Sevieic of Reviews, 1112/13. 



LEADING ARTICLES. 



995 



Professor J. O. Hirschfelder, of the Cooper 

 Medical Collegfe, San Francisco, offers now 

 a discovery that may lead to the production 

 of a simple means by which everybody may 

 ward off and be made immune to the Cap- 

 tain of the Men of Death, as Dr. Osier calls 

 pneumonia. 



A rabbit was vaccinated v\ith about a tea- 

 spoonful of the digrested and filtered grerms 

 of pneumonia and another rabbit with an 

 ounce. On May 8, these rabbits and another 

 unvaccinated rabbit were injected with 

 enougfh deadly pneumonia microbes to kill 

 a mastodon. The unvaccinated rabbit died in 

 forty-eig-ht hours, while the two that had 

 been vaccinated were as lively as ever. When 

 the tissues of the unvaccinated dead rabbit 

 were subjected to a microscopical search, 

 millions of pneumococci were found in them. 



An immunising vaccine against pneu- 

 monia has been extensively tried on the 

 natives in the South African mines. The 

 actual results are not yet known, i)ut 

 pneumonia has become quite rare 

 amongst them. 



The methods b}- which malaria and 

 yellow fever have been stamjied out are 

 too well known to require further com- 

 ment here. 



MICROBES, 

 in "Nash's" Sir William Ramsay 

 writes on the absorbing topic, " Making 

 the Microbe Work for the Good of All 

 Mankind." The writer gives the reader 

 an account of the work of Robert Brown, 

 " the prince of botanists," Professor 

 Loeb, Pasteur, and other workers in this 

 nnportant scientific field of investiga- 

 tion. Sir William gives some idea of 



the work 



remanimg 



for future dis- 



covery : — 



The effect of enlisting- the services of 

 microbes useful to mankind and of exter- 

 minating- those hurtful, has been enormously 

 to reduce the death rate. But the campaigri 

 is by no means over. Althoug-h malaria has 

 been traced to microbes borne by mosquitoes ; 

 although yellow fever has been traced to a 

 similar orig-in ; although sleeping- sickness 

 has been proved to be due to the passag;e of 

 a fatal microbe into man, when he is bitten 

 by the tsetse-fly ; and although plague is now 

 known to be due to the bite of a flea which 

 infects rats, and which is itself infected by a 

 special microbe — yet constant work is being 

 done to discover how to keep down these 

 plagues, and, if possible, to kill them out 

 as well as to find a means of render ng the 

 inhabitants of dangerous countries immune. 



THREE MILLION YEARS OLD. 



An important discovery has been 

 made in New Mexico by members of 

 the staff of the American ^Museum of 

 Natural History, New York City, says 

 the " Outlook." This discovery is that 

 of the complete skeleton of a mammal. 

 President Osborn, of the Museum, says 

 of it, " The mastodon is like a thing of 

 yesterday compared with it." The mam- 

 mal in question is the ectoconus. It 

 lived about three million years ago ! In 

 fact, according to Dr. Osborn, it is thou- 

 sands of years older than any other 

 mammal skeleton discovered up to the 

 present. This skeleton wnll take its 

 place as one of the Museum's most trea- 

 sured possessions. The skeleton was 

 discovered, so we learn from President 

 Osborn, in a stratum not far away from 

 that in which the remains of the dino- 

 saur of the reptilian period were found. 

 This would indicate that the ectoconus 

 followed shortly after the close of the 

 reptilian period. It thus rounds out a 

 very little known ]>eriod in the world's 

 history. 



Judging by its skeleton, the ectoconus 

 somewhat resembles the wolf in size and 



contour ; it was peculiar to the North 

 American continent, and is of a type 

 no longer existing. The skeleton was dis- 

 covered about two thousand feet below 

 the surface of the earth ; this was also 

 interesting, for remains of the next exist- 

 ing mammals have in the past been 

 found at about twelve hundred feet 

 below^ the surface. The latest previous 

 discovery was made in an arid region. 

 Scientists believe, however, that when 

 the ectoconus lived the region was tra- 

 versed by a stream in size and shape 

 somewhat like the Orinoco. 



But this is by no means the only item 

 in the season's record for the experts. 

 In Western Nebraska, where an Ameri- 

 can Museum party has been at work, the 

 bottom of an old stream was exposed 

 through the use of nitro-glycerine, and 

 here skeletons were discovered of the 

 moropus — an animal larger than the 

 rhino. — and also specimens of the 

 pygmy rhino. ; they existed in a period 

 half-way between that of the mastodon 

 and the ectoconus. By such discoveries 

 as the above we are being made vividly 

 ■K-quainted with the very remote ages. 



