BIOLOGY. 275 



hatching. The larva immediately pierces the bark, and derives 

 its nourishment from the more juicy layers, producing, by the 

 damage it causes, exhaustion of the tree and loss of the crop. 

 The whole duration of the life of the animal from the deposition 

 of the ovum to the death of the beetle does not exceed 12 months. 

 Tiie animal appears to be indigenous, and the causes that have 

 led to the great increase in its ravages during the last few years 

 are drought, want of shade, bad culture, destruction of forest 

 trees in which the insect used to live, and departure of some of its 

 enemies. Nature. 



ANTISEPTIC TREATMENT OF RINDERPEST AND SCARLET FEVER. 



Mr. Wm. Hope (Victoria Cross), at the meeting of the British 

 Association, read a paper " On the Antiseptic Treatment of Con- 

 tagion as Illustrative of the Germ-Theory of Disease." 



Mr. Hope said that on an experimental farm belonging 

 to a company in which he was interested, pecuniarily and 

 scientifically, rinderpest broke out in the summer of 18G7 

 among a herd of 260 or 270 cows. He sent for Professor Brown 

 from the Privy Council, who, after making his inspection, said he 

 had found every symptom of rinderpest except one, and that 

 was one of the later symptoms generally, although not invari- 

 ably, preceding death, namely, ulceration of the mouth. 

 Next the dreaded ulcers appeared, and Professor Brown 

 told him there were no means of cure known to science ; that 

 the disease was practically incurable ; that in the present in- 

 stance there was no sober serious chance of saving a single animal 

 out of the whole herd. At his particular request Professor 

 Brown explained the progress of the disease, and the peculiar 

 difficulties to be encountered. Immediately afterwards he (Mr. 

 Hope) undertook the treatment of one half of the animals. He 

 got all the quicklime he' could lay his hands on, with which he 

 formed broad roadways all round the sheds, 3 or 4 inches in depth, 

 and placed pyramids of it along the pathways in the sheds, 

 and slacked it in situ, until all the animals were coughing and 

 choking to an alarming extent. He then obtained the report 

 of the Royal Commission on the Cattle Plague, and specially 

 studied the experiments made by Mr. Crookes, F.R.S. He then 

 telegraphed to Manchester for a barrel of genuine carbolic 

 acid, and determined upon combining the two treatments of liquid 

 diet for the purpose of guarding against the secondary symptoms, 

 with what he might term the chemical treatment recommended 

 by Mr. Crookes. " The result was," continued Mr. Hope, " that, 

 while every single animal that I did not take charge of either died 

 or was slaughtered, I succeeded in saving every single animal that 

 I did take charge of; and if you consider the very large scale on 

 which my operations \vere conducted, the completeness and 

 thoroughness with which the infection had been disseminated 

 throughout the herd, and the fact that rinderpest is the most 

 infectious of all disorders, whether among mankind or the 



