P OP ULAB MIS CELL ANY. 



857 



of the tree ; this form, Mr. Higlcy believes, 

 as the final result of his investigations so 

 far, to be at least a part of and probably 

 the whole cause of the disease. The affec- 

 tion is, of course, transmitted by whatever 

 will convey the fungus or its spores. Mr. 

 Higley has no faith in any of the cures that 

 have been proposed for the yellows, and be- 

 lieves that where they have seemed to be 

 successful, not yellows, but some other cause 

 of trouble was present. The only remedy he 

 can propose is to root out the tree and burn 

 every part. 



The Approaching Transit of Venns. 



An international conference respecting the 

 observations of the transit of Venus, which 

 will take place next December, was held in 

 Paris last October, under the presidency of 

 M. J. B. Dumas. Most of the European 

 countries, Brazil, Chili, and the Argentine 

 Republic, were represented, and reported 

 upon the observing stations which would 

 be cared for by their respective countries. 

 France will establish eight stations, Brazil 

 five, Germany four, Denmark and the Neth- 

 erlands, Austria, Hungary, Chili, and Mexico 

 one each, Spain and the Argentine Repub- 

 lic two each, forming a line of stations from 

 the southern part of the United States 

 through Central America, the West Indies, 

 and the east and west coasts of South 

 America to the Strait of Magellan. Besides 

 these, Great Britain will have sixteen sta- 

 tions arranged in groups of two, with prin- 

 cipal centers of observation at the Cape of 

 Good Hope, in Australia, New Zealand, and 

 the Antilles ; and Portugal will have two 

 stations within its proper limits, and one at 

 Benguela or Lorenco Marquez. No reports 

 were made from Italy and the United States. 

 A committee to which the subject was re- 

 ferred made a report concerning the best 

 arrangements for details of observation ; 

 and a resolution was adopted in favor of 

 calling, after the return of the observing 

 expeditions, an " International Commission 

 on the Transits of Venus," in which each 

 state should be represented by a plenipo- 

 tentiary, to form a provisional organization 

 for collecting all the data of the observa- 

 tions, and deducing from them in common 

 a general determination of the parallax of 

 the sun. 



Sewage in Oysters. The oysters of 

 Dublin Bay arc threatened with extinction 

 in consequence of the turning of the sewage 

 of the city into the water. Edible fish were 

 numerous a generation ago in the river Lif- 

 fey, which is the chief carrier of sewage to 

 the bay, but now they are rarely seen there. 

 Oysters were taken for examination, by Dr. 

 Charles A. Cameron, from a spot which is 

 covered by about ten feet of water at high 

 tide, but is nearly dry at low water. The 

 brine of a large proportion of them emitted 

 a slight but distinctly fetid odor, and when 

 examined microscopically was found to 

 swarm with micrococci and other low organ- 

 isms of sewage. Of samples of sea-water 

 taken at the beds at high tide and from 

 little pools containing oysters at low water, 

 the latter contained ten times as much al- 

 buminoid ammonia and thirty times as 

 much saline ammonia as the former, prov- 

 ing that it was in great part composed of 

 sewage. It is impossible for the oysters to 

 keep from imbibing much of this water ; 

 and if we sometimes acquire the germs of 

 fever from drinking water and milk, why 

 may we not also from the juice of oysters 

 raised in sewage-polluted waters ? 



Malarial Organisms. M. A. Laveran has 

 found, in the blood of patients suffering 

 from malarial poisoning, parasitic organ- 

 isms, very definite in form and most re- 

 markable in character; motionless, cylin- 

 drical curved bodies, transparent and of 

 delicate outlines, curved at the extremities ; 

 transparent spherical forms provided with 

 fine filaments in rapid movement, which he 

 believes to be animalcules; and spherical 

 or irregular bodies, which appeared to be 

 the " cadaveric " stage of these, all marked 

 with pigment-granules. He has also detect- 

 ed peculiar conditions in the blood itself. 

 During the year that has passed since he 

 first discovered these elements, M. Lave- 

 ran has examined the blood in one hundred 

 and ninety-two patients affected with vari- 

 ous symptoms of malarial disease, and has 

 found the organisms in one hundred and 

 eighty of them, and he has convinced him- 

 self by numerous and repeated observations 

 that they are not found in the blood of 

 persons suffering from diseases that are 

 not of malarial origin. In general, the 



