Another interesting fact is that the births have now reached the lowest rate recorded since civil registration began. In 1876 the rate was 36.3 per 1,000; it is now 30.6. This is very satisfactory, and it is also notable that the illegitimate birth-rate has declined, the proportion, 4.6 per cent, being the lowest yet registered. The worst feature in the Registrar-General's returns, however, is the fact that the male births had fallen in proportion to the female; in the last ten years 1,038 boys were born for every 1,000 girls, and last year the male preponderance had dropped by 5, and is now standing at 1,033 to 1,000. M. Huth has recently published a valuable book on consanguinity. There is no lack of instances of enforced consanguinity, in the matter of marriage, in isolated communities, according to M. Huth, to disprove the assumption that physical degeneration is likely to result from the practice. An investigation into a number of unions between uncles and nieces, nephews and aunts, and cousins in the first and second degree, gives an average of children rather above than below the general average, though this is attributed to some extent to the comparatively early age at which such unions are generally contracted. Breeders inform us that the results are markedly in favor of consanguineous unions between healthy, well-bred animals. Unions between men or animals of widely different varieties, on the other hand, have a decidedly injurious effect on the offspring, and beyond a certain limit are almost absolutely sterile. Mulattoes and the half-breeds of India and America are striking examples of the deterioration to which such racial disparity gives rise. The great point to bear in mind is that the union of individuals with the same morbid tendencies intensifies the taint, and that, too, quite irrespective of any consanguinity. The moral, according to the author, is that the reasons which have led to the prohibition of marriages within certain degrees of relationship are social, and not physiological. =Malaria (Chills and Fever).=--Mr. W. S. Green, editor of the _Weekly Colusa Sun_, of this State, has made careful investigations on the malaria question. We quote from his issue of May 12, 1888:-- "_Irrigation and Malaria._--At the irrigation convention held at Riverside in March, '84, a paper by W. S. Green was read on the subject of 'Irrigation on Health.' The writer took a new departure, and combated notions held for ages; that is, he held that however much the received notions of malaria might hold good as to other climates, they were not correct when applied to California, where the air was in motion pretty much all the while. Mr. Green received the highest indorsement of his ideas, and they have come to be accepted as correct. His statement of facts has been verified by almost all observing men. "_To the Pres. of the Irrigation Convention, Riverside, Cal._--