178 



NATURE 



[June 21, 1894 



in Paris, and applied extensively in India by the investigator 

 himself, was recently put to the test of actual experience near 

 Calcutta. Dr. Simpson, the health officer, took special steps 

 to make the inoculations in the neighbourhoad of Calcutta serve 

 as tests, as severely scientific as possible, of the efficacy of the 

 method in man. Of the 200 inhabitants of a native hamlet, 

 116 were inoculated with the protective vaccine. No: long 

 afterwards, an outbreak of the disease occurred in the hamlet ; 

 ten persons were affected, none of whom had been inoculated, 

 and seven died, whereas all those who had been inoculated 

 remained free. If the results of future experiments are 

 favourable, a permanent department will probably be estab- 

 lished to carry on the inoculations. 



The Hong Kong correspondent of the British AfeMcal 

 yi»H/-n(2/ gives the following particulars with regard to the epi- 

 demic noted in our last issue : — " The plague commenced here 

 on May 5 ; it presents all the symptoms of the true bubonic pest 

 which devastated Europe in the Middle .-Vges, and produced the 

 terrible ravages described by Uifoe during the great pla'ue in 

 London. This bubonic pest, although extinct in Earope, has 

 never ceased to prevail in China froi:i time t j time, and has also 

 .spread from there to Persia and .-Vsiatic Russia. The present 

 outbreak is characterised by intense sym,)l03is corresp,)ndln' to 

 those o( typhus, and by the bubonic boils characteristic of the 

 disease. The deaths up to today have amounted to 170S, but I 

 am glad to say that the Europeans here are unalTscled except in 

 the case of ten of the military employed by the authorities in 

 carrying out disinlecting work in the native quarter where the 

 plague is located; one of them has unhappily died." It is 

 pointed out by our contemporary that this bubonic pest is ex- 

 tremely contagious from person to person, and though aerial 

 infection is not unlcnoAn in coni.ection with it, it is so probably 

 only to a slight extent. Like typhus, the plague is mainly 

 diffused by personal contact, and its diffusion is one of the re>ults 

 of overcrowding and dirt. 



The U.S. National Academy of Sciences is in a quandary. 

 .■\ccording lo the A moicaii Naturalist, it has been in a slate of 

 paralysis for two years as regards the election ol members, 

 owing to the impossibility of concentrating a sufficient number < 

 of votes on any one candidate to elect him. At p<csent fifiy- 

 eight members are devoted lo the physical sciences, and thirty- i 

 one represent the natural sciences. Members of the latter | 

 class desire lo destroy this disproportion, but they cannot 

 procure enough voles to elect an additional member on iheir 

 side, and ihc result is a deadlock. It has been proposed by a 

 committee ihal the .\cadeiny be divided in'o classes, each 

 having a fixed membership, such as exists, for instance, in 

 ihe Paris Academy of Sciences. Three of these classes were to 

 embrace Ihe physical sciences ; two, natural science ; and one, 

 Ihe sciences that could not be well classified under cilher of 

 those heads. This, however, has been objected to, and Prof. 

 E. f). Cope his submitted the following division lo the con- 

 iideiBlion of the committee. Cla^s I. 35 members). — Physical 

 Science (Sciences of Energy) ; to include Physics, .\stronomy. 

 Chemistry, Physiology, and Dynamical and Chemical Geology. 

 Class n. '35 membrrs).— .Vatural Science (Sciences of 

 .Morphology) ; S;ruclural Geology, Mineralogy (apart from 

 Cbemislry), Biology 'including Embryology and Pal.-c ontology). 

 Class III. (15 member* .—.\nthropological Science (Sciences 

 treating of phenomena determined by psychic conditions) j 

 Anlropology, Statislics, Philology, Psychology. Class IV. 

 (15 members).— .Applied Science. (Applications in the .\rls of 

 any of the Sciences previouslycnuaicraicd), including Hygiene, 

 Engineering, &c 



SCESs' famoag work, " iJas Anllilz der Erde " (the Face of 

 th; Eirth), ii to be translated inio Fren:h by .M. de .M irgt-rie. 

 NO. I 286, VOL. 50J 



.■Abroad, the book is almost as well known to the general 

 public as 10 geologists, bat there seems lo be no immediate 

 prospect of an English translation. 



We are reminded of what we lose in this respect by a 

 curren; article in the Germ%n " Weekly Magazine of Science " 

 \.\'dtur-M. ]\'j:kea.,ckrif!, .Miy 27 and June 3), on "the Flood 

 and the Ice A;;e Qaesiion." Tne writer, Kxhard Hennig, 

 discusses the views so amply stated by .Suess in the aforesaid 

 work, also those of Neumiyr in the " ErJgeschichte ' ^History 

 of the Eirlh). Sjess and Niuntyr may be said to have 

 proved that the M jsaic account of the flood was copied, with 

 but little al'eration, fro.n the ori^in.il Assyrian version, and 

 that the actual events took place in the plains of the Euphrates 

 and Tigris, and not on the bank> of the Jordan. Suess 

 suggested a cjJiparison w.th the occasional calamities caused 

 in the lower parts of the rivers of India when a cyclonic storm 

 whirls the sea inland, and the rivers overflow wide reaches of 

 town and country. In Suess' opinion the Mosaic flood was of 

 locilniture: — " Tne tradiuons of other p;ople- d) not in ihe 

 least justify the asienion that the flooJ e.xtended beyond the 

 lower course of th: Euphrates." Sjienc; went with Suess, 

 and the true tale of the fljol, while it remtiued picturesque, 

 lost its magnificence. 



Now, however, Hennig brings fonvard persu,isive arguments 

 in favour of the independent origin of the flood -S.\ga found 

 aruong so many peoples. Hi: associates it with some of the 

 striking facts which indicate a general increase of rainfall aod 

 lowering of the temperature over the whole earth during the 

 Quaternary period — e.g., ihe presence of enormous lakes in the 

 west of North .\mjrica, whose water-level rose 1000 feel above 

 the present Salt Lake of Utah, the Ice a|;e and glacialion 

 in North .\merica and in Northern and Central Europe (without 

 which geology would have lost a pel hobby), the Hoods which 

 accompanied the retreat of the glaciers, llie moist climate of 

 Siberia, and the fertility and forest-growth in ihe now arid 

 Sahara. Hennig concludes that the flood was contemporaneous 

 with the Ice age, and was produced by the unknown causes 

 which then lowered the temperature of ihc globe. The period 

 was a prolonged one, during which the countries in milder 

 latitudes were converted into swam)! and sea, or underwent 

 higher Hoods of local character under special meteorological 

 conditions. Isolated lands remained free from inundation, 

 E;jypt for example, owing to their distance from any region of 

 ice and dry climatic conditions. 



The German .Saga tells how " the floods of the north came 

 f.ir from their home and were turned into ice, and the ice stood 

 still, and the mist which hung over it froze .... till the hot 

 sun-glow from the south met the hoar, and the frost fell in 

 drops. The sun was strong and his heal gave life lo the drops, 

 so that a great frost-giant in the form of a man arose — Vmir 

 of the Hrimlhursen. Hut liors killed the giant Vmir, and 

 when he fell there ran so much blood from his wounds that 

 the race of the Hrimlhursen was drowned, all except him lliey 

 called Bergelmir. In a bjot he saved himself .ind his wife, 

 and from them sprung the ntw race of llriuilhursen." The 

 German Saga is scarcely less dramatic than the ICastern. .Vfter 

 reading it we feel willing to believe that the Germanic Ossian 

 was boHi' fide. 



In the Programm ties Gyiniiasliim Eriiestiiiiim (Gotha : 

 1894), Dr. A. Schmidt has published an essay on the employ- 

 ment of a trigonometrical series in meteorology, which will be 

 very useful to students of the mathematical branches of that 

 science. It is divided into four scclion.s, the fir.'-t two of nhicb 

 are devoted lo the history of the subject, from Iheir earliest use 

 by Euler, in 1748. Their first application to meteorology is 



