60 
NALTORE 
[NovEMBER 19, 1896 
for receiving the curves and symbols representing the conditions 
of weather. The plate when thus prepared is stereotyped in the 
usual way, while the text is rapidly made up by the use of 
logotypes. 
In the 4dt? dei Lincez, Dr. Uberto Dutto describes an 
interesting series of observations performed with a D’Arsonval 
calorimeter on the marmot and other animals. 
According to the ordinary law of dimensions, the quantity of 
heat radiated from the skin of an animal at a given temperature 
should be proportional to the square of its linear dimensions, but 
Dr. Dutto finds that the emission of heat is considerably greater 
from the marmot than from a rabbit of the same size and 
colour; although the temperature of the former is four or five 
degrees lower than that of the latter. It is suggested that these 
circumstances explain why the marmot and certain other mammals 
hybernate in winter. With the fall of temperature the vitality 
of the animal becomes insufficient to keep up the necessary 
supply of internal heat, and a period of torpor ensues. 
common 
IN a recent number of the Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin 
Dr. Robert Randolph gives an account of some investigations 
he has been carrying out on the use of absolute alcohol as a 
disinfectant for surgical instruments. The use of absolute 
alcohol as a germicide is not new. Fiirbringer was the first, in 
a pamphlet published in 1888, to call attention to its value as a 
disinfectant for the hands, and Reinicke has confirmed these 
observations, as well as, more recently, Kronig, Ahlfeld, and 
Schaefer. Dr. Randolph is of opinion that although under 
ordinary conditions instruments may with advantage be dis- 
infected by means of absolute alcohol, yet should pyogenic 
organisms be present in large numbers in any operation, this 
mode of sterilisation cannot with safety be resorted to. 
Two or three months ago a St. Petersburg medical review, 
Vrach, inserted a letter from a Russian doctor, M. Denisenko, 
who earnestly entreated his colleagues to experiment upon the 
sap of the Wart-wort, Chelédontum majus, Linn., as a possible 
remedy for the treatment of cancer. The sap of this plant is 
widely used in Russian popular medicine, as it is also in this 
country, for making warts disappear. Having tried for some 
time to use it externally against cancer-growths, M. Denisenko, 
came to the use of a preparation of the Che/édonzum sap, 
which he rendered public, as an internal remedy. After a pro- 
longed use in very small doses, this preparation seemed to make 
the cancer growths disappear. Now the same review (No. xxxiv., 
August 25, September 6) contains a paper, by the Russian 
doctor, in which the history of seven cases of cancer are given, 
four being cases of external growths in such places of the body 
as rendered surgical operations of no use, and three cases being 
internal-growth in the cesophagus and the stomach. The former 
are illustrated by photographs, from which it would seem that 
the effects of the above-mentioned internal treatment are simply 
astonishing. The growths have totally disappeared. As to the 
cancer-growth in the cesophagus, it has so much diminished 
that the patient, who formerly could swallow liquid food only, 
can now swallow chopped meat, bread, and hard-boiled eggs, 
while no more traces of a swelling are to be found in the 
cesophagus. This appears to be the first case on scientific 
record of cancer-growths having been made to disappear by the 
use of internal remedies only. Of course, it has to be ascer- 
tained whether the growths will not re-appear; and moreover, as 
the Chelidontum sap contains two deadly alkaloids, the cheli- 
donine and the sangui-pyrine, it has to be seen whether its 
- continued use, even in small doses, will not tell in the long run. 
It hardly need be added that, owing to the peisonous nature of 
the remedy, it must, in no case, be used without the prescription 
of a medical man. Cases of Che/édonzium poisoning are not 
uncommon in popular medicine. Dr, Denisenko concludes by 
WO. TAL2, WOE. 551) 
appealing for further experiments, in such cases where surgical 
operation is not possible. 
Tue Aew Bulletin for September-October records the suc- 
cessful growth in Queensland of a new seedling variety of the 
sugar-cane, derived originally from seed obtained from 
Barbadoes. 
INTEREST in Arctic matters is so keen at the present time, 
that many people will probably be glad to have their attention 
directed to the second part of a paper on the glacial geology of 
Arctic Europe and its Islands, which Colonel H. W. Feilden con- 
tributes to the current Quarterly Journal of the Geological 
Society. The paper refers to proofs of changes of level in 
northern Norway, terrace-making in Kolguev Island, glacial 
geology of the Kola Peninsula, Novaya Zemlya, Franz Josef 
Land, and Spitzbergen. Another paper of general interest in 
the same number of the /owsa/ is on seismic phenomena in the 
British Empire, by M. F. de Montessus de Ballore. 
In the third part of the first volume of the Centra/blatt fir 
Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Ungeschichte, in addition to the 
usual valuable epitome of recently published papers, there is a 
short original article by Prof. Aurel von Tordk, of Budapest, 
on some characteristic differences between human and animal 
skulls. The author looks at the skulls from above, in front, 
sideways and behind, and by observation, and entirely without 
taking measurements, he notes that the relative position of 
certain parts is distinctly human or characteristically animal ; 
he gives technical names to these different conditions. 
THE November Pilot Chart of the North Pacific Ocean, issued 
by the U.S. Hydrographic Office, contains an account of the 
chronological and geographical distribution of icebergs in the 
Southern and Antarctic Oceans, accompanied by two charts, one 
showing the seasonal iceberg limits, and the other the icebergs 
reported in the different seasons during the years 1891-5. An 
inspection of the charts seems to show that the bergs are formed 
at special parts of the Antarctic continent, and are then drifted 
northward and easterly, the principal groups of bergs being in 
the vicinity of Cape Horn, the Falkland Islands, and South of 
Africa, while the limits differ with the seasons. The life of a 
berg in the southern oceans is probably much longer than of one 
in the northern oceans, as they are larger and more compact, and 
drift to lower latitudes in the South Atlantic than those in the 
North Atlantic. 
Tue Rev. Johann G. Hagen, Director of the Observatory 
of Georgetown College, Washington, has rendered good service 
to mathematicians by preparing a complete catalogue of the 
works of Leonard Euler. Although several catalogues of this 
mathematician’s works have previously been published, it was 
found that the information contained in these was in some re- 
spects fragmentary and incomplete in regard both to the exact 
titles of the papers, and to the dates of their publication. The 
present catalogue is divided into four sections, dealing with 
mathematical, physical, astronomical, and miscellaneous works 
respectively ; and an idea of the magnitude of Euler's 
work may be gathered from the fact that no less than 796 
memoirs and notes are included in this catalogue. The publisher 
is Felix L. Dames, of Berlin. 
THE first issue of the Academy, published on October 9, 1869, 
contained a review of Dr. Haeckel’s ‘‘ Natural History of 
Creation,” by Huxley. In the more than a quarter of a century 
which has elapsed since then, science has not figured very pro- 
minently in the pages of our contemporary, but it has been given 
a place, and Tyndall, as well as Huxley, have shone in that place. 
Because of this memory we have pleasure in calling attention to 
the entirely new issue of the Academy, begun by the current 
