May is, 1883.] 



SCIENCE. 



419 



in order that the effect of jar should not enter 

 into the experiment. They were then loaded 

 with, respectivelj', in each set, 95, 90, 85, 80, 

 75, 70, 65, 60, 55, per cent of the average ul- 

 timate strength, as alreadj' determined. This 

 was done in November, 1881. Since that 

 date, a number have broken, as follows : — 



Effect of prolonged stress. — Swedish iron wire. 



Tims, wire loaded with but 65 per cent of 

 the breaking-load, as usuall}' determined, broke 

 after being subjected to stress for a period of 

 fifteen months, when annealed ; while hard 

 wire carrying 85 per cent of the maximum 

 temporary load remains unbroken after seven- 

 teen months. It is seen that these results are 

 the same in kind as those obtained by Vicat, 

 and confirm the conclusion that heavily loaded 

 iron, as well as other metals and the woods, 

 are likely- to yield ultimatelj^ under loads that 

 are sustained for short periods of time with- 

 out apparent iujuiy. This fact has been 

 amply proven hy earlier investigators, as well 

 as by the writer ; but the difference above 

 observed, between hard and soft iron, has, so 

 far as the writer has been able to learn, never, 

 until now, been discovered. 



Although the experiments of which this is 

 the first are not j'et concluded, this discoveiy, 

 if such it prove, has seemed to be of sufficient 

 importance to justify this note. 



R. H. Thurston. 



Hoboken, K.J., April 22, 1883. 



ELEPHANTIASIS, OR FILARIA DISEASE. 



Dr. a. F. a. King, dean of the faculty of 

 the National medical college, has recentlj- 

 cited a number of curious coincidences be- 

 tween the habits of the mosquito and the ob- 

 served phenomena respecting malaria. There 

 are, however, fatal objections to any theory 

 that would connect the two ; the coincidences 

 rather indicating that the germs of both develop 

 in similar places. The connection of the mos- 

 quito as an intermediary host in the full 

 life^development of the haematozoon, Filaria 



sanguiuis-hominis, however, has been veiy 

 full}- and conclusivelj- made out by Dr. Pat- 

 rick Manson, of Amoy, China, in the Cus- 

 toms medical reports, published in Shanghai 

 by the order of the inspector-general of cus- 

 toms. Dr. Manson discovered the parent 

 Filaria in the mosquito in 1878, and has since 

 published several admirable articles, giving the 

 results of his experiments ; which, in the main. 



BANCROFTI. 



a, female (nat. size) ; 6, head and neck (x 55 diam.) ; c, tail; t?, 

 free embryo (x 400 diam.); e, egg containing an embryo; /, 

 egg, with mulberry cleavage of the yolk (x 360 diam.) — After 

 Cobbold.) 



have been independently confirmed by Dr. 

 Mackenzie of the London pathological societj-, 

 Mr. T. R. Lewis in India, Dr. W. W. Myers, 

 Drs. T. S. Cobbold, Wucherer, Bancroft, 

 Araujo, and others. The facts have an ento- 

 mological bearing, and are of great scientific 

 interest and practical importance. Thej' may 

 lie briefi}' stated as follows : — 



In 1872 Dr. T. R. Lewis first announced 

 the discoveiy of the immature or larval hae- 

 matozoon, to which he gave the above trinomial 



