774 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 307. 



sets of apparatus had been sent to the field. 

 They were now being adopted and supplied to 

 all the larger military hospitals. 



At the tenth annual meeting of the British 

 Astronomical Association, held on October 31st, 

 Mr. W. H. Maw referred to the observations 

 made on the solar eclipse and spoke at length 

 of the automatic appliances for obtaining pho- 

 tographs which Professor David P. Todd of 

 Ambers tCollege has devised and which he used 

 with success this year. Professor Todd hopes 

 to employ his apparatus on a more extended 

 scale in observations of next year's eclipse in 

 Sumatra. 



At the last meeting of the Congress of Amer- 

 ican Physicians and Surgeons a committee was 

 appointed to urge upon Congress the repeal of 

 those provisions of the War Revenue Act of 

 1898 which lay a tax on legacies to educational, 

 charitable and religious organizations. The 

 committee, which consists of Professors Freder- 

 rick C. Shattuck, Abraham Jacobi and William 

 H. Welch, has written to the members of the 

 Congress asking them to take an active interest 

 in the subject by addressing members of the 

 Senate and House of Representatives. Others 

 interested in education and science should unite 

 in the efforts for the repeal of this legislation. 



The government of Argentine has published 

 a decree declaring that Villa Concepcion is in- 

 fected with the plague, and that other Para- 

 guayan ports are suspicious. 



In the French Senate M. Piot has introduced a 

 bill aiming to arrest the depopulation of France. 

 It provides for a tax on celibates of both sexes 

 after they reach the age of 30, and upon child- 

 less couples who have been married for five 

 years, the tax to be maintained until a child is 

 born to them. 



A COMMUNICATION On the influence of the 

 temperature of liquid hydrogen on bacteria 

 was recently presented to the Royal Society by 

 Dr. Allan Macfadyen and Mr. Sydney Rowland. 

 In a previous communication these gentlemen 

 had shown that the temperature of liquid air 

 has no appreciable effect upon the vitality of 

 micro-organisms, even when they are exposed 

 to this temperature for one week (about — 190° 

 C.) They now report, we quote from the Brit- 



ish Medical Journal, that they have been able 

 to execute preliminary experiments as to the 

 effect of a temperature as low as that of liquid 

 hydrogen on bacterial life. As the approxi- 

 mate temperature of the air may be taken as 

 300° absolute, and liquid air as 80° absolute, 

 hydrogen as 21° absolute, the ratio of these 

 temperatures roughly is respectively as 15 : 

 4 : 1. In other words the temperature of liquid 

 hydrogen is about one-quarter that of liquid 

 air, just as that of liquid air is about one- 

 quarter of that of the average mean tempera- 

 ture. In subjecting bacteria, therefore, to the 

 temperature of liquid hydrogen, the experi- 

 menters place them under conditions which, 

 in severity of temperature, are as far removed 

 from those of liquid air as are those of liquid 

 air from that of the average summer tem- 

 perature. By the kindness of .Professor Dewar 

 the specimens of bacteria were cooled in liquid 

 hydrogen at the Royal Institution, the follow- 

 ing organisms being employed : B. acid lactici, 

 B. typhosus, B. diphtherias, proteus vulgaris, 

 B. anthracis, B. coli communis, staphylococcus 

 pyogenes aureus, spirillum cholerfe, B. phos- 

 phorescens, B. pyocyaneus, a sarcina and a 

 yeast. These organisms in broth culture were 

 sealed in thin glass tubes and introduced di- 

 rectly into liquid hydrogen contained in a 

 vacuum jacketed vessel immersed in liquid air. 

 Under these conditions they were exposed to a 

 temperature of about — 250 ° C. (21° absolute) 

 for ten hours. At the end of the experiment the 

 tubes were opened, and the contents examined 

 microscopically and by culture. The results 

 were entirely negative as regards any alteration 

 in appearance or in vigor of growth of the 

 micro-organisms. It would appear, therefore, 

 that an exposure for ten hours to a temperature 

 of about — 250° C. has no appreciable effect on 

 the vitality of micro-organisms. Dr. Macfadyen 

 and Mr. Rowland hope in a future communi- 

 cation to extend their observation upon the in- 

 fluence of the temperature of liquid hydrogen 

 on vital phenomena, and to discuss their bear- 

 ing upon problems of vitality. 



The new session of the Royal Geographical 

 Society, London, as we learn from the London 

 Times, began on November 12th, when it was 

 expected that the president. Sir Clements Mark- 



