1825.] Scientific Notices — Miscellaneous. 155 



Miscellaneous. 



12. Hydrophobia. 

 Dr. Capello, of Rome, in a memoir read before the Academy 

 del Lincei, affirms that the hydrophobic poison, after its first 

 transmission, loses the power of conveying the disease. This 

 observation, already made by Bader, is confirmed by repeated 

 experiments made by Dr. Capello. A lap-dog and cat were 

 both inocidated with the saliva of a dog who died of inoculated 

 hydrophobia; they both remained free from disease ; and three 

 years afterwards the lap-dog was again inoculated from a dog 

 who became rabid spontaneously : he then took the disease and 



died. 



An ox was bitten by a dog attacked with rabies; he became 

 hydrophobic, and bit many other animals : all remained free 

 from the affection. The dog that bit the ox also bit a child, 

 who died about four months after, with all the symptoms of 

 hydrophobia : with the saUva of this child a dog also was inocu- 

 lated, but the disease was not transmitted. 



A dog which had been bitten by another dog became hydro- 

 phobic on the fifty-first day, broke the chain with which he was 

 fastened, and escaped into the street, where he bit niany per- 

 sons, and the dogs of two persons (who are named), and finally 

 disappeared among the ruins of the villa of Quintilius Varus : 

 not one of the persons or dogs so bitten had the slightest symp- 

 tom of hydrophobia. Med. Jok?-.— (Journal of Science.) 



13. Temperature of the Ma liimim Density o; Water. 

 An elaborate memoir by Prof. Hallostrum, on the specific 

 gravity of water at different temperatures, and on the tempera- 

 ture of its maximum density, has appeared in the Swedish 

 Transactions for 1823. It is "divided into two parts: The first 

 contains a critical discussion of the results, and the methods 

 employed by preceding experimenters : the second, a detail of 

 an extensive course of experiments, instituted by hmiself, with 

 a view to the more accurate determination of this important but 

 difficult inquiry. The method of experimenting which he 

 regarded as the most accurate, and which he therefore adopted, 

 was to ascertain the weight of a hollow glass globe, very little 

 heavier than v^ater, and about 2^ inches in diameter, in water of 

 every degree of temperature between 0° and 32"5° cent. The 

 errors arising from a dilatation or contraction of the glass, the 

 weight of the atmosphere, &c. were all calculated, and a corre- 

 sponding correction made. The result was, that water attains 

 its greatest density at a temperature of 4-108® cent. (39-394° 

 Fahr.) ; and the limits of uncertainty, occasioned by the impos- 

 sibility of ascertaining the dilatation of glass with perfect accu- 

 racy, he estimates to be 0-238^ (0428° Fahr.) oa either side of 

 this number. 



