NOTES. 



719 



a large number of those who, if they had not 

 been so inoculated, would have died of that 

 disease. And we believe that the value of 

 this discovery will be found much greater 

 than can be estimated by its present utility, 

 for it shows that it may become possible to 

 avert by inoculation, even after infection, 

 other diseases than hydrophobia. . . . His 

 researches have also added very largely to 

 the knowledge of the pathology of hydro- 

 phobia, and have supplied what is of the 

 highest practical value, namely, a sure 

 means of determining whether an animal, 

 which has died under suspicion of rabies, 

 was really affected with that disease or not." 

 The answer to the question whether M. Pas- 

 teur's treatment can be submitted to with- 

 out danger to health or life, must be quali- 

 fied accordingly as the question is applied 

 to the ordinary method, concerning the en- 

 tire safety of which no reason of doubt has 

 yet appeared; or to the intensive method 

 which has been applied only to cases deemed 

 especially urgent. In many of the urgent 

 cases the intensive method is believed to 

 have been more efficacious than the ordi- 

 nary method would have been. In other 

 cases deaths have occurred under conditions 

 which have suggested that they were due to 

 the inoculations rather than to the infection 

 from the rabid animal. But in these cases 

 it is open to doubt whether the effect of the 

 inoculation may not have been to modify the 

 form of the rabies already nascent, into 

 " paralytic rabies," rather than of itself to 

 produce it. In order to reduce risks, M. 

 Pasteur has greatly modified his intensive 

 treatment, and limited its application to the 

 most urgent cases. 



NOTES. 



The steamers of the new American " Ar- 

 row Line " are to be constructed upon a new 

 principle, and with a view to an estimated 

 speed sufficient to make the voyage between 

 New York and Liverpool in a little more 

 than four days. The Pocahontas will be 

 540 feet long, will be provided with 1,060 

 water-tight compartments, 500 of which are 

 to be below the water-line, and will have 20 

 boilers with engines of 27,986 horse-power 

 and capable of giving a speed of 22 knots 

 an hour. 



Professor Asaph Hall has determined 

 the parallax of Aldebaran at 0102", with a 

 probable error of - 0296. 



The sixtieth meeting of the German As- 

 sociation of Naturalists will be held at 

 Wiesbaden, September 18th to 24th. A 

 number of new scientific instruments and 

 preparations will be shown. 



An unusually large number of foreign 

 men of science will, it is expected, be pres- 

 ent at the forthcoming meeting of the Brit- 

 ish Association in Manchester. Among the 

 Americans are Cleveland Abbe, J. R. East- 

 man, of the United States Naval Observa- 

 tory; and William Libbey, Malcolm Mc- 

 Neill, and C. A. Young, of Princeton Col- 

 lege, in Section A ; F. W. Clarke, J. W. 

 Langley, and J. W. Mallet, in Section B ; 

 Asa Gray, C. S. Minot, and E. S. Morse, in 

 Section D ; Dana Horton and Judge Mackay, 

 in Section F ; and Thomas Egleston and J. 

 B. Francis, in Section G. 



Dr. E. A. A. Grange, of the Agricultural 

 College of Michigan, describes a disease in 

 the foot of the horse, frequently occurring 

 in the summer season, which he calls lami- 

 niiis, but which is often manifested as what 

 is called chest-founder, from the position 

 which it causes the horse to take, suggest- 

 ing an affection of the chest. The disease 

 is really an inflammation of the sensitive 

 lamina? of the foot, sometimes involving 

 neighboring structures, and may be com- 

 pared with toothache. It may be caused by 

 overheating and sudden cooling, overwork- 

 ing, overfeeding, or too long and close con- 

 finement in the stall. It is manifested by at- 

 titudes indicating pain, by irregularities in 

 breathing, twitching movements, etc. The 

 treatment materially depends upon the cause 

 in the particular case, and is both general 

 and local. 



The British Inspectors of Explosives re- 

 port for 1886 the continued satisfactory op- 

 eration of the Explosives Act of 1875. Only 

 one loss of life was returned in legitimate 

 manufacture, as against an average of over 

 eight in the eight years previous. Mention 

 is made in the report of 143 accidents hav- 

 ing occurred during the year, whereby 40 

 persons were killed and 136 injured. The 

 averages for the previous nine years were 

 38 killed and 98 injured. 



Mr. Alfred Carpenter, of the Marine 

 Survey office, Bombay, has observed Maea- 

 cus monkeys on the island off South Bur- 

 mah opening oysters with a stone. They 

 bring the stones from high - water mark 

 down to low-water, selecting such stones as 

 they can easily grasp. They effect the 

 opening by striking the base of the upper 

 valve until it dislocates and breaks up. They 

 then extract the oyster with the finger and 

 thumb, occasionally putting the mouth 

 straight to the broken shell. The way they 

 have chosen is the easiest way to open the 

 shell. 



