July 13, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



63 



179 received on deposit. The report further 

 stated that the number of visitors to the 

 society's gardens during the month of May 

 had been 61,692, making the total for the first 

 five months of the year 255,280, or an increase 

 of 33,418 visitors as compared with the cor- 

 responding period in 1905. 



We learn from The British Medical Journal 

 that at the last meeting of the Paris Academy 

 of Sciences, MM. Calmette and Guerin made 

 a communication on a new method of vaccina- 

 tion against tuberculosis, with good hopes of 

 its ultimate applicability to the human sub- 

 ject. From numerous experiments, conducted 

 with another object in view, they found that 

 tubercle bacilli killed by heat or treated by 

 different reagents pass through the intestinal 

 wall with the same ease as living bacilli, and 

 are found in the mesenteric ganglia, and even 

 in the lungs. They therefore experimented 

 to see if young animals (calves and kids), 

 given by the mouth, at an interval of forty-five 

 days, two doses of 5 and 25 centigrams of 

 bacilli, either dead or modified in their vitality 

 and virulence by various methods, could with 

 impunity support a meal of 5 centigrams of 

 fresh bovine tubercle, certainly infective for 

 control animals. They have been able to con- 

 vince themselves that bovine tubercle bacilli, 

 killed by five minutes' boiling or simply heated 

 for five minutes at 70° 0. and ingested in 

 given conditions, protect completely for four 

 months at least against virulent infection by 

 the digestive passages ; how long the protection 

 endures is not yet possible to state. Details 

 of the actual experiments will shortly be pub- 

 lished, but at the present time MM. Calmette 

 and Guerin have proof that young calves can 

 be vaccinated by simple intestinal absorption 

 of bacilli modified by heat, and that this 

 method of vaccination does not present any 

 kind of danger. The experiments must be re- 

 peated in a sufficient number of animals to 

 justify the application of the system to the 

 prophylaxis of bovine tuberculosis. M. Roux, 

 after this communication, announced that he 

 is conducting experiments in collaboration 

 with M. Vallee of Alfort on the same lines 

 as MM. Calmette and Guerin, and that the 



results obtained agree in a remarkable way 

 with those of the experiments of MM. Calmette 

 and Guerin. 



We learn from Nature that in the course of 

 an address before the annual meeting of the 

 Linnean Society of New South Wales, held 

 in March 28, Mr. T. Steel, the president, al- 

 luded to a proposed method of destroying 

 rabbits by means of an infectious disease, the 

 precise nature of which is not yet disclosed. 

 The idea, it appears, originated in Paris, and 

 since the necessary funds have been subscribed 

 by stock-owners and agriculturists it is pro- 

 posed to commence the experiment on a small 

 island selected for the purpose. After dis- 

 cussing the arguments for and against the 

 proposal, the president considered it highly 

 undesirable that any such disease should be 

 wilfully communicated to any species of ani- 

 mal, by means of which it might be dissemi- 

 nated throughout the country. As to the ex- 

 termination of the rabbit, that is considered 

 an impossible contingency; but means ought, 

 and can, be found to keep the species in cheek 

 without recourse to infectious diseases, which 

 may be a danger to the community. In the 

 course of the same address Mr. Steel alluded 

 to the necessity of special efforts if the native 

 Australian fauna and flora are to be saved 

 from destruction. Poison spread for rabbits 

 is responsible for the destruction of a large 

 number of indigenous mammals and birds. 



According to the report in the London 

 Times Mr. C. B. Marlay presided on June 22 

 at a meeting of the Royal Botanic Society, 

 held in the museum of the society. Mr. J. S. 

 Rubinstein protested against the system of 

 reelecting members of the council as a matter 

 of course; it was the result of that system 

 that the society was in so unsatisfactory a 

 state. The management of the society was 

 deplorable, and he instanced the inadequate 

 way in which its fete had been advertised. 

 There ought, he urged, to be a properly quali- 

 fied superintendent of the gardens. Preben- 

 dary Barker also spoke. He said that the 

 chairman had not kept his promise, made at 

 the last meeting, to send an official reply to 

 the report drawn up by the committee ap- 



