidents happen at points far distant from each other, showing, as he says, that storms are often spread over a larger surface than is thought. Of this, as usual, M. Boudin is rich in illustrations, drawn from the most varied sources. Fires, too, he believes, have this origin more frequently than is supposed. "In the little kingdom of Wurtemberg, between 1841 and 1850 inclusive, 117 fires were reckoned to have lightning for a cause." "In France, in the year 1852, the archives of the Minister of Commerce show 105 fires" so produced.

The effects of lightning on man he makes either curative of pre-existing affections, productive of wounds or injuries, or productive of death. The injuries it may produce seem to be very varied:

"Burns more or less extensive; exanthems; partial or complete epilation; bleeding from the nose, mouth, or ears; temporary or persistent paralysis, especially of the lower extremities; amaurosis; deafness, with or without perforation of the tympanum; dumbness; imbecility; and abortion"

are those he names. To the peculiar images, said to have been observed on the bodies of some persons killed by lightning, he gives the name of keraunographic images, and he relates some of the most singular instances of it on record, giving the sources, which are not always the most reliable. The study of its effects on the dead body may on some occasions prove of importance in medico-legal inquiries, and we recommend our readers, so interested, to peruse all M. Boudin says on the subject, and judge of its value for themselves:

"That which particularly characterizes," he says, "the effects of lightning, is the unexpected, the proteiform, the contrast, and the opposition. At one time the individual is killed at once on the spot-the dead body remaining seated on horseback, or erect; at another time, on the contrary, we see the man killed thrown to a distance. Sometimes the lightning undresses its vicims, destroys their clothes, and respects the body; sometimes, on the contrary, it burns the body and leaves the clothes untouched. Here the destruction goes to a frightful extent, with rupture of the heart and crushing of the bones; there the most careful examination results in a negative autopsy. Here you have flaccidity of the members, softening of the bones, collapse of the lungs, and fluidity of the blood; there distension of the lungs, coagulated blood, and rigidity of the members, with lock-jaw. Sometimes the body appears to brave the laws of decomposition; sometimes, again, the most rapid and the most horrible putrefaction immediately seizes the corpse. In fine, lightning, which crushes a tree, and even stonework, appears to produce with difficulty mutilations in man, with separation of parts of the body."

The second volume begins with the consideration of "light and its influence," and this terminates both the subject of medical meteorology and the first part of the work. "La lumière exerce une influence aussi puissante que variée sur l'ensemble de la nature," is the remark with which the author begins his observations on this part of the subject; and he is undoubtedly right. It would be a good thing if we knew more of the nature and laws of this influence. As one of the elements of meteorology, it stands high in importance. We lack observations, however, but all that is known M. Boudin has carefully brought together.

The second part of the work, which has to do with the medical geography of man, will be that most generally interesting, and will find most readers.

The statistics of the soil and population occupy the first book, and are discussed at some length. France receives naturally most attention, but all the countries of Europe, the United States, and the British and other colonies, obtain a fair share, and are brought together in an interesting and instructive comparison. He looks at and compares the population of all these countries under the usual aspects of density, age, sex, marriage, fecundity, increase, average life, mortality, religion, and crime. The authorities from which he has drawn his information are formida bly numerous, and of the most trustworthy character. The ethnography of Europe is the title of the next book.

Whenever M. Boudin falls upon a curious question, he seems to have aptitudes quite peculiar for bringing out and developing the curious in it. The Jewish race, looked at medically, is such a question, and we find it so handled. In this light, as indeed in most others, we are, as it were, prepared to admit them an exceptional people. Of peculiarities of all kinds in them we are accustomed to hear. But so exceptional do they become under M. Boudin's figure-and-opinion statistics, that we are inclined to ask with him, is not all this " rather the index of a providential mission than mere chance?"

"The Jew," he says, "dwells now in all parts of the world. We find him in Europe, from Gibraltar to Norway; in Africa, from Algiers to the Cape of Good Hope; in Asia, from Cochin to the Caucasus, and from Jaffa to Pekin; in America, we encounter him from Monte Video even to Quebec; for fifty years he has been in Australia, and already he has given proof of acclimatization under the tropics, where people of European origin have always failed to perpetuate themselves. With respect to altitude, although the Jew dwells little on the mountain, there is, nevertheless, nothing to make us presume in him any physical incompatibility for elevated localities. On the other hand, the Jew has lived for a long series of ages, and lives still to-day, on the only point of the globe situated at more than four hundred metres below the level of the sea-a country in which it is doubtful if the European will ever succeed in propagating his race. In fine, wherever the Jewish race has been studied up to the present time, it has shown itself subject to statistical laws of births, deaths, and proportionality of sexes, completely different from those which affect the other nations in the midst of whom they live.

"Of all known people," he further says, "there is, perhaps, none more curious than the Jew, dispersed among all nations, and over all points of the earth, unmixed and unmixable, having its own diseases and its own pathological immunities, everywhere acclimatized, the only true cosmopolite people, representing in time and space, physically and morally, the most surprising historical and ethnographical phenomenon. Everywhere it has remained itself, guarding its traditions, its rites, its nationality, and its type, as the Rhone, which traverses the lake of Geneva, preserves always its trace and the original quality of its waters."

The important question of acclimatization now comes under discussion. "It governs the grave problem of colonizing," says M. Boudin, " and that of the choice of troops destined to serve in countries more or less distant from the motherland; it affects public hygiène and political and social economy."

"Because man possesses the faculty of adapting himself, to a certain extent, to a climate different from that in which he was born, it by no means follows that this power is without limit-in other words, that man is cosmopolite, as was long believed, and is indeed still generally believed." M. Boudin is, in fact, one of the

strongest opponents of Malte Brun. On this point he has very decided opinions, and he defends them resolutely. He believes that this faculty is distinctly limited -we may almost say very limited. At the root of the question, however, lies the definition of the word. It is capable of many shades of meaning, and we think M. Boudin has given to it its widest and not the most usual. It is not with him the simple conservation of existence, but the entire preservation of the physical, intellectual, and moral faculties. Now, it certainly is very doubtful if man can remove from northern to southern latitudes, or the reverse, and preserve, either in himself or his descendants, a perfect and absolute copy of what he was originally. Positive changes in all these respects do and must occur. They are often seen as the result of slight removals, and more surely as the result of great. He ought not, in fact, to be the same man in the tropics and in the arctics. He must be adapted to the new climate and conditions; and the very word involves changes. He must change his habits, food, and occupations, and these changes necessarily entail physical ones; his face, and skin, and figure, and strength become different, and naturally, also, follow intellectual changes. This, in short, is being acclimatized, and it is complete if he can perpetuate his race and enjoy an average measure of health and life. The experiences of the French in Algiers seem to have first directed M. Boudin's attention to this subject, and his analysis of the official and other documents leads him to the inference that the acclimatization of the French there is an impossibility. How far any man is entitled to draw such a conclusion from the early history of any new settlement, and especially of one till within the last ten years under all the disturbing influences of war, and not yet wholly free from them, seems doubtful. The monks of Staouelli were in their first year decimated by death, but the first difficulties over (and these belong to every new settlement, and are fatal in all climates), the mortality among them has not been above, but under the average. May it not prove so with the Algerian settlement as a whole, giving it a proportional length of time?

With plants, the author admits that the question may be reduced to one simply of conservation of species; but even here he holds they must be capable of reproducing and continuing themselves spontaneously without any artificial means, before they can rank with indigenous plants, and be in strict language acclimatized or naturalized. Our domestic animals-the dog, horse, ox, sheep, goat, and assare all of Eastern origin, and came originally from hot countries. This is admitted. We are accustomed to look on them as fully acclimatized. Would they, then, if left without the interference of man, propagate themselves and continue in our island? The experiences of Australia and America incline us to say yes. As regards man, the author looks at the question of acclimatization from two points of view. Firstly, as concerns race, nationality, and the peculiarities of the place from which he comes; and secondly, as concerns the latitude, altitude, soil, climatology, and pathogenic features of the place to which he goes. No part of the work is more interesting than this, and none more important or useful.

The Jew and Gipsy he makes the most cosmopolite. The Spaniard, Italian, and Southern Frenchman he considers more apt than the northern people of Europe. M. Boudin endeavours to show that transitions from south to north can be made more easily than from north to south. He does not believe that crossing with the indigenous population betters the prospect. Nor does he think that the mortality of European armies in hot countries will be lessened by lengthened residence, but the reverse. On all these points he produces copious statistical support. In reference to the acclimatization of individuals-the simple vivere et valere-he discusses at great length the sanitary condition of armies serving out of their own country. And he holds that humane as well as financial considerations dictate the raising of troops from the indigenous population of tropical colonies.

The argument for cosmopolitism derived from the unique primitive origin of man-that is, his origin from one couple-he refutes thus. In the first place, because, however plausible it may be, it cannot invalidate facts, and in the second place, because we are discussing the powers of the man of this age, and not of