October 20, 1904] 



NA TURE 



609 



of drugs, chemicals, and microscopical stains seems to be 

 very complete, and we note that several pages are devoted 

 to X-ray apparatus. 



In the BuUciin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital for 

 September (xv., No. 162) Dr. Howard Kelly describes an 

 ingenious instrument, the piezometer, for measuring 

 degrees of resistance, e.g. rigidity of the abdominal wall 

 or the limits of a tumour. Reviews of books and some 

 medical and medico-historical articles complete this excel- 

 lent number. 



In the KuUetin international de V. Academic dcs Sciences 

 de Cracovie (No. 7, July, 1904) M. Nitsch describes some 

 e.tperiments on rabies in rabbits, and states that the earliest 

 symptoms of infection are movement of the jaws and grind- 

 ing of the teeth. M. Maziarski discusses the relation of the 

 nucleus to the cytoplasm, and M. Kowalewski describes a 

 new species of tape-worm, Tatria biremis, found by him 

 in the intestine of Podiceps aurilus. 



The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine has issued an 

 important series of reports on trypanosomiasis by Drs. 

 Dutton, Todd, and Christy, which seem to establish con- 

 clusively that sleeping sickness is trypanosomiasis, although 

 there are severe and even fatal cases of the latter in which 

 the somnolence is not observed. In one of the expedi- 

 tions of the school a blood-sucking larva of nocturnal habits 

 was found to be abundant in many districts of the Congo. 



In the October number of the Journal of Hygiene (vol. iv.. 

 No. 4) Dr. Bovcott discusses the diagnosis of ankylostoma 

 infection with special reference to the examination of the 

 blood. Dr. Todd describes experiments on the preparation 

 of dysenteric toxin and antitoxin, and Dr. Castellani details 

 researches on the etiology of dysentery in Ceylon. The 

 Swedish Antarctic Expedition forms the subject of an 

 article by Dr. Ekelof, the medical member of the expedi- 

 tion, in which he discusses its medical aspects. 



An interesting report by Drs. Jobling and \\"oolley on 

 Texas fever of cattle in the Philippine Islands is published 

 by the Bureau of Government Laboratories, Manila (1904, 

 No. 14). Some imported American cattle, after inoculation 

 for rinderpest with the blood of native animals, rapidly died 

 with all the symptoms of Texas fever. Investigation proved 

 th.'it Texas fever was endemic among the native cattle, 

 which, however, had acquired an immunitv and suffered but 

 little from the disease. The species of tick in the islands 

 was found by Mr. Banks, Government entomologist, to be 

 ihe Australian variety (Boophilus aiislralis). 



TnK Meteorological Department of the Transvaal (Mr. 

 R. T. A. Innes, director) has issued its administration re- 

 port for the year ending June 30, 1904. Such of the instru- 

 ments ordered from this country as had then arrived there 

 had been distributed, and continuous records of some elements 

 would be available from July i, 1904. Rain gauges were 

 considered to be the most important for immediate erection, 

 and nearly 200 voluntary observers had been supplied with 

 these instruments. .All the observations made in the colony 

 will be published in an annual volume. Telegraphic or 

 telephonic weather reports are received daily from twenty- 

 nine stations, and telegrams e.xchanged with other colonies. 

 The staff is at present much too small for the important 

 work in hand. 



P.VRT iii. of the new monthly journal Le Radium contains 

 a summary by I'ruf. Turpain of the present methods of pro- 

 ducing high frequency currents, an account by M. M. 

 Moulin of the n-rays and the methods used in their study, 

 and an article by Dr. A. Darier on the physiological effects 

 of the radiations from radio-active substances. 



NO. 1825, VOL. 70] 



Bv slightly modifying Pocklington's method of observ- 

 ation, M. H. Dufet has succeeded in making measurements 

 of the rotatory power of biaxial crystals in the direction 

 of the optic axes. The results are described in the October 

 part of the Journal de Physique. With the apparatus 

 employed it becomes possible to make observations with 

 much thicker plates than have hitherto been used, and in 

 this wav to observe a large number of turns of the isochro- 

 matic spirals instead of only their commencement. The 

 paper is illustrated by photographs, and the accompanying 

 figure represents the rings ;md spirals for the violet mercury 



line A. 435S in the case of the slightly birefringent substance 

 rhamnose. The plate used was cut normally to the 

 stronger axis, and had a thickness of 627 mm. The rota- 

 tion along the symmetrical optic axes of crystalline 

 d-tartaric acid has a value of - 114° per cm. ; it is a striking 

 fact that the rotatory dispersion of solid tartaric acid is 

 normal seeing that in aqueous solution the dextro-rotation 

 of the acid undergoes very anomalous changes with vari- 

 ation of the wave-length. All the biaxial substances studied 

 which were found to show rotatory polarisation in the solid 

 state are capable of existing in enantiomorphous hemihedral 

 forms. 



An interesting paper by T. Godlewski on the dissociation 

 of electrolytes in alcoholic solution appears in the Bulletin 

 of the Cracow .\cademy of Sciences (1904, No. 6). The 

 well known dilution law of Ostwald is satisfied by all 

 the eight acids which have been examined. The order in 

 which the acids appear, when arranged according to the 

 magnitude of their electrolytic dissociation constants, is 

 different from that which holds for aqueous solutions of 

 the acids. 



A VERY sensitive method of testing for minute traces of 

 gold is described by J. Donau in the Sitzungsberichte of 

 the \'ienna Academy of Sciences (vol. cxiii. p. 180). A silk 

 or woollen fibre, previously treated with a solution of tannin 

 or a solution containing pyrogallol and stannous chloride, 

 is immersed in the acidified solution to be examined for 

 gold. If present, the latter is precipitated in the colloidal 

 form on the fibre, and imparts to it a red coloration which 

 is observed by examining the fibre under the microscope. 

 With a silk fibre, mordanted with pyrogallol and stannous 

 chloride, 2X10-' gram of gold can thus be detected. 



Some interesting observations on aqueous solutions of 

 magnesium oxalate are communicated by Kohlrausch 

 and Mvlius in the Sitzungsberichte of the Prussian Academy 

 of Sciences (1904, p. 1223). By dis.solving magnesium 

 hydroxide in aqueous oxalic acid, it is possible to obtain 



