ISO 



NATURE 



[Dec. 21, 1871 



end of his interesting paper, gives a list of the seventeen 

 or eighteen species which are known to him, or whicli 

 are recorded as possessing this power. It is extremely 

 probable that the more the subject is investigated, tlie more 

 commonly will it be found to exist. J . P. E. 



RESULTS OF SANITARY IMPROVEMENT IN 

 CALCUTTA 



WHEN a great public work is being done, it is a 

 duty to call attention to it. In March 1S62. Prof 

 Longmore, of Netley, who had acted as Sanitary Officer 

 during the Mutiny at Calcutta, gave the following evidence 

 before the Royal Commission on the sanitary state of the 

 Indian Army : — " As regards the chief part of this ex- 

 tensive city (Calcutta) — that inhabited by the native popu- 

 lation — the pestilential condition of the surface-drains and 

 yards, and many of the tanks among the huts and houses, 

 v.'ould not be credited by any one who had not been among 

 them." In the " Report on Sanitary- Improvements in India 

 up to June 1S71," recently printed by the India Office, is 

 given a table showing that the cholera mortality in Cal- 

 cutta had, for twenty years preceding 1S61, averaged nearly 

 5,000 deaths per annum. In i860 the cholera deaths were 

 6,553, and in 1866 they were 6,823. About this latter date 

 works of drainage and water supply were commenced and 

 have been gradually extended. Water is taken from the 

 Hooghly and thoroughly filtered — it is then conveyed in 

 pipes 12I miles in length to a reservoir in Calcutta and 

 thence distributed. The whole population had this benefit 

 conferred on them in the beginning of 1870, from which 

 date the use of foul tank and river water was discontinued. 

 The drainage works are as yet confined to the southern 

 districts, the sewage from which is conveyed to an outfall 

 at the Salt Lake, and will be passed over a square mile of 

 reclaimed land there, for irrigation of crops. The mortality 

 from cholera in 1870 was 1,563, and the general mortality 

 has fallen year by year with the extension of the works. 

 Last year (1870) the death-rate was 23'4 per 1,000, con- 

 siderably less than half what it was in 1865. 



At a Social Science meeting held in Calcutta lastMarch, 

 a native physician. Dr. Chuckerbutty, gave his experience 

 of the sanitary results as follows : — " I am in the habit of 

 visiting, in the pursuit of my profession, the houses of the 

 rich, as well as of the poor, in both divisions of the town, 

 and I frankly confess that in the southern division, wherever 

 the drainage works have been brought into play, the dwell- 

 ings even of the humblest cottagers are in an infinitely 

 better sanitary state than the mansions of the richest mil- 

 lionaires in the northern division where the drainage opera- 

 tions have not been extended. Before the completion of the 

 water-works and the partial operation of the new drainage 

 works, the mortality in Calcutta from dysentery, cholera, 

 and fever, was most appalling. In 1865 dysentery was so 

 common and fatal that sloughing cases of it were of daily 

 occurrence. Such cases are now rarely to be seen. My 

 annual share of cases of cholera in the Medical College 

 Hospital before the completion of the new water-works 

 was about 700, and I declare to you that, during the last 

 eight months, I have scarcely had a dozen cases of that 

 disease. Fever, too, has deci'eased during the same period 

 in a like manner." The actual deaths from cholera in 

 April, May, and June, of the present yearwere 85, 29, and 

 26, respectively. 



After such results as these, we need not feel surprised 

 that the Justices of Calcutta, a large proportion of whont 

 are enlightened native gentlemen, decided unanimously 

 last August to extend the drainage works all over the city, 

 notwithstanding the opposition on purely theoretical 

 grounds of ccilain British medical officers who ought to 

 have known better, to the use of ordinary house drainage 

 for Indian houses. 



The opinion of the Army Sanitary Commission on this 



subject is quoted as follows in the India Office report : — 

 "The municipal authorities of Calcutta and their officers 

 bave set an example of enlightened adnunistration and 

 effective expenditure to other Indian municipalities, which 

 it is hoped will be followed. There are indeed few cities 

 anywhere which can show so much good work done in 

 so short a time and with such promising results for the 

 future." 



The laws of nature are the same everywhere, Calcutta 

 has in times past suffered as London used to do from 

 fatal fevers and bowel diseases, and there is now every 

 prospect that a few years of active work will remove this 

 stigma from the capital of the East, as it has b:en removed 

 from the metropolis of the British Empire. 



NOTES 



The following telegrams respecting the Total Eclipse of 

 Dec. 12 have been received since our last : — " From the 

 Governor of Ceylon to the Earl of Kimberley, dated, Co- 

 lombo, Dec. 12, 10.45 A-'i- ■ — ' ^ telegram from Jaffna states 

 that splendid weather prevailed during the eclipse. Most 

 satisfactory and interesting observations have been made.'" 

 " Mangalore, Dec. 16. — The eclipse observations have been 

 very successful. The extension of the corona above hydrogen 

 apparently small. Five adniirab'e photographs have been 

 taken." From Mr. Davis, photographer to the English Eclipse 

 Expedition, through Lord Lindsay : — " Mangalore, Baikul. — 

 Five totality negatives ; extensive czjrona ; persistent rifts ; slight 

 external changes." The French Academy of Sciences has re- 

 ceived from M. JaPssen the following telegraphic despatch, dated 

 Octacamund, December 12, 5h. 20m. :—" Spectre de la Couronne 

 attestant matiere plus loin qu'atmosphere du Soleil." 



We can hardiy credit the report which has just reached us 

 that the Treasury h.as, at the last moment, declined to sanction 

 the expenditure of public money on tbe publication of the Eclipse 

 Reports of 1S60 and 1S70. We understand the combined report 

 is now nearly rea^y, and both Parliament and the nation are en- 

 titled to receive a statement of the manner in which the public 

 money has been expended. There are innumerable cases which 

 may be cited as precedents for the publication of similar docu- 

 ments by the Goverament ; as, for example, the Survey of 

 Sinai, and the annual Greenwich Reports of Observations. 

 After the Government has so generously granted money ._for 

 recent scientific observations, we can hardly believe that the 

 spirit of parsimony will so far prevail at the last moment as 

 to mar, in this manner, the services it has performed towards 

 Science. 



The death is announced on October 10, in Nicaragua, of fever, 

 of Dr. Berthold Seemann, one of our most enterprising travellers 

 and naturalists. Born at Hanover in 1S25, Dr. Seemann 

 was, in 1846, appointed naturalist to H.M.S. Herald, in its 

 survey of the Pacific, during which voyage he had the oppor- 

 tunity of exploring, more thoroughly than almost any other 

 European, the Pacific countries of South Ameiica and the 

 Isthmus of Panama. In the same vessel he subsequently visited 

 the Arctic regions, and the "Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. 

 Herald" by Sir John Richardson and Dr. Seemann, is an im- 

 portant contribution to the natural history of previously little- 

 known regions, the portion contributed by the latter comprising 

 an account of the flora of Western Eskimo-lanl, north-western 

 Mexico, the Isthmus of Panama, and the island of Hong-Kong. 

 In i860 he was sent by the English Government to the Fiji 

 Islands, then lately acquired, and on his return published two 

 works, one containing a narrative of his mission, the other, 

 under the title of " Flora Vitiensis," a history of the vegetable 

 productions of the islands. Since 1864, he has been greatly 

 interested in the mining capabilities and other resources of the 



