342 



SGIENGE. 



[N. S. Vol. II. No. 37. 



tules; as no resiilt followed lie himself vac- 

 cinated three of them without the consent or 

 knowledge of their pai-ents. He used a 

 table knife for the purpose, making the in- 

 cisioi^s on the back of the hand, between 

 the thumb and the forefinger. The opera- 

 tion was successful, and a year later, when 

 the other children of the family suffered 

 from small-pox, the three who had been 

 vaccinated by Plett remained free from the 

 disease. There appears to be no record of 

 his having performed other vaccinations. 



GiNN & Co. announce '■Chemical Experi- 

 ments — General and Analytical,'' by E. P. 

 Williams, instructor in chemistry in the 

 English High School, Boston. The book 

 contains 100 sets of illustrative experiments, 

 about one-half in general chemistry and 

 one-half in metal and acid analysis. 



The Fifth International Congress for 

 combatting the abuse of alcohol met at Bale 

 on August 20th, 21st and 23d. The presi- 

 dent, M. Heemskirk, the Dutch Minister of 

 State, opened the proceedings by a brief 

 Survey of the progress made since the last 

 Congress held at the Hague in 1893. Papers 

 on physiological and psychological effects 

 of alcohol were read and discussed, includ- 

 ing an elaborate paper on the effects of dif- 

 ferent kinds of alcoholic beverages by Dr. 

 Lancelot, delegate of the French Minister 

 of Public Instruction. The second day was 

 devoted to the various anti-alcoholic organ- 

 izations throughout Europe. On the third 

 day the principal paper discussed the effect 

 of alcoholic abuse in fostering crime. The 

 majority of the members favored total ab- 

 stinence. Brussels was decided upon as 

 the place of meeting in 1896. 



During the past ten years the extinction 

 of wolves in France has proceeded rapidly. 

 One hundred and eighty thousand francs 

 were expended by the governnient in 1894 

 for the destruction of wolves. In 1895 the 

 total reported is only 2,500 francs. The 



official reports state that there are now 55 

 departments where the presence of wolves 

 is very rare. 



It is stated that the report of the death 

 of M. Lucien Bonaparte Wyse is incorrect, 

 his name having been substituted for that 

 of his brother, M. Napoleon Alfi'ed Wyse. 



At the last meeting of the Council of 

 Manchester Museum, Owens' College, as re- 

 ported in The Lancet, the library committee 

 recommended that a grant of £400 per 

 annum be made on condition that the Lan- 

 cashire and Cheshire County Councils and 

 the local district councils gave £800 a year. 

 As an amendment it was proposed that the 

 £400 should in any case be given. 



COBBESPONDENCE. 



WINDS AND OCEAN CURRENTS. 



The article by Mr. Bache in a recent number 

 of Science on the causes of the Gulf Stream 

 brings up a number of points on which other 

 opinions than those which he advocates may he 

 fairly maintained. Some of these points have 

 been indicated by Prof. Le Conte (Science, Aug. 

 16). The scheme of a northeast surface movement 

 and southwest subsurface return of an oceanic 

 circulation in the northern hemisphere, if unin- 

 terrupted by continents, is essentially a return 

 to the untenable view advocated by Dove in his 

 theory of atmospheric circulation ; now dis- 

 placed by Ferrel's much more satisfactory 

 theory. The deducible circulation of the ocean, 

 under convectional control alone, whether in- 

 terrupted by continents or not, has been best 

 stated by Ferrel, especially in several articles 

 in Science, first series, 1886 or 1887 ; my file 

 is not now at hand for precise reference. 



While there is good reason to believe that 

 the diflerence of density of the equatorial and 

 polar waters produces a slow convectioual 

 circulation of the ocean, and is responsible for 

 the low temperature of the great body of the 

 torrid oceans, tliere is also good reason for 

 thinking that the comparatively rapid and not- 

 ably systematic, eddy-like circulation of the 

 surface waters in the several oceans is deter- 

 mined essentially by the winds. The argii- 



