THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



105 



explored furthest to the south. The 

 German expedition, under Dr. von Dry- 

 galski, is also making active prepara- 

 tion, and its vessel— which lias been 

 named 'Gauss,' in honor of the great 

 mathematician — was launched on April 

 1. Expeditions to cooperate with those 

 from England and Germany are also 

 planned in Scotland and Sweden. 

 Jt seems unfortunate that the United 

 States, which sixty years ago, at the 

 time of the great antarctic expeditions 

 by Ross, d'Urville and Balleny, sent 

 Wilkes with five vessels, should not be 

 represented in the present movement to 

 make a thorough exploration of the ant- 

 arctic regions. 



While Great Britain is sending out 

 its antarctic exj^edition at a cost of 

 $500,000, a less pretentious, but perhaps 

 equally interesting expedition is being 

 planned. In view of the enormous im- 

 portance attached to the recent discov- 

 eries of the relation of mosquitoes to 

 malaria, and perhaps to yellow fever, 

 Dr. Patrick Manson has urged the send- 

 ing of a party to the islands of the 

 Pacific, and, in the first instance, to 

 Samoa, to study the life history of the 

 mosquito and the conditions on which 

 its existence and development depend. 

 In certain of the islands of the Pacific, 

 elephantiasis, a disease also due to the 

 mosquito, is so prevalent that it occurs 

 in half or more of the population, while 

 in other islands it is entirely absent. 

 It is hoped that the study of the distri- 

 bution of mosquitoes, and, perhaps, ex- 

 periments on their introduction, may 

 show what is antagonistic to their de- 

 velopment, thus making it possible to 

 find a means of destroying them when 

 they are present. Towards this plan 

 the sum of $2,500 has been subscribed 

 anonymously, and it is hoped that the 

 British Government will assist in pro- 

 viding the $10,000 necessary to carry it 

 into effect. It seems evident that the 

 Department of Agriculture should at 

 once undertake the study of the distri- 

 bution of the malaria-bearing mosqui- 

 toes in the United States. The annual 



money loss to the country through the 

 prevalence of malaria may be as little 

 as $10,000,000 or as much as $100,000,- 

 000, but it is in any case so enormous 

 that a thorough investigation, at what- 

 ever cost, would be in the direction of 

 the strictest economy. There are, for 

 example, no Anopheles on Manhattan 

 Island, but within a mile of it they are 

 abundant and malaria is prevalent. It 

 may be supposed that the value of real 

 estate, at the seashore and mountain 

 resorts, for example, will be doubled 

 or halved, according as Anopheles are 

 absent or present. 



The plague has now been so long 

 prevalent in India that the newspapers 

 no longer regard it as necessary to re- 

 port on it, and probably very few think 

 of its ravages, yet the deaths in Bengal 

 alone during the last week, of which 

 reports are at hand, were 4,000, and the 

 recent census of India shows that the 

 population of Bombay is 50,0(X) less 

 than before the epidemic. The occur- 

 rence of the plague at Cape Town has, 

 however, attracted notice, in view of 

 the possibility of its spreading in the 

 British Army, and attention has re- 

 cently been called to the existence of 

 the disease in San Francisco. It has 

 for a long time been known in medical 

 circles that there have been cases of 

 plague in the Chinese quarters, but the 

 State authorities have denied their ex- 

 istence and have attempted to suppress 

 any information in regard to the epi- 

 demic. It appears that Secretary Gage 

 appointed some time since, in spite of 

 the protest of the Governor of Califor- 

 nia, a commission to investigate the 

 matter. This commission, consisting of 

 Prof. Simon Flexner, of the University 

 of Pennsylvania; Prof. F. G. Novy, of 

 the University of Michigan, and Prof. 

 L. F. Barker, of the University of Chi- 

 cago, has made a thorough investiga- 

 tion and has presented a report, from 

 which it appears that thirty-two fatal 

 cases have occurred in San Francisco 

 during the past year; and this prob- 

 ably is incomplete, as six deaths were 



