NA TURE 



[August 13, 1896 



A RETURN has been presented to Parliament showing the 

 number of licensed experiments performed on living animals 

 during the year 1S95. The total number of persons holding 

 licences was 213, but of these 65 performed no experiments. 

 Tables are given which afford evidence (l) that the licences and 

 certificates have been granted and allowed only upon the recom- 

 mendations of persons of high scientific standing ; (2) that the 

 licensees arc persons who, by their training and education, are 

 fitted to undertake experimental work and to profit by it ; and 

 (3) that all experimental work has been conducted in suitable 

 places. The total number of experiments performed in 1895 

 was 4679. In 1560 of the experiments performed the animal 

 suflered no pain, because complete anaesthesia was maintained 

 from before the commencement of the experiment until the 

 animal was killed ; 2358 of the experiments were practically 

 always of the nature of hypodermic injections or inoculations. 

 In 761 experiments the animal was anaesthetised during the 

 operation, but was allowed to recover. These operations, in order 

 to insure success, are necessarily done with as much care as are 

 similar operations upon the human subject, and, the wounds 

 being dressed antiseptically, no pain results during the healing 

 process. The large number of inoculation experiments is, to a 

 great extent, attributable to investigations connected with the 

 production of diphtheria-antitoxins and analogous bodies. More 

 than half of the experiments under Certificate B have been 

 inoculations made (under anaesthetics upon rodents) with the 

 object of diagnosing rabies, the public having largely acted 

 upon the advice printed upon the back of dog licences, which 

 is to the following effect : " If a dog suspected of being rabid 

 is killed after it has bitten any person or animal, a veterinary 

 surgeon should be requested to forward the spinal cord to the 

 Brown Institution, Wandsworth-road (or some other licensed 

 institution) in order that it may be ascertained with certainty 

 whether the animal was suffering from rabies." 



Prof. John Mii.N'E, writing from his observing station in the 

 Isle of Wight in reference to the long series of earth disturb- 

 ances commencing on June 29 in Cyprus (see Nature, August 

 6, p. 325), says that he also has recorded a long series of move- 

 ments commencing on that date. Two alarming and severe 

 shocks in Cyprus, in G.M.T., commenced on June 29 at about 

 8h. 48m. OS., and July 2 at about i8h. 13m. OS. The Isle of 

 Wight records commence on the above dates at 9h. 02m. 26s. 

 and i8h. 51m. 29s. 



Prof. Dr. A. Geri.am>, in the Zeitschrift der Geselhchaft 

 fi'ir Erdkiinde zii Berlin, gives an account of the earthquake in 

 South-western Germany on January 22, 1896. The disturb- 

 ance was in many ways remarkable, extending as it did over an 

 area of about 40,000 square kilometres ; and it seems to have 

 had its origin at a considerable depth below the surface, as the 

 recorded times of its occurrence are nearly identical over the 

 whole region affected. The disturbance lasted on an average 

 about five seconds, and was apparently of the nature of a sudden 

 shock in an east to west or west to east direction, although in 

 Strassburg and Stuttgart it seems to have been vertical ; afford- 

 ing an excellent illustration of the fact, pointed out by Prof. 

 Schmidt, that the direction of displacement is not necessarily 

 connected with the direction of propagation of the disturbance. 

 A remarkable feature of the disturbed region is the occurrence of 

 isolated areas which remained unaffected ; this is especially the 

 case in the Jura, Le Locle and La Chaux le Fonds being the only 

 stations reporting even a slight shock. 



The Bollettino della Societd Giograjiia Italiaiia contains a 

 note on some observations recently made by Dr. S. Angelini on 

 the colour and transparency of the waters of the lagoon at Venice 

 and of the Gulf of Gaeta. The depths at which while, green, 



NO. 1 398, VOL. 54] 



red and blue discs, each 50 cm. in diameter, ceased to be visible 

 from the surface, were measured with the following results : — 

 Wliilc. Crecii. Red. Blue. 



Lagoon Metres I -98 1-85 I 'So 1-50 



Gulf of Gaeta ,, 8-50 780 7'oo 600 



The ratios of these numbers indicate a somewhat greater relative 

 transparency in the waters of the lagoon for red and blue rays 

 than for white or red. 



Dr. a. Li.ndenkohi. contributes to .S'ivV/av an abstract of a 

 report on the work of American surveying vessels in the Gulf (A 

 Mexico and the region of the Gulf Stream during the last twenty 

 years. The full memoir is to be published in the annual 

 "Report of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey" for 1895, 

 and, amongst other important matter, includes a discussion of the 

 sources from which the Gulf Stream derives its waters. It 

 appears that the Gulf of Mexico supplies only a very small part 

 of the whole, the currents entering and leaving it being incon- 

 siderable both in volume and velocity. 



Herr Friedrich Benesch contributes to the Millhciluitgiti 

 dcr K.K. Gco^raphischen Gcsellschaft in IVicn a short descrip- 

 tion of Pauliny's new method of drawing relief maps, which he 

 says is a great advance on any method now in use, both in 

 respect of accuracy and of ease in execution. The map is in 

 effect a closely-contoured map, printed on .silver-grey paper, the 

 contour lines being white where illuminated by a source of light 

 supposed to be 45' .above the western horizon, and black else- 

 where. Level plateaus and slightly sloping areas are thus 

 represented by the natural grey colour of the paper ; steep 

 declivities towards the west are lightened by the closely drawi^ 

 white lines, and towards the east correspondingly darkened by 

 the black lines, the departure from the normal grey being 

 greater the closer the lines, i.e. the steeper the slope. The method 

 has the merit of giving a clear idea of steepness derived from the 

 contour lines themselves ; and while it does not demand the high 

 standard of skill necessary in Lehmann's method of hachuring, 

 the confusion produced by the shadows in some modern maps, 

 where the illumination is supposed to come from the horizon, is 

 avoided. Maps illustrating Herr Pauliny's method are to be 

 published in \'ienna in the course of the summer. 



In the .Itti dei Lineei, Dr. Vittorio Abelli describes a 

 remarkable case which occurred in the course of a .scientific 

 expedition on the slopes of Monte Rosa. At an attitude of 

 4560 metres, a member of the party, twenty-two years of age, 

 was suddenly attacked with pulmonitis, and subsequently 

 completely recovered from the disease. This led Dr. Desiderio 

 Kuthy, of Budapest, to carry on a series of experiments on the 

 action of rarefied air on the Diphcoecus of pulmonitis, and also 

 on the Pneuinococcus of Fraenkel. Two conclusions were drawn 

 from these investigations : firstly, that rabbits after being 

 inoculated with this Pnetiinoiocms die more rapidly when they 

 are surrounded by air at the reduced pressure corresponding 

 to that on Monte Rosa ; secondly, that this occurs although the 

 Pneuinococcus is less virulent when it is developed in rarefied 

 air. In the case of the youth Ramella, Dr. Kuthy considers 

 that the infection was mitigated in consequence of the 

 attenuation of the Pneumococcus arising from the rarefaction of 

 the air, but the same circumstance caused the attack to be more 

 violent in spite of the mildness of the infection. 



In the Nuovo Cimento for June, Dr. A. Fontana describes a 

 new form of slide-rule designed for the purpose of .shortening 

 the calculation of the corrections which have to be applied when 

 a body is weighed in air, and its weight in vacuo is required. 

 The device bids fair to prove very useful in physical laboratories 

 where weighings are constantly being made. 



