April \, I 



NATURE 



533 



inclosed gas-filled chambers would have sufficed, by their 

 buoyancy, to bring the shell and animal at once to the 

 surface. 



That the living Nautilus, noticed by Prof. Moseley, 

 should have been unable to sink in the tub of sea-water 

 in which it was placed on the deck of the Challenger, 

 and that this inability was due, as he observes, " to some 

 expansion of gas in the interior, occasioned by the dimin- 

 ished pressure," is equally certain ; but Moseley does not 

 state that the expanded gases were in the shell-chambers ; 

 had such been the case, the gas, in order to expand, must 

 have ruptured the rigid shell-wall. But gases are, no 

 doubt, evolved within the crop and alimentary canal 

 of the animal, and these, by their expansion, on coming 

 to the surface, would suffice to produce the effect ob- 

 served by Moseley. " The living specimen," he says. 

 " seemed crippled, and unable to dive, no doubt because 

 it had been brought up so suddenly to the surface from 

 the depths " {op. cit., p. 298). Exactly similar effects 

 were observed in fishes with " swim-bladders." These 

 " come up " (says Moseley), " in the deep-sea dredge, in 

 a horribly distorted condition, with their eyes forced out 

 of their heads, their body tense and expanded, and often 

 all their scales forced off" {op. cit., p. 580). 



Mr. Foord quotes an observation by Dr. Woodward, 

 "that many dozens of specimens of newly- imported 

 shells of Nautilus, examined by him at the Docks, were, 

 when shaken, all found to contain fluid within their 

 chambers, just as in the camerated shell of the Water 

 Spondylus {S. varians)" (Introduction,^p. xiii.). We 

 cordially indorse Mr. Foord's remark that " it is much 

 to be regretted that recent opportunities of setting 

 this question (of the contents of the septal chambers) at 

 rest should apparently have been neglected." 



What we would strongly insist upon is, that, it being 

 admitted on all hands that the Cephalopoda are, in every 

 respect, Glossophorous Mollusks, their shells must, in a 

 similar manner, be found to conform to the ordinary 

 Molluscan type. The striking regularity of their septal 

 chambers has usually hindered a comparison with those 

 of other camerated Molluscan shells ; but in Caprinella, 

 the camerated interior of the " water-chambers " is quite 

 equal in regularity and symmetry with that of the Cephalo- 

 poda, and many of the Hippuritida show not only septa, 

 but a pseudo-siphuncle, reminding one still more of the 

 chambered Nautilus. 



Space does not permit a longer notice of Mr. Foord's 

 excellent " Catalogue " ; it is a most valuable addition to 

 the now really fine series of descriptive Catalogues issued 

 by the Trustees of the British Museum of Natural His- 

 tory. We hope soon to welcome the appearance of the 

 second part of this useful work, when we may be 

 tempted to reopen the question of shell-growths and 

 shell-structures. 



SANITARY SCIENCE. 

 Transactions of the Sanitary Institute of Great Britain. 

 •Vol. IX. (1887-88.) 



THIS volume is largely composed of the papers and 

 addresses read at the Congress of the Institute at 

 Bolton. The authors are chiefly men well known in their 

 different professions, whose contributions are not only of 



much scientific interest, but carry weight with the public. 

 Sanitation is a science in which the "faddist" delights 

 to dabble, but his effusions have but little representation 

 in the volume before us. The majority of the workers 

 appear to be content to record steady advances in know- 

 ledge, or to make practical suggestions for administrative 

 reform, rather than to air brilliant theories, popular with 

 the public for their novelty, but greatly wanting in 

 substantial proof. To force premature conclusions in 

 sanitation, as in other older sciences, is to retard true 

 progress ; and on the whole it may be said that sanitary 

 reformers, however earnest, are content to preach the 

 doctrine of pure air, earth, and water, which is as old as 

 Hippocrates. 



In the department of practice, improved sanitary ad- 

 ministration is urged on all hands. Such reforms take 

 largely the shape of what has been called "interference 

 with the liberty of the subject " ; an interference, however, 

 which is not unnecessary or uncalled for, but is impera- 

 tive in health matters where the act or default of one 

 individual may imperil the lives of many. Those who 

 on this plea found their objections to such measures 

 as compulsory vaccination, compulsory notification of 

 infectious disease, isolation of infectious disease in 

 hospitals, better supervision of building operations, dairies, 

 and cow-sheds, and stricter enforcement of nuisances 

 clauses and sanitary regulations generally, appear to for- 

 get that civilized existence depends upon the observance 

 of mutual obligations, and that society could not exist if 

 every individual were free to exercise his liberty of action 

 at the expense of the community. Little is thought of 

 the restrictions that already exist, and to which all law- 

 abiding citizens cheerfully adhere, but when, with ad- 

 vancing knowledge of cause and effect in disease, certain 

 measures are pointed to as being necessary to avoid un- 

 j wholesome conditions, or to prevent the dissemination of 

 I epidemics, an outcry is raised which is too often not only 

 j illogical but insincere. 



In the section of chemistry, meteorology, and geology 

 some valuable papers are contributed on the application 

 of bacteriology as a means of obtaining evidence as to 

 the purity of water-supplies, and of ascertaining the 

 degree of contamination of the air of buildings and 

 sewers. As a science, bacteriology is still in its infancy, 

 but already its teachings are producing a most profound 

 effect in the domains of medicine and hygiene. The 

 recognition of the bacterial and fungoid organisms as the 

 principal factors in the processes of fermentation and 

 putrefaction of organic substances, and the discovery that 

 certain specific microbes are the actual agents provoca- 

 tive of certain contagious diseases, have secured a basis on 

 which can be founded rational measures for the preven- 

 tion and alleviation of disease and for the control of 

 insanitary conditions. Hygiene was a science practised 

 with most beneficial results before the discoveries of 

 Pasteur, Koch, and Tyndall, but many of its teachings and 

 precepts were at that time empirical, although founded 

 more or less on experience and observation. With the 

 more definite knowledge of disease causation and dissemina- 

 tion now arrived at, it is most satisfactory to find that the 

 measures of sanitary reform and improvement which 

 have marked the latter half of the present century are 

 almost entirely in accord. 



