July 1, 1«98.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



136 



which he called " mouse-typhus," in mice and voles, when 

 swallowed by them, but perfectly innocuous, so far as yet 

 known, to all other animals. At this time the Plain of 

 Larissa, in Thessaly, was suffering from a plague of voles. 

 and Dr. Loeftier was invited by the Greek Government to 

 apply his new method of destroying them in that country, 

 which he afterwards claimed to have done with perfect 

 success. 



In January, lSi)3, Sir Herbert Eustace Maxwell, the 

 Chairman of the Committee of Inquiry into the plague of 

 voles in Scotland, and Mr. James Edmund Harting, 

 Librarian of the Linnsean Society, and Secretary to the 

 aforesaid Committee, proceeded to Greece to make inquiries 

 on the spot into the practical success of Dr. LDetlier's 

 method, and on its applicability to Scotland. Their verdict 

 is one of " not proven." Yet the evidence adduced appears 

 to show that the pest was noticeably diminished, and that 

 the remedy was perfectly safe. The apathy of the natives 

 is admitted, and although the infection is probably spread 

 owing to healthy voles devouring their sick comrades, this 

 is discredited, because it does not appear to have been 

 observed amo.ig voles in a state of nature. Such a pest 

 could not be stamped out without the remedy being applied 

 thoroughly and on a large scale, for the voles in surround- 

 ing fields would soon overrun the fields which liad been 

 cleared of the pest. One large land-owner alone, M. 

 Anastasiades, whose estate of 7500 acres had been cleared 

 of the voles by Dr. Loefiler's method, expressed himself 

 fully satisfied with the result. Is there any proof that if 

 the same method had been honestly applied to other 

 estates, the result would not have been equally satis- 

 factory ? 



We are told that the peasants, both Christians and 

 Mohammedans, look upon the pest as a visitation of God ; 

 and that the Mohammedans were about to send a ship to 

 fetch "holy water" from Mecca to stay the calamity. 

 This is not the spirit of persons who would give reliable 

 evidence on the success or non-success of a scientific 

 remedy. 



Although Dr. Loefiier reports that Scottish voles are 

 just as susceptible to the virus as other species, the Com- 

 mittee pronounce against his method for three difi"erent 

 reasons. 



Firstly: — The expense (or estimated expense) would 

 render it inapplicable to Scottish hill pastures. 



Secondly : — " Mouse-typhus is not contagious ; it can only 

 be communicated to those animals that will swallow some 

 of the virus. The allegation that healthy voles will become 

 infected by devouring the bodies of the dead has not been 

 satisfactorily proved. That Greek voles, when in captivity, 

 have been observed to feed upon the corpses of their 

 fellows, hardly warrants the assumption that Scottish voles, 

 in a state of liberty, will do the same ; and unless the 

 disease were communicable from one animal to the other, 

 it is not easy to see how the remedy could prove eft'ective 

 on extensive hill pastures." 



Of course, unless the remedy could be applied universally, 

 it would not exterminate the voles, or prevent immigration 

 from adjoining districts ; but it might materially reduce 

 their numbers. As for the doubt that Scottish voles would 

 devour their dead and dying fellows, it ought not to have 

 been expressed in the absence of such an easy experiment, 

 which in all probabiUty Dr. Loeftler has already made. 

 Why should not Scottish voles possess the cannibal 

 propensities of other voles and mice ? Even the common 

 mouse will devour those of its own kind which it finds in 

 spring traps, as every housewife must be aware. 



Thirdly : — " The fluid loses its value in about eight days 

 after preparation ; consequently much disappointment 



might ensue if, after a supply had been obtaiaed, a fall of 

 snow or wet weather were to interfere with its distribution 

 over the land." 



This statement is not clearly explained, but probably 

 refers to fluid prepared in large quantities, and exposed to 

 the air. There is no rea.son, that we are aware of, why 

 virus enclosed in hermetically-Sealed glass tubes should 

 not preserve its infective properties for a much longer 

 period. The rest of this objection simply indicates settled 

 weather as the best time for making the experiment. 

 It is clear that if a piece of ground, swarming with voles, 

 was charged with infected bread, the voles would not wait 

 so long as eight days to devour it, if they touched it at all. 



The Committee practically confine themselves to advising 

 " periodical and timely burning of grass and heather, fol- 

 lowed by active pursuit of the vermin by men using wooden 

 spades and dogs " ; and they also advise the protection of 

 owls and other natural enemies of the voles. But why did 

 they not begin by obtaining a supply of the virus from 1 )r. 

 Loeffler (especially as it is acknowledged to be quite harm- 

 less to all the larger animals at least), and experiment 

 with it in Scotland on a small scale in the first instance, 

 and then report on the results ■.' Would it not have been 

 more satisfactory to have done this before travelling to 

 Cireece to make inquiries through interpreters, obtain 

 doubtful evidence, and then pronounce against a method 

 which certainly appears to deserve a fair trial in Scotland, 

 whether it was fairly tried in Thessaly or not ! 



CHEMISTRY AND CUISINE. 



By Vaugh.\n Cosnish, M.Sc, F.C.S. 



THE male portion of mankind seldom inquire too 

 closely as to the means by which its food has been 

 prepared. Our diet, indeed, is so varied that it is 

 not a very easy matter to find out what quantities 

 of the necessary food-stufl^s one has eaten during 

 the day. It is, however, worth while to take the requisite 

 trouble to find this out, more particularly for the numerous 

 class of men of sedentary habit? who often have the idea 

 that they are over-eating themselves, and who are so 

 frequently assured by anxious relatives that they " don't 

 eat li'df enough." 



The weight of food taken during the day may be most 

 readily determined by using one of the spring balances 

 employed for weighing letters and parcels. The plate or 

 cup, with its charge of food, may be placed upon the disc 

 of the letter-weighing balance, and after the experimenter 

 has eaten all or such part as satisfies him, the plate or cup 

 is again placed on the disc, and the diflierence of the two 

 weighings is entered in a note book. With the spring 

 balance the weight is read off at once on the dial, so that 

 the weighing can be done sufficiently quickly not to let the 

 food get cold. 



Having thus conscientiously recorded the amount of food, 

 solid and liquid, taken in a day, the next thing to do is to 

 calculate out the amount of the various " food-stuff's " in 

 the daily ration, and compare them with a standard ration 

 such as may be found in a book on the chemistry of food. 

 The daily ration required by a man depends upon the 

 daily bodily waste, which, again, depends upon the weight 

 and upon the amount of bodily work done. 



The standard ration given below is calculated for an 

 eleven stone man supposed to be taking moderate exercise. 

 If hard bodily work is to be done, the amount of food 

 containing starch and fat must be increased. 



Though our foods are so varied, the different kinds of 

 feeding materials or " food- stuff's " they contain are few. 



