462 



NATURE 



[September 7, 1905 



The Popular Science Monthly {vo\. Ivii., No. 4) contains a 

 suggestive article by Prof. John M. Coulter on the methods 

 available for arousing public interest in scientific research. 

 The results of scientific work usually reach the public 

 through the medium of reporters tp the newspapers and 

 writers for the magazines ; the material dealing with 

 original research is, generally speaking, scant in amount, 

 sensational in form, and wide of the mark. It is urged 

 that men of science should, so far as possible, be their 

 own interpreters, so that the misleading statements of 

 the ■■ middle man " may be avoided. Particularly, not 

 only the facts of the investigation, but its general bear- 

 ing should be made clear ; it is this feature that the 

 reporter always misses, and a ** strategic movement is re- 

 presented to the public as a dress parade." As a justifi- 

 cation, it is contended that research will be shown to be 

 practical, and a more ample endowment be secured for it. 

 " The question of adequate support for research is the 

 most serious one that confronts American science to-day." 

 The appeal to American interest is utility, and it is 

 necessary to show that practical results are reached most 

 surely and most quickly from the vantage ground of pure 

 science. 



The report of the commission appointed for the investi- 

 gation of Mediterranean, or Malta, fever (part iii.), recently 

 issued by the Royal Society, contains the important 

 announcement that goats seem to be capable of transmitting 

 the disease. The evidence supporting this conclusion is 

 as follows : — On June 14 Dr. Zammit examined six goats, 

 and found that the blood of five of them gave the 

 agglutination reaction for Mediterranean fever. This was 

 confirmed by Major Horrocks, R.A.M.C. Major Horrocks 

 and Dr. Zammit then undertook the examination of eight 

 different herds of goats, and in every herd examined an 

 average of half the animals (from 7-6-75 per cent.) gave 

 the agglutination reaction for Mediterranean fever. It was 

 also found that one or more apparently healthy goats in 

 every herd were excreting the specific organism of the 

 disease — the .1/. mcUtensi.<: — in their milk and urine, the 

 number of the organism in the milk being verv large. 

 It would seem probable, therefore, that infected goat's 

 milk may be the source of infection of man, particularly 

 as monkeys may be artificially infected by feeding with 

 material containing the specific organism, as has been 

 detailed in a previous report. It is of interest that in 

 Gibraltar, where the disease is also very prevalent, goats 

 are almost the only source of the milk-supply. 



The report of the Government analyst of Trinidad for 

 the year 1904-5 contains several points of general interest. 

 Samples of water from the Carrera Convict Dep6t have 

 been examined to ascertain if a connection could be traced 

 between the water supply and the prevalence of diarrhoea 

 and dysentery among the prisoners. Very small propor- 

 tions of lead, copper, and zinc were found to be present, 

 and, in view of the fact that all attempts made during 

 several years past to trace the epidemic to other causes 

 have been unsuccessful, it appears possible that the 

 metallic impurities named are responsible for the trouble. 

 Before the question can be definitely decided, further in- 

 vestigation will be necessary. The aerated waters which 

 are largely consumed in the colony were found to be 

 usually contaminated with lead, owing to the use of an 

 impure sulphuric acid in their manufacture, to an extent 

 likely to prove dangerous. It is suggested that the use 

 of liquefied carbon dioxide, such as is now imported into 

 the colony in cylinders, would be a remedv for the difficulty. 

 NO. I 87 I, VOL. 72] 



The adulteration of milk has very much decreased owing 

 to the system adopted of suspending the licenses of sellers 

 convicted of adulteration during the past year. Previously 

 the Board of Health did not refuse the renewal of licenses, 

 either temporarily or permanently, but only issued 

 warnings. 



The fishes of Puget Sound form the subject of a paper 

 by Messrs. Gilbert and Thompson in the Proceedings of 

 the U.S. Nat. Museum (No. 1414). The paper is based 

 on a collection made in 1903, which included two species 

 regarded as new and six not previously recorded from the 

 area in question. 



The opening article in the first part of the third volume 

 of the quarterly issue of Smithsonian Miscellaneous Con- 

 tributions is a translation of Dr. E. Mascha's valuable 

 paper on the minute structure of the flight-feathers of 

 birds, originally published in the Zeitschrift fiir wissen- 

 schaftliche Zoologie, and already noticed in our columns. 

 Among the original communications, special reference may 

 be made to one by Mr. F. \V. True on the skull of an 

 extinct sea-lion (Pontoleon) from the Miocene of Oregon, 

 apparently the earliest known representative of this group 

 of seals ; to a second, by Mr. A. Mann, describing the 

 extreme beauty of the surface sculpture in diatoms 

 (" Diatoms, the Jewels of the Plant- World, " it is called); 

 and to a third, by Mr. C. A. White, on the ancestry of 

 the North American pond-mussels of the family Unionidae, 

 in which it is concluded that all the living forms in this 

 particular area are descended from fossil local types. It 

 may be added that if we accept the views on nomenclature 

 expressed in yet another article, the well known name 

 DromjEUS (for the emeu) has to give place to Dromiceius. 



The Proceedings of the .-Imerican Philosophical Society, 

 Philadelphia (xlix.. No. 179), contains papers on the 

 Filipino, on the Aborigines of Western .Australia, on the 

 osteology of sinopa, and on the marsupial fauna of the 

 Santa Cruz beds. In an article on the oligodynamical 

 action of copper foil on certain intestinal organisms, Mr. 

 Kraemer concludes that intestinal bacteria such as the 

 colon and typhoid bacilli are completely destroyed by 

 placing clean copper foil in water containing them, and 

 that certain of the lower animal and vegetable organisms 

 possess a special sensitiveness to minute quantities of 

 copper. The copper is probably in the form of a crystal- 

 loid rather than that of a colloid. It will be remembered 

 that Dr. Moore, of the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture, has suggested the use of copper salts and of bright 

 copper for the purification of water supplies. In another 

 article Dr. Wiley discusses the effects of preservatives in 

 food on metabolism, and expresses the opinion that boric 

 acid and borates in any quantity upset digestion, and even 

 in small doses, if given over a long period, have an 

 unfavourable effect on health and digestion. 



.\ PAPER by Dr. W. T. Caiman, of the British Museum, 

 on the Crustacea of the group Cumacea from the west 

 coast of Ireland, published as No. i, part iv., of Scientific 

 Investigations, 1904, by the Irish Department of -Agri- 

 culture and Technical Instruction, illustrates the import- 

 ance of collecting on a thoroughly practical and effective 

 system. During the entire cruise of H.M.S. Challenger, 

 for instance, the whole collection of Cumacea was repre- 

 sented by no more than fifteen species, whereas Mr. E. 

 Holt, the collector of the specimens submitted to Dr. 

 Caiman, obtained within a small area representatives of 

 no less than forty-eight species, of which nine are regarded 

 as new, one being so aberrant- as to be assigned by its 



