July \, iSSo] 



NA TURE 



209 



a similar amount for a similar purpose. Several other large 

 subscriptions have been promised to the treasurer, Mr. Robert 

 Gladstone, bringing the total up to the amount above staled. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



Bulletins dt-la Sociiti d' Anthropdogic dc Pans, tome 2, fa?c. 4, 

 1879. — This closing number of the last year's Bulletins con- 

 tains an interesting paper by M. Jacques Bertillon on the mean 

 averages of life in the various grades of society among civilised 

 races. His paper refers specially to France, although it sup- 

 plies some comparative tables deduced from the mortality tables 

 of other countries, while it principally aims at directing attention 

 to the preventibility of numerous causes of early death. — M. G. 

 Lagneau, in presenting to the Society [the mortality tables for 

 Belgium, drawn up by Dr. Janssens '.for 1S78, referred to the 

 predominance of phthisis in male subjects in France since 1865- 

 66, females having before that period supplied the larger number 

 of deaths from pulmonary tuberculosis. — M. Lunier records the 

 results of the official inquiry which he had been authorised to 

 make in reference to the distribution of epilepsy in the various 

 departments of France, and with regard to station, age, sex, 

 &c. — M. le Docteur G. Le Bon gives an interesting report of his 

 examination of the curious collection of skulls of celebrated men, 

 now in the possession of the Paris Museum of Natural History, 

 which is believed to include those of Boileau, Descartes, and 

 Gall. The mean cranial capacity for the forty-two skulls, when 

 compared with that of forty-two skulls of modern educated 

 Parisians, was in excess of the difference between the latter and 

 an equal number of negroes. — The present number of the 

 BulhtiHS contributes little of importance to the literature of local 

 French palaeontology, the most interesting of such contributions 

 being a paper by M. Mortillet, who reports the discovery, by M. 

 Perron, of a funereal car with traces of human bones and textile 

 fabrics in the tumulus, or barrow, known as la Motte at Apre- 

 mont, in Haute-Saone. — M. Verneau describes the Grotto de 

 Voutre, in La Mayenne, in which a skeleton, believed to belong 

 to the Bronze age, has been found, while a similar discovery 

 lias been made at QueviUy, near Rouen, as also at Cierges, 

 where fragments of a dolichocephalic cranium of the neolithic 

 type have been recovered. M. MiUescamps has, moreover, 

 drawn attention to the recent discovery by the Abbe Hamard, 

 at Hermes (Oise) of cut flints in graves of the Merovingian age. 

 The previous discovery between 1S73 and 1S75 °f upwards of 

 20,000 flints in the Merovingian cemetery of Caranda has raised 

 the question, which still awaits solution, whether these flints 

 were deposited with the dead merely as objects with which the 

 living had been most familiar, or whether their presence had 

 any supposed protective action. — M. Zaborowski has laid before 

 the Society the result of his examination of five Hakka skuUs, 

 and communicated the information he had received from M. de 

 Lagi-euee, French Consul at Canton, in regard to the history 

 and pure Chinese origin of the Hakkas, who have in all ages 

 formed the active combative element in the Chinese system, and 

 have in recent years constituted the kernel of the Taiping rebel- 

 lion. — The Abbe Durand describes a blonde African race, 

 noticed near Laougain 1562, and still traceable in Mozambique. 

 — The original site of the Aryan race has again been brought 

 under discussion by M. Henri Martin, who now inclines to the 

 opinion, supported by M. de Ujfalvy, that a brown brachycephalic 

 Ai-yan branch took precedence in Asia of the blonde dolicho- 

 cephaUc Aryans. — The most important paper in the present 

 volume is M. Paul Broca's "Etude des Variations cranio- 

 metriques, et de leur Influence sur les moyeunes." To this is 

 appended a valuable series of the means, variations, &c., of the 

 cranial measurement of heads belonging to all countries and 

 various periods. — M. Ujfalvy explained his views in regard to 

 the opinion put forth by the Swedish anthropologist. Prof. G. 

 Eetzius, that Finland is occupied by two distinct races, the true 

 Fin, or Tawaste, and the Carelian, or Finlander. — M. Emile 

 Soldi, in presenting to the Society his recent work on the pro- 

 portions of Greek and Egyptian statues, took occasion to refute 

 the opinion advocated by Dr. Le Eon and M. Broca, that the 

 Greeks followed Egyptian canons of taste in art, and that they 

 took their models from foreigners. — JL Bataillard read a paper 

 on the ancient workers in metals in Greece, and endeavours to 

 trace in the tinsmiths of Dodona the direct ancestors of the 

 modern Tsiganes, or gipsies. 



Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania for 

 1878. — R. M. Johnston, on the freshwater shells of Tasmania; 



gives a list and describes several new species. — Kev. J. E. 

 Tenison-Woods, on some new Tasmanian marine shells'; de- 

 scribes a new genus, losepha, for a Cominella with a plait, and 

 several new species. — R. M. Johnston, on certaui tertiary and 

 post-tertiary deposits on islands in Bass's Strait.— F. M. Bailey, 

 remarks on the distribution and gi-owth of Queensland plants. — 

 Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, on some Tasmanian freshwater 

 univalves. — F. Abbott, on Cayduus ai~jensis. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 



Royal Society, June 10. — "On Bacteritwi fcetidnm : an 

 Organism associated with Profuse Sweating from the Soles of 

 the Feet." By George Thin, M.D. Communicated by Prof. 

 Huxley, Sec.R.S. 



The feet of certain individuals are characterised by a peculiar 

 powerful and fo;-tid odour, which is really connected with the 

 moisture that soaks the soles of the stockings and the inside of 

 the boots. The moisture, which comes from the skin of the 

 soles, especially from that of the heels, has no offensive smell 

 whilst it is exuding, but it rapidly acquires the characteristic 

 odour when taken up by the stocking. 



The fluid is an admixture of sweat with serous exudation from 

 the blood, occun-ing in persons whose feet sweat profusely, and 

 who, from much standing or walking, acquire an erythematous 

 or eczematous condition of the skin of the soles, the local eczema 

 or erythema being favoured by the softening and macerating 

 eftect of the sweat on the epidermis. 



When a small portion of the sole of the wet stocking was 

 teased out in water, the drop of water was found to be swarming 

 with micrococci. 



A second generation of the organism, which the author calls 

 Bacterium fcetidnm, was obtained by placing a small piece of 

 the wet stocking in a test-glass, charged with pure vitreous 

 humour. This and succeeding generations were cultivated at 

 a temperature which varied between 94° and 98° F. The suc- 

 cessive generations were obtained by inoculating pm-e vitreous 

 humour, with requisite precautions. 



In twenty-four hours the surface of the vitreous humour was 

 always found covered with a delicate scum, wliich in forty-eight 

 hours was compact and tolerably resistant. 



In the scum of one day's 'growth and in the fluid below it 

 organisms were found as cocci, single and in pairs, in transition 

 stages towards rod fonnation, as single and jointed rods, and as 

 elongated single rods. Many of the rods were actively motile. 



The compact scum of two days' growth was sufficiently resis- 

 tant to be removed in an unbroken sheet. When disturbed by 

 the needle it fell to the bottom of the glass. It was found to 

 contain all the forms found in the twenty-four homrs' growth, 

 and in addition long unbroken rods in transition stages towards 

 the formation of chains of spores. 



Spores were also found lying beside the empty and partially 

 empty sheaths from w-hich they had been discharged. Groups 

 of single spores and pairs, identical in size and appearance with 

 those which had come to maturity [in the sheaths, were found 

 mixed up with rods in all phases of development. 



The first stage in the development of the organism is the 

 formation of a pair from one coccus. 



The next stage is that in which the whole body is wedge- 

 shaped, the round brightly refractive coccus being found in the 

 thick end of the wedge. Another phase, which is probably the 

 successor of the preceding one, is the appearance of a canoe- 

 shaped figure with the bright coccus in the centre. 



Other appearances connected with the early stage of develop- 

 ment, and probably following the wedge and canoe-shaped 

 figures, show the organism developed into a staff-shaped body, 

 containing two elements of very different refractive power. The 

 coccus element is still distinct and is brightly refractive, the 

 other element is very slightly refractive and is seen as a dull 

 shade, with however perfectly distinct outlines. 



The coccus may be at one end of the rod, two cocci may be in 

 the centre close together with a prolongation of [protoplasm on 

 either side, or a central rod of protoplasm may have a coccus at 

 either end. 



In the next stage we have the formation of the rods character- 

 istic of bacteria. The distinction between the coccus and the 

 protoplasm becomes lost, although transitions are found in which 

 faint differences of refraction still betray the two elements. 

 The formation of rods of ordinary size, of long rods with 



