548 
NATORE 
[OcTOBER 5. 1899 
Kirsch has been collecting and studying the fishes o: the San 
Pedro River, Arizona; in connection with the biological survey 
of Lake Erie, Prof. J. Reighard and assistants have cruised 
along the northern and southern shores of the lake in a special 
steamer; Dr. H. M. Smith has visited Seneca Lake, N.Y., 
for the purpose of determining the character of its fish fauna ; 
a study of the variations of the mackerel of the east coast has 
been conducted by Mr. M. C. Marsh, and in the interesting 
Sebago and Cobbosseecontee lake regions of Maine, Dr. W. C. 
Kendall has made some special investigations regarding salmon 
and other fishes. 
THE return of the schooner /u/za EZ. Whalen, after an absence 
of nearly a year, is announced in Scéence. The vessel was sent 
out by Stanford University on a scientific cruise among the 
Galapagos Islands, &c., and carried members of a scientific 
expedition under the direction of R. E. Snodgrass, entomo- 
logist, and E. Heller, zoologist. A large collection of speci- 
mens, including birds, mammals, invertebrates, and fish, was 
obtained. On board the vessel were eighteen live land tortoises 
taken from Duncan and Albemarle Islands, some of them 
weighing four hundred pounds ; also 220 fur sealskins and 2300 
skins of hair seals. 
A REMARKABLE demonstration of the success of inoculation 
against the plague is to be found in the statement recently made 
to the Indian Imperial Research Labor- 
atory by Dr. Chinoy, the medical officer of 
the Southern Mahratta Railway at Hubli. 
In Hubli itself 4961 persons were inocu- 
lated once, 7840 persons twice, and 1346 
persons thrice (these having been twice 
inoculated last year), or a grand total of 
14,147. Inthe district 1849 persons were 
inoculated once, and 1967 twice, or alto- 
gether in Hubli and the district a total of 
17,963 persons. In the words of Dr. 
Chinoy: ‘‘ There are about 1000 people 
living in the railway chawl, Hubli, which 
was seriously infected last year. A// 
them are tnoculated, and I am glad to 
be able to state that ot a single case of 
Plague has occurred amongst them since 
plague broke out in the town, although 
they freely move about and mix with 
people in the town, where plague is in- 
creasing daily.” 
THE report of the Imperial Bacteri- 
ologist at Calcutta for 1898-99 states that a 
considerable quantity of mallein and tuber- 
culin are being manufactured in the laboratory for veterinary 
use. The hope is expressed that arrangements may be made 
for dairy and other cattle to be tested with tuberculin, so as to 
ascertain the extent of tuberculosis amongst cattle in India. 
Attention has been given to the further investigation of ‘‘ surra,”” 
and the report says it is more than ever probable that this disease 
is identical with the South African tsetse-fly. 
THE Vienna correspondent of the 7zes reports some experi- 
ments in a new system of telegraphy made in Budapest and 
Berlin on Friday last. These are alleged to have given the 
extraordinary result of a transmission of no fewer than 220 words 
in ten seconds without prejudicing the clearness of the message. 
According to the reports from Budapest, the impression made 
upon the technical experts who had an opportunity of following 
the trial was favourable. A perforated roll of paper, similar to 
that at present in use, is employed for the despatch of the 
message, which is made visible and fixed photographically at 
NO. 1562, VOL. 60] 
the receiving station. Instead of the dashes and dots of the 
Morse alphabet there are rising and falling strokes starting from 
ahorizontalline. The receiver consists of a telephone fitted with 
a small concave mirror, upon which are reflected, in the form of 
streaks of light, the impulses marked on the membrane. By an 
ingenious arrangement, recalling in some respects that of the 
cinematograph, the streaks of light reflected upon the mirror are 
reproduced upon a roll of sensitised paper, thus giving a narrow 
oblong picture, which in the present stage of the invention is 
developed and fixed like any ordinary photograph. 
THE fumigation of trees sor the destruction or insect pests 
has for some time been extensively used in California and 
other parts of the United States. The process will probably 
soon come into use in New South Wales, for Mr. W. J. Allen 
describes in the Agrzcultural Gazette of the Colony some very 
successful experiments in spraying and fumigating for red and 
other scales on orange trees. The tree to be treated is com- 
pletely covered with a tent, such as is shown in the accompany- 
ing illustration, and is subjected for nearly an hour to the 
fumes of hydrocyanic acid, produced by the combination of 
sulphuric acid and potassium cyanide. The number of men 
generally employed in a fumigating gang is four or five, accord- 
ing to the size of the trees. One man introduces the chemicals, 
another looks out for the generator and measures the acid, and 
Placing tent over tree to be fumigated. 
two or three handle the tents. Such a gang can handle from 
thirty to forty medium-sized tents, and cover four to six acres 
of orchard in a night. Fumigation is to be preferred above 
spraying, because the trees are not in any way damaged by the 
fumes, except in the case of a few of the tender leaves, while 
the solution used in the sprays must to a certain extent close 
the pores of the tree and slightly weaken it. 
ACCORDING to the Avgéneer, the signalling on the whole oz 
the Pennsylvania Railroad system is now operated electrically. 
When a train passes a signal bridge it closes an electric circuit, 
which moves a signal semaphore to the ‘‘danger” position, 
When the train passes beyond the next bridge a circuit is opened, 
and the signal indicates that the block from which the train has 
just passed is clear. Finally, when the train passes beyond the 
third bridge, another signal arm on the same post drops, showing 
the driver of an approaching train that there is nothing on the 
next two blocks ahead. 
