Vol. XXV. No. 2.] 
POPULAE SOIEKCE KEWS. 
vi 
Personally, Koch is known to be an indefatigal)le 
worker and a conscientious one, and he has won 
for himself the honor he enjoys. But many 
Frenchmen — although they do know that, after 
all, Koch is only a pupil of Pasteur's, and that all 
future discoveries in the matter of infectious dis- 
eases must be in part ascribed to Pasteur, who 
opened the ways, literally — regret that the dis- 
covery has not been made in France, nie Pasteur 
Institute does not seem to liave done anything on 
the subject, although it is rumored that important 
facts will be made known at some time: and, 
worse yet, that (Euvre de la Tuherculose. for which 
[M. Verneuil has been of late years gathering sub- 
Bcriptions, and making a tremendous noise in 
jrder to make people believe that lie and his 
riends meant real business ; that (Euvre, praised 
land lauded everywhere, has not accomplished the 
■lightest work, and has only been the agency for 
the publication of some volumes of memoirs, — 
aostly clinical, generally not v.aluable, — in which 
Ithe experimental method is as much ignored as it 
jmust have been in Noah's epoch. This is most 
lunfortunate, and in scientific circles comments on 
ithe sterility of V^erneuil's enterprise are hard, but 
Ideserved. Now that the Koch medicine has been 
Flor some time iu use in the hospitals, where some 
eminent physicians have been able to try it, — 
through Koch's courtesy, — the general opinion, 
very sanguine at the beginning, — hyper-sanguine, 
if 1 am allowed to coin the word, — is much more 
sedate. Of course 1 speak only of the pliysicians' 
opinions, and of tliose who have tried the ettects 
of the lymph. 'I'heir opinion is, that a good deal 
must be done before any definite conclusion may 
be obtained; and they generally advise their pa- 
tients not to ask for lymph injections. 'J'he first 
enthusiasm — which was exaggerated — is much 
abated, and it is felt that the remedy is not what 
it was expected to be. It may, however, be less, 
and for all that remain a valuable ac<xuisition, 
even if it does not cure or inhibit tuberculosis 
uuder any or all forms. Time will tell. In the 
meanwhile, two French physicians, MM. Ileri- 
court and ('. Richet, have made known the results 
of interesting experiments of anti-tuberculous vac- 
cination on animals, by two ditTerent processes : 
injection of heated cultures, and of dog's blood 
(on rabbits). The details of the experiments are 
to be found in the proceedings of the Societe de 
Biolugie for November and December. 
The lack of criticism of some so-called men of 
letters and journalists is something astounding. 
The Petit Journal, the most popular paper in 
France, and the Nouvelle Berue — which is edited 
by Madame .Juliette Adam, who writes on politics 
and believes she is tlie best adviser of the Ministry 
of Foreign Aft'airs on exterior politics generally — 
l)otli concur in giving their highest praise to a 
quack recently arrived in Paris, who cures tuber- 
culosis with grass juice and bottled electricity (of 
five sorts and prices, of course), and who has 
hardly time for sleeping or eating, and none for 
the remainder of the human functions, on account 
of the throng of patients. Human foolery is an 
unending source of surprise, and of philosophical 
reflections on the probable condition of some 
human brains. 
I cannot quit the topic of microbes without 
informing you that a big book has been recently 
published on the Microbes de la Bouche, by Dr. '111. 
David, and am confident that it will make our 
readers happy to hear that our moutli and alimen- 
tary canal are the "paradise of microbes," and 
that among the " flora of the mouth,'' — as this 
poetical dentist hag it, — which contains certainly 
some hundred species, many are most dangerous. 
and are lying in wait for an opportunity of 
pouncing upon the patient. M. Verneuil has 
called this a state of "latent microbism" — a pair 
of new words to cover old facts. Among the 
pathogenetic microbes waiting for an opportunity 
with unfailing and unending patience, we notice 
those of pneumonia, of tuberculosis, of diphthe- 
ria, etc. It is a pleasant sensation to feel that 
one is living with such admirable creatures, pro- 
viding them with heat, food, lodgings, etc. ; that 
"latent microbism" is merelj' latent death! 
For some years agricultural matters have been 
the subject of great care in France, and many are 
the men who endeavor to develop agriculture. 
This is one of the reasons of the publication, by 
the Hachette firm, in Paris, of a splendid Diction- 
naire d' Agriculture, which is now nearly com- 
pleted, in four volumes. It really is, as it claims 
to be, a complete agricultural cyclopnedia, and 
when it is considered that its contributors are 
Sagnier, BaiTal, Risler, de Vilmorin, Delierain, 
Duclaun, and some twenty others, one cannot 
wonder at its success. This sor. of work is to be 
encouraged in all parts of tlie world. 
T'here is at present much agitation in all uni- 
versity towns in France. 'l"he government intends 
to revert in part to the old university system, and 
to confer the name of " University" to the group 
of scientific and literary faculties in five or six 
towns in F'rance. Who are to be the favored six';' 
Lyons and Moutpellier are at the head of the list ; 
Nancy and Lille are likely to come after. But for 
the two last vacancies a fearful competition is 
going on ; Toulouse howls, Bordeaux despairs, 
Marseilles offers heaps of money, Dijon — the mus- 
tanl txiwn — is said to agitate itself, and Grenoble 
listens to its death-toll. Many small towns, in 
which one or two of either of the four faculties 
re(}uired for the new universities are present, are 
sure to die out; the students will always prefer a 
town fully endowed, and the State really wishes 
that only five or six wholly well-equipped uni- 
versities should represent higher education in 
France. H. 
Pa HIS, Dec. 24, 1890. 
[Original In Popular Sciencb News.] 
SOMETHING ABOUT PEPPEK. 
BY ANNA IIINKICHS. 
Thk German expression, " Would he were where 
the pepper grows," is indicative of the fact that 
the home of this much-used spice is in a region 
that is much hotter than ours. In fact, pepper is 
transported miles and miles, o'er land and sea, ere 
it reaches the Americm table. 
Black pepper {Piper nigrum) is native along the 
coast of the East Indi<'S ; also in Ceylon, Sumatra, 
Borneo, and Java. In these localities, and also 
in the West Indies, it is cultivated in enormous 
quantities. Being one of the best and most indis- 
pensable of spices, its use was already known and 
employed by the ancients. Its original Sanskrit 
term, "pippali," altered by the Persians into 
"pippari," has, with but slight transitions, gone 
into all languages. During the time of the 
Homans, duty on pepper was exorbitantly high ; 
consequently, its use was rendered an expensive 
luxury. Even centuries later, after the great 
Italian cities of commerce, Venice and Genoa, 
assumed almost exclusive monopoly of this trade, 
its prices remained exceedingly high. By its 
traftic enormous wealth was amassed by the mer- 
chants of these and other cities. Duty on this, 
almost an article of necessity, remained unreason- 
ably high all through the Middle .\ges. Indeed, 
its valuation was so great, that in the time of the 
money famine (year 1400) it was given and ac- 
cepted in lieu of cash. Fortunately, with the 
discovery of navigation to the East Indie*, the 
price was lowered. Gradually its propagation wag 
on the increase. It was transplanted to the West 
Indies, and produced in almost incredible quantity. 
Nevertheless, the demand was in excess of the 
supply. In quantity of export it far outranks 
that of any other of the spices. Fully half the 
amount of exportation is supplied by the island 
of Sumatra. Excluding Europe, China is reputed 
to import the greatest quantity of pepper. As it 
is needless to repeat, rice is a daily article of sus- 
tenance in that country. This general article of 
diet they season — and that liberally — with pep- 
per. The same may be said of other inland 
countries where rice forms the staple article of 
existence. 
Pepper, in its natural state, — that is, the kernel, 
— is the fruit of a plant of creeping or climbing 
habit and of branching growth. It attains a 
height of some thirty feet. Its leaves are short- 
stemmed, uniform, and pointed. On the immense 
East Indian pepper plantations, the young cut- 
tings are set out in long rows and trained on 
poles. In this particular it bears a striking re- 
seml)lance to a hop-field. The plant bears fruit 
in its first year, but not to any great extent. It is 
most prolific from its fourth to its twentieth year, 
during which period the annual yield of a single 
plant is from nine to eleven pounds, on the aver- 
age. The liarvest season commences as soon as 
the uniform little green berries begin to turn red. 
They are then plucked and spread out on great 
platteri, to dry in the sun's warm rays, or by 
means of a slow fire. This treatment causes the 
outer shell to shrivel and turn black. White pep- 
per is gathered from the same plant as the black, 
the distinction being that the former is ground 
from the ripe berries, from which the outer black 
shell has first been removed. Because of this 
thorough maturity of the berry and the absence 
of the outer shell, it is much milder than the 
black. The strongest species of black pepper is 
known as the Piper officinarum. Its fruit, the 
berry, is long, having a reddish gray exterior and 
a very dark interior, .\nother, not belonging to 
the pepper family proper, but coming under the 
nightshades (Solaneen), is the Spanish pepper 
{Capsicum longum), whose gleaming red fruit is 
too familiar to require detailed mention. 
