228 



NA TURE 



[January 9, 1896 



memoir on the preparation of anti-rabic serum has been 

 contributed to the Atti della Keale Accademia delle Scienze delF 

 Istituto di Bologna, by Messrs. Tizzoni and Centanni. The 

 authors have succeede<l in obtaining a powerful anti-rabic serum 

 from sheep by inoculating them seventeen times in the course of 

 twenty days with attenuated nerve-substance obtained from 

 rabid animals, which is introduced in the proportion of 075 

 grm. per kgr. weight of the animal to be treated. Already a 

 few minutes after the serum has been subcutaneously injected, 

 the blood has acquired immunising properties, a result, which 

 with Pasteur's anti-rabic method is only obtained after several 

 days, and then not invariably. As a preventive measure the 

 authors state that i \ drops of serum is sufficient to protect an 

 animal weighing 2 kgr. inoculated twenty-four hours later 

 with dog virus. As a curative measure the subcutaneous 

 inoculation of i cubic centimetre even eight days after the 

 animal has been infected with rabies, and therefore in the middle 

 of the incubation period, is sufficient to stay all further progress 

 of the disease. With this anti-rabic serum, Messrs. Tizzoni and 

 Centanni have been easily able to render rabbits— these animals 

 being especially susceptible to rabies — immune, a result only 

 accomplished under exceptional circumstances by Pasteur's 

 method. Rabbits again, even after the disease has made con- 

 siderable progress, can be saved by a single subcutaneous 

 injection of anti-rabic serum, whilst the Pasteur method under 

 such conditions has never succeeded in curing them. The 

 authors claim for their method that it is more efficacious, and at 

 the same time less cumbrous than that at present in use. The 

 serum is readily transferable, as it can be desiccated, and kept 

 in bottles, protected from light, for a long time without under- 

 going any detriment. It thus can be forwarded to all parts of 

 the world, and can be employed by local physicians, therefore 

 preventing delay in treatment, and the necessity of the patient 

 travelling to be treated in special institutes. The further 

 application of anti-rabic serum will be watched with the greatest 

 interest, and the verdict which time and experience alone can 

 furnish will be anxiously awaited. 



The forthcoming number of the Physical Review will contain 

 articles on the photometry of differently-coloured lights and the 

 "Flicker" photometer, by Prof. Frank P. Whitman; the 

 chemical potential of the metals, by Mr. Wilder D. Bancroft ; 

 and on the freezing-points of dilute aqueous solutions, by Mr. E. 

 H. Loomis. 



Messrs. G. Philip and Son have just published a special 

 coloured map of British Guiana, to illustrate the Venezula- 

 Guiana boundary dispute. The map shows clearly British and 

 Venezuelan territories and claims, the original and modified 

 Schomburgk lines, gold-mining districts, and many other features 

 of the region surrounding the disputed area. 



At the celebration of the second centenary of the death of 

 Christian Huygens, held at Amsterdam in July 1895, I^r- J- 

 Bosscha delivered before the University a valuable address on 

 the life and work of that rare genius. It will interest many of 

 our readers to know that this address, with numerous details 

 appended to it, has been published by Wilhelm Engelmann, 

 Leipzig. 



An illustrated paper " On the Entomology of the Illinois 

 River and Adjacent Waters," by Mr. C. A. Hart, is published 

 in the Bulletin of the Illinois State Laboratory of Natural 

 History (vol. iv, pp. 149-273, 1895). The paper gives a part 

 of the results of observation and study of the insect fauna of the 

 Illinois River and adjoining waters in the neighbourhood of the 

 NO. 1367, VOL. 53] 



University of Illinois Biological Experiment Station, at Havana^ 

 Illinois, during the first year of the station work. 



The " Brief Sketch " of the meteorology of the Bombay 

 Presidency for the year 1894-95 shows that the rainfall of the 

 year 1894 was exceptionally good. During the month of July 

 it was excessively heavy, owing to three severe cyclones, whereby 

 disastrous floods were caused in various districts. The abnormally 

 heavy rainfall on the Ghauts converted the mountain streams 

 into rushing torrents, which swept everything before them, and 

 rendered railway traffic impossible. At Surat a sudden rush 

 raised the level of the river four feet within a quarter of an hour ; 

 communication was cut off with all surrounding villages, causing 

 great loss of life from starvation or drowning. It is satisfactory 

 to note that little or no damage was done in the town of Bombay 

 by the immense quantity of rain which fell, owing to the great 

 improvements that have been made in the drainage during the 

 past few years. 



Last year's volume of t\\& Journal of Conchology (vol. viii.), 

 which was founded in 1874 by Mr. J, W. Taylor, of Leeds, 

 and ably conducted by him for a period of twenty-one years, 

 contains the record of some important changes which have 

 taken place in the management of the journal during the past 

 twelve months. Four quarterly numbers of the journal were 

 issued during the year. The first informed us that the. journal 

 had become, by purchase, the property of the Conchological 

 Society, and would be continued as the official organ of that 

 Society, under the editorship of Mr. W. E. Hoyle. All four 

 numbers contain original papers of varied character and interest, 

 accompanied in some cases by good lithographic or photographic 

 plates of illustrations ; and the Proceedings of the Concho- 

 logical Society, as published in the journal, alone furnish an 

 interesting record of valuable observations in many departments 

 of malacology. The annual report of the Conchological Society 

 for 1894-5 is contained in the July number. From it we learn 

 that all arrangements have been made for the transfer of the 

 headquarters of the Society from Leeds to Manchester, with 

 branches in Leeds and London — a change which, it may be 

 hoped, will contribute still further to the growth and vigour of 

 the Society. 



Several novel scientific instruments and devices described in 

 the new catalogues of scientific apparatus and of lanterns and 

 slides, recently issued by Messrs. Newton and Co., deserve 

 mention here. A very simple method devised to show stereo- 

 scopic pictures with the optical lantern is especially note- 

 worthy. A pair of negatives is taken with a stereoscopic 

 camera, and a lantern slide is made from each. One of 

 these slides is mounted in contact with a bluish-green 

 glass, and the other in contact with a red glass. The two 

 slides are simultaneously projected upon a screen, by means 

 of two lanterns, but are not exactly superimposed. The 

 combined picture is then viewed through spectacles, the glasses 

 of which are of the same kind as those covering the slides. Only 

 the red picture is seen through the red glass, and only the bluish- 

 green picture with the bluish -green glass. And as the two 

 pictures are from stereoscopic negatives, a definite stereoscopic 

 effect is produced by making each eye only see one of the pair 

 of pictures, the combination of both of which gives the effect 

 of relief. An advantage which this method possesses is that it 

 can be used with any pair of lanterns. All that is required is 

 stereoscopic slides mounted with suitably coloured glasses, and 

 similarly coloured spectacles through which the pictures must be 

 viewed. Under these conditions, the pictures stand out in strong 

 Stereoscopic relief upon the screen. Among the many new 

 forms of instruments described, we notice a new sunshine 



