332 



NATURE 



[January 31, 1901 



kinds, the trees and shrubs from which oils, resins, dyes, tans 

 and other products can be obtained being several hundred in 

 number. 



The current number of the Proceedings of the Royal Society 

 contains a paper of much interest to all who are devoted to 

 the canine race. It describes Dr. Copeman's successful 

 endeavours to isolate the micro-organism responsible for dis- 

 temper in dogs. The investigations here recorded are a con- 

 tinuation of work begun some ten years ago by the late Everett 

 Millais at St. Thomas's Hospital. Dr. Copeman has now 

 isolated a small cocco-bacillus, growing readily on most of the 

 ordinary culture media at the body temperature, from the exu- 

 dations from the lungs, the tracheal mucus, and from the nasal 

 secretion of dogs suffering from distemper. A cubic centimetre 

 of a broth-culture of this microbe, injected beneath the skin of the 

 abdomen in a dog weighing 7 kilograms, is sufficient to induce an 

 attack of distemper terminating fatally in about a week from 

 the date of inoculation. A vaccine has also been prepared 

 which Dr. Copeman states can protect dogs against attacks of 

 distemper. This vaccine is procured by heating a broth culture 

 of the bacillus at 60° C. for half an hour, and then adding a small 

 quantity of carbolic acid. An injection of 2 cubic centimetres of 

 such vaccine was apparently sufficient to protect fox-terrier pups 

 weighing about \h kilograms when exposed to distemper infection. 

 How long this immunity is retained by dogs has not yet been 

 ascertained, but information on this and other important points 

 connected with this discovery may shortly be expected, as Dr. 

 Copeman tells us that a series of tests on a large scale are in 

 process of being carried out by dog-breeders in this country, as 

 well as in Germany and America. 



We are very favourably impressed with the first number of 

 the Journal of hygiene, which has just been issued. Messrs. 

 Nutlall, Cobbett and Strangeways-Pigg contribute a paper, 

 illustrated with maps, on the geographical distribution of 

 Anopheles, the malarial mosquito, in England, and Messrs. 

 Nuttall and Shipley the first part of a paper on the structure 

 and biology of the same insect. Species of Anopheles seem to 

 have been met with in all the districts examined, and not only 

 in those where malaria was formerly prevalent. Dr. Klein, 

 dealing with the pathogenic microbes of milk, has found the 

 tubercle bacillus to be present in 7 per cent, of the samples 

 examined, a figure which accords well with our own experience. 

 Dr. Legge discusses industrial lead poisoning, and Dr. Newsholme 

 the utility of isolation hospitals in diminishing the spread of 

 scarlet fever. Dr. Haldane describes an apparatus for the rapid 

 determination of carbonic acid in air. The apparatus is quite 

 portable (the inclusive weight being only about six pounds), and 

 has an accuracy of 0-5 vol. per 10,000. Dr. Haldane also con- 

 tributes a paper on the red colour of salted meat, and finds it to 

 be due to nitric-oxide-hcemoglobin. This is formed by the 

 action of a nitrite on haemoglobin in the absence of oxygen and 

 in the presence of reducing agents, the nitrite resulting from the 

 nitre in salting by reduction, probably through the agency of 

 bacteria. When boiled it is changed into nitric-oxide-h?emo- 

 chromogen. Messrs. Lorrain Smith and Hoskins find that 

 ethylene does not contribute to the poisonous action of coal gas. 

 Dr. fRitchie discusses the artificial modifications of toxins under 

 the influence of acids and alkalies. The Jow-nal, which is 

 edited by Drs. Nnttall, Haldane and Newsholme, is to be 

 issued quarterly, and is published by the Cambridge University 

 Press. The present part is illustrated with figures and diagrams 

 in the text, with a double plate illustrating the structure of 

 Anopheles, and with a beautiful coloured plate of A. Macuh- 

 pennis. 



The Reliquary and Illush-aied Archaeologist has its usual 

 welt-illustrated articles on various matters of antiquarian 



NO. 1 63 I, VOL, 63] 



interest. We need only call attention to a paper by Mr. W 

 Heneage Legge on some churches in the Hundred of Willingdon 

 in Sussex ; one by Mr. J. K. Floyer on " A thousand years of 

 a Cathedral Library" (Worcester). Miss Florence Peacocke 

 draws attention to needlework map=:, which were sometimes 

 veritable works of art. John Schorne, a mediaeval worthy, is 

 the subject of a paper by Mr. T. Hugh Bryant. This popular 

 preacher of the early fourteenth century was accredited a saint 

 by public opinion because he " conjured the devil into a boot." 

 This may be the origin of the popular tavern sign " The Boot," 

 and may also have given rise to the toy known as ' ' Jack-in-the- 

 box." 



It has been stated that the inhabitants of the Mentawet 

 Islands, which lie off the west of the coast of Sumatra, are 

 more nearly allied to the Polynesians than to the Malays ; but 

 in a beautifully illustrated account of these islanders in Globus, 

 Mr. C. M. Pleyte denies this resemblance, in which he is cer- 

 tainly corroborated by the illustrations, and states that they are 

 allied to the Battak. Mentawei is derived from the Malay maUiu, 

 " man," pronounced locally malawi. The natives call them- 

 selves Tschakalagiit. The men and women are tattooed in 

 straight and slightly curved lines, and occasionally bird designs, 

 on various parts of the body, but the men are more ornamented 

 than the women ; it is a necessary preliminary to marriage. It 

 is interesting to note the bow and arrow is employed ; the 

 arrows used in warfare are poisoned ; the blow-pipe is unknown. 

 The religion appears to be shamanistic ; men and women may 

 be shamans (Pleyte terms them " priests "). There are numerous 

 prohibitions, or taboos (pwidn). Divination is performed 

 by an examination of the viscera, especially the stomach, 

 of pigs and fowls. The paper is a valuable record of the 

 ethnography of a people practically unaffected by external 

 influence. 



The Canadian Institute could not have chosen a more appro- 

 priate way of commemorating the first fifty years of its history 

 than by the publication of the fine memorial which forms vol. vi. 

 of the Transactions of the Institute. The papers in the volume 

 cover a wide field of scientific acti%'ity, and do honour to Canada. 

 Sir Sandford Fleming, who was the first secretary and the real 

 founder of the Institute, should be gratified at its growth and 

 influence. The Institute has encouraged scientific study and 

 investigation, and their applications to practical results. It has 

 placed a vast amount of varied knowledge at the disposal of the 

 public, and its recommendations have for many years been 

 received with respect in the official as well as the scientific 

 worlds. One subject of great interest, which first engaged 

 the attention of the Institute twenty years ago, and with which 

 the name of Sir Sandford Fleming is prominently associated, is 

 the zone system of time-reckoning. On the action taken by 

 the Institute, a discussion was inaugurated which extended 

 eventually to Great Britain, and afterwards to all civilised 

 nations, with the result that the essential principles of the 

 system recommended have been adopted on all the five conti- 

 nents. Countries are being brought into the zone system one by 

 one, even though all of them have not adopted the twenty- four 

 hour notation. In other matters the Institute has taken the 

 lead, and has contributed in no small degree to the increase of 

 knowledge in letters, art and science in the Dominion of Canada. 

 We can only mention a few of the subjects dealt with in the 

 volume, namely, the geological history of Lake Superior, the 

 decipherment of the hieroglyphic inscriptions of Central America, 

 the magnetic influence of the sun on the earth and on comets, 

 the structure, microchemistry and development of nerve-cells, 

 the cytology of non-nucleated organisms, the anatomy of the 

 orang-outang, and the morphology of the central cylinder in the 

 angiosperms. 



