678 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. IL, No. 42. 



than has alrearly been done. It miglit be thought 

 that it could pursue its investigations in some other 

 place in Egypt where the cholera prevails, but there 

 are insuperable objections to such a plan. The chol- 

 era lias disappeared from all the large cities of the 

 country, and only holds its own in the villages of 

 upper Egypt; and an attempt to carry on our experi- 

 ments in that part of the country would meet with 

 the strong disapproval of the Egyptian government 

 on account of the disagreeable complications in 

 which the condition of affairs there might involve us. 

 Moreover, I have been assured by responsible persons 

 well acquainted with the Egyptians, that it would be 

 impossible to obtain material for dissection in Egyp- 

 tian villages ; and for these reasons I must renounce 

 all hope of following the course of the cholera up the 

 Nile. The disease also, contrary to all expectation, 

 appears to have gained no foothold in Syria. Since the 

 investigations now in progress will occupy only about 

 two weeks, the work will soon have to be temporarily 

 suspended. The commission, however, entertains a 

 strong desire to prosecute its i-esearches further, and 

 satisfy the object for which it was created. It would 

 be a great disappointment if the results it has already 

 reached should prove fruitless from want of further 

 experiments. The only opportunity which is af- 

 forded us at present for continuing our researches is 

 in India, where the cKolera is still prevalent in sev- 

 eral large cities, particularly in Bombay, and is not 

 expected to subside immediately. It is also proba- 

 ble that we could gain access to some hospital there, 

 and repeat the work which proved so valuable in 

 Alexandria. In case, in your excellency's opinion, 

 it should be deemed advisable to continue the re- 

 searches of the commission, and extend the field of 

 its labors to India, I am ready to continue in charge 

 of its management. 



I must also say a few words about the additional 

 labors which the commission has found time to pros- 

 ecute in connection with its researches on cholera. 

 Egypt is full of parasitic and contagious diseases, and 

 it was not difficult to obtain suitable material for 

 the examinations we wished to malce in order to 

 control the results obtained in studying the cholera, 

 and also to settle some general questions bearing on 

 infectious diseases. For example: I dissected* the 

 bodies of two persons who had died of dysentery. 

 In one case, where the patient had died of an acute 

 attack, there were parasites in the mucous coat of the 

 intestine which did not belong to the bacteria group, 

 and were unknown. I also dissected the body of an 

 Arab who had died in the Arabian hospital of malig- 

 nant disease. The disease in this case was probably 

 taken from sheep, which are imported into Egypt from 

 Syria in great numbers, and die of anthrax en masse. 

 I was also alf orded an opportunity to ol)serve six cases 

 of bilious typhus in the Greek hospital. This dis- 

 ease closely resembles yellow-fever, with which it is 

 often confounded, and presents much interest to .the 

 student. Three of these patients died, and were dis- 

 sected. 



Besides this work, repeated examinations were 

 made of the micro-organisms iu the air, and the 



drinking-water of Alexandria. It time allows, I in- 

 tend to study the Egyptian ophthalmia.. 



The labors of the commission, which from their 

 nature were very trying and fatiguing, and for the 

 most part of a disagreeable character, were rendered 

 doubly irksome by the high temperature prevailing 

 in the city. It has been impossible to interrupt 

 the work a single day until now. Nevertheless, the 

 members of the commission are in good health, and 

 have only suffered from some slight complaints, due 

 to a change of climate, which soon disappeared. 

 However, as soon as the condition of the work will 

 allow, I consider it advisable for the commission to 

 rest a few days. I intend, therefore, to go with it 

 to Cairo for a short time, partly for the sake of 

 recreation, and partly in order to visit the principal 

 seat of the cholera in Egypt, and make further obser- 

 vations there. 



THE PHYSIOLOGICAL STATION OF 

 PARISH — 1. 



We have seen in the last few years all kinds of 

 establishments erected to provide for the new needs 

 of science. Laboratories, althongh great discoveries 

 have been made in them, have become in certain re- 

 spects insufficient. In the study of organized bodies, 

 as in that of the physical forces of the earth, one is 

 soon brought to a standstill if he cannot study nature 

 in her own domain. 



Special establishments for certain sciences, astron- 

 omy for instance, are a necessity; and lately nat- 

 uralists have perceived the insufiBciencj'of the means 

 placed at their disposal. Maritime stations, gardens 

 for acclimation, experiment stations, agricultural 

 stations, stations for vegetable chemistry or experi- 

 mental medicine, — all these have responded to the 

 development of certain branches of science. 



Physiology, almost the only exception, has been, up 

 to the present time, dependent upon laboratories. 

 These are, in France at least, wretched places, poor 

 and unhealthy, where the investigators are obliged 

 to live in the hope of discovering the properties of 

 the tissiies, and the functions of the living organs. 

 There is discovered the action of medicines upon the 

 living organism, of poisons, and the various chemical 

 and physical agents; there, by means of vivisection, 

 or by the use of the xsroper and delicate instru- 

 ments, the inner mechanism of the vital functions 

 is analyzed. 



This condition of destitution could not continue. It 

 is evident, that with the means at its disposal, within 

 narrow limits, and compelled to operate upon a few 

 lower animals, physiology could not hut remain be- 

 hind the other sciences. In any case, it could not 

 hope to attain its full development : it must abandon, 

 without practical ai^plication, the knowledge that it 

 had obtained at the cost of so great efforts. 



In the last half-century physiologists have written 

 a large number of works on the nervous and muscular 

 systems. We have learned to distinguish the nerves 



I By B. J. Makbt of the French institute. Translated from 

 La Nature. 



