December 28, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



1011 



were originally published at Neufch^tel in 1783. 

 This useful series of reprints also contains two 

 other volumes of distinctly meteorological in- 

 terest, viz.. No. 57, 'Fahrenheit, Reaumur, 

 Celsius, Abhandlungen iiber Thermometrie. 

 1724, 1730-1733, 1742,' and No. 58, 'Otto von 

 Guericke's neue Magdeburgische Versuche iiber 

 den leeren Raum., 1672.' The work of de 

 Saussure in connection with hygrometry was 

 of marked importance, and it is well to have 

 interest in it revived by means of this attractive 

 little volume, the price of which is but 2 m. 60 

 Pf. The book contains a brief biographical 

 sketch of de Saussure, and also a number of 

 notes on the text. The publisher is Engel- 

 mann, of Leipzig. 



BRITISH RAINFALL FOR 1899. 



The fortieth volume of ' Symons's British 

 Rainfall,' that for the year 1899, is the first one 

 of the long series of these annual reports w^hich 

 has been compiled by anyone but Mr. Symons 

 himself. Owing to the death of the founder 

 of the British Rainfall service on March 10, 

 1900, the duty of compiling the annual report 

 has devolved upon Mr. H. S. Wallis, who was 

 associated with Mr. Symons for 30 years. 

 'British Rainfall' for 1899 appropriately con- 

 tains an appreciative notice of Mr. Symons's 

 life and work, together with an excellent por- 

 trait of that distinguished meteorologist. The 

 number of observers from whom records are 

 received is now about 3,500. Besides the 

 usual full presentation of the results of the 

 year's observations, the present volume con- 

 tains a discussion of the average rainfall of the 

 decade 1890-99, as determined by records at a 

 hundred stations well distributed over England, 

 Scotland and Ireland. 



SCIENTIFIC BALLOON VOYAGES. 



Notice has been received of a new work on 

 balloon meteorology, issued by Friedr. Vieweg 

 und Sohn, Braunschweig. The title of the 

 work is ' Wissenschaftliche Luftfahrten, ausge- 

 fiihrt vom Deutschen Verein zur Forderung der 

 Luftschiffahrt in Berlin.' The authors are Drs. 

 Assmann and Berson, and associated with them 

 are the following well-known meteorologists 

 or aeronauts : Baschin, von Bezold, Bornstein, 

 Gross, Kremser, Stade and Siiring. There are 



three volumes. The first deals with the history 

 of balloon ascents and with the instruments 

 and their use ; the second contains accounts of 

 individual ascents, and the meteorological re- 

 sults obtained on them, and the third volume 

 summarizes the whole subject, giving the most 

 important results. The price of the work is 

 100 Marks. 



R. DeC. Ward. 



YELLOW FEVER AND MOSQUITOES. 



Medical authorities are by no means agreed 

 as to the value of the experiments on the rela- 

 tions between yellow fever and mosquitoes car- 

 ried out at Havana by Drs. Reed, Carroll, Agra- 

 monte and Lazear. The British Medical Journal 

 remarks editorially: " At first glance these ex- 

 periments appear to show almost conclusively 

 that the germ of yellow fever is conveyed by a 

 special species of mosquito — Culex fasciatus, 

 presumably — and that the insect becomes in- 

 fective only after from ten to thirteen days 

 from the time of ingestion of the germ. Unfor- 

 tunately the mode in which the experiments 

 were conducted detracts much from their value. 

 They are really by no means conclusive. The 

 experimenters themselves are of this opinion. 

 At most they are suggestive. It is to be re- 

 gretted that, considering the great danger to 

 which the subjects of these experiments were 

 exposed, greater care was not exercised that 

 the conditions of the experiments were abso- 

 lutely free from objection. If life was to be 

 risked, it was surely imperative that this risk 

 should not be incurred in vain; that it should 

 be unnecessary to go over the ground afresh, 

 and thereby entail further risk. 



Manifest objections to the conclusion that the 

 mosquito did convey the disease in the three 

 cases which yielded a positive result are, 

 first, that nine out of the twelve individuals 

 subjected to mosquito bite did not contract yel- 

 low fever ; secondly, that those individuals who 

 did contract the disease had entered the local 

 endemic yellow fever area about the time they 

 were bitten ; they might have contracted the 

 disease in the ordinary way, therefore, and not 

 from the experimental mosquitoes ; thirdly, that 

 the germ of yellow fever has been recognized 

 neither in the mosquito nor in human blood. 



