Aucust 3, 1899] 
NATURE B26 
In it the author gives an account of his differential method with 
grazing incidence, for which a double-trough refractometer 
has been used. The process in question has been applied 
to solutions of brome-cadmium, sugar, di- and tri-chloracetic 
acid and their potassium salts ; and the author investigates the 
relation between the refractive index and the degree of concen- 
tration with a view of determining whether this is influenced 
to any extent by dissociation. The experiments show that such 
an influence, if it exists, is too small to be measurable with 
exactitude, This result is at variance in the case of brome- 
cadmium with those obtained by Le Blane and Rohland, but 
the discrepancy is attributed to an error. 
THE twenty-first of the series of electrical papers published 
by W. G. Hankel inthe Aéhandlungen der hk. Sachs. Gesellschaft 
der Wissenschaften deals with the thermo-electric and piezo- 
electric properties of certain crystals, including, amongst others, 
the formates of barium, lead, strontium and calcium, nitrates of 
barium and lead and sulphate of potassium, It is illustrated 
by several diagrams showing the distribution of positive and 
negative electrification over the faces of the several crystals. 
Tue general results of the magnetic survey of Sicily and the 
adjoining islands, commenced in 1890 by Prof. Chistoni and 
Signor L. Palazzo, were recapitulated in a communication by 
the latter observer to the Arti ded Lincez, vi. (2) 11. In Terres- 
trial Magnetism for June 1899, Signor Palazzo now gives a 
magnetic chart of Sicily showing the course of the isogonal and 
isoclinal lines, and the isodynamical lines for the horizontal 
component. The remarkable deviations produced in these 
curves by volcanic jareas are well shown. Signor Palazzo 
having been appointed as a delegate at the International 
Magnetic Conference held in connection with the Bristol meet- 
ing of the British Association last year, availed himself of the 
opportunity for instituting a comparison between the magnetic 
instruments of the Italian Central Meteorological Office and 
those of Pare Saint-Maur and Kew. The results of this com. 
parison have been published in the A?¢te dez Lincez, viii. (1) 8 
and 9, and the author considers that these comparisons fully 
establish the trustworthiness of the Italian instruments and 
methods. 
FOLLOWING in the footsteps of Japan and France, which 
countries in 1894 despatched Scientific experts to investigate the 
outbreak of plague in Hong Kong, Germany decided in the 
year 1897 to send out a commission to study the plague in India, 
and in February of that year Dr. Gaffky, Dr. Pfeiffer, Dr. 
Stricker, and Dr. Dieudonné arrived in Bombay. The results 
of their labours have just been published ina volume of the 
Arberten aus dem Katserlichen Gesundhettsamt, and covers no 
less than 356 large quarto pages, whilst copious illustrations, 
coloured and otherwise, beautifully executed, serve to elucidate 
the text. The literature of previous outbreaks of plague in 
India has been carefully summarised by the authors, and the 
history of the recent severe epidemic has been traced as accu- 
rately as possible. As was to be anticipated, a large portion of 
the report describes the numerous experimental investigations 
undertaken by the experts, and the results of these researches 
form a valuable addition to the already bulky records obtained 
during previous inquiries. Prominence is given to the encour- 
aging results obtained by Haffkine’s method of preventive inocu- 
lation, and in this connection mention must be made of an 
official report recently published in India of inoculations against 
plague made from May to September last year in Hubli. The 
actual number of inoculations carried out by Surgeon-Captain 
Leumann and his staff amounted to some 78,000 altogether, and 
in summarising the results of his extended experience, Captain 
Leumann remarks that ‘‘inoculation .arranges itself by the 
NO. 1553, VOL. 60] 
protection it affords in the foremost rank of methods for dealing 
with this disease.” 
AN article on ‘‘ The Ethics of Vivisection,” which appears in 
the current number of the Zdénburgh Review, ought to be re- 
printed and widely distributed as a plain and dignified statement 
of fact as to the purpose of physiological research and the actual 
conditions under which it is carried on. So many misleading 
leaflets and tracts have been publishéd by opponents of experi- 
mental work in physiology that all persons desirous of arriving at 
the truth of the matter should give consideration to the side or 
the case presented in the article to which reference has been 
made. In the course of the article the pain deliberately inflicte 
upon animals for mercenary motives, for sport, for food, for 
ornament, and other purposes is mentioned, and the very apt 
remark is made that “‘the only form of vivisection to which he 
{an opponent of vivisection] objects is that which furnishes not 
luxury, amusement, or vanity, but knowledge.” But this only 
meets objections witha 7% gzoyue, and a specific statement of what 
civilised man owes to experimental physiology is more convinc- 
ing to the logical mind. Such a statement is given in the 
article, * 
REFERRING to the results of the application of the experi- 
mental method advocated by Bacon and Harvey, the writer in 
the Ldznburgh Review points out that physiologists and biolo- 
gists *‘ have enriched practical surgery with antiseptic methods 
and with anesthesia; with control over haemorrhage while 
operating ; with a rational and successful treatment of aneurism 
and of glaucoma ; with the power in not a few cases of removing 
a tumour even from the brain itself. In medicine proper, all 
that is summed up in the phrase ‘ heart disease,’ all knowledge 
of arterial tension and its influence on the whole organism, have 
all been evolved gradually from the basis of Harvey’s discovery. 
All our knowledge of nervous disease is based upon vivisectional 
experiments, from Charles Bell to Hitzig and Ferrier. Almost 
all our knowledge of the digestive processes, of angina pectoris 
and of methods of relieving it, has been gained through 
experiment. Practical medicine has been enriched through 
experimental research with such drugs as digitalis, cocaine, 
croton-chloral, nitrite of amyl ; with the method of auscultation ; 
with a knowledge of the cause of tuberculosis, typhoid fever, 
cholera ; with the life-history of parasites ; with the cause of 
myxcedema and related conditions and how to relieve them, 
and with a life-saving remedy for diphtheria. . . . Itis, in fact, 
no figure of speech, but the simplest of truths, to say that every- 
thing of solid value in medicine and surgery is based upon 
knowledge gained by the experimental method.” With this 
quotation we leave the article, convinced that it will be of 
much assistance in the spread of truth and the advancement of 
science. 
A sHORT article, illustrated by reproductions from photo- 
graphs, on the Medanos, or moving sand-hills of the Peruvian 
desert, is contributed to Pearson's Magazine by Mr. George 
Griffith. 
Tue following official botanical publications have reached us 
from the United States:—Sugar as food, by Mary H. Abel 
(U.S. Department of Agriculture, Farmers’ Bulletin, No. 93) 5 
Mushrooms, II., by Prof. G. F. Atkinson (Cornell Univ. Agri- 
cultural Experiment Station, Azc//etin No. 108) ; Notes from 
the South Haven sub-station ; Vegetable tests for 1898; Bush 
fruits for 1898; Combating disease-producing germs; Killing 
the tubercle bacillus in milk (Michigan State Agricultural College 
Experiment Station (Budleténs Nos. 169-173). 
THE Journal of Applied Microscopy continues, in the numbers 
most recently received (May-July), its useful vészemé of recent 
work on microscopical technique :—Methods of plant histology, 
