FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



397 



for drinking or cooking — provided the 

 flow of the stream is always copious 

 enough to dilute and disperse the sew- 

 age 80 Avidely as to prevent putrefac- 

 tion and substitute oxidation. For puri- 

 fication by bacterial action no single 

 method is found adapted to all condi- 

 tions. The method by filtration and 

 aeration is declared practicable only in 

 localities where a sufllcient area of por- 

 ous land is available, upon which the 

 crude sewage can be spread in sufncient 

 quantity, into which it can filter with 

 the proper velocity, and from which it 

 can emerge as a thorouglily purified 

 water. Where these conditions are ab- 

 sent, other methods must be adopted, 

 of which the experiments in artificial 

 filtration by tanks, as practiced at Exe- 

 ter and Sutton, England, are described. 

 These experiments promise to improve 

 the present method, but perhaps not as 

 greatly as is anticipated by the pro- 

 moters. The author regards a prior sep- 

 aration of the suspended or dissolved 

 organic matter as essential to permanent 

 success when the amount of land is 

 limited. 



By using the tuberculin test the fac- 

 ulty of the Ohio Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station have learned that in cattle 

 the tubercle bacillus usually first ob- 

 tains its foothold in some of the minor 

 glands, that it may exist there for 

 months and years before any other or- 

 gans are aflfected, and that it is only in 

 advanced cases that the lungs become 

 diseased. While the growth of the or- 

 ganism is limited to these minor glands 

 the health of the animal usually shows 

 no sign of impairment. During this pe- 

 riod there is no evidence that any un- 

 wholesome effect is being produced upon 

 the flesh, and so long as the infection 

 is localized in this way in one or two 

 organs the Government inspectors pass 

 the meat as sound. Tuberculosis, there- 

 fore, is a veiy different complaint from 

 such diseases as pleuropneumonia or 

 Texas fever, in which the whole system 

 is saturated from the first instant with 

 the febrile symptoms. 



NOTES. 



Mr. Jajies W^eir tells of a spider 

 which stretched its web in the division 

 between two parts of a sawmill, where 

 the lower fastenings of the structure 

 were frequently broken by the repeated 



passing of lumber through. Discover- 

 ing the situation, the insect gave up the 

 use of guy threads, and, finding a nail, 

 wove it into the lower edge of its web, 

 so that it should operate as a sinker to 

 keep the web stretched. 



N. G. JoiiN.SON, of the Maryland Ag- 

 ricultural Experiment Station, telling 

 the Society for the Promotion of Agri- 

 cultural Science the story of his fight 

 with the pea louse, represented that the 

 pea raisers in his State had lost this 

 ^•oar more than three million dollars by 

 the ravages of this insect. A parasite 

 bad been discovered which practically 

 annihilated tlie pest, but the discoveiy 

 was not made in time to save the crops 

 in some parts of the State from de- 

 struction. 



TuE American Society for the Pro- 

 motion of Agricultural Science, after 

 hearing the account of the work of the 

 Gypsy Moth Commission of Massachu- 

 setts, which has spent more than a mil- 

 lion and a half of dollars in trying to 

 exterminate the mischievous insect, ap- 

 proved the action of the Massachusetts 

 Legislature in maintaining the commis- 

 sion, and requested that the work be 

 kept up for a short time longer. This 

 was because it was represented that the 

 moth Avas now confined to a limited 

 area, and could be easily exterminated 

 by the expenditure of a small amount 

 more of money. 



The history of science has sustained 

 a great loss by the burning of most 

 of the relics which had been collected 

 for the Volta Centenary Exhibition at 

 Como, Italy. Only a few things were 

 saved, comprising a sword presented by 

 Napoleon Bonaparte to Volta, a cast of 

 the skull of the great electrician, his 

 watch, and a few personal relics. On the 

 other hand, his books and manuscripts, 

 his collection of batteries, the only au- 

 thentic portrait of him, and his will, 

 were destroyed. Nevertheless, the cele- 

 bration was not stopped. The fire was 

 attributed to the fusing of some electric 

 wires. 



An example of patient industry is 

 the sorting of hogs' bristles as it is car- 

 ried on at Tientsin, China. Each one of 

 the hairs of the six hundred thousand 

 kilogrammes exported from that place 

 in 1897 had to be picked out, measured, 

 and placed in the bundle of hairs of cor- 

 responding length; and the different 

 lengths by which the hairs are sorted 

 are very numerous. 



It is stated by M. L(5on Vaillant 

 that the late M. A. d'Abbadie had and 

 used an effective remedy against the 



