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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



name Pitt-Rivers, his chief . interest 

 seemed to be in the earth works and 

 tumuli of Cranbourne Chase, and the 

 extensive memoirs he has published 

 and the museum he has established 

 show what good use he made of the ex- 

 cavations. Some of the results of his 

 earlier work will be found at Oxford, 

 but he built at Farnham, in Dorset- 

 shire, a museum which contains collec- 

 tions of the greatest possible value. 



The communication in this issue 

 signed 'Physicist' is worthy of note. If 

 what its writer says is true, it is evi- 

 dent that a reputation as a brilliant in- 

 ventor does not insure that its possessor 

 is a safe writer about general physics. 

 Our correspondent, who represents 

 fairly the opinion of scientific men in 

 general, finds fault with Mr. Tesla's 

 article in the June Century in many 

 important particulars. During the 

 years since Mr. Tesla's notable inven- 

 tion of the polyphase alternate current 

 transformer, he seems to have become 

 less definite and exact in his think- 

 ing, and less productive as an inventor. 

 The speculation and rhetoric of the 

 Century article are certainly disap- 

 pointing to every one who is trying to 

 bring about an intelligent and sound 

 view of science on the part of non- 

 scientific people. Men of science every- 

 where should certainly make it their 

 business to instruct people in general 

 about the progress, and even the pros- 

 pects, of science through the press, but 

 it takes wisdom on the part of both 



writers and editors to know what is 

 instructive and what is misleading. 

 Honest criticism such as that of our 

 correspondent is therefore highly de- 

 sirable. 



It is generally agreed that the most 

 important advance of last year in the 

 science of medicine was the discovery 

 that the parasite causing malaria was 

 transmitted from person to person by 

 mosquitoes. Dr. Manson describes this 

 discovery fully in this number of the 

 Popular Science Monthly. This 

 summer a crucial experiment is being 

 made of a somewhat dramatic charac- 

 ter. A mosquito-proof tent has been 

 constructed, which is located in Italy, 

 in the Campagna. In this Dr. Luigi 

 Sambon, lecturer of the London Trop- 

 ical School of Medicine, and Dr. G. C. 

 Low will live until October, taking the 

 utmost care not to be bitten by mosqui- 

 toes. If they escape malaria it will 

 serve as corroborative evidence that the 

 mosquito is the means of infection. 

 On the other hand, several Englishmen, 

 including Dr. Manson's son, have of- 

 fered themselves as subjects for the 

 complementary experiment. They will 

 live in a healthy district, but will 

 definitely allow themselves to be bitten 

 by mosquitoes which are known to be 

 infected. These experiments will prob- 

 ably be particularly useful in demon- 

 strating to the public at large the 

 validity of the hypothesis derived last 

 year from technical bacteriological evi- 

 dence. 



