April 12, 1883] 
and full of birds.” Here one of the great discoveries of 
the second expedition was made, which is described by 
the author in his usual lively manner :— 
“The gale continued next day with rain, until noon, 
when I took advantage of our enforced delay, and went 
on shore for a few hours. A climb of about 100 feet 
brought me on to the tundra. In some places the cliffs 
were very steep, and were naked mud or clay. In others 
the slope was more gradual, and covered with willow and 
alder bushes. In these trees Thrushes were breeding. I 
soon found the nest of a Dusky Ouzel, with five nearly 
fledged young. It was placed as before in the fork of a 
willow, level with the ground. On the top of the bank I 
found myself on the real Tundra. Nota trace of a pine 
tree was visible, and the birch trees rarely exceeded 
twelve inches in height. There was less grass, more 
moss and lichen, and the ground was covered with 
patches of yellow mud or clay, in which were a few small 
stones, that were apparently too barren for even moss or 
lichen to grow upon. The Tundra was hilly, with lakes, 
swamps, and bogs in the wide valleys and plains. 
“As soon as I reached the flat bogs I heard the 
plaintive cry of a Plover, and presently caught sight of 
two birds. The male was very conspicuous, but all my 
attempts to follow the female with my glass, in order to 
trace her to the nest, proved ineffectual, she was too 
nearly the colour of the ground, and the herbage was too 
high. Feeling convinced that I was within thirty paces 
of the nest, I shot the male, and commenced a diligent 
search. The bird proved to be the Asiatic Golden Plover, 
with gray axillaries, and I determined to devote at least 
an hour looking for the nest. By a wonderful piece of 
good fortune I found it, with four eggs, in less than five 
minutes. It was merely a hollow in the ground upon a 
piece of turfy land, overgrown with moss and lichen, and 
was lined with broken stalks of reindeer moss. The eggs 
resembled more those of the Golden than those of the 
Grey Plover, but were smaller than either. 
“These are the only authenticated eggs of this species 
known in collections.” 
Golcheeka, the port at the mouth of the Yenesay, was 
reached on July 18. As Mr. Seebohm did not think 
it prudent to attempt the sea-passage home in the 
little /ézs, and the last steamer of the season up the 
Yenesay was to leave six days afterwards, little could be 
done in this locality. But excursions were made over 
the adjoining tundra, where ‘‘birds were abundant.” 
“Golden Plovers, Arctic Terns, Ruffs, Red-necked 
Phalaropes, Snow-buntings, Lapland Buntings, and Dun- 
lins were continually in sight, and the Asiatic Golden 
Plover was breeding in numbers, though attempts to 
watch them on to their nests were made in vain.” On 
July 24 Mr. Seebohm finally turned his face homewards, 
and reached Yenesaisk on August 14, after twenty-two 
days on the road, which was considered “a good pas 
sage.” Thence post-horses, steamers, and railways 
brought him back to Sheffield on October 15, after a 
journey of some 15,000 miles. 
The ornithological results of the second journey were 
“on the whole satisfactory.” It was a great disappoint- 
ment not to get to the coast, and still more so to miss 
the birds of the Kara Sea, and to arrive on the tundra 
too late for most of the eggs specially sought for. This 
misfortune was caused by the wreck of the Zames. But 
on the other hand “the delay in the pine-forests produced 
some very interesting results.” Besides the eggs of the 
Asiatic Golden Plover already spoken of, nests and eggs 
of three species of Willow-warblers, of the Mountain- 
Accentor, of the Little Bunting, and of the Red-breasted 
Goose were obtained. All these were previously unknown 
to western collectors, and were for the most part never 
previously obtained. Besides this, a large number of 
other rare birds were found nesting, their eggs and young 
plumages obtained, and their habits and manners studied 
NATURE 
563 
and recorded. Concerning particulars of their disco- 
veries, and for much information on the native tribes of 
Northern Siberia (a subject to which our author appears 
to have devoted great attention), as likewise for observa- 
tions on every other incident coming before the eyes of 
an intelligent traveller during a journey of 15,000 miles, 
we must refer our readers to Mr. Seebohm’s volumes, 
which are full of interest not only to ornithologists, but 
to those who take pleasure in natural history in its widest 
extent. They may be placed on our shelves next to Bates’s 
“Amazons” and Wallace’s “Eastern Archipelago,” and 
form no unworthy companions to the works of those 
great naturalists. 
THE BACILLUS OF TUBERCLE 
M R. WATSON CHEYNE’S Report on the Relation 
of Micro-organisms to Tuberculosis, published in 
the Practitioner for the present month, is one of the fruits 
of the Association for the Advancement of Medicine by 
Research, recently constituted for the protection of work- 
ing physiologists and pathologists. On commission from 
the Association, Mr. Cheyne visited two of the chief 
workers on this subject, Toussaint and Koch. He was 
thus able to see their methods and obtained materials 
from them with which he has experimented on his return 
to England. 
After some remarks on the method of staining the 
tubercle bacillus, Mr. Cheyne describes some experiments 
made with the view of testing the theory that tuberculosis 
in rodents can be induced by almost any irritant. The 
result of these experiments, made on a considerable 
number of animals, was to disprove this theory and to 
lead to the conclusion that in the former experiments, 
made before our present knowledge as to the precautions 
necessary for disinfection of instruments, &c., was gained, 
the channels for the introduction of specific micro- 
organisms had been left unguarded. 
Experiments were next made to test Toussaint’s state- 
ment that micrococci can be cultivated from the blood of 
tuberculous animals, and that the injection of these 
micrococci into other animals is often followed by tuber- 
culosis. Mr. Cheyne failed to cultivate micrococci from 
the blood of tuberculous animals ; he injected micrococci 
which M. Toussaint had liberally placed at his disposal, 
into a considerable number of animals without result, and 
he found tubercle-bacilli but no micrococci in the organs 
of several animals which had been injected by Toussaint 
himself with micrococcal fluid, and had become tuber- 
culous. He therefore concludes that Toussaint’s micro- 
cocci do not cause tuberculosis, and that an error has 
crept into his experiments probably because the means 
used to disinfect his syringes, although amply sufficient 
to destroy some other kinds of bacilli, did not destroy the 
tubercle-bacilli. 
Cultivations of bacilli were also obtained from Dr. 
Koch, and the results of their inoculation was in all cases 
rapid development of tuberculosis. The examination of 
a large quantity of tuberculous material showed the con- 
stant presence of tubercle-bacilli, but of no other micro- 
organisms. The rapidity and certainty of action of 
tuberculous material when inoculated into animals was in 
direct ratio to the number of bacilli introduced, and the 
most certain and rapid means of inducing tuberculosis in 
animals is the inoculation of the tubercle-bacillus culti- 
vated on solidified blood-serum. These facts lead Mr. 
Cheyne to the conclusion that we have before us in these 
bacilli the virus of the acute tuberculosis caused in 
animals by the inoculation of tuberculous material. 
Pursuing the inquiry from this point, to which it had 
been brought by the researches of Koch, Mr. Cheyne 
proceeds to discuss the relation of these bacilli to tuber- 
culous processes in man and to tubercle generally, In 
all tubercles there are present epithelioid cells, to which, 
