September 28, 1905] 



NA TURE 



531 



according to the duration of the incubation period in 

 well ascertained cases. 



The clinical symptoms, temperature charts, and 

 some excellent photograms of the various forms of 

 buboes in the living, the clinical history, treatment, 

 and post mortem appearances of several specially 

 selected cases are treated in a very readable manner 

 in chapter xiv. While chapter xv. deals with the 

 diagnosis and prognosis both from a clinical and 

 bacteriological point, chapter xvi. is specially devoted 

 to treatment, dealing with the methods used in the 

 past, before the intimate nature of plague had been 

 recognised, and in the present day, when Yersin's 

 serum is extensively employed, giving statistical 

 tables of the results of the use of this serum in 

 Bombay, Karad, Karachi, Oporto, Natal, Hong 

 Kong, and Brisbane, as also of Lustig's serum (p. 

 325), of that of Bondi and Terni, and of Kitasato. 



This chapter concludes with a general account of 

 prophylactic measures to be employed in an infected 

 house, and of the injection of HafTkine's prophylactic 

 into persons who have been exposed or are likely to 

 be exposed to infection. Of the value of this prophy- 

 lactic Dr. Simpson has no doubt, and recommends 

 its immediate application. 



Part iv. deals with measures for prevention and 

 suppression of plague, those that were employed 

 before the discovery of the Bacillus pestis (chapter 

 xvi-i.), as also those at present in use (chapter xviii.). 

 .\mongst the former the measures used by the 

 Venetians in 1348 — in advance of all other countries 

 and nations — deserve special notice, inasmuch as 

 those measures were the first of a rational and 

 organised nature, and practically are fundamental 

 for all subsequent improvement and enlargements — 

 lazaretto system of isolation, quarantine of men, 

 merchandise, articles, and objects of various kinds. 

 -Amongst the existing measures are those agreed upon 

 by the different Governments at the Venice Conven- 

 tion of 1897, and at the Paris Convention of 1903. 

 -Amongst the latter the importance of the destruc- 

 tion of rats is receiving a prominent place. While 

 the use of fumigation of ships by means of the 

 Clayton process, described in detail (pp. 359-365), un- 

 questionably deserves the first place, undue promin- 

 ence is given by the author to the Danysz bacillus 

 (capable of causing acute fatal disease in rodents) as 

 a means of rat destruction in localities other than 

 ships. Owing to this prominence, the use of this 

 microbe seems liable to lead to considerable dis- 

 appointment; while the results of distributing with 

 the food either cultures of this microbe or animals 

 infected with it in the laboratory has been fairly 

 satisfactory in some localities in destroying rats, in 

 other localities it has been unsatisfactory. In some 

 of the warehouses in the London Docks we dis- 

 tributed several dozens of cultures prepared by, and 

 bought directly of, Dr. Danysz, as also a number of 

 ^subcultures mixed with various foodstuffs, and a 

 number of rodents (guinea-pigs, mice, and rats) dead 

 after injection with virulent culture of the microbe; 

 but while all these materials had been taken away 

 by the rats of the warehouse, there was not a single 

 NO. 1874, VOL. 72] 



dead rat found in consequence, nor w-as there after- 

 wards any diminution of their number noticeable. 

 Such unsatisfactory results have been observed also 

 in other localities ; it appears that the result depends 

 not only on the virulence of the cultures (difficult to 

 control), but also, and in a marked degree, on the 

 species of rat. Moreover, recent observations show 

 that even rats of the same species, but derived from 

 different localities, are not susceptible to the 

 Danysz virus in the same manner and to the same 

 extent. The use, therefore, of the Danysz 

 bacillus in one form or another can at best be con- 

 sidered only as a half-measure. It is precisely 

 against half-measures, so frequently and so readily 

 resorted to by indolent corporations and powers that 

 be, that the author justly rai.ses his voice in no un- 

 certain manner (chapters xviii. and xix.), and we 

 cannot help regretting that such prominence should 

 have been given to a method falling far short of the 

 drastic measures required to ensure the safe destruc- 

 tion of this dangerous vermin. 



Chapter xx. is entirely devoted to a description of 

 the nature, use, and results of preventive inoculation 

 with Haffkine's plague prophylactic. The volume 

 finishes with a reprint of the results of the Inter- 

 national Sanitary Convention of Paris of 1903 re 

 plague and cholera. 



From the foregoing summary it will be seen that 

 Dr. Simpson's "Treatise on Plague," dealing as it 

 does with the disease from every aspect, is worthy 

 to take a place in the foremost rank of the literature 

 of the subject, and we have no doubt that it is 

 destined to become an important and valuable aid to 

 the student, the medical officer of health, to the 

 epidemiologist, the sanitarian, and last, but not 

 least, to the administrator. E. Klein. 



ASTRONOMICAL STEREOGRAMS. 



Our Stellar Universe. A Road-Book to the Stars. 

 By Thomas Edward Heath. Pp. 75. (London : 

 King, Sell and Olding, Ltd., 1905.) Price 5s. net. 



Our Stellar Universe. {Six Stereograms of Sun and 

 Stars.) By Thomas E. Heath. (London : King, 

 Sell and Olding, Ltd., n.d.) Price 3s. net. 



IN the first of these two volumes Mr. Heath has 

 collected and amplified several articles which pre- 

 viously appeared in Knowledge, and in which he made 

 a satisfactory attempt to bring home to the understand- 

 ing of " the man in the street " the knowledge so far 

 available as the result of the determinations of stellar 

 parallaxes. It is, truly, as the subtitle indicates, a 

 " road-book " in which the contours, or perhaps one 

 should say the depths, as well as the directions, are 

 plainly shown. 



The text is really a simple, detailed description of 

 the eight figures contained in the volume, all of 

 which have been especially prepared bv the author 

 himself. Fig. i shows the sun and his attendant 

 planets drawn to scale. In Fig. 2 the relative dis- 

 tances of all stars known to be within si.xty light- 

 3'ears of our system are shown by placing the objects 

 on a background formed by a map of the home 

 counties, taking Greenwich as the point of departure,. 



