February 16, 18S3.] 



SCIENCE. 



55 



exceeding those given above, is hung on the screen, 

 and exposed for 15 or 20 minutes. The picture is 

 developed by pyrogallic acid, and fixed by hyposul- 

 phite of soda. 



Lkjliting the museum. — Experiments are being 

 made with a "^iew to lighting the museum building 

 by electricity. 



The ceramic collection. — A magnificent Sevres 

 vase Si feet in height was recently given by Mr. 

 Lazarus Strauss of New York. It is one of the finest 

 products of the Sevres pottery, and was valued in 

 France at 6,000 francs. 



Thin sections of anthracite coal. — Mr. G. P. Mer- 

 rill, of the department of rocks, who spent some 

 time in the attempt to prepare transparent sections 

 of anthracite coal for the microscoije, has abandoned 

 the enterprise as being outside the limits of possi- 

 bility. So far as his experience goes, the sections 

 offered by dealers are of imperfectly carbonized 

 wood-nodules and other similar substances. 



Naval oljservatoryi 

 Ephemeris of the great comet, 6. 1S8£. — Computed 

 from elements (Nature, 688), and reduced to the mean 

 equinox, 1883.0. 



GREENWICH MEAN NOON. 



E. Fbisbt, Prof. Math., U.S.N. 

 Washington, Feb. 10, 1883. 



13' 42%70, 



(Communicated by Vice-Admiralj Rowan, Supt. 

 TJ. S. naval observatory.) 



Department of agricultnre, 



Anthrax orcharbon. — In December last Mr. Charles 

 J. "V\Tiitmore of Boston addressed a letter to the 

 commissioner, stating that the Vicomte de Coettogan 

 had obtained the concession of the use of the Pasteur 

 method of vaccination for Ajnerica, and desired to 

 ascertain: 1°, whether charbon-fever exists in the 

 United States; 2°, whether Pasteur's method could 

 be introduced here with vaccine fi'om Pasteur's lab- 

 oratory; and, 3°, whether such introduction would 

 prove profitable to the introducer. 



The commissioner referred the letter to Dr. D. E. 

 Salmon of the veterinary corps of the department, 

 who reports as follows : — 



1. In the northern and western states, charbon- 



fever occasionally occurs on isolated farms among 

 cattle; but it is not known that sheep are very often 

 affected. The same is true of many of the southern 

 states; but in the gulf states, and especially in the 

 lower Mississippi valley, charbon at times becomes 

 extremely destructive to all kinds of domestic ani- 

 mals, especially after great inundations. Heavy 

 losses in stock experienced in certain years in Ten- 

 nessee, Arkansas, Missouri, etc., may or may not 

 have been caused by charbon; no competent investi- 

 gation having been made. 



2. This question is not so easily answered, as it in- 

 volves, first, the bringing the vaccine from France, 

 and keeping it here until needed; secondly, the deter- 

 mination of the strength which should be originally 

 given it to make it safe for our animals; thirdly, pub- 

 lic experiments to convince om- farmers of the use- 

 fulness of the vaccination. 



Pasteur's method requires the use of two vaccines 

 of different strengths, which cannot be kept stable 

 for any length of time; the weaker vaccine becoming 

 ineffective, while the stronger virus frequently pro- 

 duces fatal results. This has been proven by experi- 

 ments in different parts of France, in Germany, and 

 England, made partly by Pastem-'s assistants. More- 

 over, Pasteur himself admits that the animals of 

 different countries are of various degrees of suscepti- 

 bility, and that he had to vary the strength of his 

 vaccine to suit the constitution of the animals. To 

 determine the comparative susceptibility of American 

 animals, would alone be a work of considerable mag- 

 nitude and expense, requiring at different points a 

 number of sucli public experiments as were made in 

 France. 



3. The introduction of the method by private per- 

 sons with any idea of profit would therefore probably 

 be doomed to failure; but as the preparation of the 

 charbon vaccine is no secret, the establishment by 

 the general government of a laboratory for the prep- 

 aration and free distribution of the vaccines for 

 charbon and otlier contagious diseases of animals 

 would seem to be desirable. 



PXTBLIC AND PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS. 

 Boston society of natural history. 



Teachers' school of science. — This department of 

 the society has become well known to Boston people 

 by its efforts for the education of teachers since its in- 

 ception in 1S71. During some winters several courses 

 of lessons have been given to large audiences, which 

 were accompanied by other laboratory series with 

 smaller audiences, on subjects ranging througliout the 

 physical and natural-history branches of knowledge. 



The present winter's work consists of only two 

 courses: one of ten lessons on physical geography, 

 by Prof. W. H. Niles ; and one of five on physiology, 

 by Dr. H. P. Bowditch. 



Prof. Niles's course has been eminently practical, 

 and is much praised by tlie teachers in attendance; 

 who say that he gives them trustworthy and original 

 views, and modes of treating the subject, which they . 

 can use in their school-work. Dr. Bowditch will 

 probably carry out the same plan as last year, in 

 which he was equally successful in showing teachers 

 how to use the bodies of their own pupils in such 

 simple physiological experimentation as is needed in 

 the i^ublic schools. 



The larger public courses have been for two years 

 under the patronage of the Lowell fund, of ^\-hich 

 Mr. Augustus Lowell is trustee; and his liberality in 

 allowing the use of Huntington Hall on Saturdays 

 has enabled the curator of the Society, Prof. Alpheus 



yatt, to re-organize the management, and extend 



