Septembeb 21, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



383 



tion to the South Pole and Charles Benarcl, 

 president of the Belgian Oceanographic So- 

 ciety, said that society was organizing an 

 expedition to the North Pole. 



The British Medical Journal says in an 

 editorial article : " In regard to yellow fever, 

 Panama affords as striking an object lesson 

 as Havana of the incalculable benefit to man- 

 kind that has followed the discovery of the 

 cause of the disease and the manner of its 

 transmission. The glory of the work which 

 has had this striking consummation is shared 

 by several men. The credit of the conception 

 belongs to Dr. Carlos Pinlay, who propounded 

 the idea many years ago without attracting 

 from the profession any attention but an occa- 

 sional contemptuous notice. More fortunate 

 than many true begetters of new truths. Dr. 

 Pinlay, at the meeting of the Pan-American 

 Medical Congress held at Havana in 1901, 

 was acclaimed by the assembly as the author 

 of -the discovery which has already been so 

 fruitful of good effects. Dr. Carter was an- 

 other pioneer in the work which was brought 

 to completion by the American Commission. 

 Untimely death snatched the reward from the 

 hands of Walter Reed and Lazear, but Drs. 

 Carroll and Agromonte still survive. It 

 would, we think, be a fitting acknowledgment 

 of the work of these four men if the Nobel 

 prize were divided among them. It will 

 scarcely be denied by any one conversant with 

 the facts that their work is of far greater im- 

 portance than that of several to whom the 

 prize has been awarded in the past few years. 

 The only original research work whose prac- 

 tical results can be held to compare with it is 

 that which has brought malaria, that monster 

 which till lately claimed so vast a tribute of 

 human lives, within the control of man." 



The Geographical Journal states that a new 

 railway just opened in China traverses a fer- 

 tile and populous tract of alluvial country in 

 the province of Kiangsu. It runs for a dis- 

 tance of about 200 miles from Shanghai to 

 Nanking in a generally northwesterly direc- 

 tion through the towns of Su-chou, Wu-sieh 

 and Chin-kiang. The section actually opened 

 to traffic, however, is from Shanghai to Su- 



chou and Wu-sieh, a total distance of 85 miles. 

 The remaining portion to Chin-kiang and 

 Nanking enters into more hilly country, where 

 some tunnelling is necessary, and this, it is 

 anticipated, will not be completed and opened 

 for traffic until 1908. The country round 

 about is one of the most thickly inhabited 

 and productive parts of China. It is inter- 

 sected with numerous creeks, canals and trib- 

 utary streams draining into the Su-chou 

 Creek, the Hwang Pu River and the Yang-tse 

 Kiang. Cotton, rice and mulberry trees are 

 grown extensively, and there is a great pas- 

 senger traffic along the Grand Canal, as well 

 as endless junks freighted with timber, stone, 

 grain, pottery, bamboos and miscellaneous 

 'goods. The length of time occupied by pas- 

 sengers in traveling from Shanghai to Nan- 

 king will be reduced from about twenty-eight 

 hours to eight or ten hours, and the goods 

 traffic, which now occupies several days, will 

 gain in an even greater degree. Su-chou and 

 Chin-kiang, in addition, of course, to Shang- 

 hai and Nanking, the termini of the line, are 

 treaty ports. The first named has been called 

 the Venice of the Far East, owing to the net- 

 work of canals that pass through its curious 

 narrow streets. It was besieged by Colonel 

 Gordon during the Taiping rebellion, and is 

 now a great center of the silk industry. Wu- 

 sieh and Chin-kiang are also busy marts, the 

 latter, as well as Nanking, being a regular 

 calling place for the steamers that ply on the 

 Yang-tse. 



We learn from the London Times that a 

 large collection of South American birds has 

 been presented to the Zoological Society by 

 Captain Pam, who brought them with him 

 from Caracas. At the wish of the donor, 

 Mr. Thomson met the mail boat at South- 

 ampton and took charge of the birds, which 

 he conveyed to the gardens without any losses. 

 To Captain Pam belongs the credit of being 

 the first person to introduce any species of the 

 humming-bird family to the Regent's Park 

 aviaries. Last November he presented one of 

 the 'violet ears' (Petasophora iolata), the 

 only survivor of the half-dozen with which he 

 started, and the bird lived for a fortnight, 



