6i8 



NA TURE 



\Oct. 27, 1887 



of the rainfall at 27 stations from January i to August 

 31, 1870-79, and for the same period in 1887, and expressing 

 the difference of 1887 from the average as a percentage, it 

 appears that the mean percentage this year has been : for Eng- 

 land 59 '8, for Wales 60 'O, for Scotland 68"5, and for Ireland 

 6o'3. Out of II stations in England the drought is unprece- 

 dented at 6, in Scotland at 6 stations out of 8, and in Ireland 

 at 5 stations out of 6. Scotland has suffered least, and in 

 parts of England the deficiency has reached the extreme limit 

 that may be expected. There appears to be no good definition 

 of a drought. In 1880 Mr. Symons adopted a classification for 

 his numerous observers, which has generally been used up to 

 the present time, viz. (i) absolute di'ought, being a period of 14 

 or more consecutive days without rain ; (2) partial drought, 

 being a period of 28 or more consecutive days in which the total 

 rainfall did not exceed 0*25 inch. But engineers speak of 

 droughts varying from 140 even to 240 days ; these can bear no 

 comparison with the above definitions, and Mr. Symons sug- 

 gests a third term, viz. long drought, being a period of not less 

 than 60 days with a total rainfall of not less than 2 inches. 

 Opinions are wanted as to how the records of rainfall observers 

 may be best utilized in the form most useful to engineers. 



Mr. J. W. Oliver has contributed an article to Longman s 

 Magazine for October on the moon and the weather, in which 

 he discusses some of the most important of the popular predic- 

 tions in which the moon is concerned. He deals (i) with the 

 lunar notions that are utterly absurd, and (2) with those that are 

 explicable by the aid of physical principles. The conclusion at 

 which he arrives is that there is more nonsense than sense in 

 lunar predictions, but that it is unfair to consider the whole sub- 

 ject as unworthy of serious treatment. For instance, atmospheric 

 tides due to the moon's attraction must exist, although generally 

 obliterated by disturbances due to other causes. The author 

 apparently favours Sir John Herschel's statement of the tendency 

 of the full moon to clear the sky, and in support of that theory 

 he quotes the experiments of Melloni and others, showing that 

 moonlight contains a minute proportion of dark heat rays, the 

 effect of which may in a certain measure cause the dispersion of 

 the clouds. The lunar halo is also referred to as an old sign of 

 bad weather. Of 61 halos observed near London 34 were fol- 

 lowed by rain within 24 hours and 19 within four days. In the 

 Mittheilnngen aus dein Gebiete des Seeivesens for June, published 

 by the Hydrographic Office of Pola, Capt. C. von Bermann has 

 an article upon the same subject. He deals chiefly with Herr 

 Falb's attempt to reinstate the moon's influence in his work 

 " Das Wetter und der Mond." The result arrived at is that, 

 although the moon has an influence on the weather, it is too 

 infinitesimal, compared with other influences, to be appreciable^ 



The Annual Report of the Meteorological Observer for 

 Tasmania for the year 1886 gives the results of observations 

 taken at 11 stations and rainfall reports from 37 stations. 



THE SIXTH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF 

 HYGIENE AND DEMOGRAPHY IN VIENNA. 



(from our own correspondent). 



'T'HE most important questions dealt with at the Vienna 

 Congress were those relating to preventive medicine, a 

 branch of medical science which originated with Edward 

 Jenner's discovery of immunity from small-pox by means of 

 vaccination. The high value of vaccination and re-vaccina- 

 tion was clearly shown in the Demographic Section of the 

 Congress by statistical tables exhibited by T. Korosi, the 

 Director of the Statistical Office in Buda-Pesih. According 

 to these tables the mortality of the not-vaccinated patients 

 treated in nineteen Hungarian small-pox hospitals was 800 per 

 cent, larger than that of the vaccinated patients, while the re- 

 ceptivity for getting the disease was three and a half times 

 larger in the not-vaccinated as compared with the vaccinated 

 people. In the Fourth Section the question of vaccination was 

 also submitted for discussion by a lecture delivered by a Turkish 

 delegate, Dr. Violi, and a resolution recommending to all 

 Governments the introduction of compulsory vaccination was 

 unanimously adopted. 



Thanks to the valuable discoveries of Pasteur, the method of 

 protecting the life and health of men as well as animals by vaccin- 

 ation has been worked out more extensively, and is now applied 



with the best success against various desolating and destructive 

 diseases. The beneficial effects of the various methods of pre- 

 ventive inoculations, the amount of saving of human and animal 

 life brought about by their use, will easily be perceived by a 

 sketch of the discussions which were held at the last meetings of 

 the Third Section of the Congress. 



A special sub-section was formed where the special results 

 obtained by the preventive inoculations in splenic fever, and 

 erysipelas of the pig, were reported and discussed upon. Dr. 

 Lydtin, of Carlsruhe, gave an interesting account of the develop- 

 ment of the measures against the different plagues, alluding also 

 to the defects of repressive measures, by which cattle-trade and 

 cattle-breeding are so severely affected. While two centuries ago 

 the first trials made of providing immunity against sheep-pox and 

 other plagues were based on purely empirical views, the recent 

 bacteriological discoveries have led to the scientific method of 

 vaccination with an attenuated virus. Dr. Chamberland. 

 Pasteur's assistant, reported on the results obtained by the pre- 

 ventive inoculations against (charbon) splenic fever in France, 

 Hungary, Italy, and Russia. In the year 1886, 367,208 of sheep 

 and 47,229 of cattle had been subjected to anti-charbon in- 

 oculations. Chamberland's statements were considerably sup- 

 ported by the results obtained with Pasteur's methods in 

 Switzerland and at Pakisch, Prussia, which were communicated 

 by Dr. Custer of Zurich and Dr. Lydtin (Carlsruhe). On the 

 other side, the practical value of the preventive inoculations in 

 splenic fever was severely contested by Dr. I.offler, of the Berlin 

 School. An animated discussion on^ this subject went on for 

 three hours and a half. 



By the majority of the speakers it was pointed out that no 

 loss by death— or only a small percentage of such loss — was 

 caused by the inoculation itself in cattle, and that the number 

 of cases of natural splenic fever decreased very much after 

 the preventive inoculations ; but in sheep the vaccinations 

 against charbon were not equally favourable. As to the dura- 

 tion of the immunity acquired by the vaccination no positive 

 statements could be made. 



Then the usefulness of preventive inoculations against charbon 

 symptomatique (Rauschbrand) was dealt with, and was ac- 

 knowledged by all the speakers. In the course of the discussion 

 on the preventive inoculations against erysipelas in the pig — 

 a discussion in which Drs. Lydtin, Chamberland, and Prof. 

 Czokor of Vienna, took part— it was stated that by the inocu- 

 lations the animals get immunity against the disease, but that 

 farther improvements of the method are wanted, as there is 

 now a considerable loss of inoculated animals by the vaccinatio:i 

 itself, and pometimes the spreading of disease in healthy animals. 

 In conclusion it was resolved on a vote that the expe'-iments on 

 preventive inoculations against splenic fever, charbon symptom- 

 atique, "erysipelas of the pig," and the other epizootics ought 

 to be continued under the control of and assisted by Govern- 

 ments. 



The battle-ground of the Congress from a scientific point of 

 view was the discussion on the preventive inoculations against 

 rabies. Dr. Chamberland gave a resume of the development of 

 Pasteur's method, and the results obtained by this treatment in 

 France. 2682 persons were treated and the average mortality was 

 only 7-5 per cent. ; while the mortality of persons bitten by rabid 

 animals if not inoculated varied between 5 and 30 per cent., 

 according to the statements made by different authors. In 

 answering the objections made by some recent writers who 

 had expressed the opinion that the death of patients from hydro- 

 phobia was caused by the inoculations themselves, he maintained 

 that it was proved by experiments made with the spinal cord of 

 those persons that the death was caused by the bite of the rabitl 

 animal, not by the inoculations. If animals were inoculated 

 with brain emulsions of those persons they became rabid, but 

 they died on the fourteenth or fifteenth day after inoculation, while 

 they would have succumbed on the seventh day if the death of the 

 persons had been caused by the inoculated virus. 



Dr. Bordoni-Uffreduzzi of Turin, in making experiments on 

 dogs and animals, found that various parts of the bram ol 

 rabid animals show different degrees of virulence. The pan- 

 creatic gland is nearly as virulent as the brain, while the liver 

 and spleen seem to act much less strongly as media of the virus. 

 He had also treated 119 persons bitten by rabid dogs ; three of 

 them died. 



Dr. Emmerich Ullmann, assistant of Prof Albert of Vienna, 

 has performed preventive inoculations in 122 persons. Only 

 persons who could prove by documents the rabid condition o! 



