May 3, 1901.] 
the disinfected quarters, and it is impossible to 
show that the measure possesses much value. 
The outbreak in Calcutta now is more severe 
than that of last year, notwithstanding the re- 
peated disinfections which have been practiced. 
As I have before remarked, however, the au- 
thorities are apparently able to account for 
nearly all the plague deaths and the investiga- 
tions made after death indicate the exact loca- 
tion of the cases. The reported plague deaths 
in Calcutta nearly account for the excess mor- 
tality, and that is more than can be said for 
any other city. The disease is spreading in 
Benares and has reached to the cantonment. 
It continues to progress from village to village 
in the Gardaspur and Sialkot districts of the 
Punjab. In Bombay city plague has caused 
over 1,000 deaths during the past week. An 
examination of the total deaths in this city since 
the plague appeared in 1896, shows an excess 
mortality over the average of 120,000. The 
official reports only give 60,000 deaths from 
plague since its commencement in September, 
1896, so that there is a very large balance to be 
_ accounted for. If the system adopted in Cal- 
cutta had been applied to Bombay, it is most 
probable that the greater part of this excess 
would have been found to be due to plague, and 
it is almost safe to say that Bombay city has 
lost 100,000 of its inhabitants from plague.”’ 
Nature learns from the Victorian Naturalist 
that Professor Spencer, F.R.S., of the Mel- 
bourne University, and Mr. F. J. Gillen, of 
South Australia, were expected to start from 
Oodnadatta, the present terminus of the trans- 
continental railway, nearly 700 miles north of 
Adelaide, on their expedition for the purpose 
of studying the habits and customs of the ab- 
originals of the northern portion of Central 
Australia, about the middle of April. The 
start has been somewhat delayed owing to the 
drought which has existed for some time in the 
portion of the continent to be visited. It is 
also proposed to cross into Queensland and con- 
tinue Dr. Roth’s ethnological work, and after- 
wards to traverse some of the larger rivers of 
the Northern Territory, and, if time permit, to 
visit the Wyndham district on Cambridge Gulf 
in Northwest Australia. 
SCIENCE. 
719 
AN Institute for Tropical Hygiene was opened 
in Hamburg at the beginning of March. Ac- 
cording to the British Medical Journal, it is a 
combination of laboratory and hospital, and the 
scientific workers in the first department will 
be able to find their material ‘on the prem- 
ises,’ so to speak. The building has been 
erected close by the harbor; one wing con- 
tains 50 beds for tropical cases, such as malaria, 
beri-beri, etc. (not for infectious diseases) ; the 
second wing is taken up by the laboratories, 
lecture halls, etc. Here courses of lectures, 
combined with practical work, are to be held 
for the benefit of ship surgeons, navy surgeons, 
doctors about to settle in the colonies, and 
colonial medical officers of the State. The 
Institute has been erected by and belongs to 
the Free State of Hamburg, but the German 
Empire contributes a share of the working 
expenses, and the disposal of a certain number 
of laboratory places. 
AT the last monthly general meeting of the 
Zoological Society of London, it was stated 
that there had been 106 additions to the 
Society’s menagerie during the month of March, 
amongst which special attention was directed 
to the male Tasmanian wolf (Thylacinus cynoce- 
phalus), seldom seen in captivity, and also to 
the Indian birds presented by Mr. HE. W. 
Harper, of Calcutta, new to the Society’s series. 
It was also stated that on Easter Monday the 
admissions to the Society’s gardens were 46, - 
599, being a larger number than had ever 
passed the gates in one day since the opening 
of the gardens to the public in 1828. At the 
close of the general meeting the first of the 
annual series of lectures was delivered by Pro- 
fessor Charles Stewart, entitled ‘On the Pro- 
tection and Nourishment of Young Fishes.’ 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 
Av a recent meeting of the regents of the 
University of Kansas, arrangements were made 
for the expenditure of the $10,000 appropriated 
by the Legislature, for improvements in the 
new chemistry building, and it was also decided 
to purchase a liquid-air plant. $7,000 will be 
