90 



NATURE 



[September 19, 1912 



said, we hear of new discoverers who promise more 

 or less infallible results, but close examination of their 

 specifics shows their worthlessness. Within the last 

 year or two chemical therapeutics had received a 

 fresh impulse of scientific value owing to the results 

 of experiments on animals, and it was now tolerably 

 certain that blood treatment must take the place of 

 the forpier treatment of stomach and intestines. 

 Turning to rav tlierapeutics, Prof. Czerny admitted its 

 efficacy after the knife in removing injuries, but was 

 not inclined to attach very great importance to elec- 

 tiicity applied as rays. In his opinion the more 

 remedies we are confronted with the more difficult it is 

 to find one's way to a proper treatment. This, he 

 said, should be the work of the numerous institutes 

 springing up in various civilised lands the express 

 object of which is the study of this terrible scourge. 

 On the whole, says the correspondent of The Morning 

 Post, the address was couched in rather pessimistic 

 tones, and the lecturer did not seem to sliare the 

 hopeful views whicli have been lately expressed re- 

 Sardine the chemical, as opposed to the operative, 

 treatment of the disease. 



In The Popular Science Moiitlily for .\ugust Prof. 

 Richard Pearce gives an interesting liistorical survey 

 of research in medicine, and Dr. Heinemann dis- 

 cusses cold-storage problems. The latter states that 

 with careful treatment there are no appreciable differ- 

 ences in chemical composition between fresli meat and 

 meat kept frozen for a period of two years. 



In the Farmers' Bulletin, No. 4S7 (U.S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture), by Dr. Langworthy and Caro- 

 line Hunt, cheese and its economical uses in diet are 

 considered. A number of recipes for the preparation 

 of cheese dishes is given, and it is stated that cheese 

 does not differ materially in its digestibility from 

 meat, and, weight for weight, contains rather more 

 protein and 50 per cent, more fat than coolced beef, 

 and hence is a valuable food. 



We have received the August and September 

 numbers of The Child, a monthly journal devoted to 

 child welfare. Each contains a number of articles of 

 general and special interest to those who have to deal 

 with children — parents, educationists, doctors, and 

 h./alth visitors — notably one by Dr. Mary Scharlieb on 

 adolescent girls from the point of view of the 

 physician, in which the cliaracteristics and manage- 

 ment of adolescent girls are critically considered. 



Details are given of an improved respiration calori- 

 meter, and the results of experiments with it by the 

 U.S. Department of Agriculture (Exp. Station Record, 

 vol. xxiv.. No. 7, and Year-book for 1910). The in- 

 fluence of mental activity on metabolism was one of 

 the subjects investigated, and in half the cases at least 

 sustained mental effort had no positive influence upon 

 the transformations of matter and energy within the 

 body. The gaseous exchange and energy metabolism 

 during the ripening of picked fruit, the germination 

 of seeds, and the incubation of eggs are other sub- 

 jects under investigation. 



NO. 2238, VOL. 90] 



In the August Fortnightly Revieiii, Mr. Adolphe 

 Smith discusses the present menace of cholera. He 

 points out how cholera has been more or less prevalent 

 on the Continent in various districts during the last 

 three or four years, and directs attention to the danger 

 that exists of the introduction of the disease into this 

 country, particularly by way of some of the smaller 

 ports, where sanitary administration is still very in- 

 adequate. He pleads for the establishment of a 

 Ministry of Public Health, and for the burden of port 

 sanitary administration to be placed on the country 

 as a whole, and not on the local authority. Finally, 

 he maintains that despite improvements in water 

 supply, sewage disposal, and general sanitary condi- 

 tions, poverty is the most potent of all those grim 

 allies that join together to render devastating 

 epidemics possible ! 



A RECENT number of the Annals of Tropical Medi- 

 cine and Parasitology (vol. vi.. No. 2) contains the 

 results of investigations by H. B. Fantham and Annie 

 Porter upon the destructive bee disease commonly 

 linown as " Isle of Wiglit Disease," together with a 

 detailed description of the parasite and its life-history. 

 The parasite, Nosema apis, belongs to the order 

 Microsporidia, and is a close ally of A^. hombycis. the 

 parasite of silkworms, which causes the disease only 

 too well-known as "pebrine," the subject of memor- 

 able researches by Pasteur. The method of infection 

 was found to be contaminative ; hereditary infection 

 through the eg^g, as in N. bombycis, though by no 

 means iinprobable, has not yet been proved to occur. 

 The only certain means of destroying the resistant 

 spores of the parasite and eradicating the infection 

 is by fire. It is to be regretted that the authors 

 should have thought it necessary to complicate the 

 bibliography of Protozoa, already sufficiently vast, by 

 setting forth their important results in three distinct 

 and separate memoirs, which, as they are printed 

 successively in the same journal, mijrht easilv have 

 been included under one title. 



Mr. Ludwtg Glaliert describes, in the first volume 

 of the Records of tlie Western Australian Museum 

 and Art Gallery (Perth, 1912, p. 47), an important 

 series of remains of extinct marsupials from Balla- 

 donia. Eight of the species have not been recorded 

 previously from Western Australia. The author sup- 

 ports Owen's view that Thylacoleo, the "marsupial 

 lion," was carnivorous, and illustrates the worn 

 enamel of its incisors. 



To the July issue of The Agricultural journal of 

 India Mr. T. B. Fletcher, entomologist to the Madras 

 Government, communicates an article, illustrated by 

 a coloured plate, on termites or white ants. At the 

 commencement reference is made to the modern view 

 that these insects are not Neuroptera, but are more 

 probably related to cockroaches and other Orthoptera, 

 termites and cockroaches having many structural 

 peculiarities in common. Then follows a full account 

 of termite social economy. 



A short time ago the editor of Popular Mechanics 

 (U.S.A.) conceived the idea of taking the votes of a 



