August 23, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



129 



six years ago he had always enjoyed the best possible health. The 

 author did not admit that this was a case of de ttovo development, 

 though the period of incubation was extraordinarily long. The 

 germ must have been dormant, like the " mummy " wheat, for 

 neaily forty years. 



After referring to the present unsatisfactory nomenclature of 

 varieties, and to the army and navy records of the disease, he, in 

 conclusion, summed up, and. had time allowed, \^^^uld have ad- 

 duced arguments in support of the theories that leprosy is caused 

 by the bacillus, that the disease is communicable from person to 

 person, and that segregation is justifiable. Microscopic specimens, 

 prepared by the author, were exhibited, showing the bacillus lepra 

 scraped from the tongue and mouth of a patient, and sections of 

 dermal nodules, anesthetic skin, nerves, etc. Many of the refer- 

 ences were from hitherto unpublished sources, both private and 

 official. 



Death from Electricity. 



A DEATH recently occurred at Brighton, England, from the ac- 

 cidental contact of the conducting wire of the electric lighting ap- 

 paratus with the neck of one of the employees at a brewery. The 

 deceased was " found dead " in the neighborhood of the fatal elec- 

 trical conductor, and a report in a local newspaper states that a 

 post-mortem examination revealed perfectly healthy organs, the 

 only abnormality in this case being " a mark half-way round the 

 neck as if grazed by the wire." With the extension of electric 

 lighting, says the Lancet, occasional fatalities of this kind are to be 

 expected, and the number of deaths from this cause has already 

 been considerable. In the case recently reported there was, it is 

 to be observed, a slight mark upon the body, and in a case which 

 occurred in 1884 a blister was found upon one of the fingers of the 

 deceased with which contact had been accidentally made by the 

 machine. In other cases there has been no mark whatever, so 

 that we may conclude that the pathological evidence of the cause 

 of death in such cases is almost nil. It seems to us of the greatest 

 i mportance that these accidents should be carefully studied, and it 

 would almost seem to be the duty of the local government board 

 to send a trained pathologist to attend the post-mortem examina- 

 tion of every case which occurs, in order that a careful comparison 

 might be established between the cases, and any points wh'ch they 

 might present in common be duly noted. This could only be done 

 by one having considerable accumulated experience, and such ex- 

 perience could only come to one having such opportunities as an 

 official position would give. 



The matter is of very great importance, becatise a cause of death 

 which is, so to say, gradually becoming omnipresent, and which 

 leaves no mark, is tolerably sure to be made use of for criminal 

 purposes, and if there be any certain means of establishing how 

 death took place, a knowledge of this would be the only means of 

 checking the misdeeds of persons with criminal intentions. It 

 generally has happened hitherto that the surrounding circumstances 

 have left no doubt as to the cause of death, but it is not reasonable 

 to suppose that such would always be the case, and if it suited the 

 crafty schemes of a criminal it might very easily be contrived 

 otherwise. In short, there is no doutat that we ought to use every 

 endeavor to increase our exact knowledge of this cause of death, 

 and we can only hope that post-mortem examinations will be care- 

 fully made in all cases which occur, and that practitioners will re- 

 gard it as a duty which they owe to the profession and the public 

 to place upon record the results of such examinations. 



Cancer. — A small commune in Normandy, Saint Sylvestre-de- 

 Courcelles, with a present population of only 379, as compared with 

 50Q twenty years ago, has in th.e eight years 1880 to 1887 lost no 

 fewer than eleven of its inhabitants, between the ages of sixty-two 

 and eighty-three, from cancer, — a proportion of 15 per cent of the 

 total mortality. All but one of the cases were males, and in as 

 many as eight the cancer was seated in the stomach. Such facts 

 have led Dr. Arnaudet, according to L' Union Medicale, to con- 

 clude that cancer is contagious, and is propagated through the 

 medium of water. It is true, he remarks, that not one of the 

 eleven persons mentioned were water drinkers, but then they drank 

 cider, which is made with the pond water of the district. Dr. Ar- 

 naudet thinks this sufficient ground to advocate the use of antisep- 



tics and of boiled water as prophylactics against cancer, as well as 

 against typhoid fever or phthisis. 



Typhus Bacilli in Water. — Several cases of typhoid have 

 recently occurred in a town in the province of Baden, Germany, and 

 it came to light that three of the patients first affected procured 

 their drinking water from the same well. The water was then 

 examined, the strictest precautions being used to prevent infection 

 from other sources. In three days the cultures were found to have 

 developed on an average one hundred and forty thousand colonies 

 to the cubic centimetre. Ten tests had been made, but only in one 

 of these was there found a single colony of typhoid bacilli. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



It is officially announced that a general national exhibition of 

 agriculture and sylviculture will be held at Vienna, next year, from 

 the 15th of May to the 15th of October. The exhibition is to in- 

 clude the following international sections : (i) machinery and im- 

 plements used in agriculture, sylviculture, and the industries cog- 

 nate to them, such as horticulture, viticulture, hop-growing, bees, 

 silk, fishing, and hunting ; (2) artificial and auxiliary branches of 

 agriculture, such as artificial manures, remedies for sick animals, 

 etc. ; (3) models, plans, designs, and statistical information respect- 

 ing agriculture and forestry ; (4) inventions dealing with the utili- 

 zation of waste material ; (5) information and suggestions respect- 

 ing the food supply of large cities. 



— The fifty-ninth annual meeting of the British Association will 

 be held at Newcastle-on-Tyne, beginning on Sept. 11 and 12 ; and 

 the Durham, Northumberland, and Newcastle Botanical and Hor- 

 ticultural Society has arranged to hold its autumn meeting and 

 exhibition at the same time and place. The local committee have 

 spared no efforts to make the arrangements for the meeting as 

 complete as possible, and their labors have been greatly lightened 

 by the fact that many fine buildings suitable for the purposes of 

 the association have been erected since it held its last meeting at 

 that place in 1863. The reception-rooms, occupying a central po- 

 sition with respect to the various section rooms, will be located in 

 the new buildings of the University of Durham College of Medi- 

 cine, in which building a writing-room and ladies' drawing-room 

 will be provided, and special rooms for the use of the officers of the 

 association. The Cambridge Drill Hall, near the reception-room, 

 is to be fitted up for a luncheon-room. Sections A and B will 

 meet in the new buildings of the College of Science, opened in 

 November last ; and in the chemical laboratory of this college it is 

 intended to bring together a series of exhibits illustrating the 

 chemical and allied manufactures of the district. The general 

 meetings of the Association will be held in St. George's Drill Hall. 

 The Natural History Museum, opened in 1884, in which building 

 is Mr. Hancock's unique collection of British birds, will be used for 

 the two soirees, the first to be given by the mayor and corporation, 

 and the second by the local committee. A guide-book, arranged 

 in three sections, has been prepared for the occasion, dealing re- 

 spectively with the history and topography, the geology and natural 

 history, and the industries of the district. 



— The Royal Society of New South Wales offers its medal and 

 a prize of ^25 for the best communication (provided it be of suffi- 

 cient merit) containing the results of original research or observa- 

 tion upon each of the following subjects, to be sent in not later 

 than May i, 1889: "Chemistry of the Australian Gums and 

 Resins; " "Aborigines of Australia; " " Iron Ore Deposits of New 

 South Wales ; " " List of the Marine Fauna of Port Jackson, with 

 Descriptive Notes as to Habits, Distribution, etc." The same 

 offer is made for the best communications on the following subjects, 

 to be sent in not later than May i, 1890, " Influence of the Austra- 

 lian Climate (general and local) in the Development and Modifica- 

 tion of Disease ; " " Silver Ore Deposits of New South Wales ; " 

 " Occurrence of Precious Stones in New South Wales, with a De- 

 scription of the Deposits in which they are found ; " also on the 

 following, to be sent in not later than May i, 1891, " Meteorology 

 of Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania;" "Anatomy and Life 

 History of the Echidna and Platypus ; " " Microscopic Structure of 

 Australian Rocks." The competition is in no way confined to 



