Notes on Some Shells, Ferns, Etc. - Collected in Deacatur County, Iowa and Lyon County, Kansas, in the Summer of 1886

Grand River, Long Creek and the Little Rivers yielded almost no water mollusks. Four examples of Unio schoolcraftii Lea, one U. loevissimus Lea, and one Helix clausa Say. Of the Ferns the following were observed: Osmunda claytoniana, Botrychium virginicum, Adiantum pedatum, Cystopteris fragilis, Asplenium felix-foemina and Onoclea sensibilis

Abolishing user fees for children and pregnant women trebled uptake of malaria-related interventions in Kangaba, Mali.

Malaria is the most common cause of morbidity and mortality in children under 5 in Mali. Health centres provide primary care, including malaria treatment, under a system of cost recovery. In 2005, Médecins sans Frontieres (MSF) started supporting health centres in Kangaba with the provision of rapid malaria diagnostic tests and artemisinin-based combination therapy. Initially MSF subsidized malaria tests and drugs to reduce the overall cost for patients. In a second phase, MSF abolished fees for all children under 5 irrespective of their illness and for pregnant women with fever. This second phase was associated with a trebling of both primary health care utilization and malaria treatment coverage for these groups. MSF's experience in Mali suggests that removing user fees for vulnerable groups significantly improves utilization and coverage of essential health services, including for malaria interventions. This effect is far more marked than simply subsidizing or providing malaria drugs and diagnostic tests free of charge. Following the free care strategy, utilization of services increased significantly and under-5 mortality was reduced. Fee removal also allowed for more efficient use of existing resources, reducing average cost per patient treated. These results are particularly relevant for the context of Mali and other countries with ambitious malaria treatment coverage objectives, in accordance with the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. This article questions the effectiveness of the current national policy, and the effectiveness of reducing the cost of drugs only (i.e. partial subsidies) or providing malaria tests and drugs free for under-5s, without abolishing other related fees. National and international budgets, in particular those that target health systems strengthening, could be used to complement existing subsidies and be directed towards effective abolition of user fees. This would contribute to increasing the impact of interventions on population health and, in turn, the effectiveness of aid

The Ferns of Muscatine County, Iowa

The following ferns have been noted or collected by me in Muscatine County. They are included in thirteen genera and twenty species

The Gas Wells near Letts, Iowa

In the early part of December, 1890, Mr. T. L. Estle, living in section 3, township 75, north, range 4, west 5th p. m., sunk a well on his farm for water. In drift at a depth of about one hundred feet he struck gas, which burned readily but in two or three days the gas ceased to flow. Between forty and eighty rods west of this place, about the same time Mr. R. M. Lee bored for water. At about one hundred feet he failed to get water and stopped boring. In the evening he commenced to pull out his casing, and succeeded in raising it perhaps eight or ten feet. During the night a great roaring was heard and on approaching the well with a lantern the gas took fire and a great flame shot several feet in the air with a frightful noise. In a few days the flame was extinguished and the gas piped into Mr. Lee\u27s house a few rods away, where for over a year it has furnished him light and fuel. This well now furnishes Messrs. R. M. Lee, T. J. Estle, J. E. Lee and Robt. Lee with all their fuel and light. Robt. Lee is a little over one mile from the well

Notice of a Stone Impement from Mercer County, Illinois and One from Louisa County, Iowa

The Mississippi River separates Mercer County Illinois, from Muscatine County, and Louisa County, Iowa, borders Muscatine County on the south. Both of these counties have yielded many valuable relics of the prehistoric people who once filled and owned these lands. The Davenport Academy of National Sciences has carefully worked these fields and Muscatine antiquarians have done likewise. But it is not of the numerous, conspicuous, fertile mounds of these regions I wish now to speak. Mr. Jas. Wier, of Muscatine, for the past few years has become a zealous collector of a great variety of curious things. Chief among these are stone implements which have been made or are supposed to have been made by some prehistoric or savage race. An implement was brought to him by a farmer in Mercer County, Illinois, which it seems to me bears the internal evidence of being genuine. The stone seems to be a kind of porphyry. It is quite systematically wrought in the shape of a double ax

My Experience in Rearing Vanessa antiopa

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On the Absence of Ferns between Fort Collins and Meeker Colorado

Partly because of their grace and beauty, and partly because of the small number of species in any given locality and of their singular mode of growth and development, this group of plants has, to me, for many years been of more than common interest. Muscatine County is honored with about twenty-two species of ferns. As a rule these plants seek damp and shaded spots, and it would seem as if some of them will not thrive unless certain conditions of soil, water and exposure are secured. Hence, a rough, rocky region, with springs and more or less swampy ground would, most likely, be rich in individuals and in species of this interesting family

Some Observations on Helix cooperi

In Land and Fresh Water Shells,\u27\u27 Part I, by W. G. Binney and T. Bland, 1869, the mollusk to which I invite your attention is called Helix cooperi. In Manual of American Land Shells, by W. G. Binney, 1885, this little mollusk is honored with the following synonymy: Helix strigosa, Gould; Anguispira strigosa, Tryon; Helix cooperi, W. G. Binney; Anguispira cooperi, Tryon; Helix haydeni, Gobb, Patula strigosa. W. G. Binney; Anguispira bruneri, Ancy. In this work Mr. Binney uses the second name proposed by himself, viz: Patula strigosa. Inasmuch as the regions inhabited by this creature are quite diverse in regard to climate and food, it would seem most likely a considerable variation in size, form and color would necessarily follow. It appears to be at home throughout the Rocky Mountain region in the United States

Notice of Arrow Points from the Loess in the City of Muscatine

No other question has ever engaged the attention of man more than that which relates to the origin and destiny of his race. Many theories have been advanced to account for man\u27s origin and there is likewise great diversity of opinion as to his destiny. Evolution, it seems to one, is competent to explain the natural order of things from the crystal to man. Except we build on the sure foundation of the past and present all speculation concerning man\u27s destiny must be conjecture

Some Additional Observations on the Loess in and about Muscatine

The unconsolidated material resting on the drift in and about Muscatine possesses many of the characters of the loess and since it passes by insensible gradations, into the latter it seems rather to belong to the loess than to the drift