August 10, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



239 



of decay that may be present, while the iron 

 combines with the cellulose, or woody fiber, to 

 form a compound which is insoluble in water 

 and hence cannot be washed out by the action 

 of rain. The salts in this way are made to 

 permeate the substance of the wood, and are 

 not merely deposited mechanically as minute 

 crystals in the pores by the evaporation of the 

 solvent. It is claimed for the process, which, 

 apart from the drying, takes about four hours, 

 that it greatly reduces the inflammability of the 

 wood, enables it to take a brilliant polish, and 

 increases the hardness of certain soft woods to 

 such an extent as to render them available for 

 purposes to which formerly they could not be 

 applied. Another advantage attributed to it is 

 that it saves the expense of seasoning in the 

 ordinary way, since perfectly green wood after 

 treatment neither shrinks nor warps. The proc- 

 ess appears already to have gained consider- 

 able recognition abroad ; thus it is stated that 

 the Bavarian State railways and post-oifice have 

 contracted to have all their sleepers and poles 

 up to 1905 treated by it, while the Swedish 

 Government has adopted the system and 

 ordered 600,000 sleepers preserved by its use. 



FiGtTRES have been issued in regard to immi- 

 gration at the port of New York for the year 

 ending June 30th, from which it appears that 

 841,711 emigrants passed through the port dur- 

 ing the year. This is an increase of nearly 

 100,000 over last year. The following table 

 shows the arrivals of some of the races : 



Race. 1898-'99. 1899-1900. 



Bohemian and Moravian 1 , 935 2, 329 



Croatian and Slavonian 6,837 8,906 



English 4,258 4,346 



Finnish 3,349 6,783 



French 2,013 1,956 



German 21,219 23,382 



Greek 2,351 3,734 



Hebrew 27,086 44,520 



Irish 21,637 25,200 



Italian (northern) 13,008 16,690 



Italian (southern) 63,481 82,329 



Lithuanian 6,033 9,170 



Magyar 4,517 11,351 



Polish 26,015 36,855 



Euthenian 1,371 2,653 



Scandinavian 16,034 22,847 



Slovak 13,550 25,392 



The Sydney correspondent of the British 

 Medical Journal describes the various means 

 which have been taken to prevent the spread 

 of the plague in that city. As soon as a case 

 is notified to the Board of Health a medical 

 ofiicer is despatched, and if he confirms the 

 diagnosis the patient is at once removed to the 

 quarantine hospital as well as all the other 

 residents in the house. The house is then 

 thoroughly disinfected under the supervision 

 of the Board of Health officials. The contacts 

 are kept in quarantine for five days, and if no 

 suspicious cases occur among them they are 

 then allowed to return to their home. Large 

 areas of the city have been quarantined in suc- 

 cession, all the residents are kept inside the 

 barriers and not allowed to go to their business. 

 Each house is then cleaned and disinfected ; all 

 sanitary fittings and drains attended to, and all 

 rubbish removed and burnt. This process has 

 now been gone through in a large part of the 

 city, so that it is probably cleaner than it has 

 been for a very long time. There has also 

 been an organized crusade against rats, and a 

 capitation grant of 6d. is now made for all rats 

 brought to the incinerator. This has resulted 

 in a very large number of these animals being 

 destroyed. The Government has decided to 

 resume a large part of the wharfage in Darling 

 Harbor and practically rebuild it with stone 

 facings. Citizens' Vigilance Committees have 

 also been organized in the various electoral dis- 

 tricts of the city and suburbs, with the object 

 of assisting the Board of Health and the local 

 municipal councils in cleaning and disinfecting. 

 Hitherto in every case all the contacts have 

 been removed to quarantine ground, but it is 

 now recognized that this is not necessary in 

 every case, and at a special meeting of the New 

 South Wales Branch of the British Medical As- 

 sociation it was resolved to appoint a deputa- 

 tion to wait upon the Premier to point out that 

 in the opinion of the members of the Branch 

 the indiscriminate quarantining of contacts is 

 unnecessary. 



A GREAT deal of important scientific investi- 

 gation says the London Times is being carried 

 on at different marine biological stations 

 around the coast. Admirable work has been 

 done at the Marine Biological Laboratory at 



