Jan. 30, 1890] 



NATURE 



291 



contagia and communicable diseases. We may be said 

 at present to be only standing on the threshold of this 

 veiy intricate subject. Even in the case of those diseases 

 which have been ascribed with the greatest assurance to 

 the presence of organisms in the blood or the tissues, we 

 are told that it is as yet uncertain whether the symptoms 

 of disease are the results of the direct action of microbes 

 themselves upon the tissues, or are caused by their 

 indirect action in producing poisonous alkaloids or fer- 

 ments. We have not yet elucidated the curious connec- 

 tion between the diseases of animals and mankind ; but 

 whilst we are gradually acquiring the conviction that 

 some diseases from which animals suffer are communic- 

 able to the human race, it is at any rate satisfactory at 

 the same time to have arrived at the certainty that those 

 laws of cleanliness in air, soil, and water, which are the 

 basis of human sanitation, are the most effective safe- 

 guards to be observed in the case of domestic animals, if 

 certain classes of disease are to be avoided. But with all 

 our increased knowledge of the existence and methods of 

 propagation of the various forms of organisms which 

 appear to co-exist with certain forms of disease, we have 

 not yet discovered why certain diseases become epidemic 

 at certain times, whilst they lie comparatively dormant at 

 other times ; Nature has not yet revealed all her secrets 

 to the microscope or to the laboratory. 



Take as an instance, the influenza which is now present 

 with us. Its epidemics are historical. It has appeared 

 over and over again at somewhat distant intervals. But 

 we do not know why it comes at one time and not at 

 another. It has been specially described on various 

 occasions since 1557. In 1837 it covered the whole of 

 the north of Europe in fifteen days. It travels as rapidly 

 through sparsely inhabited as through populous countries. 

 In 1780 it manifested itself in ships in mid-ocean, which 

 had had no communication with the shore. The facts 

 connected with its incidence are thus well known. Its 

 progress would scarcely seem to be accounted for by 

 contagion or infection in the common acceptance of the 

 word. Is its present advent due, like the beautiful 

 sunsets with which we were favoured a few years ago, 

 as some observer suggests, to a catastrophe in some 

 •distant part of the globe ? or is it owing, as M. Descroix, 

 of the Meteorological Observatory at Montsouris, tells us, 

 to the remarkably stagnant atmosphere of last autumn ? 

 Large populations agglomerated in towns depend, for the 

 removal of the foul emanations continually passing into 

 the atmosphere from their midst, upon the action of 

 winds and storms, and these causes of ventilation 

 were notably absent during the past autumn ; and Dr. 

 Descroix points out that the failure to remove this im- 

 purity would favour the propagation of organisms in- 

 jurious to the health of the community, acting in this 

 respect just as a festering drain or manure heap would 

 act. 



The advance which each separate science makes 

 opens out new views to the hygienist, and this short 

 reference to the epidemic of influenza serves to point out 

 the extent of the subject, and to impress upon us the fact 

 that it is almost impossible that a moderate-sized treatise 

 by a single individual could form an adequate text-book 

 for the student in these various and intricate questions. 



Dr. Parkes's volume, admirable as it is in many respects. 



leaves something to be desired in its treatment of some 

 of the subjects. We would especially refer to those re- 

 lating to civil engineering and architecture, which are not 

 the special subjects of a medical man. The treatment of 

 these branches presents some weak points, and there is an 

 occasional tendency to recommend specific inventions 

 rather than to enunciate principles, which may somewhat 

 militate against the general acceptance of the volume as 

 a complete and permanent text-book. 



It would have been better if the educational features of 

 the book had been limited to those special subjects with 

 which the profession of the author has made him most 

 familiar. The work is, however, a convenient hand-book, 

 and will serve as a valuable guide to show the student 

 what are the several subjects which have to be studied ; 

 and in that sense we can safely recommend it as an 

 adjunct to the library of every sanitarian. 



IN THE HIGH ALPS. 

 Im Hochgebirge. Wanderungen von Dr. Emil Zsigmondy. 

 Mit Abbildungen von E. T. Compton. Herausgegeben 

 von K. Schulz. (Leipzig : Duncker and Humblot, 

 1889.) 



THIS handsome volume possesses a melancholy 

 interest, for it is in reality a memorial to a young 

 and ardent mountaineer who was killed by a fall from a 

 precipice in the year 1885. Emil Zsigmondy was by 

 descent a Hungarian, but was born and educated in 

 Vienna, where his father practised as a physician. The 

 son followed the same profession, of which he was a 

 distinguished student. As a boy he showed a love of 

 mountain-climbing. At the age of fifteen, he and his 

 brother Otto, without guides, made an ascent of the 

 Reiseck, a peak 2958 metres high. The expedition occu- 

 pied twenty-six hours, of which twenty-two were spent in 

 actual walking, a remarkable feat of endurance on the part 

 of two lads. 



After this Emil made annually an Alpine excursion, 

 the expeditions increasing in difficulty and (with the 

 exception of one year) in number. The first of which a 

 description was published was accomplished in his eight- 

 eenth year, and after this references to the journals of 

 foreign Alpine Clubs and similar publications are frequent 

 on the list. Altogether, as we are told in the brief bio- 

 graphical notice prefixed to this work, Emil Zsigmondy, 

 though he perished a few days before completing his 

 twenty-fourth year, had climbed nearly 100 summits of 

 more than 3000 metres in height above the sea -in more 

 than nine cases out of ten unaccompanied by guides. 

 Most of the expeditions described in this volume have 

 already appeared in various journals, and describe excur- 

 sions which in themselves are not new ; but many of them 

 have this special interest, that they were made without 

 guides. Sometimes the brothers were alone, but on the 

 more difficult excursions they were generally accom- 

 panied by one or two trusty friends, such as Prof. Schulz, 

 editor and part-author of this work. 



The book is a record of Alpine expeditions told in plain 

 but graphic language. It scarcely touches upon scientific 

 questions, though we are informed that Emil was a student 

 of Alpine botany, zoology, and geology, and published 

 some observations on these subjects in a work which 



