838 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. II., No. 47. 



woodcuts, and one physical volume with many ilia- 

 grams and maps: this latter volume will contain the 

 report on the composition of ocean water, the specific 

 gravity and temperature observations. A consider- 

 able part of the general narrative of the cruise is now 

 in type, and nearly all the illustrations are prepared. 

 The narrative will extend to two volumes; and it is 

 expected they will bo ready for issue in May or June, 

 ISS-t. The work connected with the remaining forty- 

 two special reports is in most instances progressing 

 satisfactorily. Portions of the manuscript for three 

 of the larger memoirs have been received and put in 

 type, and the manuscript of many others is in a 

 forward state. For these memoirs, 386 lithographic 

 plates have been printed off and delivered to the 

 binders, 404 others are now on stone, and the draw- 

 ings for many more are being prepared. It is esti- 

 mated that the whole work connected with the report 

 will be completed in the summer of 1887. 



— Professor Huxley also expresses a regret that the 

 admirable energy of the government in taking meas- 

 ures to make the recent advances of medical science 

 available during the late outbreak of cholera in 

 Egypt was not extended beyond the purely prac- 

 tical side of the matter, or perhaps not so far as the 

 practical side in the i^roper sense; for, until we know 

 something about the causes of that terrible disease, 

 our measures for prevention and for cure will be alike 

 leaps in tlie dark. 



Those, he says, who have looked into the literature 

 of cholera may perhaps be disposed to think that a 

 new search after its cause will add but another to the 

 innumerable wild hypotheses which have been set 

 afloat on that topic; and yet devastating epidemics, 

 lilce the pebrine of the silkworm, so similar in their 

 fatality and their apparently capricious spread that 

 careful investigators have not hesitated to institute a 

 detailed comparison of the phenomena of this disease 

 with those of cholera, have been proved by Pasteur 

 to be the work of microscopic organisms; and hardly 

 less fatal epidemics, such as splenic fever, have been 

 traced to similar agencies. In both these cases, knowl- 

 edge of the causes, and of the conditions which limit 

 the operation of the causes, has led to the invention 

 of effectual methods of cure. And it is assuredly, 

 in the present state of science, something more than 

 a permissible hypothesis, that the cause of cholera 

 may be an organic living materies morbi, and that 

 the discovery of the proper curative and prophylactic 

 measures will follow upon the determination of the 

 nature and conditions of existence of these organisms. 



If this reasoning is just, it is certainly to be re- 

 gretted that the opportunity of the outbreak of cholera 

 in Egypt was notiUilized forthe purposes of scientific 

 invesiigation into the cause of the epidemic. There 

 are able, zealous, and courageous young pathologists 

 in England who would have been willing enough to 

 undertake the labor and the risk; and it seems a pity 

 that England should leave to Germany and to France 

 an enterprise which requires no less daring than arctic 

 or African exploration, but which, if successful, would 

 be of a thousand times more value to mankind than 

 the most complete knowledge of the barren ice-wastes 



of the pole or of the sweltering barbarism of the 

 equator. It may be said that inquiries into the causa- 

 tion of cholera have been for some years conducted 

 in India by the government without yielding any very 

 definite result; but this is perhaps rallier an argument 

 in favor of, than against, setting fresh minds to work 

 upon the problem. 



— Professor George Davidson read papers at the 

 meeting of the California academy of sciences, Nov. 

 5, on the solar eclipse of Oct. 30, 1SS3, and the ap- 

 pearance of Saturn as seen at the Dearborn observa- 

 tory under very favorable conditions. He .«aid of the 

 latter, " The evening was clear and pleasant, and 

 nearly calm. . . . The atmosphere was charged with 

 aqueous vapor, and the dew ran down the observa- 

 tory almost lilce rain. . . . But one of the best re- 

 vealed features . . . was the undoubted difference 

 in brightness of the gauzy ring at the two ansae. 

 Th'i preceding part was decidedly brighter than the 

 following ansa. ... I should mention, that, in my 

 limited experience in examining Saturn, I liave 

 never seen the atmospheric conditions so nearly 

 perfect as they were that night. ... I saw more 

 than is given in the beautiful Cambridge drawing." 



Professor Davidson also spoke of a brilliant meteor 

 as follows: "On the evening of Oct. 20, at eleven 

 o'clock, a remarkably brilliant meteor passed verti- 

 cally downwards very near to Eridani (3 mag.). It 

 illuminated the street, and its light cast a strong 

 sliadow. The train, about five degrees long, was 

 persistent for three or four seconds, with an intense, 

 vivid brightness, then faded away to a white, vapor- 

 ous-looking streak, which assumed awavy mution for 

 three or four seconds, and then vanished. The color 

 was an intense white, tinged with a purplish hue; 

 and the brightest part of the train which was left 

 was not at the jjoint of disappearance, but about the 

 middle of its length." 



At a later meeting of the academy. Professor Da- 

 vidson spoke of Trouvelofs red star, feen during the 

 solar eclipse of May 6, and took the ground that 

 <i Arietes was the star seen by Trouvelot. 



Full accounts of all these papers were given in the 

 Minina and scientific press, San Francisco. 



— We take the following account of the awards of 

 medals recently made by the council of the Royal so- 

 ciety from Professor Huxley"s presidential address: — 



The number, the variety, and the importance of Sir 

 William Thomson's contributions to mathematical 

 and experimental physics are matters of common 

 knowledge; and the fellows of the society will be 

 more gratified than surprised to hear that the council 

 have this year awarded him the Copley medal, — the 

 highest honor which it is in their power to bestow. 

 Sir William Thomson has taken a foremost place 

 among those to whom the remarkable development 

 of the theory of thermodynamics and of electricity in 

 the last forty years is due. His share in the experi- 

 mental treatment of these subjects has been no less 

 considerable; while his constructive ability in apply- 

 ing science to practice is manifested by the number 

 of instruments bearing his name which are at pres- 

 ent in use in the physical laboratory and in the tele- 



