AprRIL 19, 1901.] 
pecially in the laying out of the areas surround- 
ing the factories of the European traders was 
accountable for the production of a large num- 
ber of breeding places for mosquitoes, which 
could easily have been avoided. In fact, it 
is certain that in West Africa such condi- 
tions are far more dangerous and more com- 
mon than the proximity of a marsh or 
swamp, which is often noted as a cause of 
fever. Indeed, the mangrove swamp of West 
Africa has no direct relation to malarial fever, 
its presence only tending to predispose to a con- 
dition of general health rendering the subject 
more likely to the attack of disease in general. 
The observations of the members of the expedi- 
tion lead them to very definite conclusions as 
to the methods to be adopted for the preven- 
tion of malarial fever among Europeans in 
West Africa. They consider that many of the 
methods which have been suggested are abso- 
lutely impracticable in West Africa—such as 
the universal dosing of infected persons with 
quinine for a period, the use of mosquito-proof 
houses, and of mosquito curtains, and the 
planting of trees of various kinds; although 
they are of opinion that such measures among 
an intelligent and obedient community may be 
of some efficiency. The two methods upon 
which alone any reliance can be placed as 
measures for prevention are (1) segregation 
of Europeans from natives of all sorts, at a dis- 
tance of about half a mile; and (2) complete 
and efficient surface drainage of the whole dis- 
trict in the immediate neighborhood of Euro- 
pean quarters. The adoption of these methods 
in many of the places visited by the expedition 
would be, even now, easy; in others, especially 
in the larger towns, it would involve consider- 
able difficulty ; but in the stations likely to be 
made in Nigeria in the near future their adop- 
tion would lead to the formation of malaria- 
free habitations. 
CONCILIUM BIBLIOGRAPHICUM.* 
THE beginning of the twentieth century 
marks a new period in the history of the 
Concilium Bibliographicum. It is now just 
ten years since the origin of the movement 
* From the general statement for 1900. 
SCIENCE. 
633 
which led in 1895 to the official foundation of 
the institution by the vote of the Third Inter- 
national Congress of Zoology. ; 
Means were provided for carrying on the 
work for a preliminary period of five years, in 
order to determine whether the project could 
be made a success. The experimental stage is 
now passed and the verdict of all those who 
know the work well is that the high hopes enter- 
tained for the undertaking have been com- 
pletely justified. 
NUMBER OF CARDS PUBLISHED, 
1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 Total 
Zoology, systematic........ 3345 2291 7539 7960 8452 29587 
Zoology, topical ..........- 7583 8434 7877 23894 
Zool., alphabet. (cross-ref- 
ETETICES) .ccceusccccc-cocss 350 1256 1606 
ANA@tOMY:.<cccceccleee scans 583 1857 936 1875 5251 
PHYSIOlOZY....cc0-ceevercee 150 1230* 1270 483 3083 
3345 3024 18209 18950 19893 63421 
A recent report of the Swiss Society of Nat- 
uralists endeavors to estimate in a specific case 
the saving of time afforded by the card cata- 
logue in obtaining references to recent publica- 
tions in regard to the trout. The saving is 
estimated at halfaday. Butin regard to other 
cases the saving is far greater. Let any zoolo- 
gist familiar with past bibliographical resources 
consider how he would go to work to ascertain 
what has been published in the past five years in 
regard to some minute question, such as the 
fauna of Sumatra. A moment’s reflection will 
suffice to show that it would be a task of many 
weeks to obtain an answer to such a question, 
Yet a subscriber to the faunistic part of the 
bibliography of the Conciliwm would only require 
a few seconds to find 62 publications dealing 
with the question. The titles of ten of these 
publications would, it is true, bear no mention 
of Sumatra; they are classed here because on 
perusing the text important references to Su- 
matra were found. Some, indeed, bear titles 
that would seem absolutely to preclude any 
notes on the fauna of Sumatra, as, for example, 
a work on ‘The Insects of Germany.’ Sub- 
scribers to any considerable portion of the bib- 
liography would have received these references 
for 80 centimes (8d. or 16 cents), and any per- 
* An error was made in this item in our last annual 
statement, which we now correct. 
