As the list has been a bit quiet I thought I'd briefly mention an article I found in The New Yorker, "When a Virus Is the Cure". It's about a therapy for treating bacterial infections. I found it particularly interesting as I'm currently reading Susan K. Harris' "Mark Twain, the World and Me". She mentions Twain's puzzlement over cholera - or lack of cholera in the Ganges downstream of Benares. She goes on to discuss this very therapy and how it may begin to find acceptance in today's science and Twain's "willingness to doubt Western scientific thinking on the basis of Hankin's empirical evidence. It is one of the places in "Following the Equator" where we see a crack in Twain's faith in the Empire's self-justifications." Harris' book is fascinating for a whole lot of additional thoughts. I'm going to need to add a lot of comments throughout my Twain's Geography site.