280 
true flight. ‘* They may vibrate or quiver under the action 
of air-currents or the shifting a little of their inclination 
by the fish; but the whole motive power is supplied by the 
powerful tail. The wings are a parachute to augment the 
action of this propeller. Their motions are in no way com- 
parable to those of the wings of a bird.” 
THE January number of the Journal of State Medicine 
commences a new series, and the Journal has been enlarged 
and much improved in appearance and in printing. It 
includes articles and papers by Prof. Hueppe on tubercu- 
losis, Mr. Lloyd on the milk supply of large towns, Dr. 
Coles on acid-fast bacteria, Prof. Smith and Dr. Sommer- 
ville on the standardisation of disinfectants, and Prof. 
Hewlett on ankylostomiasis, with a translation of Prof. 
Behring’s article on tuberculosis, together with chemical 
and legal notes, reviews, &c. 
In the current number of Climate the work that has been 
done by the London and Liverpool Schools of Tropical 
Medicine is reviewed, and Sir Patrick Manson’s address on 
the former is given in extenso. An extract from a despatch 
from Sir William MacGregor, the Governor of Lagos, 
suggests the introduction into the elementary schools in the 
tropics of the subjects of hygiene and sanitation. Sir 
William MacGregor has already taken the bold step of in- 
cluding sanitation with reading, writing, and arithmetic as 
compulsory subjects in the schools of the Lagos colony re- 
ceiving Government grants. A description of the Living- 
stone College and some technical papers complete the list 
of articles appearing in this useful periodical. 
IN a communication to the Paris Académie nationale de 
Médecine (December 8, 1903) Dr. J. A. Riviére gives an 
account of the results achieved by him in the treatment of 
inoperable malignant growths by physicotherapeutic means, 
i.e. by a combination of X-rays, static electric discharges, 
and discharges of high frequency, together with the 
administration of calomel and quinine internally to promote 
elimination. The effect of the treatment is to cause a 
diminution in the size of the growths, disappearance of 
enlarged glands and of cedema, abolition of pain, and heal- 
ing of ulcers, together with an improvement in the general 
condition of the patients. 
IN a report on the second outbreak of plague at Sydney 
in 1902 just published, Dr. Ashburton Thompson describes 
in detail the management of the epidemic, and discusses 
the mode of spread of the disease. Both in this and in the 
previous epidemics the disease seems to have been un- 
doubtedly rat-borne, and it is of interest that an outbreak 
occurred among the animals in the Zoological Gardens. 
The mode of spread of the disease from infected rats to 
man has been a much debated question, Simond, Tidswell 
and others maintaining that the fleas serve as the inter- 
mediaries, while others, notably Galli-Valerio, deny this 
on the ground that the rat fleas do not bite man. Further 
observations have been made on this point by Dr. Frank 
Tidswell, microbiologist to the Sydney Board of Health. 
The species of flea infesting the rat (at Sydney) in order 
of frequency are:—Pulex pallidus, Pulex fasciatus, 
Typhlopsylla musculi, and Pulex serraticeps. Of 101 fleas 
obtained from man, 85 were Pulex irritans and 16 were 
Pulex serraticeps ; from a wallaby, dogs and cats, numerous 
specimens of Pulex serraticeps were obtained; thus there is 
one species common to man, the rat, and other animals. 
The objection, therefore, that the “ rat flea’’ does not bite 
man falls to the ground as regards one species, and Dr. 
Tidswell further states that he has repeatedly observed both 
NO. 1786, VoL. 69| 
NADT TEE 
[JANUARY 21, 1904 
P. pallidus and P. fasciatus bite man. Reviewing the 
evidence, therefore, Dr. Thompson is of opinion that 
Simond’s hypothesis of ‘‘ flea borne plague’’ best explains. 
the phenomena of the epidemic of the disease as seen at 
Sydney. 
Tue report of the Botanical Exchange Club of the British. 
Isles for 1g02 is edited by Mr. Arthur Bennett. Mr. C. 
Bailey gives a list of some interesting plants which he found 
on the sandhills at St. Anne’s, Lancashire, and figures 
Ambrosia artemisiaefolia and Vicia villosa. Mr. G. C. 
Druce has been able to reinstate another of Don’s doubted 
records by finding the grass Deyeuxia neglecta in Caithness. 
In the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural 
History Mr. C. A. King describes certain stages in the life- 
history of Araiospora, a genus allied to the common plant 
parasite Pythium. The chief points of interest are the 
formation of a fertilisation tube, not by the antheridium, 
but by the oogonium, and the specialisation of a central’ 
mass of protoplasm in the oogonium in which the male 
and female nuclei meet. The author places the genus in 
the Peronosporez. 
WE have received a copy of an address by Dr. Rudolf 
Blochmann on ‘‘ Die drahtlose Telegraphie in ihrer Verwen- 
dung fiir nautische Zwecke ’’ (Leipzig and Berlin : Teubner, 
1903), given at the thirty-fourth annual meeting of the 
German Nautical Society at Berlin in February, 1903. It 
consists of a very general description of the methods used 
in wireless telegraphy and of the author’s views as to the 
future in store for wireless methods. Stress is laid on the 
utility of such methods in the case of fogs at sea. 
A TRANSLATION into French of Prof. T. Jeffery Parker’s. 
“Lessons in Elementary Biology,’’ by Dr. A. Marie, has. 
been published by M. C. Naud, of Paris. 
Tue third and concluding volume of Mr. C. Raymond 
Beazley’s ‘‘ Dawn of Modern Geography ”’ will, it is hoped, 
be ready for publication early next year. It will be issued’ 
by the Oxford University Press, to which Mr. Murray has- 
transferred the volumes already published. Dr. M. Aurel 
Stein has undertaken, with the official sanction of the 
Secretary of State for India, a complete account of the 
results of his researches in Chinese Turkestan. The book 
will be published by the Oxford University Press, probably 
in the spring of 1905. 
“ 
Tue ‘ Year-book of New South Wales,’’ compiled by 
the editor of the ‘‘ Year-book of Australia ’’ by authority 
of the Government of New South Wales for circulation by 
the Agent-General in London, contains much information of 
value about the colony. In addition to particulars concern-- 
ing administrative, commercial, and other matters, the 
volume provides an interesting account of the geographical 
characteristics of the country, its water supplies, and its: 
mineral products. In fact, the publication contains all the 
data necessary to enable a prospective emigrant to form a 
good idea of New South Wales. 
THE current number of the Quarterly Review contains- 
two articles on subjects of scientific interest. The first is. 
on the metric system of weights and measures, and in it 
the writer examines exhaustively the arguments for the 
compulsory adoption of the metric system. He comes to 
the conclusion “‘ that the stock arguments of the advocates. 
of the metric system, based on the extent to which it pre- 
vails abroad and the disadvantage to British trade of our 
adherence to a different system, have very little justificatiom 
