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August 3, 1893J 



NATURE 



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light wind from south-east, the wind suddenly shifted to south- 

 west, accompanied by heavy rain clouds. At about 2 p.m. 

 some reddish-grey bands, such as are usually seen with hail- 

 storm clouds, were observed, and rapidly spread over the sky. 

 The whole air was literally filled with sand which the storm 

 had apparently carried from a mountain about half a mile 

 distant, and objects a hundred paces off were almost invisible. 

 The phenomenon only lasted five minutes, after which time rain 

 fell and cleared the atmosphere. 



Although some large amounts of rain have fallen in part 

 of these islands during July, the month, as a whole, has not 

 been exceptionally wet. The greatest excess has been in the 

 south of England, where the fall amounted to about 2 '5 inches 

 above the average ; at Cambridge the excess was i '4 inch, and 

 in the north of Scotland i "3 inch. In parts of the country, 

 however, the stations reporting to the Meteorological office 

 showed a considerable deficiency, amounting to i 'i i inch at 

 Holyhead, i inch at Leith, and eg inch at Yarmouth and 

 Valencia, while in the neighbourhood of London the deficiency 

 was about 0'3 inch. The temperature recorded at Greenwich 

 for the month was 2° above the average of the last 50 years ; 

 on five days the readings exceeded 80°. 



The Royal Meteorological Institute of the Netherlands has 

 issued the second part of an atlas of observations made in the 

 Indian Ocean, for the months of March, April, and May, the 

 part for the first quarter having been published about three 

 years since. The work has been drawn up with great care, the 

 observations having been carefully examined for instrumental 

 errors, and the data supplied by their own observers have been 

 supplemented by observations from the London Meteorological 

 Office, so that the results are both reliable and fairly complete. 

 Among the principal charts we may mention those of the sur- 

 face temperature of the sea, in which the limits of the warm 

 and cold currents are clearly marked, especially to the south 

 of the Cape of Good Hope. The currents of the ocean 

 are represented by six charts, showing in two colours the obser- 

 vations plotted in position, and also arrows showing the general 

 drift. The isobaric curves show a certain regularity in the 

 monthly changes; for instance, there is a small centre of high 

 pressure, 30'2 inches, in March, between 33° and 38° S. lat., 

 and 87° and 91° E. long., while the isobar of 30'i inches only 

 extends from long. 82° to 102° E. In April this isobar extends 

 over the whole Southern Indian ocean, from Africa to Austra- 

 lia ; that of 30"2 inches also extends over the same area, while 

 a centre of 30-3 inches is found at lat. 30° S., between 90° and 

 95° E. long. In the month of May the conditions are nearly 

 similar to those of March ; the centre of 30-3 inches has disap- 

 peared, the isobars of 30'2 inches and 30'! inches lie more to 

 the north, and another centre of 30'J inches is formed, which 

 extends from the coast of Africa to 75° E. long. The charts of 

 air temperature are very similar to those of the sea-surface 

 temperature, the temperature of the air being rather lower than 

 that of the water. 



The success which followed LoefBer's attempt to root out the 

 mouse plague in Thessaly by means of his bacillus typhi murium 

 has not apparently been so uniform in other and similar epi. 

 demies. But Loeffler, although quite recently acknowledging 

 its failure in some cases, does not attribute this to any short- 

 comings in his bacillus, but rather to the lack of care and 

 intelligence in those entrusted with the carrying out of the plan 

 of campaign. The question has been reopened quite lately by 

 the publication in a Stuttgart paper of some investigations made 

 by Liipke on the efficacy of Loeffler's microbe. According to 

 these researches, the bacillus in question is not endowed with all 

 the virtues which have hitherto been ascribed to it, and Liipke 

 states that although in his experiments weakly mice succumbed, 

 NO. 1240, VOL. 48] 



some rapidly, and some only at the end offifteen days after being 

 fed with it.vigorous specimens invariably resisted its action, and, 

 further, were rendered immune, so that even subcutaneous inocu- 

 lations of the bacillus failed to destroy them. In consequence of 

 these results Laser {Centralblatt f. Bacteriologie, vol. xiii. May, 

 1893) has brought forward an organism, bacillus der Mduse- 

 seuche-Laser, which he isolated during an epidemic which 

 broke out amongst the mice kept for experimental purposes in 

 the hj'gienic laboratory at Konigsberg. This bacillus threatens 

 to become a formidable rival to Loeffler's microbe, for, appar- 

 ently, whilst its action on field mice is more lapid and more 

 certain than the latter, it is quite as harmless to other animals 

 such as horses, guinea-pigs, pigeons, cats. The experiments 

 require, however, further expansion and confirmation, and it is 

 to be hoped that Laser will pursue his investigations, which 

 may lead to the discovery of a satisfactory means of suppressing 

 the farmers' bUe-noire. 



It has been proved during the last few years that at depths 

 of more than 100 fathoms, the water of the Black Sea contains 

 so much sulphuretted hydrogen that it is totally unfit for organic 

 life. The amount of sulphuretted hydrogen increases with 

 depth, and attains 655 cubic centimetres in one hundred litres 

 at a depth of 1185 fathoms. In order to determine whether this 

 gas is a product of micro-organisms, samples of ooze, which 

 had been brought to the surface by Thomson's apparatus from 

 various depths of 16, 40, 389, 870, and 1207 fathoms, have 

 been carefully analysed at the Odessa bacteriological station. 

 The analyses show that the ooze contains several different species 

 of micro-organisms, all of which are capable of producing 

 sulphuretted hydrogen. One of these is endowed with this 

 capacity to a high degree. Its dark coffee-coloured pigment 

 gradually becomes black when the microbe is cultivated on agar- 

 agar with free admission of air ; but its elongated, mobile rods 

 an live under anaerobic conditions as well, and in such a case the 

 exhalation of sulphuretted hydrogen is increased. The name 

 of Bacillus hydrosulfuricus Ponticus has been given to the 

 microbe. Further research has proved that the bacillus re- 

 mains active, not only in cultures of albumen substances, but 

 also in such as contain no sulphur of organic origin, but only 

 mineral sulphates (gypsum), and sulphites. The multiplication 

 of this bacillus thus does not require an accumulation of con- 

 siderable amounts of decaying animal matters at the bottom, for 

 it lives chiefly upon the cellulose of vegetable remains, and 

 breathes the oxygen of the sulphates of mineral origin which it 

 decomposes. 



Six samples of ice obtained from London depots and restaur- 

 ants have been subjected to chemical and bacteriological analysis 

 in the Lancet laboratory. The outcome of the inquiry is stated as 

 follows : — " (l) By far the greater proportion of ice supplied in 

 London is natural (generally Norwegian). Of the specimens 

 procured only one had been produced artificially, and this 

 specimen gave indifferent results on chemical analysis, but results 

 of an eminently satisfactory kind in the light of bacteriological 

 inquiry, practically no development of colonies of organisms 

 taking place on culture. (2) Two out of five specimens of ice 

 imported into this country from Norway, whilst yielding a 

 satisfactory chemical analysis, were decidedty bad according to 

 bacteriological examination, the number of colonies of organisms 

 counted on culture varying from 400 to 700 per cubic centi- 

 metre of the melted ice. (3) Three out of five specimens of im- 

 ported ice, though furnishing no condemnatory evidence on 

 chemical examination, yielded bacteriological results such as 

 might under certain circumstances give rise to suspicion, though 

 they may be regarded as of fairly good quality. " It is therefore 

 urged that ice for table use should always be produced by the 

 artificial freezing of freshly-distilled or sterilised water. 



