March 23, 1882 | 
NATURE 
483 
portant branch of physiological method ; and there is certainly 
no ground for the statement that it is ‘‘the influence of public 
opinion only” which has hitherto prevented abuse in this 
country. As pointed out in our article, the English physio- 
logists themselves took the initiative in laying down a code of 
rules against abuse some time before the sense of the general 
public was aroused, and it does not appear that since this has 
been aroused there has been any change in our physiological 
practices. Moreover, we cannot think that many of our readers 
will resemble our correspondent in failing to see that ‘‘atroci- 
ties” may be guarded against while ‘‘ more moderate practices” 
are allowed ; and in this connection it is always to be remem- 
bered that our English physiologists have gladly acquiesced in 
legislation directed against the former.—ED. | 
TOWARDS the close of an interesting article on Vivisection in 
arecent number of NATURE (p. 429), the following remarks 
from an article in the Aurtnightly Revi-w by Lord Coleridge 
occur: ‘* What would our Lord have said, what looks would He 
have bent upon a chamber filled with unoffending creatures which 
He loves, dying under torture deliberately and intentionally in- 
flicted.” Prof, Yeo in answering this, quotes ‘‘ Ye are of more 
value than many sparrows,” ‘‘ How much then is a man better 
than a sheep.” But there is one passage in Scripture which I 
think has even a closer connection with vivisection than those 
mentioned above, namely, the healing of the man possessed with 
devils (Mark v. verse 13), ‘‘and the unclean spirits went out 
and entered into the swine ; and the herd ran violently down a 
steep place into the sea (they were about two thousand ;) and 
were choked in the sea.” If our Lord therefore considered it 
expedient to permit the destruction of a whole herd of swine, 
numbering 2000, in order to alleviate the sufferings of the de- 
moniac, surely the labours of a man like Hunter must be justified, 
who by experiments on living animals has been the means of 
reducing death from aneurism of the principal artery of the 
lower limb from 95 per cent. to 10 per cent., as stated by Sir 
James Paget. 
CHARLES ALEX. STEVENSON 
45, Melville Street, Edinburgh, March 14 
Muffs and Vivisection 
Your correspondent, Mr. H. H. Johnston, of the Zoological 
Gardens, has offered your readers some ‘‘ facts,” which, he says, 
he ‘‘ knows to be true.” He says that some little time ago I 
called on ‘‘a distinguished member of science”; that ‘‘ three 
things were observable in my outward presentments ”—to wit, 
ostrich feathers in my bonnet, a bird of paradise on, 07 zear my 
muff, and an ivory-handled umbrella; and that the man of 
science took each of these articles as a text for a rebuke to me 
for encouraging cruelty. Sir, these ‘‘facts”’ may possibly be 
“accurate enough for scientific purposes,” like some others which 
we heard of at Bond Street, last winter, but they have given 
much merriment 10 those who happen to be acquainted with my 
real ‘‘outward presentments.” Suffice it to say, that I never 
paid such a visitas Mr. Johnston describes ; never received such 
a rebuke ; never used an ivory-handled umbrella; never wore 
a bird of paradise, or any other bird, either in or ear my muff, 
or any other portion of my attire; and, finally, having never 
possessed such an object in my whole life, am driven to think 
that the only Muff connected with the ridiculous story, must be 
the person who assures us he ‘‘ knows” it to be true. 
1, Victoria Street, S.W. FRANCES POWER COBBE 
Pasteur’s Inoculations 
IN the Proceedings of the St. Louis Medical Society, recorded 
in the St, Louis Medical and Surgical Fournal for December 
last, Dr. Spinzig is reported to have said :—‘‘ Splenic fever only 
prevails where there is low ground, or what is called ‘bottom 
ground.’ Sheep that are fed and shepherded on such ground 
will take this disease, while those that are shepherded in lofty 
regions never take it. But Prof. Pasteur had perfect confidence 
in his antidote, and asserted that if the sheep were properly 
‘vaccinated’ it would make no difference where they were, 
because the specific poison could not reach them. In Germany, 
however, they found this was not the case.’ May 1 ask, through 
your columns, what is Dr. Spinzig’s authority for this state- 
ment? 
Again, I have been informed, that although it has been abun- 
dantly proved that cattle and sheep inoculated with attenuated 
virus are protected against the otherwise deadly effects of un- 
cultivated virus, they do not enjoy similar immunity from the 
ravages of a natural epidemie of splenic fever. I should be glad 
to know whether any record is forthcoming as evidence that the 
inoculation of the attenuated virus has proved as successful 
against natural epidemic arising under ordinary conditions as 
against artificial introduction cf the virulent matter into the 
system. A SfUDENT 
“‘Eophyton” 
AFTER all that has been written, both in England and abroad, 
about the inorganic nature of Eophyton, it is strange to see such 
statements as those made by Mr. Elsden, in NATURE (vol. xxv. 
p- 409). As long ago as 1873, I pointed out that in Sweden it 
occurs under circumstances, which most decidedly prove that it 
cannot have been any plant or organic being whatever, and 
Principal Dawson has been led to precisely the same conclusions, 
from his studies of Eophyton at St. John. Last year, I further, 
by way of experiment, produced Eophytons, which cannot be 
distinguished from the Cambrian ones. A. G, NATHORST 
Geological Survey Office, Stockholm, Sweden, March 16 
“Telescopic Definition‘'in a Hazy Sky” 
Mr. RoystTon-PicoTt’s letter in NATURE, vol. xxv. p. 77, 
reminds me that during the Transit of Venus in 1874, the sky 
here for the greater part of the day, being covered with thick 
but varying clouds, I several times, for a considerable time 
together, saw the planet on the sun’s disk, with the naked eye ; 
the ctoud at these times stopping out the superfluous light, but 
not stopping distinct vision. 
I may add (though off the line) that, towards evening, the sun 
shone out brilliantly, and from my garden, through a bit of 
smoked glass, I watched the whole egress. Unfortunately, the 
subsidiary station, which was to have been here, had to be 
abandoned at the last moment, a matter of great regret to all 
concerned, and to all interested, and not the least to myself, 
having witnessed a great chance which there was no one to use. 
Nelson, New Zealand, January 27 A. S. ATKINSON 
The Weather in South Australia 
Mrs. MERRIFIELD, with her compliments, begs to inclose 
extracts from two letters she has recently received, describing 
the hot weather in South Australia during last January, also 
mentioning the curious fact, that the water in the Sturt river is 
more abundant in dry seasons than in wet ones. Perhaps the 
Editor may consider the statements’ sufficiently interesting for 
insertion in NATURE. 
Stapleford, near Cambridge, March 14 
«©On Tuesday, January 17, the thermometer was registered at 
180° in the sun, and 114° in the shade. I believe we had it 
hotter here; for, in the afternoon, the hills were covered with 
bush-fires. Fortunately, they were on the other side of the rail- 
road, about two miles off. At night, when the fire was nearly 
out, and only the stumps and dead branches left burning, it 
looked like a large town lighted up. A strong south-east wind 
blew the heat over to us. In the morning, a strong hot blast 
came from the north, as hot as I have felt it in West Australia, 
Yesterday, the thermometer fell, cut of doors, to 90°. To-day 
(January 19) was, I think, as hot in doorsas on Tuesday. Metals 
in the room were unpleasantly hot to the back of the hand. 
The leaves are falling off the trees, from the intense heat and 
dryness of the air. The ants, which up to 9 a.m. were busy, 
forming a column varying in width from eighteen inches to three 
feet, and almost colouring the ground, retired to their nests. 
Not one was to be seen. Neither a bird, fly, nor other insect was 
visible, unless disturbed by the rustling of the leaves. The 
following statement will show the hottest days in certain 
years :— 3 
In 1860 thermometer 158 
1862 be oh 159 
1871 nap op 153 
1880 260 5 172 
1882 Sp 5p 180 
; ‘6 February 2 
‘Tt is a curious circumstance that the Sturt 'river or creek, 
which runs through Mr. L.’s garden, has more water in it in dry 
