48 



NATURE 



[July 14, 1910 



there \\f must have conducted his researches and collected 

 information. The most important feature in Hakluyt's 

 character was his strenuous continuity of aim through life. 

 He set himself to remedy two great evils of his time — the 

 ignorance of English seamen in matters relating to the 

 scientific branches of their profession, and the loss of 

 records and stories of ancient voyages and travels. Besides 

 writing and lecturing, he travelled a great deal, collecting 

 stories and information, and set on foot work such as was 

 now carried on by the Royal Geographical Society and 

 other organisations. He was one of the founders of our 

 Celonial Empire. 



In distributing the prizes last week to the students of 

 Guy's Hospital Medical School, Prof. Howard Marsh said 

 that medicine had now become a department of biology, 

 and it had given a powerful impetus to the study of bio- 

 logical science. The result had been the discovery of a 

 new world of micro-organisms, of the existence of which 

 nothing was known before the days of Pasteur and Lister. 

 Bv far the greater number of diseases were due to the 

 prtsence of micro-organisms. Who could doubt that in 

 the next thirty years tuberculosis, which in England caused 

 the death of 70,000 persons every year and the spoiUng of 

 the lives of probably twice that number, would be entirely 

 swept away? Science was the acquisition of facts, and the 

 results of research had been one of the marvels of our 

 time. How should research be carried out? Could the 

 man in the street tell them that? Was any man who 

 knew nothing of biology in a position to save life? How 

 was such a man justified in bringing charges of inhumanity 

 and cruelty against men of science, and saying that what 

 was being done ought to be put down by the strong hand 

 of the law? When the public knew what advances had 

 been made, and were told by such men as Lister and Paget 

 that they had been gained by the only method by which 

 they could have been achieved, who was competent to 

 contradict them? And when it was understood that what 

 was being done was done under Government supervision, 

 and that no man could perform an experiment without a 

 special licence, would not the public be satisfied that the 

 matter was in safe hands? Would they not go further, 

 and be grateful to those who, with unending labour, 

 rendered such great services, and would they not extend 

 to them their full confidence and support? 



The Milan correspondent of the Daily Chronicle states 

 that an Italian Royal Commission, appointed to inquire 

 into the condition of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, has re- 

 ported that the structure is in danger of collapse. The 

 tower was begun in 1170, and took nearly a couple of 

 centuries to complete. " Our explorations," say the 

 members of the commission, " led to the wholly un- 

 foreseen and distressing discovery that, instead of being 

 founded upon a massive, spacious base, as was gener- 

 ally believed since Grassi, in 183 1, and Rohault de Fleury, 

 in 1859, published their collections of plans, the 

 actual foundation simply consists of ring-shaped masonry 

 exactly corresponding in girth to the huge cylindrical mass 

 superimposed thereon. In fact, the diameter of the inner 

 ring foundations is 7 metres 40 centimetres, which is pre- 

 cisely that of the space inside the tower. This discovery, 

 taken together with the further astonishing fact that the 

 foundations are merely 3 metres (9 feet 9 inches) beneath 

 the surface, constitutes henceforth incontrovertible proof 

 that the campanile was originally built perpendicularly, and 

 that its leaning propensities, which are becoming more and 

 more accentuated, are due to other causes than the inten- 

 tion of its constructors." It is stated that the tower is 

 farther from the vertical than it was eighty years ago. 

 NO. 2124, VOL. 84] 



The reasons given for this difference are principally that 

 the base of the tower has always been immersed in water, 

 and that a deep cistern dug quite near seventy years ago 

 with the unsuccessful object of draining a basin around the 

 foot of the tower made matters worse. The tower was 

 also considerably weakened by earlier excavation for a 

 basin for mensuration purposes. 



In a letter to the current issue of the Lancet, Dr. H. W. 

 Thomas, of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, 

 gives an interesting account of the special screening against 

 mosquitoes which has been effected on a freight boat of 

 the Booth Line sailing from Liverpool to Porto Velho, a 

 small place up the Rio Madeiro, a tributary of the Amazon. 

 The screening of the ship is so arranged that the living 

 quarters of the crew and officers are protected from 

 niosquitoes. Each port-hole is provided with a movable 

 screened frame, which is so adapted that the port-hole can 

 be closed and screwed down without withdrawing the 

 screen. The entrances to the main deck are protected by 

 wire gauze spring doors, and at each side of the ash- 

 shoot, which is of necessity open to the ingress of mosqui- 

 toes, extra sets of screened doors are placed. The doors 

 and port-holes of the outside bridge deck cabins are also 

 screened ; the doctor's quarters and the hospital are 

 situated further aft, and are thoroughly screened. The 

 interior arrangements permit of no old-fashioned water 

 reservoir over the wash-basin in the cabins, and running 

 water is supplied everywhere. The slops from the basins 

 run into pipes emptying directly over the side. This 

 arrangement very satisfactorily deprives the Stegomyia 

 larvee of breeding places in the cabins. The ventilator 

 pipes in the cabins and along the alleyways are each pro- 

 tected by a wire gauze screened frame, which slips into a 

 grooved moulding fixed round the shaft, and is kept in 

 place by three small buttons. The screening is composed 

 of iS-mesh phosphor-bronze wire, a material which is more 

 suitable for a moist, humid climate than brass or copper. 



The Journal of Hygiene for April (vol. x., No. i) con- 

 tains a report on an investigation of " grouse disease " 

 bv Drs. Cobbett and Graham-Smith. It was found that 

 the diseased birds generally harbour large numbers of 

 intestinal worms, in particular a " strongylus " {Tricho- 

 strongylus pergracilis), which may occur in hundreds or 

 even thousands. The conclusion is that the disease does 

 not appear to be a specific bacterial infection, but that 

 those birds which are more or less severely affected by 

 strongyli suffer injury, partly by interference with nutri- 

 tion, partly by the absorption of irritating or poisonous 

 substances, which weakens them, and in bad weather may 

 prevent them from gaining a living, and also renders them 

 susceptible to various bacterial infections. Messrs. 

 Hewlett, ViUar and Revis also contribute a second part 

 of their investigations on the nature of the cellular elements 

 present in milk. Further evidence is presented showing 

 that the cells are not leucocytes, that they may be present 

 in enormous numbers in perfectly healthy cows, and that 

 they are not necessarily indicative of any inflammatory 

 condition. 



In the first part of Folk-lore for the current year Dr. 

 W. H. R. Rivers publishes a paper on the position of the 

 father's sister in Oceania, particularly with reference to 

 Banks' Island. The problem to be explained is the close 

 connection between an individual and his father's sister in 

 the case of people among whom the rule of matrilinear 

 descent prevails. This relation closely resembles that of 

 a man with his maternal uncle in patrilinear races, and it 

 has therefore been suggested that the relation in Banks' 



