If this were the only evidence that the Winnebagoes built the effigy mounds, or that their ancestors did so, it would have no great weight. But the claim has been made already on other grounds. This being the case, we think that this adds something to the testimony, and we ask, Have we here an ethnic survival?
At the close of the paper Dr. Starr exhibited a number of fine specimens of Indian handiwork, including woven work, bags, belts, etc.
Dr. Newberry explained that these mounds were not sepulchral, like many others in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. Geologically speaking, man is very recent. The early inhabitants of America may have originally come from the East, but, if so, they were cut off from that part of the world at a very early date. The development of the tribes in America was complete and far-reaching. Copper and lead mines were worked, the forests removed, and large tracts given over to the cultivation of corn, grain, etc. This was the mound age, and the constructions were certainly abandoned over one thousand years since. The Pueblo Indians now existing in Arizona and New Mexico took their origin from Central America, and spread as far north as Salt Lake, Utah, and south as far as Chili. Their structures were permanent stone buildings, many of which still exist in a good state of preservation.
Professor Munroe found rocks on the Ohio river, near the Pennsylvania line, inscribed with figures of men, horses and other animals. At low water these figures can be distinctly observed.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF CONSUMPTION.
By Dr. J.S. CHRISTISON, Chicago.
A proclamation by an eminent physician that he has discovered a specific cure for consumption in its most prevalent and insidious form, known as tuberculosis, might well create a deep and universal interest, since there are comparatively few of us that do not have this deadly enemy within the limits of our cousin kinship. And if German slaughter house statistics are to be taken as representative, no less than ten per cent. of our domesticated horned cattle are a prey to the same disease, though seldom discovered during life. This fact would suggest that tubercular consumption is still more prevalent in the human family than has yet been supposed, and that many carry it under the cover of other maladies.
But unfortunately for any hope for a specific remedy, the preponderance of evidence points to the fact that consumption is much more a product of individual habits and social and climatical conditions than a resultant of any one agency. Indeed, the causative evils may vary not only in their degree, but also in their number and order of action in the period of its evolution.