266 



NA TURE 



[December 30, 1909 



geography, seven : anthropology and philology, four ; 

 social science and statistics, six ; agriculture, eight ; 

 engineering and architecture, seven ; sanitary science and 

 hygiene, nine; and in mental science and education, four; 

 this section is a very popular one with teachers and others 

 interested in education, and the attendance is usually very 

 large. 



The association has made several recommendations to 

 the various Australasian Governments and other authori- 

 ties, and in the majority of cases these have been svmpa- 

 thetically received, and in certain cases carried out. One 

 of the first recommendations was to the British Admiralty, 

 suggesting that the ocean between Australia, New Zealand, 

 and Tasmania should be named the Tasman. Sea ; this was 

 agreed to, and the name was at once ordered by the 

 Admiralty to be printed on all charts ; previous to this 

 there was some difficulty in speaking of this hitherto 

 nameless part of the Pacific. 



The association has also made requests for the reserva- 

 tion of certain areas in Australia and New Zealand for 

 the preservation of the native flora and fauna, some of 

 these have been agreed to ; a notable one is the reserva- 

 tion of the island upon which the Tuatara lizard is found. 

 .Another smaller reservation was that of a sandstone quarry 

 at Bondi, near Sydney, showing a remarkable columnar 

 or prismatic structure. 



.■\mongst other recommendations made at various meet- 

 ings to the .Australian and New Zealand Governments are 

 the following, some of which have been given, effect to : — 



(i) That the Federal Government should endeavour to 

 obtain data in the Indian Ocean for long-distance weather 

 forecasting. 



(2) The installation at Perth, Western .Australia, of a 

 complete set of magnetographs for the continuous registra- 

 tion of magnetic variations; also installations at Brisbane, 

 Port Darwin, and Hobart similar to those at Sydnev, 

 Melbourne, &c. One has recently been installed at 

 .Adelaide in response to the association's suggestions. 



(3) That the Australian and New Zealand Governments 

 should adopt additional measures to prevent the further 

 extension of tuberculosis amongst cattle and swine. 



(4] Recommending the teaching of hygiene and the 

 medical inspection of school children. 



(5) That the New Zealand Government should undertake 

 the magnetic survey of the Macquarie Islands now that 

 the survey of the main islands has been completed. 



(6) The Australian Governments were urged to take 

 more effective steps for the conservation of forest are-is. 



The Federal Government was reauested in iqo2, before 

 determining upon the site of the Federal capital, to aopoint 

 a board, consisting of architects, engineers, surveyors, 

 medical and business men, to inquire and reoort upon the 

 sites proposed ; also to reserve a site for a national museum 

 and for the housing of scientific societies and institutions 

 in the proposed Federal capital. In i.SqS successful re- 

 commendations were made to the New South Wales 

 Government to proceed with the boring at Funafuti. 



So that members may come prepared for the discussions, 

 it has been agreed to arrange for the preparation of 

 papers on subjects of which notice h.nd been given at a 

 previous meeting. Arrangements are being made for the 

 preparation and publication of biblioaraohies which would 

 be beyond the pow-ers of an unaided individual. 



Some of the papers of permanent value might usefully 

 be reproduced in English publications, for in spite of the 

 volumes of reports being widely distributed, a paper pub- 

 lished at the .Antipodes finds verv few readers elsewhere, 

 because on receict of the volumes by an institution thev are 

 usually put on the library shelves, and there they remain. 



The desirability of inviting the British Associ.ntion to 

 visit .Australia has been considered and warmlv advocated 

 al different times since 1885 ; a reference to the proposed 

 invitation will be found on p. xxiii of the present volume, 

 in which it was suggested at the .Adelaide meeting in 1007 

 that a sum of io,oooZ. to ao.oooZ. should be nrovided In 

 defray part of the travelling excenses of the visitors, and 

 that the invitation should be issued for not earlier than 

 10 13, so as to leave plenty of time to make proper 

 arrangements. 



The permanent offices of the .Australian .Association are 



in the house of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 

 which has recently provided accommodation for other 

 scientific societies, so as in a small way to afford some 

 of the advantages which Burlington House provides for 

 certain of the English societies; the Sydney societies thus, 

 housed have already found much mutual advantage from 

 being under one roof. A. Liversidge. 



EPIDEMIC DISEASE AMONG THE NORTH 



AMERICAN INDIANS. 



T N the Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital for 



■'■ November Dr. H. U. Williams discusses the origin 



of epidemic diseases among the North American Indians. 



He believes that these .American races developed an 

 extremely small number of infectious maladies. Many of 

 the most deadly kind — small-pox, leprosy, bubonic plague, 

 glanders, anthrax, rabies — were the result of the introduc- 

 tion of infection from Europe. With regard to tuberculosis, 

 diphtheria, influenza, gonorrhoea, beri beri, and malaria, 

 the case is more doubtful ; but these maladies do not seem 

 to have been noticed among the native tribes by the 

 earlier explorers. The origin of syphilis and yellow fever 

 alone can with some degree of certainty be assigned to 

 .American soil. As contributory causes to this immunity 

 from infection, the dispersion of the tribes in isolated 

 camps, and the lack of domestic animals (the horse being 

 connected with glanders, the cow with tuberculosis, and 

 the goat with Malta fever), may have prevented the spread 

 of disease. 



Dr. Williams further attempts to identify the serious 

 epidemic which prevailed on the western coast about 

 1612-20. When the Puritans appeared on the scene they 

 found this region almost entirely depopulated, and they 

 regarded the epidemic as a dispensation of Providence 

 which had removed the savages to make room for the 

 Europeans. It seems probable that this terrible malady 

 was introduced by foreign settlers. It is very generally 

 supposed to have been an outbreak of small-pox or yellow 

 fever ; if this be the case, it is remarkable that the early 

 travellers should not have described it under those names. 

 It is significant that in 1614 that rufiian, Hunt, kidnapped 

 several natives, who were carried to Europe, and after a 

 time those who survived were brought back to their native 

 country. Bubonic plague prevailed in London from 1603 

 to 1611, and sporadic cases were reported in the following 

 years. The European settlers in .America seem to have 

 escaped the disease ; and if, as seems most probable, the 

 terrible mortality among the Indians was due to plague, 

 the settlers mav have been protected, as in the recent 

 epidemic in India, by the fact that they were cleanlier in 

 their habits and better shod than the native population, 

 and that they were thus less liable to contagion through 

 wounds or insect bites. 



OPTICAL ACTIVITY WITH NO ASYMMETRIC 



ATOM. 

 A N important paper by Profs. Perkin, Pope and 

 ■^ Wallach on optically active substances containing no 

 asymmetric atom appears in the Chemical Society's 

 Journal for November. The substance described is 

 i-niethylcyf(ohexylidene-4-acetic acid, and its structure is 

 represented by the fornmla 



CH,^ o> .CH„.CH.,v (.!l (7) /H 



\c( ' ' >c=c/ 



H' 



^CH^.CHj 



CO,H 



The carbon atom (i) is linked to two identical chains of 

 atoms, and is therefore not asymmetric. The optical 

 activitv of the compound depends on the fact that the plane 



■CH3. 

 of the .-€= group is at right angles to the plane of 



H' 

 ,H 

 the =Cv group, the former being perpendicular to 



^COJI 

 the plane of the hexagonal ring and the latter identical 

 with it ; the dissimilai*v of the — H and — CH, radicles 



KG. 2096, VOL. 82] 



