September 5, 1901] 



NA TURE 



45: 



«ill be received. Subscription-lists have been distributed in 

 large numbers amongst heads of business-houses, manufactories, 

 and Government offices, inviting them to collect sums, however 

 small. 



The New York correspondent of the Times reports as fol- 

 lows upon experiments made at Havana to test whether yellow 

 fever is carried by mosquitoes : — "Out of eight persons bitten 

 by infected insects three have died, three have the fever and 

 will possibly recover, one is not affected, while as regards the 

 remaining case it is too early to make a diagnosis. The 

 physicians are shocked at the result of the experiments. It 

 was supposed that direct infection from mosquitoes caused only 

 a mild form of the disease, and was a safe means of making 

 the subjects immune. It is now definitely known that a man 

 bitten by an infected mosquito after being inoculated with the 

 serum introduced by Dr. Caldas, a Brazilian expert, has de- 

 veloped a genuine case of fever." 



Major Ronald Ross, F.R.S., has just returned to England 

 rom West Africa, where he has been organising a campaign 

 against mosquitoes and malaria. After inaugurating the cam- 

 paign at Sierra Leone, Major Ross went to Lagos, where the 

 Government actively concerns itself with all matters affecting 

 the health of the community. In welcoming him to the colony, 

 the Governor, Sir William Macgregor, referred to the measures 

 taken to promote sanitary conditions, and thus increase the 

 industrial prosperity of West Africa. Major Ross, in thank- 

 ing His Excellency, said that he had been on the point of 

 believing that his countrymen were becoming an unscientific 

 and unpractical people. More than two years ago the fact that 

 malarial infection is communicated by mosquitoes had been 

 established by the most stringent scientific and experimental 

 proof; and yet to his knowledge practically nothing had been 

 done by his countrymen to act on this new information, in 

 spite of its economic importance. He had, therefore, accepted 

 with alacrity the offer of a large sum of money and other 

 facilities from a generous philanthropist, and from Mr. A. L. 

 Jones, Mr. John Holt, and others in England, to pay the ex- 

 penses of practical work against malaria in Sierra Leone. This 

 work had been commenced with every promise of success by 

 his friend. Dr. Logan Taylor, and he had, therefore, felt himself 

 free to proceed to Lagos to watch the work being done there. 

 He was delighted to find that his pessimistic attitude was 

 not justifiable as regards Lagos. He strongly eulogised every- 

 thing that was being done against malaria by .Sir William 

 MacGregor, himself a distinguished member of the medical pro- 

 fession, by his most able friend. Dr. Henry Strachan, and by 

 the enlightened medical profession and the Ladies' League in 

 Lagos. He had witnessed the rapid and successful filling up 

 of marshes by sand from the lagoons, and the rational utilisation 

 of gaol prisoners for this useful work. He had inspected 

 numerous houses rendered mosquito-proof by fine wire netting, 

 which, while it did not exclude the breeze, as he expected it 

 would, did e\clude insects and damp, much to the comfort of 

 the inmates. He highly commended the efforts of the Govern- 

 ment to induce Iheir officials and others to take quinine — a pro- 

 phylactic which was much neglected in consequence of ignorance 

 and faddism. Before the departure of Major Ross for Accra, Mr. 

 C. Tambaci and other leading merchants promised to place an 

 annual subscription of 150/. in the hands of the Governor to pay 

 for a " Mosquito Brigade" for Lagos. 



In an address on tuberculosis given at the autumnal con- 

 ference of the Sanitary Inspectors' Association last week, Sir 

 James Crichton Browne referred to the subject of the relation 

 between bovine and human tuberculosis, and Dr. Koch's recent 

 statements upon it. In the course of his remarks, he said : — 

 " Private investigations and experiments, laudable and signifi- 

 NO. 1662, VOL. 64] 



cant enough though they might be, would not meet the require- 

 ments of the case, and the country was entitled to ask that a 

 thoroughly competent public tribunal should, after a searching 

 trial, determine whether the restrictions on trade that had been 

 proved to be unnecessary should be abolished, or whether still 

 more stringent restrictions than hitherto should be enforced to 

 prevent human tubercular infection from animal sources. Dr. 

 Koch had discredited the Report of the last Royal Commission 

 on Tuberculosis, which up to now they had regarded as a 

 standard work of reference ; and it seemed highly desirable that 

 the Report should be officially confirmed or declared to be ob- 

 solete." It was afterwards unanimously resolved : — " That this 

 Association is of opinion that it is desirable that a Government 

 inquiry should be instituted into the question as to the identity 

 or the non-identity of human and bovine tubercle, and that a 

 copy of this resolution be sent to the Right Hon. Walter Long, 

 President of the Local Government Board." 



Readers of Nature are aware that kites carrying meteoro- 

 logical instruments have been employed for several years at the 

 Blue Hill Observatory, Massachusetts, in the studies of the 

 atmosphere carried on there. Until recently, no flights were 

 made in winds having rates of less than twelve miles an hour ; 

 but Mr. A. L. Rotch, the Director of the Observatory, has now- 

 used the common method of creating an artificial wind and raising 

 kites in comparatively calm weather by motion of the earth-end 

 of the kite string or wire, the motion in this case being obtained 

 from a rapidly moving tug. The apparatus employed consisted 

 of a portable windlass containing 3600 feet of wire, three Ilar- 

 grave kites having a total lifting surface of So square feet, and 

 an instrument for recording temperature, pressure and wind 

 velocity and humidity. This outfit was installed on the upper 

 deck of a tug in Massachusetts Bay on August 22. Two flights 

 were made, and the greatest heights reached were 2630 and 2670 

 feet. With more wire and kites much greater heights could have 

 been obtained. The natural wind varied between six and eleven 

 miles an hour, and was much too light to elevate the kites and 

 apparatus, but by steaming against the wind the velocity relative 

 to the tug and kites was increased to between fourteen and nine- 

 teen miles an hour. In this artificial wind the kites rose easily, 

 and so steadily that they could be let out from and hauled into 

 hand without the slightest risk to kites or instruments. The 

 kites were very sensitive to alterations of the course of the tug, 

 and began to fall whenever the course varied 30° to 50° on 

 either side of the mean direction of the wind. The experiment 

 shows that meteorological records at great heights may easily be 

 obtained during calms or very light winds by means of kites 

 flown from a rapidly moving steamer ; and that it is now pos- 

 sible for the observer and student to work uninterruptedly under 

 almost all conditions of wind and weather. 



The Kew Bulletin of Miscellaiuous Informalion for November 

 and December 1899 has just been received. In spite of its 

 belated publication, several of the contributions to it are note- 

 worthy. Of current interest is a paper on the two West Austra- 

 lian woods, jarrah (Eiicalyp/us marginata) and karri {Eucalyptus 

 diversicolor), which are now largely used, especially for wood 

 paving. Over nearly all the world, and more particularly in 

 England, these woods are in increasing demand. A Depart- 

 ment of Woods and Forests has now been established, and its 

 general usefulness as regards the control and management of the 

 enormous natural wealth of the timber resources of the colony 

 is beginning to be recognised and appreciated. Something 

 over one million acres of forest land have now been leased from 

 the Government for the purpose of acquiring the timber upon 

 them. This is chiefly jarrah country, and embraces some of 

 the finest forests of that particular kind of tree, which is the prin- 

 cipal timber-tree in Western Australia. There are other timbers 

 in the forests which are equally, if not more, valuable for their 



