204 



NATURE 



[June 28, 1^94 



and St. Mervyn," in which he showed that a hitherto unex- 

 ^nioed portion of the Xorth Cornish Coast is Upper Devonian. 

 Mr. G. L. Crick, of the British Maseutn, recognised amongst 

 the foisils fjund, Orthoceras, Bactrites, and Goniatites, and 

 determined two species, Ba Irites PuJeshcimtiisis and Gonijtila 

 SimfUx. Both these species occur in Germany in Lower 

 Beds of the Upper Devonian, and both forms are likewise 

 present at a corresponding horizon in the red shales of Saltern 

 ■Cove, near Torquay. In the same horizon at Trevone several 

 specimens were found of the small bivalve shell CardijU 

 j-ttroitriata {Cardium palmatum), also found at Saltern Cove 

 and in the Upper Devonian beds of Budesheim. The occur- 

 rence of these characteristic fossils in the Trevone rocks leads 

 to the conclusion that the beds are on the same geological 

 horizon of the lower portion of the Upper Devonian as the 

 Budesheim strata. A portion of a plate of a ganoid fish 

 imbedded in the blue shale of Trevone was recognised by Mr. 

 Smith Woodward as undoubtedly Devonian and belonging to 

 a genus not yet described, distinct from the Sleganodi^tyum of 

 Ray Lankester. Remains of Trilobites, apparently species of 

 Phacops, with several corals, viz. Favosites, Ample.Kus, and 

 Pachypara, were found in the friable cliffs, which also yielded 

 two bivalves not deterjiinable, and a small brachipod, with a 

 minute punctate structure, closely similar to that of the De- 

 vonian genera Ciiilri'nella and Cryptontlla. In the foreshores of 

 the northern part of Constantine Bay a palmate form of coral 

 was found, from which a section was made, and determined by 

 Dr. Hinde to belong to the genus Poihypora, but the particular 

 species could not be identified. The fossil which most distinctly 

 cha'acleriscs this foreshore is a species of Conularia. In surface 

 markings this form, according to Dr. Hinde, differs from all 

 other known species from the Devonian rocks of America and 

 Germany, principally in the marked fineness of the transverse 

 line:, and it probably belongs to a new species. 



New bread and the hot morning roll, though difficult of 

 digestion, may have some advantages, .■\ccording to the liritish 

 Medical Journal, Dr. Troitzki, writing in the Russian medical 

 periodical t'laldi, states that he has found that new and uncut 

 bread contains no micro-organisms, as the heat necessary to 

 bake the bread is sufficient to kill them all. As soon, however, 

 as the bread is cut and is allowed to lie about uncovered, not 

 only harmless but also pathogenic microbes find in it an excel- 

 lent nutrient medium. White or wheatmeal bread Is a better 

 medium than black or rye bread, as the latter contains a greater 

 percentage of acidity. Dr. Troitzki's experiments with patho- 

 genic bacteria gave the following results : — Slref'tococi-m pyo- 

 gtnt. aureus retains its vitality on the crumb of wheatmeal 

 bread for twenty-eight to thirty-one days, on the crust for twenty 

 to twenty-three days ; the bacillus of anthrax (without spores) 

 remains alive on the crumb for thirty to thirty-seven days, and 

 on the crust for thirty-one to thirty-three days ; the typhoid 

 bacillus remains active twenty-five to thirty days on the crumb, 

 and twenty-six to twenty-eight on the crust ; whilst the bacillus 

 of cholera lives twenty-three to twenty-five or (wenly-seven 

 days on both. 



A RECENT number of the Arhtiltn a.d. Kaiierlichen Ges 

 undAtiliamle conlaim an interesting paper, by Dr. Dunbar, on 

 the detection of cholera vibrios in river-water. As many as 

 1 100 samples in all were examined, 855 being abstracted from 

 the river Ell>e alone, whilst samples from the Rhine, Wcser, 

 Oder, and other rivers were also submitted to the special tests 

 necessary for the isolation of cholera vibrios. The investiga- 

 tions were begun at the beginning of last August, and were con- 

 tinued until the middle of December. Only those vibrios 

 which gave the cholera red reaction were submitted to further 

 cultivation and examination. Dr. Dunbar exercises great 



1 : 



V 



VOL. 



50] 



caution in the classification of the numerous vibrios he has 

 isolated, and although in all important respects it was im- 

 possible to distinguish them from undoubted cholera vibrios, 

 yet he prefers to describe those obtained from the river Elbe as 

 Elbevibrios, those from the river Rhine as Khinevibrios, those 

 from the river Oder as Odervibrios and those from the river 

 Amstel as .\mstelvibrios. Some of these vibrios when culti- 

 vated in ordinary peptone broth in the presence of air and at a 

 suitable temperature, gave rise to phosphorescence, a pheno- 

 menon which was never obtained with the cholera vibrio ; but 

 even this failed to serve as a mark of distinction, for out of 68 

 cultures in which this characteristic appearance was exhibited, 

 38 only gave it occasionally, losing this power in some instances 

 and exhibiting it in others. Elbevibrios were detected in the 

 vicinity of Hamburg from July 19 down to November 4 ; after 

 that date, although samples were daily examined, none were 

 found. But whereas these cholera-like vibrios were not found 

 after November 4 in the running water, they were found more 

 than a month later, on December 19, in the mud at the bottom 

 of the river ; the latter, remarks Dr. Dunbar, probably otTering 

 them an opportunity of remaining in a dormant condition for 

 considerable periods of time until chance and suitable circum- 

 stance enable them to become again redistributed in the stream 

 itself. These Elbevibrios were found on 21 occasions in the 

 tapwaler as delivered to the city, and once in this water after 

 passing through a Berkefeld cylinder, which was investigated on 

 50 successive days. 



We have received part iii. of the Proceedings otthe Academy 

 of Natural Science of Philadelphia, extending from October to 

 December 1S93. 



Messrs. J. Wheldon and Co., Great Queen Street, W.C., 

 have issued a catalogue of books and papers on microscopic 

 zoology and botany they offer for sale. 



The June number of the Journal oi the Royal Microscopical 

 Society, just issued, contains the sixth part of Mr. .\. D. 

 Michael's " Notes on the Uropodinae," in addition to the use- 

 ful summary of current researches relating to zoology, botany, 

 microscopy, &c. 



The "Beginner's Guide to Photography" (Perken, .Son 

 and Rayment) is in its fortieth thousand. Evidently the pur- 

 chasers (and their name is legion) of the cheap camer.is with 

 which the market is glutted, appreciate this guide to the methods 

 of the "black art." 



To the third edition of his " Epitome of the Synthetic 

 Philosophy " (Williams and Norgate), Mr. F. Howard Collins 

 has added an abridgement of the " Principles of Ethics." The 

 volume thus presents, in a condensed form, the whole of Mr. 

 Spencer's philosophical principles, so far as they have been 

 published. 



The volume of Pro.ecdin^s of the Liverpool Naturalists' Field 

 Club foi the year 1893 has been issued. It contains an interest- 

 ing address by the President, Mr. G. H. Morton, on museums of 

 the past, the present, and the future, .accounts of the excur- 

 sions and evening meetings of the Society, and summaries 

 of the botanical and entomological work done. We regret 

 to note that this Society, like many others in the provinces, 

 is not nourishing, the number of members this year being 

 forty less than last year. 



The Alembic Club Reprints, published by Mr. W. F. Clay, 

 Edinburgh, are handy little volumes enabling a retrospective 

 view to be obtained of scientific researches that have become 

 classical. In No. 6, a copy of which is before us, we have the 

 Bakerian Lecture delivered by Davy before the Royal Society 

 in 1807, and a part of a paper communicated by him to the 



