190 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IX. No. 214. 



he calculates that his three years' travel will 

 cost no more than £2,500. 



It is proposed to establish in University Col- 

 lege, Liverpool, a class for students who will de- 

 vote themselves to the investigation of tropical 

 diseases, to which end a special lecturer will be 

 appointed, and the students will have the ad- 

 vantage of watching cases and their treatment 

 in the Royal Southern Hospital. Mr. A. L. 

 Jones, well known in the West African trade, 

 has offered to contribute £350 a year towards 

 the expenses of the intended special school. A 

 general committee has been formed, which, in 

 conjunction with a committee of the Royal 

 Southern Hospital, will make adequate arrange- 

 ments for the work in new buildings to be 

 erected for the hospital. 



At a meeting of the central committee for 

 establishing sanatoria for consumptives on 

 January 9th, says the Loudon Times, it was 

 stated in the annual report that there were al- 

 ready 20 sanatoria in Germany for consumptive 

 patients. Regret was expressed that accommo- 

 dation was chiefly provided for male patients, 

 and attention was called to the urgent neces- 

 sity of establishing sanatoria for women. A 

 committee of ladies under the presidency of 

 Princess Elizabeth zu Hohenlohe had carried 

 on a good work in providing for the families of 

 those who, as patients in the sanatoria, were 

 debarred from earning their living. A large 

 number of towns and also of provincial districts 

 throughout the Empire had, through their rep- 

 resentatives, given their adhesion to the central 

 committee, which now numbered 466 members. 

 At the close of the year 1898 the funds 

 amounted to 250,000 Marks. A sum of 224,500 

 Marks had already been devoted to subsidizing 

 new sanatoria, and 70,000 Marks had been 

 promised for the same pui'pose. The Duke of 

 Ratibor, the nephew of the Chancellor, made a 

 statement regarding the congress on tuber- 

 culosis, its dangers and its prevention, which 

 will meet in Berlin at Whitsuntide under his 

 presidency. Invitations to attend this congress 

 will be addressed to foreign countries. Profes- 

 sor von Ley den spoke on the same subject and 

 expressed a hope that the congress would con- 

 tribute to make the success of the national 



movement for combating tuberculosis in Ger- 

 many more widely known and that it would 

 secure fresh supporters for this work of 

 humanity. 



Consul- General Gowdy, of Paris, in his 

 annual report, says that during the past year 

 there has been a marked increase in the adop- 

 tion of automobiles, not only as pleasure ve- 

 hicles, but for practical application in the way 

 of cabs serving the public in the city of Paris, 

 and for business purposes in the way of delivery 

 wagons, especially those for long distances. It 

 is announced that at the beginning of next year 

 there are to be 100 motor cars driven by electric 

 power running in the streets of Paris, and, if the 

 experiment be successful, the cabs will be in- 

 creased to 1,000. With this project in view, a 

 large plot of ground has been acciuired, where 

 the building of works necessary for the housing 

 of the cabs and the machinery for the electric 

 supply are being rapidly completed. A train- 

 ing ground has also been made for the cabmen. 

 This is laid out with every possible form of pav- 

 ing, wood, asphalt, stone, etc., including two 

 steep hills. Here and there are dotted about a 

 number of dummy figures, and in and out of 

 these the cabmen have to maneuver, under the 

 orders of an instructor. As a rule, in four les- 

 sons, it is stated, the driver is ready to navigate 

 Paris and after ten lessons is considered thor- 

 oughly competent. Each cab is supplied with 

 sutficient power to be driven 30 miles at about 

 S miles an hour. 



The London Times states that Dr. Ferras, 

 who has been in practice in Calcutta since 

 1853, in his evidence before the Plague Com- 

 mission, on January 4th, expressed the opinion 

 that there had never been plague cases iu Cal- 

 cutta, but simply cases of malignant fever. He 

 remembered seeing similar cases when a student 

 in Calcutta which were indistinguishable from 

 plague except bacteriologically. There had been 

 no bacteriological experts in India since the time 

 of Dr. Cunningham. Unless Calcutta was im- 

 proved structurally and the bustis were cleared 

 and the overcrowded areas opened out, there was 

 no chance that malignant fever would disappear. 

 Captain Bingley, who had been employed on 

 plague duty in Bombay, recommended munici- 



