51 



NATURE 



[April 2, 1896 



of the Gloucester Union have for some years persistently 

 neglected to perform their statutory duty under the Vaccination 

 Acts, with the result that they now find themselves responsible 

 for one of the most appalling outbreaks of smallpox which has 

 for a long series of years visited any provincial town in England. 

 During the last seven weeks, the notifications of fresh cases of 

 smallpox in the cathedral city of Gloucester have enormously 

 increased, the number of new cases during the past week being 

 no less than 154, and the disease is still rapidly spreading. The 

 guardians are now endeavouring to stem the disastrous torrent 

 they have let into Gloucester by their non compliance with the 

 laws of vaccination. About a week since they decided to 

 attempt to undo the mischief of past years by passing a resolution 

 deciding to enforce the compulsory clauses of the Vaccination 

 Acts. It may be stated that the Town Council of Gloucester 

 from the first have done their utmost by isolating the sick in 

 hospital, by disinfecting houses, burning clothes and bedding, 

 and placing relatives of sick in practical quarantine to stay the 

 outbreak. Finding the outbreak gaining, they built extra 

 hospitals, and have now hospitals for 120 patients, but the 

 disease has continued to spread with such virulence that it is 

 quite beyond their power to cope with it. A significant fact is 

 that out of 90 deaths that have occurred in hospital up to March 

 27, 74 are among unvaccinated persons. 



Individual enterprise is not often lacking in British com- 

 mercial circles. Mr. R. K. Douglas gives an instance of this in 

 the Times. He states that the Blackburn Chamber of Com- 

 merce have inaugurated a subscription, which now amounts to 

 between ;i^2000 and ^3000, to provide sums for the purpose of 

 sending out a commercial expedition to China, whose duty it 

 will be to report on the state of trade in the interior of the 

 country, the price of foreign goods in the native markets, the 

 kinds of goods in demand, and the products and capabilities for 

 trade of the inland districts. So far no assistance has been 

 asked from the Government, and none has been given. But a 

 point has now been reached When that modicum of official sup- 

 port which is necessary to the success of the expedition should 

 be confidently asked for and promptly granted. Mr. Douglas is 

 undoubtedly right in pointing out that if the expedition is not to 

 prove a failure, the Foreign Office should supplement the efforts 

 of the Blackburn Chamber of Commerce by giving it tangible 

 support, and by appointing a member of the Consular Service in 

 China to accompany the expedition on its travels. There 

 should be no difficulty in doing this, and we hope with Mr. 

 Douglas that the Government will give support to an under- 

 taking which has for its important object the further promotion 

 of British trade in the Far East. 



Writing with reference to the aurora of March 4, it was 

 suggested by Dr. M. F. O'Reilly, in our issue of March 12, that 

 possibly Rontgen effects might be produced by auroral light. 

 Mr. Donald S. Munro sends us a cutting from the Glasgow 

 Evening News, in which he describes an experiment made to 

 test this point. He says : " I put a rapid isochromatic plate 

 in a camera slide, and covered the slide with black paper 

 wrapped round several times, in case of any possible want of 

 tightness in the slide. Several circular and triangular pieces of 

 sheet-iron were placed beneath the paper, and next the lid 

 of the dark slide. On developing, the result was no image. 

 Perhaps, however, some one trying again with a brighter display 

 and a longer exposure might get a result. I did not think of 

 {he experiment until the northern lights were beginning to fade, 

 so my plate had only half an hour's exposure." 



Statistics relating to the harvest gathered in from the sea 

 around the coasts of the United Kingdom during 1895, ^^^ given 

 in a return made to tiie Board of Trade, and published as a 



NO. 1379, VOL. 53] 



Parliamentary Paper. The statistics relate mainly to fish landed 

 on the coasts of England and Wales, but summarised statements 

 are also given of fish landed on the Scotch and Irish coasts. 

 For purposes of comparison the statistics are given of the sea 

 fisheries of Norway, Holland, France, and Canada. As regards 

 England and Wales, the total value of the fish landed was 

 ;,^5,438,ooo. The corresponding values for 1893 and 1894 were 

 ;,f5, 171,000 and ^5,291,000 respectively. For Scotland the 

 total value was ;^i, 830,000, and for Ireland ^269,000. In 

 Scotland, during the year 1895, there has been a slight decrease 

 in the quantity and an increase in the value of the fish landed as 

 compared with 1894. In Ireland there was a decrease, both in 

 quantity and value. The aggregate value for the United King- 

 dom during the year 1895 is ;^7,537,ooo, as compared with a 

 total value of ^7,260,000 in 1894. The figures for other 

 countries during 1895 are not to hand, but for 1894 the values 

 were : — Norway, ;^i,272,ooo ; Holland, not accurately known, 

 but probably less than Norway; France, ^^4, 68 1, 000 ; and 

 Canadian Dominion, ;^4,3i7,ooo. 



The report of the Departmental Committee appointed by the 

 Board of Agriculture to inquire into the etiology, pathology, and 

 morbid anatomy of swine fever has been issued as a Blue-book. 

 The following conclusions are stated therein : (i) Bacteriological 

 investigations prove that the cause of swine fever is a specific 

 microbe. (2) Experience and observation prove that swine fever 

 (both in its acute and chronic forms) is communicable from dis- 

 eased to healthy swine by contact, and also by the agency of 

 persons, animals, and substances which are capable of conveying 

 the infective matter. (3) It has been shown that the pronounced 

 symptoms which have hitherto been looked upon as essential to 

 a correct diagnosis are not always present in the early stage of 

 swine fever, and are almost constantly absent in the chronic form 

 of disease. (4) The Committee regard it as an important 

 outcome of the study of the morbid anatomy of the disease that 

 some animals undoubtedly infected with swine fever presented 

 only minute erosions in the intestinal canal, and that other 

 animals, which had been suffering from either the acute or the 

 chronic form of the malady, but which had recovered, showed 

 only depressed scars which were apt to be overlooked at any 

 but a very thorough /i?5^-w^r/t;w inspection. (5) From the ex- 

 perimental evidence it is concluded that a condition of plugging 

 of the crypts on the ileo-ccecal valve cannot be accepted as an 

 indication of swine fever. 



The current number of Weidei/iann's Annalen contains an 

 interesting paper by Herr Lang on the determination of the 

 wave-length of Hertz electric v^?aves. The method employed is 

 similar to Quincke's method of measuring the wave-length of a 

 musical note by arranging the lengths of two tubes which, start- 

 ing from near the source of sound, are at their other ends 

 brought together, so that the sound which has travelled along 

 one tube interferes with that which has travelled along the 

 other. Herr Lang uses an oscillator of Righi's form, consisting 

 of two spheres. The tubes along which the electric waves have 

 to pass are made of paper lined with tinfoil, and have a 

 diameter of about 6 cm. In order to detect the electric 

 oscillations, a Branly tube (coherer) was employed. By 

 placing a paraffin cylinder in one of the tubes the wave-length 

 of the electric oscillat-on in paraffin, and hence the refractive 

 index of paraffin, can also be measured. 



The " Handbook of Jamaica" for 1896 is filled with historical, 

 statistical, and general information concerning the island. This 

 present issue contains in an appendix a useful article by Mr. W. 

 Fawcett, Director of Public Gardens and Plantations in Jamaica 

 on the planting and care of woodlands. 



