626 



NA TURE 



{Oct. 23, ii 



most widespread of these germs is a yellow micrococcus, which, 

 owing to its bunchy disposition when seen under the micro- 

 scope, he has called the "grape coccus." It displays great 

 vitality, and even after twenty or thirty years may give rise 

 to rheumatic affections of the bones and joints. Another 

 common species is the "chain coccus," consisting of small 

 granular bodies strung together and presenting the appearance 

 of chains or wreaths (Pasteur's " chapelets"). 



Owing to the colonial policy at present agitating German 

 political and commercial circles, great interest was taken in a 

 paper by the African explorer, Gerhard Rohlfs, on the positi n 

 of Africa with regard to Germany. It contained an historic 

 sketch of the relations of Germany with the Dark Continent, 

 recommended the establishment of factories or trading stations 

 in favourable places, but uttered a warning note against any 

 premature scheme of emigration to Africa. 



The second general session opened with a memoir by Prof. 

 Braun on the Island of Yesso and its inhabitants, dealing with its 

 geographical features, the character and social usages of its Aino 

 aborigines, and concluding with an expression of confident 

 assurance that sooner or later Yesso must be drawn within the 

 sphere of European culture. Some remarks followed by Dr. 

 Huyssen of Halle on the deep barings in the North German 

 lowlands. A sketch was given of the borings executed since 

 1868 at the expense of the Prussian Government, with special 

 reference to the results obtained in the gypsum formatio s at 

 Sperenberg, twenty miles south of Berlin. Here a bed of rock- 

 salt was met at a depth of 283 feet, through which the boring 

 was continued down to 405 15 feet without reaching the bottom 

 of the deposit. An account was given of the new method of 

 boring, by which it became possible to sink a shaft to a depth 

 corresponding to the height of the Brocken in the Hartz Moun- 

 tains. The therm imetric observations made in connection with 

 these operations were stated to have fully confirmed previous 

 views regarding the increased rate of temperature from the sur- 

 face downwards. 



Universal attention was attracted by the essay of Dr. Kirch- 

 hoffof Halle on "Darwinism and Racial Evolution," in which 

 it was argued that the physical development of peoples was inti- 

 mately dependent on the natural conditions of their respective 

 surroundings. The inhabitants of northern lands are noted for 

 a preponderance of the pulmonary functions ; those of hot, 

 moist, tropical regions for a more marked activity of the liver. 

 Thus the strongest lungs prevail amongst the Mexicans, Peruvians, 

 and Tibetans, who occupy the three highest plateaus on the 

 surface of the globe. That adaptation to the environment is a 

 question, not of "predestined harmony," but of natural selec- 

 tion, is shown by the evolution of the negro, the most perfect 

 type of tropical man, who is found only in the Dark Continent. 

 The daily pursuits of a people are, on the other hand, constantly 

 evoking special organic peculiarities. This is shown most clearly 

 in the keen sense of smell, sight, and hearing observed in all 

 hunting and pastoral tribes of the highlands and steppe-lands, 

 as well as in the sense of locality, and the surprising physical 

 endurance under hunger, thirst, and other privations. Sexual 

 selection, again, operates in the development of the body — head, 

 hair, beard, and the like ; in the style of dress and love of orna- 

 ment ; and lastly, in the formation of the national character, valour 

 and ferocity being mainly conditioned in the savage, the econo- 

 mic and domestic virtues in civilised man, by the choice of partners 

 in life, and the rejection of unqualified wooers in the " matri- 

 monial market." But, apart from this consideration, the prin- 

 ciple of selection prevails in the moral as well as in the physical 

 order. As mankind pressed northwards, irrepressible spirits 

 alone could sustain life under the depressing influences of bleak, 

 Arctic surroundings. Hence the remarkably cheerful t. mpera- 

 ment of the Eskimo, who are also bred to peaceful habits, for 

 peacefully-disposed families alone could dwell under a common 

 roof, as the Eskimo are fain to do in the total absence of fuel. 

 Through over-population the Chinese have become the most 

 frugal and industrious of peoples, in recent times emigrating to 

 foreign lands and crowding out all more indolent or pretentious 

 races. In the international struggle for existence physical and 

 moral superiority must always tell in the long run. 



Even greater interest was taken in Prof. Finkler's paper, 

 read with demonstrations on the bacillus of cholera and 

 its culture. An outbreak of this epidemic last July at Bonn 

 gave Prof. Finkler and Dr. Prior an opportunity of applying 

 Koch's method to the study of the comma-shaped bacillus, 

 which showed a remarkable resemblance to that of Asiatic 



cholera cultivated by Koch. It was found associated with large 

 masses of the spiral-shaped organism, but with no other germ of 

 specific appearance. These forms could not be detected in pre- 

 parations of normal or any other pathological excreta under the 

 same method of treatment. But after several failures a comma 

 bacillus was obtained, which in its nourishment, period of evo- 

 lution, and temperature behaved exactly like corresponding 

 cultures obtained by Koch from true cholera. Still differences 

 occurred in respect of the successive stages of evolution, which 

 inferential!)' affects the question of the permanent form of the 

 germs. After some time they become thicker, and assume 

 somewhat the form of a wdietstone, while at both extremities 

 spore like forms make their appearance, and take the shape of 

 spore-bearers. Both spores are presently extruded from the 

 spore-bearers, and begin to crawl about under the microscope. 

 They assume the form first of straight, then of crooked rods, which 

 develop into spirals of diverse shape, length, and curvature. 

 Becoming thicker and swollen, these spirals in their final evolution 

 seem to consist exclusively of small comma bacilli. But whereas 

 the comma of Asiatic cholera, at least according to Koch's in- 

 vestigations, develops no permanent form, these acquire a 

 stability in the spore state capable of resisting the process of 

 putrefaction. Their behaviour, however, when being desiccated 

 or subjected to chemical agents has not yet been tested by Prof. 

 Finkler. Between the prepared specimens of cholera nostras 

 and true cholera bacilli exhibited under the microsco e no optical 

 difference could be detected. Owing to the attitude of most 

 German physicians, who regard it as a patriotic duty to hold 

 Koch's doctrine as unassailable, while the German scientific 

 journals persistently ignore the objections urged by eminent 

 foreign investigators against the theory, Prof. Finkler's statements 

 naturally excited considerable sensation, giving rise to an 

 animated discussion, without however arriving at any positive 

 results. In any case a severe bl iw was given to the assumption 

 of Koch's infallibility, although Prof. Finkler and Dr. Prior have 

 so far farled to determine the true pathogenetic and pathognostic 

 functions of their cholera nostras comma bacillus, as completely 

 as Koch has for his Asiatic cholera comma bacillus. 



In the Section devoted to Mathematics, Astronomy, and 

 Geodesy, Dr. Sporer of Potsdam discoursed on the determination 

 of the elements of rotation in the sun, and on the origin of the 

 solar spots. The theory was advocated of currents setting steadily 

 towards the surface of the sun both from within and without. 



Discussing the subject of comets' tails, Dr. A. Marcuse of 

 Berlin assumed that the sun acted like an electro-magnet, and 

 that the normal tails of comets consisted of diamagnetic material 

 (carburets of hydrogen), whereas the abnormal tail-, that is, those 

 • hn, I-:] towards the sun, consisted of paramagnetic materials, 

 such as iron. 



In the Physical Section papers were read by Prof. Knoblauch 

 of Halle on two fresh attempts to determine the angle of 

 polarisation of metals ; by Prof. Overbeck of Halle on galvanic 

 polarisation ; by Prof. Ostwald on galvanic resistance, dividing 

 the acids in relation to the velocity of electrolytico-chemical re- 

 action into three sharply separated groups according as they are 

 uni-, bi-, or tri-basic ; by Prof. Sporer on eruptions breaking 

 through the nucleus of a solar spot ; and by Prof. Recknagel on 

 atmospheric resistance, arguing against Lossel that it increases 

 with the size of the plates when these are circular. 



The Meteorological Section, coinciding with the annual meet- 

 ing of the German Meteorological Society under the presidency 

 of Prof. Neumayer, was unusually well attended. Amongst the 

 foreign honorary members elected on this occasion were Prof. W. 

 Ferrel of Washington, Prof. H. Mohn of Christiania, and Prof. ' 

 H. Wild of St. Petersburg. In his address on the development 

 of meteorology and its importance to the State and society, 

 Prof. Neumayer dwelt especially on the influence of Dove, 

 Sabine, and other investigators, as well as of the various Polar 

 expeditions and of the British Associaiion on the general ad- 

 vancement of meteorol igical studies. In a second discourse he 

 referred to the importance of synoptic studies in the South 

 Atlantic Ocean, pointing to the results already obtained from 

 observations taken in high southern latitudes, and urging the 

 necessity of further investigation in the same regions. 



Dr. Koppen of Hamburg followed with a paper on the prin- 

 ciples determining the distribution of meteorological stations. 

 Discussing the question of atmospheric electricity and lightning, 

 Dr. E. Hoppe of Hamburg argued that the ascent of a warm 

 atmospheric current must give rise to a thunderstorm as soon as 

 it acquires sufficient velocity to prevent the equilibrium of the 



