700 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. III. No. 71. 



The journal ' Languages ' (published in 

 London) stated in June last that the Brit- 

 ish consul in Bolivia had discovered some 

 hitherto unknown native idioms in that 

 country ; but no further information about 

 them has appeared. 



THE DIMINUTION OF NATALITY. 



This subject occupied a prominent place 

 in the discussion of the anthropological sec- 

 tion of the French Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science at its last meeting. 

 More than elsewhere, it deserves attention 

 from the scientists of that nation, for out of 

 the 86 departments into which France is 

 divided, in 51 the deaths exceed the births. 

 The annual natality for the whole country 

 is only 23.7 for each 1,000 inhabitants, and 

 this number includes the still-born ! 



To remedy this progressive depopulation, 

 its causes must be ascertained. Dr. E. 

 Maurel brought forward an interesting the- 

 ory. He pointed out that the birth rate is 

 lowest in those departments where food is 

 most abundant and cheapest. The relation 

 between these two facts he held to be the 

 prevalence of hereditary arthritic diathe- 

 sis (uric acid diathesis), leading to diminu- 

 tion of reproductive vigor in both sexes, 

 this diathesis arising from excessive ali- 

 mentation. Another speaker, Dr. Pommerol, 

 attributed the diminished natality to vol- 

 untary restriction, while others suggested 

 the increase of religious celibacy, the laws 

 relating to the division of property, the late- 

 ness of marriages, and the decreased repro- 

 ductiveness of women. 



D. G. Beinton. 



Univeesxty of Pennsylvania. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 

 vivisection in the DISTEICT of COLUMBIA. 



Dueing the recent session of the National 

 Academy of Sciences a report was prepared 

 with reference to the proposed legislation inter- 

 fering with the practice of vivisection in the 

 District of Columbia. The report states that 



physiology must be studied by experimental 

 methods. The physiologist, no less than the 

 physicist and the chemist, can expect the ad- 

 vancement of his science only as the result of 

 carefully planned laboratory work. If this work 

 is interfered with medical science will continue 

 to advance by means of experiment, for no 

 legislation can affect the position of physiology 

 as an experimental science. But there will be 

 this important difference: The experimenters 

 will be medical practitioners and the victims 

 human beings. That animals must suffer and 

 die for the benefit of mankind is a law of na- 

 ture, from which we cannot escape if we would. 

 But the suffering Incidental to biological investi- 

 gations is trifling in amount and far less than 

 that which is associated with most other uses 

 which man makes of the lower animals for pur- 

 poses of business or pleasure. The men engaged 

 in the study of physiology are actuated by 

 motives no less humane than those which guide 

 the persons who desire to restrict their action, 

 while of the value of any given experiment and 

 the amount of suffering which it involves they 

 are, owing to their special training, much better 

 able to judge. When the men to whom the 

 government has intrusted the care of its higher 

 institutions of research shall show themselves 

 incapable of administering them in the interest 

 of science and humanity, then, and not till 

 then, will it be necessary to invoke the authority 

 of the national legislature. 



EADIATION FEOM UEANIUM SALTS. 



' In an important artiticle in Nature (Apr. 23), 

 Prof. J. J. Thomson states that the investigations 

 of M. Henri Becquerel on the radiation emitted 

 by certain salts of uranium have shown the ex- 

 istence of a kind of radiation intermediate in 

 its properties between light and the Rontgen 

 rays. These investigations are exceedingly in- 

 teresting on account of the differences as well as 

 the analogies they disclose between the uranium 

 radiation and the Rontgen rays. M. Becquerel 

 has shown that the radiation from the double 

 sulphate of uranyle and potassium is analogous 

 to Rontgen rays, inasmuch as it can affect a 

 photographic plate after penetrating substances 

 such as aluminium, copper, wood, etc., which 

 are opaque to ordinary light ; it also resembles 



