Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1884-04-10
Capital Punishment in France.

In France the monarch or chief of
the Executive has always exercised the
prerogative of mercy independently of
Ministerial control. NJ. Grevy finds it
painful privilege, and whenever a
malefactor is doomed to death he goes
over all the evidences on which he has
been condemned, and really reargues
his case. He does it so we'll that few
murderers have lost their heads since
he became President. Napoleon III.
had kind disposition, and would have
been glad to make, if he could have
done so, full and frequent jail deliver
les; but he was afraid to vex Judges
by exercising his power to pardon in
capital cases. The chief use that he
made Of It was to try and gain over the
lawyers who obtained audiences of him
for the purpose Of getting him to remit
sentences of death passed on their
clients. 1t was IN interviews of this
kind that Maitre Lachaud, who had
often occasion to ask them, drifted into
imperialism.
How and Where Malayia Thrives.
The health-of1icers of New Britain.
Conn, have made an instructive re-
port concerning the prevalence of ma
lariai diseases in that town, and their
connection with certain supposed caus-
es. The causes of maIariaI and other
miasmatic diseases are not identical,
though they are similar, and the two
classes not infrequently occur in CIV
en- locality at the same time; and the
hygienic measures required to prevent
them all are the same. The essential
conditions for the development of ma
laria appear to be: the presence of the
malarial germ: a high temperature
and dry atmosphere, and favorable
conditions of the soil; and the absence
OF either of them will suspend or pre-
vent the action of the poison. We have
power only over the third condition.
"a generous rain. in the vicinity has,
we think, suspended its action. And
yet a previous condition of moisture is
essential to its manifestation. All de-
posts Of vegetable matter, such as
muck, sink-drainage, heaps of decaying
vegetable matter, or even wet, spongv
land, furnish the essentials for its sup
port; but it is requisite that the soil
shall have been very wet, or covered
Will NdV6L SOul6 pOIIIOuS OI buG year.
A generous crop of grass, and perhaps
OF other vegetable substance has been
known to prevent malaria. In 1880
nearly all the families in the neighbour
hood of some lots which were largely
deposit of muck had malaria. The lots
were plowed, dragged, and sowed with
grass-seed, and the appearance of the
crop of grass and weeds was attended
by disappearance of chills and fever.
Two or three other instances are men
toned in the same town in which fever
analogue was banished by giving q
similar treatment to tracks of swampy
and mucky soil. Another case is spec
flied where malaria was prevented by
the drying up of the sewerage and
sink-water which usually found its out
let through a system of bitches cut in
muck. Preparations were making to
lay tiles in the bitches and ill them
up, but before this was done heavy
rain washed them out, and caused
the prevailing sickness to abate as sud-
denly as it had commenced. From
the first, malaria, has not prevailed in
those parts of the city where vegetable
deposits and filth have been absent,
and the health of the streets in which
sewers have been laid has been remark
ably good.-Popqtlar Science.