Mourne! Ost. 1 io. | PROGRESS OF MICROSCOPICAL SCIENCE. . 229 
whose limits it was not possible for them to conceive. However, in 
the contemplation of the phenomena presented to them within that 
wheel—or that realm of “orderly mystery,’ as the President had 
called it—there was ample room and verge for the display of the 
highest physiological attributes with which man was endowed. Mr. 
Wallace, who made some remarks on the paper, said he agreed prin- 
cipally with the author. 
Animals Dredged up by the ‘Porcupine’—At the British Associa- 
tion meeting at Liverpool, Dr. Wyville Thompson read a paper “ On 
Some of the Echinoderms discovered in the Expedition of H.M.S. 
‘ Porcupine’;” and Dr. W. C. M‘Intosh read a “ Preliminary Report 
on certain Annelids dredged in the same Expedition.” In the course 
of the discussion which followed, Mr. Jefirys expressed the hope that 
in future greater aid would be given by Government to expeditions 
and explorations having for their object the improvement of scientific 
knowledge. Our Government had not done in this way what even the 
poor country of Norway and Sweden had done, what Australia had 
done, and what he understood Italy was about to undertake. But he 
looked forward to more attention being paid in this country to scien- 
tific wants and requirements, for the sake of education; for no educa- 
tion could be of any value whatever unless it was based upon correct 
information. 
The Germ Theory of Disease.—Mr. W. Hope, V.C., read a paper at 
the Liverpool meeting of the British Association which goes far to 
support the dictum of the suppressibility and cure of cattle plague. 
Mr. Hope said that at an experimental farm belonging to a company 
in which he was interested, pecuniarily and scientifically, rinderpest 
broke out in the summer of 1867 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 invariably, preceding death, viz. ulceration of the mouth. Next 
the dreaded ulcers appeared, and Professor Brown told him there was 
no means of cure known to science, that the disease was practically 
incurable, that in the present instance there was no scber, serious 
chance of saving a single animal out of the whole herd. At his par- 
ticular request Professor Brown explained the progress of the disease, 
and the peculiar difficulties to be encountered. Immediately after- 
wards he (Mr. Hope) undertook the treatment of one-half of the 
animals. He got all the quick-lime he could lay his hands on, with 
which he formed broad roadways all round the sheds, three or four 
inches in depth, and placed pyramids of it along the pathways in the 
sheds, and slaked 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., which chimed in exactly 
with his own instincts, and his reasoning being logical and scientific 
he made a disciple of him (Mr. Hope) at once. He therefore tele- 
graphed to Manchester for a barrel of genuine carbolic acid, and 
R 2 
