1888.] MICEOSCOPICAL JOUKNAL. 175 



Causation and prevention of pneumonia. — A pamphlet on the Causa- 

 tion of Pneumonia, by Dr. Henry B. Baker, is being distributed by the Michi- 

 gan State Board of Health. It is an eighty-five-page pamphlet, and is a compi- 

 lation of statistics, collected by the State Board of Health, relating to pneu- 

 monia in Michigan and in other parts of the world. It is a thorough consid- 

 eration of the subject, and seems to prove that pneumonia is controlled by 

 temperature and humidity of the air. The pneumonia increases after the at- 

 mosphere is cold and dry, and decreases after the air is warm and moist. 

 One would suppose that such climatic causes could not be controlled, but 

 Dr. Baker points out how he thinks the disease may be greatly lessened by 

 controlling the temperature, and especially b}' moistening all air which re- 

 quires to be warmed in all buildings, public and private. During the time 

 of greatest danger from the disease (cold weather) most people spend half 

 their time in buildings where such conditions can be controlled, and Dr. 

 Baker claims that it is the long-continued exposure that causes this disease ; 

 so that, if the indoor conditions are properly cared for, this disease will be 

 greatly lessened. 



o 



New^ marine laboratory in Japan. — Nature (May 24, iSSS) describes 

 and illustrates the new marine station erected by the Imperial University of 

 Japan, under the direction of Prof. Mitzukuri, at Misaki. Misaki is a fish- 

 ing village, easy of access from Tokio and Yokahoma, and has long been a 

 favorite collecting-ground for naturalists because of the abundance and va- 

 riety of its fauna and flora. The director of the station, from his instruction 

 in this country at Yale and Johns Hopkins, and later with Balfour and Dohrn, 

 fit him well for the guidance of this important station and engender the hope 

 that important additions to our knowledge of life and its phenomena may be 

 expected thence. The buildings are illustrated in Nature. They have the 

 usual outfit necessarv for good marine work. Attendance at the station dur- 

 ing a certain time will be required of all zoological students at the Imperial 

 Universitv. 



Medicine in Michigan. — We have received a copy of the programme of the 

 Sanitary Convention held under the auspices of the State Board of Health at 

 Manistee, on June 5 and 6. Various topics were presented and discussed. 

 Among them, the water supply of the city of Manistee; relations of the 

 press to sanitation ; hygiene of bathing ; hygiene of schools ; restriction of pre- 

 tention of communicable diseases from the stand-point of the lawyer, clergy- 

 "'.m, physician, and State Board of Health. Scientific medicine we are glad 

 ^^Aee receives great attention in Michigan, due to the work there, among 

 ^. ^""-s, of Dr. V. C. Vaughan. The report of the State laboratory gives 

 & ^of great activity in medical research. 



t$ o , Corpuscles of Cyclostomata. — D'Arcy W. Thompson* corrects 



^^ '^ ^on statement {e. g-., Huxley, Vertebrata, p. 100) that the blood of 



^^ „ ■ , ^s, unlike that of all other fishes, has round corpuscles. In Myxinc 



^^ . arge oval corpuscles whose nuclei stain quickly and deeply with 



. \^^ \yn Petromyzon fnarlnus he found them to be circular. In the 



ff^T'tl • "'y^oi'' the corpuscles are large and oval, and it is a curious fact 



'^ 'he adult Myxine resemble in size and shape those of the larval 



^ ' ^In tb"^ tadpole the corpuscles differ from those of the adult. 



Amer. Mag. N. Hist., ser. 5, vol. xx, page 231, 1887. 



