+ 
FEBRUARY 25, 1807 | 
NATURE 
397 
upper compartment by means of a shelf, D, extending | 
almost across. The circulation of the air is as fol. 
lows: air from the outside penetrates into the lower 
compartment through an opening, 1, in the side; it ac- 
quires there a suitable temperature from the heaters, M, 
ie 
a i 
Fic. 1.—Dr. Tarnier’s New Apparatus. 
and rises into the upper compartment, moisture being | 
obtained by its passage through a wet sponge, E. 
These heaters are capable of holding three-quarters of 
a pint of water. Five of these can be used at one time 
in the apparatus ; but four are found sufficient to main- 
tain the required temperature of 31° to 32°, provided the 
room is not less than 16°. 
The infant is generally kept in the incubator from | 
seven to fourteen days. This is about the average time, 
but it varies considerably, and cases have been known 
when the period has been extended to five weeks. The | 
child may be taken from the incubator every two hours 
to be fed ; but it must only be exposed to the air as | 
short a time as possible, and care must be taken that 
the room is of a suitable temperature. 
It is of interest to notice the decrease of mortality. 
The usual percentage of deaths of infants under 2000 
grammes is 66 per cent., but by the use of the incubator 
this high figure is reduced to 36 per cent. Of those | 
children born prematurely, few only survive ; whereas it 
is now possible to save about 45 per cent. 
While great care is taken to help to maintain the heat 
of the body of the child, it is also necessary to allow its 
system to renew that heat. If, therefore, the child is 
not strong enough to take food, some means must be 
taken of injecting it. In this case a probe, consisting 
of an india-rubber tube, with a graduated glass funnel 
at the end, is used. This instrument is inserted in the 
mouth, and pushed gently down the throat, and going a 
distance of fifteen centimetres, reaches the stomach. The 
probe is pressed, and sends the milk into the funnel until 
a sufficient quantity has been administered, when it is 
rapidly removed to prevent the return of the ‘uid. 
Judging from the accounts which have been published, 
the improved apparatus seems to be very successful. 
NOTES 
Tue following remarks, abridged from an editorial in the 
February number of the Amerzcan Naturalist, will be cordially 
supported by many men of science on this side of the Atlantic :— 
‘* While the primary object of the university is instruction, there 
are several reasons why original research is of more than inci- 
dental importance to its prosperity. The mastery of his subject, 
which is characteristic of the man who advances the knowledge | 
NO. 1426, VOL. 55] 
| Dr. 
of it, is an essential of a good teacher. The belief in this truth 
1s So general, that the teacher who is known as a discoverer will 
more successfully attract students to his classes than he who is 
not so known, But, apart from this, the general reputation of 
a school before the public is more surely affected by the research 
work that issues from its faculty, than the managing bodies of 
some of them seem willing to admit. We believe that those 
universities which permit of the production of original work by 
those of its professors who have proven thomselves competent 
for it, are wise above those who do not do so. Those who load 
such men with teaching, so as to forbid such work, reduce their 
prosperity. The managers will be wise to preserve for these 
men sufficient leisure to enable them to advance the frontiers of 
the known, and thus to obtain juster views of things as they are, 
and to bring us ever nearer to a comprehension of the great 
laws, whose expressions it is their business to teach to the grow- 
ing intelligences of the nation.’ 
THE Société Industrielle du Nord de la France has awarded 
a gold medal to M. Moissan, in recognition of his scientific 
investigations. 
THE Council of the Sanitary Institute have accepted an 
invitation from the City Council of Leeds,to hold a Sanitary 
Congress and Health Exhibition in that city in the month of 
September next. 
ACTING under the provisions of a rule which empowers the 
annual election by the Committee of nine persons ‘‘ of dis- 
tinguished eminence in science, literature, the arts, or for public 
services,” the Committee of the Athenzum Club have elected 
David Ferrier, F.R.S., Professor of Neuro-pathology at 
King’s College, London, a member of the Club. 
THE Council of the Society of Arts attended at Marlborough 
House on Tuesday, February 16, when his Royal Highness the 
Prince of Wales, K.G., President of the Society, presented the 
Albert Medal to Prof. David Edward Hughes, F.R.S., ‘in 
recognition of the services he has rendered to arts, manufactures, 
and commerce, by his numerous inventions in electricity and 
magnetism, especially the printing telegraph and the micro- 
phone.” 
THE new building for the South African Museum at Cape- 
town has now been completed, and fitted with the so-called 
‘Dresden cases,” which are made entirely of glass and iron, 
and are believed to be absolutely dust-proof and air-tight. 
Under the superintendence of Mr. W. L. Sclater, the Director, 
the collections are in process of removal from their former 
quarters into the new building, which is expected to be opened 
to the public by March 1. 
WE regret to record the following deaths of men of science 
abroad :—Dr. Timothée Rothen, Director of the International 
Telegraph Bureau at Berne, and author of numerous treatises on 
telegraphy and telephony.—Prof, Karl Theodor Weierstrass, 
Professor of Mathematics in the University of Berlin, and 
Foreign Member of the Royal Society.—Prof. M. Klimm, Pro- 
fessor of Hydraulics in the Polytechnikum at Budapest. 
REFERRING to Mr. Evans’s letter in last week’s NATURE, upon 
immunity from stings of bees, Mr. T. A. Gerald Strickland sends 
us a note ona similar case. A bee-keeper, having accidentally 
upset a hive, was so badly stung that he was laid up for a few 
weeks, but afterwards the stings of the bees did not affect him, 
though before his involuntary inoculation they caused great pain 
| and swelling. The accident happened some years ago, but the 
bee-keeper was still indifferent to stings last autumn. 
