158 



NATURE 



[December 15, 1892 



"Lehrbuch der Entwicklungsgeschichte des Menschen und der 

 Wirbelthiere." The volume is entitled "Text-Book of the 

 Embryology of Man and Mammals." The translator, in his 

 preface, expresses his belief that the work "covers the field of 

 vertebrate embryology in a more complete and satisfactory way 

 than any book hitherto published in English." 



The latest instalment of the Proceedings of the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences of Philadelphia contains a valuable paper, by 

 Prof. E. D. Cope, on the Batrachia and Reptilia of North 

 Western Texas. The statements presented in the paper are 

 based on collections made along the eastern border of the Staked 

 Plain of Texas, between Big Spring (on the Texas Pacific 

 R. R.) on the south, and the Salt Fork of the Red River, near 

 Clarendon (on the Denver and Fort Worth R. R.) on the north, 

 a distance of about 250 miles. The collections were made 

 incidentally to geological and palseontological explorations con- 

 ducted by a party of the Geological Survey of Texas, which was 

 under the direction of Mr. William F. Cummins. While 

 attached to this party Prof. Cope picked up such specimens as 

 came in his way, and a good many others were obtained by Mr. 

 Cummins and by Mr. William L. Black of the party. The 

 total number of species enumerated is thirty-three. The paper 

 may be regarded as supplementary to one published as Bulletin 

 17 of the U.S. National Museum in 1880, on the Zoological 

 position of Texas. 



The following are the lecture arrangements at the Royal 

 Institution before Easter :— Sir Robert Stawell Ball, six lectures 

 (adapted to a juvenile auditory)] on astronomy; Prof. Victor 

 Horsley, ten lectures on the brain ; the Rev. Canon Ainger, 

 three lectures on Tennyson ; Prof. Patrick Geddes, four lectures 

 on the factors of organic evolution ; the Rev. Augustus 

 Jessopp, three lectures on the great revival — a study in mediaeval 

 history ; Prof C. Hubert H. Parry, four lectures on expression 

 and design in music (with musical illustrations) ; the Right Hon. 

 Lord Rayleigh, six lectures on sound and vibrations. The 

 Friday evening meetings will begin on January 20, when a dis- 

 course will be given by Prof. Dewar on liquid atmospheric air ; 

 succeeding discourses will probably be given by Mr. Francis 

 Galton, Mr. Alexander Siemens, Prof Charles Stewart, Prof. 

 A. H. Church, Mr. Edward Hopkinson, Mr. George Simonds, 

 Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart., the Right Hon.^Lord Rayleigh, 

 and other gentlemen. 



The micro-organism which has been shown to be the exciting 

 cause of tetanus or lockjaw is just now especially attracting the 

 attention of bacteriological investigators. Kitasato, who it will 

 be remembered was the first who successfully isolated the 

 bacillus of tetanus, has been continuing his researches on the 

 protective inoculation of animals against Ihis malady. In the 

 current number oiih^ Zeitschriftfur Hygiene Si^^QdiVs, an account 

 of some extremely interesting results which he has obtained with 

 mice and guinea-pigs. In his experiments Kitasato introduced 

 subcutaneously into these animals small splinters of wood which 

 had been previously soaked in bouillon-cultures of tetanus, so 

 prepared that only the spores were present. He wished in this 

 way to imitate as nearly as possible the actual manner in which 

 tetanus is communicated, and which in consequence of the 

 sensitiveness of the bacillar form to heat and light and the ex- 

 tremely refractory nature of the spores, is almost invariably due 

 to the accidental introduction of the latter. This theory is also 

 supported by the fact that between the infliction of the wound 

 and the development of symptoms of tetanus there is invariably 

 a distinct lapse of time, during which the spores grow into 

 bacilli and elaborate their toxic products within the system of 

 the animal affected, after which the typical appearances of 

 tetanus arise. The protective material used in these investiga- 

 NO 1207, VOL. 47] 



tions was the serum of a horse artificially rendered immune- 

 against tetanus, and in every case out of those mice which had 

 received a small wood-splinter two were put aside and not 

 subsequently inoculated with the protective serum. Kitasato 

 found, as he had expected, that a definite period of time elapsed 

 between the introduction of the splinter and the development of 

 tetanus symptoms ; but with hardly an exception, all those mice 

 subsequently treated with the serum recovered, whilst those 

 which had received no protective treatment died exhibiting the 

 typical characteristics of tetanus. Moreover, it was found that 

 the earlier the application of the serum took place after the in- 

 fection and quite irrespective of the appearance of any signs of 

 tetanus, the more successful was the result and the smaller the 

 dose of serum necessary, whilst when the wood-splinters and 

 the serum were introduced together no symptoms whatever of 

 tetanus declared themselves. The same successful results were 

 obtained in the case of guinea-pigs. In connection with the 

 excessively hardy nature of the spore-form of tetanus, Hervie- 

 jean {Ann. de la Soc. med-chir. de Liege, 1891) has found that 

 even after eleven years such spores still retain their power for 

 mischief A small fragment of wood was extracted from the 

 ankle of a child who had died of tetanus, and after being kept 

 for nearly eleven years part of it was introduced under the skin 

 of a rabbit, which afterwards died of tetanus. The infection 

 was further confirmed by the discovery of tetanus bacilli in the 

 pus of the wound. 



The chloraurates and bromaurates of caesium and rubidium 

 have been prepared by Messrs* Wells and Wheeler, and are 

 described in the current number of the Zeitschrifi fiir Anor- 

 ganische Chemie. They are all four beautifully crystalline sub- 

 stances. The crystals, which have been measured by Mr. 

 Penfield, belong to the monoclinic system, and form an isomor- 

 phous series of identical habitus. These salts are so compara- 

 tively insoluble in water that they are obtained in the form of 

 crystalline precipitates when concentrated solutions of chlorides- 

 or bromides of cjesium or rubidium are mixed with strong solu- 

 tions of chloride or bromide of gold. They are, however, 

 sufficiently soluble to admit of recrystallization from water. The 

 crystals of caesium chloraurate, CsAuCl4, exhibit an orange- 

 yellow colour; those of the corresponding rubidium salt, 

 RbAuCl4, possess a more deeply orange tint ; while the two 

 bromides, CsAuBrj and RbAuBrj, are jet-black but yield 

 a dark red powder upon pulverization. The caesium compounds- 

 are much less soluble than the rubidium ones, so that the 

 crystals are usually much smaller. The more soluble rubidium 

 salts readily form very large crystals ; the chloride in particular 

 yields crystals whose size appears only to be limited by that of 

 the crystallizing vessel and the depth of the solution. The 

 crystals, however, whether large or small, all partake of the 

 same character ; they are elongated prisms terminated by the 

 basal plane, 'orthodome, clinodome, and small pyramidal planes. 

 The faces are usually extremely brilliant, but those of the 

 bromideSj^are often singularly hollow or cavernous. In addition 

 to this well-defined series, another chloraurate of caesium has 

 been obtained containing water of crystallization. This salt, 

 2CSAUCI4.H2O, is formed when a large excess of gold chloride 

 is present compared with the amount of caesium chloride. It 

 separates in the form of light orange-coloured tabular crystals- 

 belonging to the rhombic system, which exhibit the peculiar 

 property of undergoing an internal change accompanied by 

 elimination of the water of crystallization, within a few minutes 

 of their removal from the mother liquor. The change is probably 

 due to the passage of this hydrated salt into the relatively more 

 stable anhydrous chloraurate described above. It betrays itself 

 in a most interesting manner under the microscope, in polarized 

 light. When a crystal plate is removed from the mother liquor. 



