May 26, 1898] 



NATURE 



85 



As the result of a bacteriolc^ical examination, Dr. Haftkine 

 has reported that the recent sudden outbreak in Calcutta was 

 due to true bubonic plague. A long and detailed statement of 

 he facts referring to the outbreak, and the measures taken by 

 'le Government of Bengal to prevent its spread, is given in the 

 Pioneer Mail ol y\z.y d. As a preventive measure, inoculation 

 with the prophylactic virus prepared by Dr. Haffkine is recom- 

 mended. It has been found that inoculation by this material 

 [irevents from 80 to 90 per cent, of deaths from plague, and 

 reduces the plague from an epidemic form to the position of a 

 I'oradic disease. Surgeon-General Harvey was deputed by the 

 rovernment of India last month to Bombay specially to examine 

 :ie results of Dr. Ilaffkine's methods, and his report is stated 

 1 be generally favourable to the system of inoculation. The 

 I .Dvernment of Bengal have therefore decided to exempt from 

 liability to segregation all families which have been entirely 

 inoculated prior lo the occurrence of any case of plague among 

 them. Inoculation is not to be forced on the people, but 

 if a member of a completely inoculated family is attacked by 

 the plague, neither he nor his family will be liable to removal 

 to a segregation camp. 



At the anniversary meeting of the Royal Geographical Society 

 on Monday, the medals were presentetj as already announced 

 (p. 38). In the course of his address, the President said that a 

 very sympathetic reply had been received from the Prime 

 Minister's private secretary to the appeal on behalf of a Govern- 

 t ment Antarctic expedition. A German expedition was being 

 organised on a liberal scale, and funds were being collected 

 throughout Germany for the purpose. Moreover there was 

 reason to hope that the Norwegian Government might send out 

 an expedition also, perhaps under the leadership of Dr. Nansen, 

 to carry out exploration mainly on land. Meanwhile the Belgian 

 expedition, under M. de Gerlache, had been actively engaged, 

 and the expedition, liberally supported by Sir George Newnes, 

 under Mr. Borchgrevink, was in an advanced state of prepara- 

 tion. After a brief reference to Mr. Jackson's account of the 

 Tackson-Harmsworth expedition, to Lieutenant Peary's labours, 

 and to those of Captain Sverdrup, Colonel Fielden, Mr. Pear- 

 son, Mr. Arnold Pike, and Sir Martin Conway, the President 

 said that German and Swedish expeditions were in progress for 

 Spitsbergen and Franz Josef Land. Germany was setting an 

 admirable example in scientific exploration. Besides the 

 Antarctic expedition referred to, the German Government had 

 made a grant of 15,000/. for oceanic research, especially in the 

 Atlantic and Indian oceans. In the North Atlantic much good 

 work was done under the joint co-operation of the Swedish, 

 Norwegian, German, and British Governments. He hoped 

 that during the coming summer authentic and satisfactory in- 

 formation concerning the hazardous balloon expedition under- 

 taken by M, Andree would be received. 



Mr. Borchgrevink has given to a representative of Reuter's 

 Agency some details of the arrangements for the Antarctic ex- 

 pedition which will shortlyleavefor Australia and South Victoria 

 Land. He said' that his ship, the Southern Cross, has been 

 designed by the builder of the Fravi, and has 10 feet of solid 

 oak at her bows, and at her weakest point is 32 inches in thick- 

 ness. Over all she is sheathed with 3 inches of American 

 greenheart — a wood which never splits, and is very hard and 

 slippery. The Southern Cross will fly the British flag, and will 

 leave London in July. A pack of sixty-five Siberian sledge- 

 dogs will be taken, and a number of sledges for the inland 

 journey on the South Victorian continent. The object of the 

 expedition is to explore South Victoria I^nd, and to investigate 

 the seas and islands between there and Australia. Mr. 

 Borchgrevink is taking with him stores for three years and a 

 supply of carrier-pigeons. 



NO. 1 49 1, VOL. 58] 



Information of the death of Mr. Edward Wilson, F.G.S., 

 who for the past fourteen years has been Curator of the Bristol 

 Museum, has been received from Mr. F. W. Knocker, Sub- 

 Curator of the Museum. Having a good general knowledge of 

 zoology and botany, and an extensive acquaintance with geology, 

 Mr. Wilson was admirably fitted for his position. His efforts to 

 enrich the Museum were zealous and untiring, and he was engaged 

 during the last month of his life in procuring a large collection 

 of mammalian remains and some worked flints from the cavern- 

 deposits of Uphill, near Weston-super-Mare. He had likewise 

 arranged in the Museum a special students' collection of minerals, 

 rocks and fossils, of which he prepared a separate catalogue, 

 in addition to his numerous issues of the " Guide to the Bristol 

 Museum." For many years prior to his removal to Bristol, Mr. 

 Wilson had been a science teacher at Nottingham, and he was 

 there led to pay particular attention to the Permian and Triassic 

 strata, the Rhretic beds and the Lias, to our knowledge of which 

 he made considerable additions in papers dating from 1868. In 

 1885 he published an important article on the Marlstone of 

 Leicestershire as a source of iron. Later on he devoted himself 

 more especially to the study of the Liassic Gasteropoda, on 

 which subject he had become our chief authority. He was 

 joint-author, with Mr. W. H. Hudleston, F.R.S., of a Cata- 

 logue of British Gasteropoda, 1892, More recently he has 

 laboured in company with Mr. S. S. Buckman at the palaeonto- 

 logy of Dundry Hill. A new Liassic Gasteropod was named 

 IVilsonia in honour of Mr. Wilson, by Mr. Hudleston, and the 

 Council of the Geological Society awarded to him in 1888 the 

 Murchison Geological Fund. He died after a short illness on 

 May 21, at the early age of forty-nine, and his loss will be widely 

 felt by his many friends. All acquainted with him entertained the 

 highest regard for his gentle unassuming character, as well as 

 for his able and painstaking researches. 



The report of the Committee appointed by the Society of Arts 

 to consider the causes of the deterioration of paper is printed in 

 the current number (May 20) of the Society's Journal, and is 

 here summarised. At the outset, the report points out that 

 during the present century the paper-making industry has under- 

 gone many revolutionary changes. As an industry it has grown 

 considerably, and to meet the requirements of the enormously 

 increased production a quantity of new fibrous raw materials 

 have been introduced and have taken their place in due course 

 as indispensable staples. The more important of these, so far 

 as concerns this country, are esparto, in the period 1860-70; 

 "mechanical wood" or ground wood pulp, in 1870-80; the 

 wood celluloses, in the period 1880-90. These substances 

 differ in chemical composition from the celluloses obtained from 

 cotton, flax and hemp, which were the exclusive staple raw 

 materials for paper making up to this century ; and although 

 they are efficient substitutes in most respects, it must be admitted 

 that time has not yet been able to pronounce a judgment upon 

 the relative permanence of the papers made from them. There is 

 more than a suspicion that many of them are very inferior in 

 this important respect, and it has been the main purpose of the 

 work of the Committee to sift the evidence upon which such 

 suspicions have been engendered. 



The Committee referred to above have examined a number of 

 books as evidence of " deterioration of paper " ; some submitted 

 by librarians in a condition of complete disintegration ; some of 

 their own selection exhibiting various grades of deterioration of 

 the paper of which they are composed. They conclude on the 

 evidence before them as follows : — As to the two tendencies to 

 deterioration of papers these are marked ( i ) by disintegration, 

 (2) by discoloration. They are independent effects, but may 

 be concurrent. They are notably so in papers containing 

 mechanical wood pulp. Actual disintegration has been brought 



