May 30, 1907] 



NA TURE 



105 



this disease. So long ago as 1887 an Army medical 

 officer discovered that Malta fever is caused by 

 the entrance into the body of a minute bacterium, 

 which was named the Micrococcus nieliiensis. This 

 microbe was studied from many points of view, but 

 with no success until a discovery was made which 

 cleared up the mystery. This was the remarkable 

 fact that the goats in Malta are susceptible to this 

 disease, and act, as it were, as a reservoir of the 

 virus. In truth, it is probable that Malta fevi^r is 

 primarily a disease of goats, and that man is in- 

 fected from the goat, not the goat from man. The 

 goat is very much in evidence in Malta, there being 

 •ome 20.000 of them, which supply practicallv all the 

 milk used in the island. It was discovered by the 

 commission that half these animals are affected by 

 Malta fever, and that one-tenth are constantly pass- 

 ing the Micrococcus jnelitensis in their milk. Not- 

 withstanding that the goats show no outer signs of 

 the disease, they continue, possibly for vears, to 

 secrete milk containing the poison. 



It seemed evident, then, that to banish Malta fever 

 from our sailors and soldiers on the station, all that 

 was required was to eliminate goats' milk from their 

 dietary. This step was taken in June, iqo6, with 

 I he striking result that the cases of fever fell to one- 

 'enth of what had been their normal number. There 

 is, therefore, reasonable hope that this disease will 

 now disappear from the garrison in Malta, and some 

 So, 000 davs of illness be blotted out from the vearlv 

 records of the Navy and ,\rmy. 



If these good results are maintained, this investiga- 

 tion will stand out as one of the most notable 

 examples of successful work in the prevention of 

 disease, and will clearh- show the economy of spend- 

 ing a few thousands on a thorough scientific investi- 

 gation. 



The research occupied some time, and from first to 

 last employed some twelve men, but the outlay in 

 time and money are as nothing to the result achieved. 



INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF 

 ACADEMIES. 

 VT^ E.STERD.\Y morning. May 29, there opened at 

 * Menna the third triennial general assembly of 

 the International .Association of .'\rademies, of which 

 the Imperial .Academ}- of Sciences, Vienna, has been 

 the directing academy for the last three years. 



Great Britain is represented in this association by 

 the Royal Society of London in the section of natural 

 science, and by the British .'\cademy for Historical 

 and Philological Studies in the section of letters. 



The delegates appointed to attend the assembly on 

 behalf of the Royal Society are Sir George Darwin, 

 K.C.B., Sir Norman Lockyer, K.C.B., Lieut. -Colonel 

 Prain, Prof. Schuster, Dr.' W. N. Shaw, Prof. C. S. 

 Sherrington. Prof. H. H. Turner, and Dr. A. D. 

 Waller, Prof. Schuster being the delegate charged to 

 deliver the vote of the society; while the British 

 Academy is represented by Prof. Bywater and Prof. 

 Israel Gollancz. 



A number of subjects of general scientific import- 

 ance will be discussed at the meeting, as well as 

 certain questions of internal policy concerning the 

 -tatus of the association, and its mode of working 

 imder its statutes. 



The Royal Society has put forward two pronosals 

 for the consideration of the assembly. One is for 

 the establishment of a uniform lunar nomenclature, 

 and a proposition will bo submitted by the council of 

 the association for the nopointment of a committee to 

 work out a scheme in furtherance of this object. In 

 this connection the Royal Society propounds sugges- 



NO. tq6i, vol. 76] 



tions regarding the coordination of lunar nomen- 

 clature, which will no doubt form a basis for dis- 

 cussion. 



.'\nother proposal of the Royal Society for the co- 

 operation of the International Association in the 

 International Union for Solar Research will probably 

 lead to considerable discussion, not on account of 

 want of sympathy with the movement, but because of 

 questions which have been raised as to the constitu- 

 tional power of the association to join another 

 organisation. 



An important proposal of the .Academic des 

 Sciences to create an organisation of meteorological 

 stations at different points on the earth's surface, at 

 the expense of the Governments respectively con- 

 cerned, will be put forward with the support of the 

 council of the association. 



The assembly will also be recommended to approve 

 the resolutions of the committee which met at Frank- 

 furt-am-Main in 1904, proposing changes in the 

 statutes of the International Seismological Asso- 

 ciation, which have since been adopted. That com- 

 mittee recommends the associated academies to en- 

 deavour to induce their Governments to cooperate 

 with the International Seismological .Association in 

 dealing with seismic problems of physical interest. 



Other matters to be brought before the assembly 

 in the science section are a report of the_ committee 

 for investigating the anatomy of the brain ; reports 

 upon geodetic measurements ; a report of_ the com- 

 mission appointed in 1904 for the investigation of 

 atmospheric electricity; the consideration of the 

 further working of the committee appointed in 1904 

 for the magnetic measure of a circle of latitude. 



In the section of letters there will be reports pre- 

 sented upon the edition of the works of Leibnitz, 

 initiated by the association ; upon the international 

 loan of manuscripts ; upon the edition of the Mahab- 

 harata ; the publication of an Encyclopajdia of Islam ; 

 the Corpus of Greek records and the Corpus medi- 

 corum antiquorum. 



THE SMALL PLANETS.' 



MMASCART'S summary of his own work is as 

 • follows :— 

 Nous avons voulu montrer I'ampleur de la question des 

 petites plan^tes, qui ne fut jamais encore expos^e dans 

 son ensemble, et si nous avons suscit^ bien plus de points 

 d 'interrogation que nous n'en avons lev^s, nous serons du 

 moins heureux, peut-etre, d'appeler I'attention des astro- 

 nomes sur quelque probl^mes assez myst^rieux. 



Probably an author has seldom given in few words 

 so excellent and accurate a description of his work. 

 M. Mascart has collected on a large scale, and has 

 thus performed a great service to this branch of 

 astronomy. We may turn to his bibliography con- 

 taining more than a hundred names with a reason- 

 able confidence that nothing of importance has been 

 omitted. 



The subject of the small planets appears to bristle 

 with striking statistical peculiarities. To exhibit 

 their nature we note down a few, and may remark 

 that perhaps in no case whatever has a completely 

 satisfactory explanation been given. 



(i) If the small planets be arranged in order of 

 mean distance, or of mean motion, there are marked 

 gaps in the series, first noticed by Kirkwood, corre- 

 sponding to mean motions twice and three times that 

 of Jupiter. 



(2) When the inclination to the ecliptic is large, so 

 also, in general, is the eccentricity, and vice versa. 



1 "La Question des petites Planetes." By M. J. Mascart. Pp. no. 



