262 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIV. No. 350 



tion of ptomaines. Thus, in the case of the pus-forming organ- 

 isms, it has been shown that they can much more readily attack the 

 living tissues when the latter are inflamed ; and it has also been 

 shown that the ptomaines, some of them at least, do thus prepare 

 the tissues for the microbes by exciting inflammation. In a broad, 

 area of suppuration the ptomaines diffuse into the tissues out 

 beyond the sphere of direct bacterial action, and the organisms 

 follow closely in the wake of the inflammatory area thus formed. 

 This was observed to be the course of events, in the keratitis ex- 

 cited by Leber with cadaverine. 



Typhoid, cholera, and many other organisms, are destroyed when 

 injected directly into the blood ; but in later stages of these, as of 

 most infectious diseases, the organisms -are found often in large 

 numbers in the circulating fluid. It is very possible that the 

 changes in the blood which permit of the growth of the organisms 

 are due in part to the action of ptomaines on the blood itself ; but 

 it is also probable that they are due to changes in general nutrition, 

 affecting the organs by means of which the blood is formed. This, 

 however, is a branch of the subject on which we have only just be- 

 gun to speculate, and on which little work has been done. 



On the other hand, we have considerable positive knowledge in 

 regard to an opposite action of ptomaines ; namely, the rendering 

 of tissues refractory to the action of microbes. It has long been 

 known that the growth of micro-organisms in artificial culture- 

 media, in very many instances, soon produces such changes that 

 the media are no longer capable of supporting baterial life. Vari- 

 ous explanations have been offered of this phenomenon ; but it is 

 now definitely settled, particularly by the experiments of Garre and 

 Freudenreich, that it is in most instances due to the production of 

 substances which exert a hostile influence upon the vegetation of 

 the organisms. This explanation is of very great imjjortance, both 

 practical and theoretical, in relation to immunity, particularly ac- 

 quired immunity, in animals. Various theories have from time to 

 time been advanced to account for this phenomenon. 



1. The theory was advanced by Pasteur and Klebs that the im- 

 munity was due to the consumption by the organisms of certain 

 ingredients of the tissues which were necessary for the growth of 

 the organisms, and which were not afterwards replaced. This 

 "exhaustion hypothesis" has now been generally abandoned as 

 not in accord with observed facts. 



2. The theory of Metchnikoff is, that the invading organisms are 

 devoured by the leucocytes, which, by this exercise of their func- 

 tions, acquire an increased power in this direction which can be 

 effectually exercised on a subsequent occasion. 



3. Lastly, it has been suspected, that, during the first attack of 

 an infectious disease, soluble substances are elaborated which 

 exert such a physiological action on the tissues that the latter are 

 enabled to resist the inroads of the organisms ; and that this re- 

 fractory condition remains a longer or shorter time, until it is lost 

 through the regular metabolic changes of the animal body. This 

 is the " retention hypothesis," and is favored by most of the evi- 

 dence which has been accumulating during the last few years. 



The immunity which is thus produced has varying degrees of 

 permanency. In malarial and relapsing fevers where there is a 

 distinct remission, it is probable that the organisms produce a sub- 

 stance which is a poison to themselves as well as their host, and 

 that its presence in ihe blood destroys or drives out the organisms 

 in that fluid, while those that are in the spleen and other lymphatic 

 glands remain unaffected. This constitutes the remission, which 

 only lasts a short time, until the objectionable substances disappear 

 or until the corpuscular elements which have been made refractory 

 have been replaced by others newly formed. In such instances the 

 refractory condition is very brief. In other cases, as in anthrax, 

 studied by Roux and Chamberland, or the experimental cholera of 

 Lowenthal, the immunity may last a few days or weeks. In still 

 other cases it may continue indefinitely, as in measles and small- 

 pox. 



The success of so many experimenters in obtaining immunity in 

 animals by the administration of chemical substances opens up the 

 most hopeful field of therapeutic research. 



Much was expected from prophylactic inoculations with attenu- 

 ated but living virus ; but the difficulty of keeping the virus of the 

 proper degree of virulence, and the danger that arises from the fact 



that every inoculation establishes a focus from which the disease 

 may spread in severe form, have prevented these expectations from 

 being fully realized. But if immunity can be secured by the use of 

 chemical substances, "the action of which can be measured and 

 regulated, and which can be prepared outside of the body, we 

 shall obtain an invaluable means of controlling the infectious dis- 

 eases. 



Every experiment which throws any light on this -important sub- 

 ject is worthy of close attention, and, if verified, is a step towards 

 the solution of the great problem of the prevention of disease. 



RUSSIAN LITERATURE. 



In The Picblishers Weekly for Oct. 12 is printed a statistical 

 report, compiled from official sources, of the number of boqks pub- 

 lished and printed in the Russian Empire (excepting Finland) 

 during 1888. The number of titles recorded amounted to 7,427 ; 

 the total number of copies printed, 21,103,272. Of these, 5,318' 

 books were in the Russian language, 716 in Polish, 343 in Hebrew, 

 311 in German, 217 in Lettic, and 178 in Esthonian. The follow- 

 ing is a classified list, in tabulated form, showing the number of 

 titles and the editions printed of books in the Russian language : — 



Works. 



Works of reference 629 



Educational : 



Religious 521 



General 720 



General 848 



Medical 445 



History 256 



Jurisprudence 176 



Agriculture .. 17^ 



Military science rsg 



155 



liles. 



Geography and travels 144 



Popular literature 142 



Political economy 115 



Technology' 101 



Natural history 93 



Pedagogics 60 



Art 52 



Philosophy 46 



Mathematics 



Mathematics 



Politics, etc 



Miscellaneous 



Copies 

 printed. 

 3,877,092 



3.334.182 

 1,953,818 

 446,985 

 288,023 

 248,206 

 214,819 

 211,944 

 178,623 

 545.662 



I 45 j 



(43 I 



5.318 17.395.050 



Among the books of reference there are catalogued 155 Russian 

 almanacs, of which 1,537,649 copies were printed. Besides these, 

 there were also 205 almanacs in other than the Russian language. 

 St. Petersburg and Moscow, of course, lead in the production of 

 literature. Then follow Warsaw, Odessa, Riga, Kasan, Kiew, 

 Tiflis, Wilna, Dorpat, Charkow, Reval, Mitau,etc. The total num- 

 ber of periodicals was 667, of which 493 were printed in the Rus- 

 sian language, 76 in Polish, 49 in German, 13 in Esthonian, 8 in 

 Lettic, 7 in French, etc. The most of these are printed in St. 

 Petersburg. The statistics showing the proportion of inhabitants 

 to the daily journals issued are most remarkable. It appears, that, 

 taking European and Asiatic Russia together, there is but one 

 journal to 484,590 inhabitants. The proportions taken in the cities, 

 for instance, show, in Reval, one daily journal to 8,550 inhabitants ; 

 in Riga, one to 13,490 ; in Tiflis, one to 14,860; in St. Petersburg, 

 one to 28,970; and in Moscow, one to 75,350. This gives one a 

 tolerably clear idea of the intellectual development of the masses. 



M. Pawlenkow gives the following facts concerning the prices 

 some of the prominent Russian authors realized for their work. 

 Shortly before his death, Turguenieff sold the rights in all his pub- 

 lished works, " for all time," to Glasunow, for 90,000 rubles (over 

 $69,300). The publishing-house of Ssalajewy offered to the nov- 

 elist Shtshedrin for his writings 60,000 rubles, but the transaction 

 was not consummated. Gogol received 60.000 rubles ; Pushkin, 

 35,000 rubles; Schukowskij, 5,000 rubles; Krylow (for his fables), 

 14,000 rubles; Nekrassow, 15,000 rubles; Gontsharow, 35,000 

 rubles ; Ostrowskij, 10,000 rubles (for one edition) ; Grigorowitsh, 

 5,000 rubles ; Aksakow, 3,000 rubles (for one edition) ; Mey, 1,000 

 rubles. The popular author, Gleb Uspenskij, sold his works to 

 Pawlenkow and Ssibirjakow for 25,000 rubles. Pawlenkow printed 



