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NA TURE 



[February 9, 1905 



Dr. Strong, the director of the Biological Laboratory, 

 Manila, has published a valuable experimental study of 

 the subject of protective inoculation against Asiatic cholera 

 (No. 16, Bureau of Government Laboratories, Manila). 

 .After detailing the various methods of producing experi- 

 mentally immunity against the cholera microbe, he dis- 

 cusses the use of Haffkine's prophylactic, which has been 

 extensively employed in India with encouraging results, 

 but an objection to which is the marked reaction that 

 follows the inoculation, causing the inoculated person to 

 be somewhat ill for two or three days. To remove this 

 objection, Dr. Strong has obtained a prophylactic fluid by 

 suspending the cholera microbes obtained from agar cul- 

 tures in sterile water, keeping this suspension at 60° C. for 

 several hours, then incubating at 37° C. for three or four 

 days, and finally filtering through a porous porcelain filter. 

 The fluid so obtained (a product of the autolytic digestion 

 of the cholera microbes) was found to produce a high 

 immunity in animals against cholera, and when injected 

 into man was found to be free from danger, and to produce 

 practically no genera! or local disturbance. 



In the VicXorian Naturalist for November, 1904, it is 

 mentioned that, at the October meeting of the Field 

 Naturalists' Club in Melbourne, a number of collections 

 of wild flowers were sent from State schools in the 

 country, including some so far away as Hawkesdale. 

 Dimboola, and Mansfield. These were of great interest 

 to teachers and children from the schools in Melbourne, 

 who were allowed to take away named specimens for 

 study. Would it not be possible to include in one of the 

 exhibitions, such as the Grand Horticultural Exhibition 

 held last June in the gardens of the Royal Botanic Society, 

 similar collections from country schools for the benefit of 

 schools in the metropolis? 



It is remarkable how many comparative experiments 

 conducted in tropical countries, with some or all of the 

 established rubber plants, have demonstrated the superiority 

 of Hevea brasilieiisis, the source of Para rubber. One of 

 the latest accounts is that by Mr. W. H. Johnson, director 

 of agriculture, Gold Coast, issued as one of the miscel- 

 laneous series of Colonial Reports. Experiments in the 

 Botanic Gardens, Aburi, were unsuccessful with the West 

 African vine, Landolphia owariensis, Ceara, Manihot 

 glaziovii, Assam, Ficus elaslica, and Central American 

 rubber, Castilloa elastica ; fairly satisfactory results were 

 obtained with the indigenous Funtumia elastica, but Hevea 

 e.xcelled in quantity and quality of rubber, in its rate of 

 growth, and has been remarkably free from insect and 

 fungus pests. 



There seems to be good r.eason to believe that explora- 

 tion of the more remote parts of Eastern Asia will add 

 very considerably to the number of botanical species already 

 known. In vol. iv. of the Records of the Botanical Survey 

 of India, Sir Joseph Hooker states that the number of 

 species of Impatiens, the second largest genus of Indian 

 flowering plants, recorded for India has increased from 

 124 to 200 in thirty years, and that many more may be 

 expected from the less accessible districts of Burma, Nepal, 

 and the Eastern Himalayas. In the hope of inducing forest 

 officers or other officials in India to take up the collection, 

 or better, the study of this genus. Sir Joseph Hooker is 

 publishing in the Records an epitome of the known species, 

 and he also directs attention to two points of interest, the 

 anomalous structure of the flower, and the remarkable 

 tloiails of segregation of the species. 

 NO 1841, VOL. 71] 



It is always of interest to note a distinct novelty in the 

 photographic line, but in the new Lambex system of day- 

 light loading and film and plate changing, which has 

 been introduced by Messrs. R. and J. Beck, Ltd., in a new 

 class of cameras called the Lambex cameras, we have 

 quite a new invention. The makers have sent us for 

 inspection one of these cameras with the so-called Lambex 

 skeleton and its envelope. The method of exposing is 

 most simple and ingenious, and is one that will no doubt 

 find considerable favour among photographers. The 

 skeleton, less than half an inch thick, is the name of the 

 folded strip of paper with a tag attached at each fold ; in 

 each of the folds, twelve in number, a film or plate, of any 

 description or make, is held by a flap at the top and two 

 corner slots at the bottom, and an opaque card is attached 

 to the front. This skeleton is contained in a double length 

 opaque envelope, the unexposed films remaining in the 

 lower portion, and the exposed films being pulled one by 

 one into the upper portion by the attached tags. The lower 

 portion of the envelope is provided with an opening to 

 correspond to the size of the film through which the expo- 

 sure is made, and surrounding this opening is a stiff pro- 

 jecting edge of card into which the envelope with its 

 skeleton is slid into a frame in the camera. The makers 

 claim many advantages for this system, such as daylight 

 loading, any plates or films may be used, the skeletons 

 can be recharged, no scratching of films, no mechanism, 

 &c. The compactness of this system renders it applicable 

 to both folding, pocket, and box cameras, and the makers 

 have now prepared a series of well-made Lambex cameras, 

 constructed in several forms and sizes, and fitted with their 

 well-linown lenses. Limitations of space prevent us from 

 entering more into detail, but the handbook of instructions 

 in the form of a neat pocket-book contains all the necessary 

 information. 



To the February number of the Monthly Review, Sir 

 William Ramsay contributes an article having the title 

 " What is an Element? " It contains a popular account of 

 the changes introduced into conceptions of the nature of 

 elements owing to the discovery of the inert gases of the 

 atmosphere and of radium and the radio-active elements. 



The remarkable power of aluminium to absorb com- 

 pletely the vapour of mercury even when highly diluted with 

 air, and at the ordinary temperature, is the subject of a 

 paper by N. Tarugi in the Gazzetta for January 14. This 

 property is made the basis of an extremely delicate test for 

 mercury, and of a preventive measure against poisoning by 

 mercury vapour. A species of respirator has been patented 

 in which the air that is inhaled is made to pass through a 

 mass of finely divided aluminium ; in this passage every 

 trace of mercury is absorbed, the action being so complete 

 that the dense vapours evolved by heated mercuric chloride 

 may be breathed with impunity. The respirator has already 

 been introduced with good results into the mercury mines 

 of Monte Amiata. 



A striking instance of the intimate connection existing 

 between the configuration of chemical substances and their 

 susceptibility to fermentation is to be found in a paper by 

 C. Ulpiani and M. Cingolani in the Gazzetta for January 

 14. The Bacillus acidi urici, which has the property of 

 decomposing uric acid into carbon dioxide and urea by a 

 process of successive hydrolysis and oxidation, is without 

 action on the closely allied substances a-methyluric acid, 

 guanine, caffeine, and theobromine. On the other hand 

 the bacillus is capable of rapidly and completely oxidising 

 such acids as tartronic, malonic, and meso.\alic acids, which 

 contain the same carbon chain as that constituting the 



