August 31, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



351 



Elliott and Button report from Bonny that 

 they have visited Opobo, Slave, Trees, Bakana, 

 Bugana, Degama, Abonnema and Egwanga. 

 They intended to revisit the latter place to 

 complete some experiments there initiated, and 

 then proceed up the Niger as far as Lokoja. 

 The expedition under Drs. Durham and Myer 

 received a cordial welcome from the authorities 

 at Washington and Baltimore, and at the special 

 wish of Dr. Sternberg, Surgeon- General of the 

 United States Army, has gone to Cuba with the 

 American government expedition to study yel- 

 low fever in Havana. The Brazilian govern- 

 ment is preparing to receive the expedition at 

 the end of this month. A letter has been re 

 ceived at the Liverpool School of Tropical 

 Medicine from Dr. J. Paes de Cavalho, Gover- 

 nor of the State of Para, in reference to the 

 expedition to study yellow fever. He writes : 

 " Appreciating the high and scientific value of 

 the Liverpool School I hereby anticipate my 

 thanks for the valuable services that scientific 

 institution will render to Para, to Brazil, 

 and, in fact, to humanity, thus contribu- 

 ting to the study of a disease which, un- 

 fortunately, has become endemic in some 

 Brazilian ports, and every year destroys hun- 

 dreds of precious existences, carrying discredit 

 to our country and harming our progress. To 

 such a mission I most gladly pledge this govern- 

 ment's assistance and co-operation, which I 

 consider due to the noble intention of the said 

 society. The State of Para will do its utmost 

 to receive them with honor. ' ' 



Peofbssoe E. Eay Lankester, director of 

 the British Museum (Natural History), has 

 addressed the following letter to the Times : 

 Now that our army is guarding, for the most 

 part peaceably, a line 1000 miles long from 

 Cape Town to Pretoria, and that many of its 

 members may be in want of occvipation to fill 

 their time, may I suggest that the opportunity 

 might be taken to help our National Museum 

 to obtain series of specimens illustrating the 

 fauna and flora of the country ? Even of the 

 larger animals many of the commonest are 

 still desiderata to our collections, while of the 

 smaller things, from meerkats to mosquitoes, 

 from squirrels and stoats to snakes and snails, 

 there are none, however common locally, of 



which sets would not be of value and interest 

 to our specific workers. It should be remem- 

 bered that for the study of variation, individ- 

 uals, seasonal and geographical, large series 

 are wanted from as many diflferent places as 

 possible, so that no one, say, at Colesberg 

 or De Aar, need think that his specimens 

 will not be appreciated because some one else 

 at Bloemfontein or Kroonstad is also sending 

 specimens supposed to be of the same sort. 

 Especially all the ' game ' animals are wanted, 

 from antelopes to smaller buck of different 

 sorts (steenbok, grysbok, etc.), hares, rock rab- 

 bits, and other things that our ofiicers appear 

 to be now frequently shooting. Also such ' ver- 

 min ' as jackals, hyenas, monkeys, baboons, 

 etc. Skins and skulls of all these, marked 

 with locality, date, and a clear indication of 

 which skull belongs to which skin, would be 

 most acceptable. And the same with the 

 smaller animals. I shall be glad to hear from 

 persons of natural history tastes in South 

 Africa (and, indeed, in any other part of the 

 world where our countrymen may be), and to 

 give them fuller particulars about any special 

 branch of natural history to which they may be 

 attracted. 



The Englishman, of Calcutta, as quoted in 

 the British Medical Journal, gives a summary 

 of a resolution, extending over some 25 pages, 

 which has been published in the Home De- 

 partment on the chapters of the India Plague 

 Commission dealing with the measures for the 

 suppression of plague. Every aspect of the 

 question is fully dealt with, and the 'main con- 

 clusions appear to be as follows : The govern- 

 ment of India thinks the obligations of private 

 persons and medical practitioners to report 

 cases of sickness can be relied on only in very 

 exceptional circumstances, and that the house- 

 to-house visitations are justifiable only when 

 plague exists in small well-defined areas. The 

 government agrees with a surveillance over 

 persons arriving from infected areas, and be- 

 lieves this means has been freely resorted to in 

 rural areas, but does not favor the system of 

 rewarding informers of plague cases. It pub- 

 licly thanks the many volunteers who devoted 

 themselves to the work of fighting the plague, 

 and thinks the expense of special reporting 



