October 6, 1898] 



NATURE 



551 



It must now be accepted as one of the established facts of 

 medicine that in almost all outbreaks of human plague rats are 

 affected by a similar disease both before and during the epi- 

 demic. In an article upon the plague in Calcutta, Dr. F. G. 

 Clemow points out in the Lancet that the evidence that the two 

 diseases are the same is of exactly the same character as that 

 which has established the identity of human and bovine tuber- 

 culosis, and there seems to be but little more reason for suspen- 

 sion of judgment in the one case than in the other. It may 

 therefore be accepted that plague in man and plague in the rat 

 are, as far as our present knowledge of the two diseases goes, 

 one and the same disease. Evidence has also been published 

 that the disease may attack other animals than the rat, such as 

 dogs, pigs, pigeons, and domestic fowls. Some interesting evi- 

 dence pointing to the possibility that rats were the means of 

 introducing the plague infection into Calcutta, is given by Dr. 

 Clemow. Before the date of the first recognised case of plague 

 in man, intimation was received at the Health Office that a 

 number of dead rats had been found in an office situated near 

 the river ; and a little later, other dead rats were found in a 

 street close to and parallel with the river and in the warehouses 

 of a shipping company near to the wharfs where ships unload. 

 The occurrence seems to have been so unusual as to have at once 

 attracted attention, and the premises were cleansed and dis- 

 infected. Some of these animals were examined at the muni- 

 cipal laboratory, and cultures of the plague bacillus were ob- 

 tained from them. Right from the beginning of the outbreak 

 dead rats in large numbers have been found in various parts of 

 Calcutta, but more particularly in and near houses where cases 

 of human plague had occurred. 



In a report to the Administrator of St. Vincent, dated Sep- 

 tember 14, Mr. H. Powell, Curator of the Botanic Garden, 

 Kingstown, gives some trustworthy meteorological statistics 

 relating to the recent hurricane in that Colony. He states that 

 the barometer gave timely indication of the coming storm ; at 

 3h. p.m. on September 6 the corrected reading was 29"926 

 inches, and at 3h. p.m. on the loth the mercury had fallen to 

 29 "838 inches. This reading caused alarm, and cautionary 

 notices were issued to various centres for dissemination. At 

 5h. 55m. the next morning the reading was 29724 inches, and 

 the wind was blowing in fitful gusts from N. and N.W. At 9h. 

 a.m., the usual hour for recording observations, the reading was 

 29 606 inches, and the wind was rushing from N. to W. At 

 loh. a.m. the barometer had fallen to 29"539 inches, and the 

 storm had commenced in earnest, the wind blowing from 

 N.N.E. and W,, and increased in such force at iih. a.m. that the 

 largest trees were uprooted. By iih. 40m. the_barometer had 

 fallen to 28 •509 inches, after which time there was almost a 

 dead calm for about three-quarters of an hour. The rain gauge 

 was emptied, and 4*94 inches were found to have fallen between 

 9h. a.m. and noon. At about I2h. 25m. p.m. the wind suddenly 

 commenced to blow from S., and increased in force every 

 minute. Trees and houses which had withstood the first part 

 of the hurricane were now hurled to the ground, the wind force 

 tar exceeding that of the forenoon ; this continued till about 

 2h. 30m. p.m., when the wind slackened considerably. During 

 the lull between iih. 40m. and I2h. 30m. the barometer 

 remained steady at 28 509 inches, and then commenced to rise 

 slowly, and afterwards rose as rapidly as it had previously 

 fallen; at 3h. p.m., the usual recording hour, it had risen to 

 29'533 inches. Up to this time the rain had fallen in torrents, 

 but the gauge had been overturned. The total rainfall measured 

 was over 9 inches in the twenty-four hours, and it was estimated 

 that another 5 inches was lost by the upsetting of the gauge. 

 Distant thunder and lightning were recorded at intervals during 

 the morning and afternoon. Persons living in St. Vincent who 

 NO. I 5 10, VOL. 58] 



remember the " Great Hurricane" of August 11, 1831, state 

 that the recent one was in every way far more destructive. 



By a decree dated August 30 last, the Belgian Government 

 has separated the astronomical from the meteorological service 

 (see Nature, vol, Ivi. p. 183), each of these departments 

 being placed under a responsible scientific director ; while 

 administrative duties, care of instruments, library, &c., are to 

 be under the control of an inspector. The astronomical service 

 is placed under M. C. Lagrange, and meteorology under M. A. 

 Lancaster, each of whom will submit a report quarterly to the 

 Minister of the Interior upon the work of his particular 

 department. 



The record of an active and useful life is contained in a 

 memoir of Dr. T. Sterry Hunt, F.R.S., by Mr. James Douglas^ 

 read before the American Philosophical Society in April last,, 

 and just published in separate form by Messrs. MacCalla and 

 Co., Philadelphia. As a chemist Dr. Hunt was prominent 

 nearly half a century ago, not only in the field of original in- 

 -vestigation, but as one of the first interpreters of the new 

 chemistry then being taught by Gerhardt. As a geologist his- 

 work was almost confined to the crystalline and palaeozoic rocks,, 

 and he brought his chemical knowledge to bear upon the geo- 

 logical problems concerning their genesis. Mr. Douglas's 

 memoir contains a number of interesting notes. The following 

 extract from a letter written by Hunt from Paris in 1855 is of 

 interest in connection with the production and cost of aluminiun> 

 at the present time : — " I bring you some aluminium with a 

 little note from Ste. Claire Deville, the discoverer. As for 

 aluminium, it is still very rare ; perhaps 100 lbs. have been 

 made by Deville for the Emperor, who has defrayed from his 

 own purse the experiments. Rousseau, the greatest fabricant of 

 rare chemicals in France, sells it, however, at three and a-half 

 cents a grain — the price of gold — and everybody buys specimens 

 of it at that price, so that he can hardly supply the demand." 

 In Mr. Douglas, Dr. Hunt's work has found an appreciative 

 recorder. 



The British Mycological Society held a most successfuJ 

 meeting, under the auspices of the Dublin Naturalists' Field 

 Club, at Dublin, from September 19-24. Prof. Johnson 

 arranged a most interesting series of excursions to Houth» 

 Powerscourt, Brackenstown, Ballyarthur, The Woodlands, 

 Lucan, and Dunran, and his labours were rewarded by more 

 than 100 species being added to the published list of Mr. 

 Greenwood Pim of "the fungi of the counties of Dublin and 

 Wicklow." Some rare fungi were collected, including Amanita 

 strobiliformis, Naiuoria erinacea, Polyportis Wynnecz and 

 Hypocrea splendens. Interesting papers were read by the 

 President, Dr. C. B. Plowright, on "Notes and comments 

 on the Agaricineae of Great Britain," "A clover destroying 

 Fungus," "Eriksson's cereal rusts"; Mr. H. Wager, on "A 

 parasitic fungus on Euglena " ; Mr. Greenwood Pim, " Notes 

 on new and rare moulds"; " Dr. McWeeney, "Observations 

 on two sclerotia occurring on the stems of potato" ; and Mr. 

 Soppitt, " Notes on rare Uredinece." 



The Agricultural Gazette of New South Wales for July con- 

 tains an interesting account, by Mr. J. H. Maiden, Government 

 Botanist at Sydney, of a botanical exploration of Mount 

 Kosciusko, the highest mountain in Australia, 7328 feet 

 above the level of the sea. Even at midsummer (January 

 1897) the temperature was only 1*5° above the freezing point 

 at noon, and the climate of the mountain is not adapted for a 

 sanatorium, as has been suggested, owing to the searching south- 

 westerly winds. A list of the species gathered is given, the 

 most largely represented orders being the Rununculacese, 

 Leguminosie, Myrtacea', Compositae, and Graminece. There 



