July 30, 1891] 



NATURE 



303 



easy transmissibility, and the large number of persons capable of 

 being infected by a single case in a large room, most persons 

 probably requiring many virulent organisms to be inhaled in a 

 short time before the resistant power of the blood is overcome. 

 This microbe, like that of cholera, multiplies with great rapidity, 



I and probably soon produces sufficient poison to terminate its 

 career in the body, but not before multitudes of spores or 

 microbes have been given off by the breath. Given the original 

 f conditions of rainfall, soil, and high temperature, the certain 



result is the development of inconceiva ble multitudes of microbes 

 and spores ; one species of these is capable of planting itself and 

 living in the tissue and blood of man, of which the temperature 

 is probably near that to which it has been accustomed under the 

 summer sun in wet and drying ground. The somewhat rare and 

 i occasional visitations of influenza may be due to at least two or 



'\ three causes — first, the occurrence of unusual rainfall and favour- 



\ able summers ; second, the prevalence of air-currents from the 



drying area towards inhabited places ; third, adequate com- 

 munication between these infected places and the towns of 

 Russia, whence progress is rapid towards Western Europe. The 

 wind has no influence that can be verified in the transportation 

 of influenza. As for the means of prevention, Mr. Russell 

 thinks that measures of disinfection and isolation of the earliest 

 cases, and rules at ports and landing places similar to those em- 

 ployed against cholera, would probably prove of the greatest 

 service. Inland, every locality should isolate and disinfect its 

 first cases. 



Prof. Langley, the Director of the Smithsonian Institution, 

 is now in this country. A propos of his recent researches, re- 

 ferred to in our last number, we learn that Mr. Maxim is 

 building a " flying machine," with which a series of experiments 

 is contemplated ; it is now being constructed at Crayford, and is 

 nearly ready for launching. It will be propelled by a light screw 

 making 2500 revolutions a minute. The motive power (it is re- 

 ported) is supplied by a petroleum condensing engine weighing 

 eighteen hundred pounds, and capable of raising a forty thousand 

 pound load. The real suspending power will lie in an enormous 

 kite measuring 1 10 feet long and 40 feet wide. 



The following passage occurs in the Report of the Medical 

 Officer of Health of the parish of St. George, Hanover 

 Square, for the five weeks ending July 4, 1891 : — "I have 

 calculated the death-rate of the parish for the past month on 

 the census population of 188 1, and not on that of 1891, for 

 the following reasons : — The census population of the parish in 

 1871 was 89,758, and that in 1881 was 89,573 ; I have no reason 

 to believe that there was any serious inaccuracy in either of 

 these enumerations, so that the population of the parish was 

 practically stationary during the ten years from 1871 to 1881. 

 The enumerated population in 1891 was only 78,362, showing 

 an apparent decrease of 11,211 (or one-eighth of the population) 

 since 188 1. I know of no reason whatever for any such de- 

 crease, and do not believe it has taken place. The census was 

 taken of the persons sleeping in the parish on the night of Sun- 

 day, April 5, a day which had two serious disadvantages, the 

 first beiug that it wad a Sunday, a day on which many people 

 in this parish are out of town, and the second that it was the 

 Sunday after Easter, and that large numbers of people had not 

 returned to town from their Easter holidays. / therefore con- 

 sider that the enumeration of the population of the parish this 

 year is of no value for statistical purposes, and in estimating the 

 birth-rates and death-rates, shall continue to use the census 

 population of 1881, until a fresh and more correct enumeration 

 shall have been made, which will, I hope, be in 1896." This 

 is rather serious. What have our census authorities to say on 

 the matter ? 



NO. II 35, VOL. 44] 



An earthquake was experienced at Evansville, Indiana, on 

 the 26th inst. The shock was so great as to create a panic in 

 several places of worship. Considerable damage was done to 

 property. The direction of the oscillations was from north to 

 south. 



The weather prospects in the North- West Provinces seem 

 to be improving. Beneficial rains have commenced to fall, 

 and a famine is therefore less probable than it was. The dis- 

 tress among the ryots is, however, great, and the Government of 

 India has voted a grant of ^10,000 for their relief The follow- 

 ing telegram was read by Sir J. Gorst, on Tuesday night, in the 

 House of Commons : — " There is an improvement in agricul- 

 tural prospects and development of monsoon season. There 

 has been good general rainfall throughout the country, except 

 in part of Madras, the Carnatic, and Upper Burmah, in con- 

 sequence of which there is no present cause of anxiety in North- 

 ern India. Strong monsoon blowing West Coast. More rain 

 imminent in Punjab and Rajpootana, where fodder famine has 

 been arrested by rain. Crop operations in Northern India 

 generally progressing satisfactorily, and there is no present 

 cause for anxiety in North- West Provinces and Oude." 



The Technical Education Committee of the Kent County 

 Council has placed ;f^3000 at the disposal of the South-Eastern 

 Counties Association for the Extension of University Teaching, 

 for courses of lectures suited to agricultural and rural populations 

 in small towns and villages throughout the country. 



The Accademia delle Scienze dell' Istituto di Bologna offers a 

 gold medal of 1000 lire value (about £/^o), the Aldini Prize, '* to 

 the author of a memoir which, based on certain data of che- 

 mistry, or physics, or applied mechanics, shall indicate new and 

 really practical systems or new apparatus for prevention or 

 extinction of fires." The memoirs may be manuscripts in Italian, 

 Latin, or French (with inclosed name and motto), or printed 

 matter published between May 11, 1890, and May 10, 1892. 

 In the latter case, the memoir may be in another language than 

 those named, but an Italian translation must be added. The 

 date-limit is May 10, 1892. 



The most recent addition to Prof. Flower's excellent series 

 of specimens illustrative of zoological structure placed in the 

 entrance-hall of the Natural History Museum is a set of nine- 

 teen dissections prepared by Mr. G. Ridewood to illustrate the 

 variations in the deep plantar tendons of the bird's foot. With 

 the help of these preparations, the student will have little diffi- 

 culty in understanding the mysteries of the flexor longus hallucis 

 and i)\Q flexor perforans digitorum, upon which two muscles, as has 

 been shown by Sundeval, Garrod, and Forbes, so much depends 

 in the classification of birds. 



It would seem that the present interest in agricultural in- 

 struction comes none too soon. The Agricultural Gazette of 

 New South Wales gives an account of a new industry — the 

 export of butter to this country, and adds that the Minister of 

 Mines and Agriculture has approved of the establishment of a 

 travelling dairy to impart instruction to the settlers in relation 

 to it. 



The same number contains articles on the grasses and weeds 

 of the colony, and notes on economic plants and weeds, besides 

 information of what some people consider as of a more " practi- 

 cal " character, touching profitable caws and pigs. 



The utilization of waste products is the order of the day. 

 An interesting article on this subject, in relation to breweries, 

 in the Brewers' Guardian, calls attention to the utilization of 

 the carbonic acid gas produced in the fermentation of sugar. 

 " On an average, English beer may be considered to contain 

 5 per cent, of alcohol, and as, in the fermentation of sugar, the 



