466 



NA TURE 



[February i8, 19C9 



opinion that a considerable amount of disease and loss 

 of life, especially among infants and children, must be 

 attributed to the consumption of cows' milk derived from 

 tuberculous udders and containing tubercle bacilli. The 

 present report contains an account of experiments which 

 have been carried on regarding the infectivity of the milk 

 and faeces of cows which have contracted the disease in 

 the ordinary way. None of the cows investigated showed 

 anv sign of tuberculosis of the udder during life, and one 

 onlv post-mortem, yet the milk of these cows contained 

 tubercle bacilli. It was also found that cows affected even 

 with slight tuberculous lesions discharge tubercle bacilli in 

 small numbers in the fasces ; those with extensive tuber- 

 culous lesions of the lungs or alimentary tract may dis- 

 charge large numbers of bacilli from the mouth or nostrils 

 in coughing or in the fajces. Since dirt of various kinds 

 from the cow-sheds is almost constantly present in milk 

 as it reaches the consumer, another possible mode of human 

 infection is indicated. 



The greater part of the January issue of the Museums' 

 Journal is occupied by papers on the Norwich Museum 

 .\ssociation and on a new method of keeping Lepidoptera, 

 both of which were read last year at the Ipswich con- 

 ference. The system of keeping butterflies and moths, 

 which Mr. S. L. Mosley claims to possess great advantages, 

 is based on devoting a separate box — made in book-form — 

 to each species, with all its phases and variations, as well 

 as illustrations of its natural surroundings and maps of its 

 distribution. The boxes can be arranged on shelves like 

 books. 



Prof. Ri.sa Monti, writing in the Lombardy Rendiconti, 

 xli., 18, discusses the active and passive migrations of the 

 fauna of the Italian Alpine lakes. The author finds that 

 on the south side of the Alps the migrations from valley 

 to mountain should have been less easy at the end of the 

 Glacial epoch than at present, on account of certain geo- 

 hydrographical considerations which he has examined. The 

 passage of boreal types from north to south must neces- 

 sarilv have taken place through depressions in the dividing 

 chain, and the author advances arguments against the 

 hypothesis of an active migration. In several lakes of 

 recent origin of the Ruitor, formed by the regression of 

 glaciers, the author finds that the fauna have migrated 

 from neighbouring basins. 



The whole of the first part, comprising 170 pages of 

 text and twenty-four plates, of the fifth volume of the 

 Zoological Publications of the University of California is 

 devoted to the results of a biological survey, by Mr. Joseph 

 GrinncI, of the .San Bernadino Mountains of southern 

 California. These mountains, in the restricted sense of 

 the term, form the most extensive high range in the 

 south of California, and include the highest peak to the 

 south of Mount Whitney. As a large portion is clothed 

 with forest, while the range is isolated from any other 

 mountain-group of approximately similar altitude, the area 

 is one which might naturally be expected to yield results 

 of considerable biological interest. The author paid par- 

 ticular attention to the division of the range into vertical 

 life-zones, which include the Upper and Lower Sonoran, the 

 Transitional, and the Boreal. It was found, as might have 

 been expected, that the flora afforded by far the better 

 data for the delimitation of these zones. Among the special 

 features in the habits of the fauna is the fact that the 

 birds which have bred in the spring and early summer at 

 comparatively low levels are compelled in July to move 

 higher up the mountains in order to escape the shortage of 

 food which prevails, owing to the drought, in their brcrd- 



NO. 2051, VOL. 79] 



ing haunts from the commencement of that month until 

 the end of October. A remarkable mortality among the 

 .Audubon's warblers was also noticed in December and 

 January ; as all these were in an emaciated condition, the 

 lack of proper food would appear to be the cause of the 

 deaths. 



Does the Icidncv form an internal secretion ? is a ques- 

 tion upon which physiologists are uncertain. It is stated 

 that extracts of kidney tissue produce a rise of blood 

 pressure ; but the main experiments relied upon by those 

 who answer the question in the affirmative were performed 

 some years ago by Dr. J. Rose Bradford, in which he 

 showed that, after removal of a large amount of kidney 

 tissue (the whole of one kidney and a considerable piece 

 of the other), dogs exhibit symptoms of malnutrition which 

 cannot be explained by the loss of the external secretion, 

 the urine. Indeed, the volume of the urine, and the 

 amount of urea excreted, are very frequently higher than 

 the normal in such animals. These experiments were re- 

 peated by Bainbridge and Beddard at Guy's Hospital on 

 cats, and their findings did not confirm the far-reaching 

 conclusions which were drawn from Bradford's experi- 

 ments. The symptoms of malnutrition, according to these 

 later observers, are simply those ordinarily found in 

 inanition, and this condition was present in the cats owing 

 to their refusal to take food. Very similar experiments 

 have just been performed by two American observers, Drs. 

 Sampson and Pearce (Journal of Experimental Medicine, 

 New York, vol. x.. No. 6, November, igo8). They show 

 that in dogs a reduction of the kidney tissue to one-quarter 

 the original amount is not necessarily fatal, and this is 

 a very important discovery in view of the frequency of 

 surgical operations on the kidney. Very extensive removal 

 of pieces of the kidney is followed by rapid healing, and 

 very little effect on the remaining kidney tissue is notice- 

 able. In cases where a fatal termination did take place, 

 there was renal insufficiency, and the animal refused food. 

 The general trend of the results is therefore in favour of 

 the views of Bcdd.ird and Bainbridge. 



In the Contemporary Review for February Dr. Havelock 

 Ellis discusses the evolution of the feeling of love of wild 

 nature, that is to say, scenery from which man is excluded. 

 He finds the germ of it in the conception of mingled love 

 • ind horror felt by the savage towards mountain and wood- 

 land, the one the natural home of his gods, the other the 

 abode of malevolent spirits. The affection of his votaries 

 for a god of the wild, like Apollo of Delphi, might in 

 process of time extend to his chosen seat. In Europe the 

 love of scenery first appears among the Celts towards the 

 western isles of Scotland. In classical times the charm- 

 ing, lu.xuriant landscape of Italy was more fitted to win 

 the admiration of men than the terrible and dramatic 

 aspects of Greece. This became more apparent in the days 

 of the Empire, when Nero chose Subiaco as his abode, and 

 Marcus .\urelius retired for meditation to mountain or sea. 

 Early Christian literature shows little sense of this feel- 

 ing, but the hermits, who in a state of religious exalta- 

 tion fled to the desert, fostered at least a tolerance of their 

 barren surroundings. The Christians, again, took over 

 from paganism many sites consecrated to the worship of 

 the gods on account of the remarkable character or beauty 

 of their situation, and religious orders, like the monks of 

 the Grand Chartreuse, were obliged to accept grants of 

 barren lands worthless to their owners. The modern taste 

 for wild scenery was the offspring of the Italian Renais- 

 sance, which only revived the views of earlier writers, like 

 the younger Pliny. Coming to more modern days, Addison 



