Oct. 29. 1885 | 
NATURE 
533 
one from Sydney, the other from Melbourne; and had 
been himself told off for corona work. But though 
brimming full of fine enthusiasm to do all that man could 
do in that department, he yet characteristically adds, 
“but how can we expect to see any of the more refined 
and minute features through all this Krakatao haze which 
the sun has still to shine through? In 1882, before that 
great volcanic eruption, we could see the comet of that 
year close up to the sun’s limb; but now I am certain 
that nothing of the kind could be visible.” CyEaS. 
15, Royal Terrace, Edinburgh, October 21 
NOTES 
ProF. PASTEUR read on Monday evening to the Paris 
Academy of Sciences a statement, of which the following is the 
substance as telegraphed to the S/andard:—M. Pasteur some 
time ago succeeded in rendering proof against rabies some six- 
teen out of every twenty dogs experimented upon. But to 
ascertain that immunity had really been given, he had to wait 
four months after the inoculation had taken effect. He therefore 
set himself to obtain virus of different degrees of strength, with 
the object of obtaining prompter and more certain results. This 
was effected by the following means :—A rabbit was inoculated 
with a fragment of tissue taken from the spine of a rabid dog. 
The incubation of the poison occupied fifteen days. As soon as 
the rabbit was dead a portion of its spinal marrow was in turn 
inoculated into a second rabbit, and so on until sixty rabbits had 
been inoculated. At each successive inoculation the virus became 
of increased potency, and the last period was not more than 
seven days. Having ascertained that exposure to dried air 
diminishes the virus, and consequently reduces its force, M. 
Pasteur supplied himself with a series of bottles containing dried 
air. In these bottles were placed portions of the inoculated 
spinal marrow of successive dates, the oldest being the least 
virulent, and the latest the most so. For an operation M. 
Pasteur begins by inoculating his subject with the oldest tissue, 
and finishes by injecting a piece dating from two days only, 
whose period of incubation would not exceed one week. 
The subject is then found to be absolutely proof against 
the disease. At the beginning of July a young Alsatian, 
named Joseph Meister, who had been severely bitten in several 
places by an undoubtedly rabid dog, presented himself at the 
laboratory. His case, left to itself, being considered hopeless 
by M. Pasteur, Prof. Vulpian, and other high authorities, the 
patient was submitted to the same series of inoculations that 
had been so successful on dogs. As a proof a series of rabbits 
were simultaneously subjected to the identical processes. In 
ten days thirteen inoculations were made with pieces of spinal 
marrow containing virus of constantly-increasing strength, the 
last being from the spine of a rabbit which had died only the 
day before. The youth thus operated upon by the successive 
administrations of weaker virus was made proof against the virus 
of the intensest strength. It is now 100 days since he under- 
went the last inoculation, and he is in perfect health. Those 
rabbits, on the contrary, which were at once inoculated with the 
strong virus, without first being rendered fit to receive it, became 
affected within the proper incubation period, and died with the 
usual symptoms. The first inoculation practised upon Meister 
was sixty hours after he had been bitten. M. Pasteur has, at 
the present moment, another human patient under treatment 
who was bitten a few daysago bya maddog. M. Pasteursaid it 
would now be necessary to provide an establishment where rab- 
bits might always be kept inoculated with the disease. In this 
way there would constantly be a supply of spinal tissues, of 
both old and recent inoculation, ready for use. Before the sit- 
ting was adjourned M. Pasteur received an enthusiastic ovation 
from both the Academy and the public present. 
THE annual meeting of the five academies forming the French 
Institute took place at two o’clock on October 24 in the large 
hall of the Institut ; M. Bouguereau, President of the Academy 
of Beaux Arts was in the chair. The great prize delivered once 
every two years was awarded to Dr. Brown-Sequard, the well- 
known physiologist. M. Paul Bert had written a paper ‘‘On 
Vivisection,” which was expected as a sequel to the delivery of 
the prize to Dr. Brown-Sequard, but it was not read for want of 
time. The annual banquet took place in the evening for the 
second time. 
It is rumoured that M. Goblet, the Minister of Public Instruc- 
tion, proposes to return to the former organisation of the 
Institut, which was regarded as a universal self-electing body. 
Each class or special academy had not the privilege of choosing 
its own members as now, but of proposing a list of candidates 
to the whole Institut. The increased solemnity given to the 
annual and quarterly meetings, and the institution of banquets, 
are considered as preparatory ta this important change. 
M. BERTRAND, who was nominated member of the French 
Academy some months ago, will be received on December Io 
next, at a solemn sitting, when he will read his inaugural 
address. It will be answered by M. Pasteur. 
A very valuable addition has recently been made to the 
Science Collections now displayed in the Western Galleries at the 
South Kensington Museum of Science and Art. Mr. Rochfort 
Connor, of the Inland Revenue Department, has prepared a 
number of exquisitely finished pen-and-ink drawings of- objects 
viewed with the microscope, often by the aid of very high 
powers. The collection, which covers two large screens in the 
rooms devoted to biology and geology, include drawings of 
insects and other minute forms of animals, and of various 
anatomical preparations from them, of curiosities of pond-life, 
and of the skeletons of many organisms, both recent and fossil. 
Among these last Mr. Connor's highly-finished representation of 
some of the more complicated forms of the Diatomacez, such as 
Heliopelta and Coscinodiscus, are especially worthy of admiration, 
though some of his drawings of Foraminifera, Bryozoa, and 
Sponge-spicules are scarcely inferior to these in delicacy of 
execution. These drawings represent, we understand, the 
leisure hours of a busy life-time, and their author is now engaged 
in a series of microscopic drawings illustrating the characters of 
food-products and their adulterants. A few of these are now 
exhibited as samples, and the series when complete cannot fail 
to be of great use to public analysts and others. 
Ava meeting of the Brookville (U.S.) Society of Natural History, 
September 22 (according to Science), a committee was appointed 
to confer with the scientific associations, educational institutions, 
and with individuals throughout the State of Indiana, concerning 
the advisability of the formation of a State Academy of Science, 
and if thought advisable, to co-operate with such persons in 
favour of the formation of such an association. Free expression of 
opinion is called for by the committee, both as to the need of 
such an organisation and as to the best plan for its composition. 
It is now the plan to hold a meeting at Indianapolis between 
Christmas and New Year's day. It proposed that the organisa- 
tion shall enable the citizens of Indiana who are engaged in 
scientific work to meet at certain times ‘‘for social intercourse, 
for the exchange of ideas, and the comparison of results of scien- 
tific studies.” It would appear from the prospectus that the 
Academy would be a State society similar to the American 
Association. 
Some theoretical views on the detonation of meteorites have 
been recently offered by Signor Bombicci in the Royal Acca- 
demia dei Lincei. He supposes the detonation to be that of an 
explosive gas mixture, formed during the surface-heating of the 
mass in the atmosphere, and accumulating chiefly in the vacuous 
