308 

when the sea bottom of the Gulf of Mexico shall have been more 
accurately surveyed. 
Tue last Report of the Juvenile Literary Society of the 
Friends’ School, Croydon, shows that natural history is in no 
way neglected by themembers. Twelve boys have been collect- 
ing British plants, two collections are being made to illustrate 
botanical terms, and two to exemplify the British ratural orders. 
Nearly three hundred ‘‘ varieties ” (? species) of plants in flower 
have been exhibited in the school-room, and some additions to 
the flora of the district have been discovered. Observations on 
the weather and the recurrence of natural phenomena have 
been kept up; and collections illustrating the ornithology and 
conchology of the district are in progress. Additions to the 
library and museum are acknowledged, and the treasurer’s report 
shows a balance in hand. 
Tue Transactions of the Maidstone and Mid-Kent Natural 
History and Philosophical Society for 1870 are chiefly remark- 
able for their total want of local matter. Papers are printed on 
“*Sericiculture,” ‘‘The Nervous System,” “ Skin and its Appen- 
dages,” ‘‘ Natural Selection,” ‘f The Similarity of Various Forms 
of Crystallisation to Minute Organic Structure,” and ‘* The Geo- 
metrical Structure of the Hive-Bee’s Cell,” none of them contain- 
ing anything new, although of average ability ; but we look in 
vain for any information as to the fauna or flora of the district. 
Classes in connection with South Kensington in Mathematics, 
Electricity and Magnetism, and Inorganic Chemistry, have been 
established, and the number of members is on the increase. 
WE learn from the AZel/bourvne Argus that the past efforts of 
the Acclimatisation Society, and of private individuals working 
with similar objects, have been only too successful, Rabbits and 
sparrows are now so abundant that in many districts they are a 
complete nuisance, and vigorous efforts are being made to extir- 
pate them, or at any rate to reduce theirnumbers. Hares are so 
numerous in the neighbourhoods of Melbourne and Geelongethat 
it is proposed to modify the restrictions hitherto imposed upon 
their destruction, and to allow clubs, upon payment of a moderate 
licence fee, to course them. 
THE account which has been published of the terrible ravages 
caused by the plague in Buenos Ayres, reads like so many pages 
from the description of the Great Plague in London. During 
the months of March and April last the city was almost entire’y 
deserted, everycne who could fleeing into the country. The 
deaths increased from the daily average of 120 in January to 640 
on the 4th of April and 720 on the 5th, whilst on the 6th of 
April 500 entries at the cemetery were registered up to noon. 
Frcm this time, owing to the excdus of people, the ravages of 
the plague began to diminish, and there is every reason now to 
hope that it may soon be stamped out. In one cemetery alone 
20,000 corpses were bmied, and for this purpose large trenches 
were dug, in which the bodies, some coffined, but many merely 
swathed in their bed clothes, were shot out of carts and quickly 
covered with lime. Attempts of all sorts were made to stay the 
plague, but unavailingly, and whilst the native doctors fled the 
spot, to the credit of the few English medical men there, it is 
universally allowed that they worked most nobly and disin- 
terestedly through all the terrible time. We read of “coffins 
being hawked about the streets, while empty carts touted for 
their silent passengers ; of people stricken with fever deserted 
by their friends and relations and even their children, and left to 
die without medical attendance or even food and water; of the 
shrieks and cries of delirious patients that made night hideous ; 
and of the corpses that were constantly found by passers-by in 
the early morning of people who had been seized with the death 
agony in the streets during the night time.” The cause of all 
this horror and misery is described as purely local, and due to 
the total absence of drainage and the terrible overcrowding of 
NATURE 

| dug. 17, 1871 

the houses and localities where the poor reside, and the long 
continued neglect of the most ordinary sanitary precautions. 
Surely this isa terrible lesson to those who wilfully and criminally 
neglect the reiterated teachings of science. 
A SINGULAR instance of canine madness in a horse is recorded 
in a recent numberof the ‘‘ Zeitschrift fiir Parasitenkunde.” A horse 
which had been some time before bitten bya dog supposed to be 
mad, was brought to the hospital of the Royal Veterinary College 
at Berlin, suffering from an uncontrollable propensity to bite, not 
only men and other animals but any hard substance, and even its 
own body, by which it had severely injured its mouth and broken 
several of its teeth. After its admission to the hospital, this 
propensity was violently manifested in fits, preceded by remark- 
able conyulsive movements, after which it would fall suddenly, 
and remain for a time perfectly motionless, becoming gradually 
weaker after each attack. It had refused food for two days, and 
died without a struggle on the evening of the day on which it 
was admitted. An examination showed no organic disease, but 
considerable internal inflammation. 
WE have received from Prof. Hinrichs, of the Iowa State 
University, U.S., the first two numbers of the School Laboratory 
of Physical Science edited by him. The object is to supply a 
defect stated in the prospectus to be as flagrant in America as it 
is in England, that their schools, while very excellent in regard 
to the literary branches, neglect nearly all departments of science. 
The numbers which have already reached us contain original 
articles on Physical Science, laboratory notes and news, chronicles 
of observations, and reviews of books. They are illustrated by 
lithographs, and published at a low figure. We commend the 
publication to all those interested in the progress of Physical 
Science in America, and anxious to further the same. We may 
add that the publication is maintained at a considerable loss to 
the editor, and it is doubtful whether it can be carried on unless 
it receives the extraneous support which it so well deserves. 
A TERRIBLE and most disastrous tornado is reported from 
Dayton, Ohio, U.S., on the 9th of July, by which eight people 
were suddenly killed and more than fifty seriously injured. The 
damage done to property was immense, hundreds of houses and 
churches were unroofed, bridges were carried away, trees were 
lifted up by their roots, and locomotion of all kinds was stopped, 
and in the country very large quantities of wheat and grain were 
completely ruined, 
SINCE we noticed the appearance of the first part of Messrs. 
Sharpe and Dresser’s ‘‘ History of the Birds of Europe” 
(NaTuRE, April 27), three more parts have appeared, each 
containing eight or nine beautiful plates, and the usual copious 
letterpress. Among the former we may notice those of the 
pigmy owl (Glaucidium passerinum), the white-tailed lapwing 
(Chettusia leucura), the great black woodpecker (Dryocopus 
martius), and the red-backed shrike (Zanius collurio), as being 
especially admirable pictures of bird life; while the fact that 
twelve pages of letterpress are devoted to the bearded reedling 
(Calamophilus biarmicus), fourteen to the great black wood- 
pecker, and the same to the hobby and eider duck, will give 
some notion of the labour and research devoted to bringing to- 
gether all the reliable evidence on the habits, distribution, struc- 
ture, and affinities of the several species. Instead of making 
the pictures everything, as has sometimes been done in illus- 
trated works on natural history, we have here really a “ history ” 
of all the more important known facts relating to each Euro- 
pean bird. We sincerely hope that a work which the authors 
evidently spare no pains to make as good as possible, may meet 
with the liberal support it deserves, 
WE understand that the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which 
has been more or less continuous during the past six months, 
and which has lately increased considerably in violence, is 


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