57« 



NA TURE 



October i i, 1900 



A SLIGHT earthquake disturbance in Bombay, on Monday, 

 September 17, is noted in the Pioneer Mail, Allahabad. Only 

 one of the instruments at the Colaba Observatory recorded it. 

 The disturbance began at about 3h. 48m. a.m., Bombay time, 

 and reached its maximum at about 3h. S4m. The larger move- 

 ments ceased at 4h, 2m., and the after-tremors at 4h. i6m. Thus 

 the whole disturbance lasted fully 28 minutes. It was not a 

 distant earthquake, nor was the movement large. The apparent 

 distance of the origin from Bombay may have been about 500 

 miles. The same journal also records the occurrence, on 

 September 10, of a slight earthquake shock in Madras. 



The New York correspondent of the Lancet states that the 

 Chicago Board of Education has established a department 

 called "Child-study and Pedagogic Investigation." The 

 examination is undertaken for the purpose of determining the 

 mental and physical status of the school-children. Examina- 

 tions were at first limited to the determination in each pupil of 

 the following points : Height, height sitting, weight, ergograph 

 work, strength of grip right and left, hearing right and left, and 

 acuity of vision. In addition to this, obvious developmental 

 defects have been noted. The number of children examined 

 down to the present time is 5636. The conclusions thus far 

 reached are that there is a physical basis of precocity, that dull 

 children are lighter and precocious children heavier than the 

 average child, and that mediocrity of mind is associated with 

 mediocrity of physique. A similar result was obtained in the 

 examination of 33,500 school-children in St. Louis in 1892 by 

 Dr. W. T. Porter. This is the first instance of a municipal 

 board in America appropriating money for research work, and 

 its effect may be far-reaching. 



The German Consul in Payta-Piara (Peru) reports the dis- 

 covery of large rubber forests on the Niera River, a branch of 

 the Amazon. An expedition has been organised to start for the 

 interior to secure the right to collect the rubber. The increasing 

 demand for rubber has drawn attention to the advantages of 

 cultivating gutta — a leading product of Java and several of the 

 neighbouring islands. A recent number of the Straits Budget 

 points out that gutta trees growing wild cannot meet the grow- 

 ing demand which must soon outrun the supply unless gutta 

 plantations extensive enough to meet future needs are laid out. 

 Gutta leaves have been freely resorted to in order to eke out the 

 supply. A company has recently been formed at Batavia to 

 develop this branch of industry. 



A LENGTHY account (based on the preliminary report 

 presented to the R. Accademia dei Lincei) of Prof. Grassi's 

 malaria experiment appears in the last number of the British 

 Medical Journal, from which we glean the following particulars. 

 In making the experiment, which took place in the plain of 

 Capaccio, near Salerno, two objects were kept in view, viz., 

 (l) To afford an absolute proof of the fact that malaria is 

 transmitted exclusively by the bite of Anopheles mosquitoes ; (2) 

 to found on the results of recent research a code of rules to be 

 adopted for freeing Italy from malaria in a few years. The 

 experiment consisted in protecting from malaria railway 

 employes and their families living in ten railway cottages and 

 at the stations of S. Nicolo, Varco and Albanella, situated 

 along the Battipaglia-Reggio Railway. They numbered 104 

 persons, including thirty-three children under ten years of age, 

 Of these 104 individuals, at least eleven, including four children, 

 had never suffered from the disease, not having previously lived 

 in a malarious district ; a certain number, it appeared, had not 

 suffered from it for two or three years, and all the others, 

 that is to say, the large majority, had suffered from it during the 

 last malarial season, some of them even in the winter. During 

 the malarial season, the health of the protected individuals was 

 NO. 16 I 5, VOL. 62] 



good, with the exception of a few cases of bronchitis and a case 

 of acute gastro-enteritis. None of these cases were treated with 

 quinine. The 104 persons, with three exceptions, had remained 

 free from malaria up to September 1 6th, the date of the report. 

 From the report it is evident that the twofold object of the 

 experiment has met with every success, and it certainly looks as 

 if it will be possible to free Italy in a short time from malaria, 

 and that the much dreaded plain of Capaccio (excepting for the 

 Anopheles infected by malaria germs, from which one can easily 

 protect himself) is one of the healthiest places in Italy. 



The current issue of the British Medical Journal gives 

 particulars of the new bacteriological laboratory of the 

 Melbourne University, at present in course of erection. The 

 large hall of the laboratory will afford accommodation for eighty 

 students. Situated on the ground floor there are four research 

 laboratories and one preparation room specially fitted for the 

 professor of pathology, who has, in addition, one room set 

 apart for pathological-histological work and one for chemical 

 pathology. Steam is laid on all over the building for both 

 heating and sterilising purposes. One room has been set apart 

 as a plague laboratory, having germ-proof windows and doors. 

 The walls are covered with tiles made of opaque glass and the 

 floor with lead, so that it can be flooded with antiseptics in case 

 of accidents. In the building there are rooms devoted to micro- 

 photography, the preparation of media of all kinds for the 

 sterilising and disinfecting of all utensils, and departments for 

 numerous other purposes. The department is subsidised by 

 the Board of Public Health, by the Ministry of Agriculture, 

 by the Metropolitan Board of Works, by the City Council, 

 and by other municipalities, who contribute between them 

 about 800/. per annum. The duties of this bacteriological de- 

 partment consist in the examination of water and milk supply, 

 of investigating diseases which are discovered at the abattoirs 

 and amongst stock, and analysing the eflluence from the sewage 

 farm. It is also prepared to assist the Board of Public Health, 

 on behalf of the medical profession, in diagnosing diphtheria, 

 typhoid, tubercle and cases of plague. It is expected that the 

 building will be opened in March next. 



A NEW use for kites is brought under notice in the latest 

 issue of the United States Monthly Weather Jie-jievj. An 

 exhibition has recently been given in Chicago showing how 

 those within a besieged town or other -inaccessible place can use 

 the kite line to carry a telephone, with its separate telephone 

 wire, through the air, and let it drop from the kite upon a dis- 

 tant place while the kite still remains in the air. By using a 

 very large box kite and attaching to the kite line a little way 

 below the kite a pulley through which runs the telephone wire, 

 the telephone may be dropped from the pulley while the in- 

 sulated wire keeps up the connection with the man at the kite 

 reel. Of course, at the present time (as is pointed out in the 

 Review), when kites have rarely been sent out with more than 

 two miles of wire, which corresponds to a horizontal distance of 

 much less than two miles, this method does not promise to put 

 into communication persons separated by a great distance, but 

 it may be very useful for short distances. 



In order to enable Essex dairy farmers and ladies engaged in 

 dairying to gain an insight into agricultural education and the 

 organisation and practice of the agricultural industries of Den- 

 mark, the Essex Technical Instruction Committee arranged a 

 visit to that country in May last, when thirty-one persons spent 

 a week there in visiting the agricultural schools, dairy farms, 

 butter factories, &c. The excursion (judging from the careful 

 report just issued from the County Technical Laboratories, 

 Chelmsford) seems to have been in every way a great success. 

 The members of the party were impressed with the thriving 



