May 2^, 1 89 1.] 



SCIENCE. 



297 



Thp epidemic of 1854 was not strictly a separate invasion, but 

 rather a resuscitation of the last, which had lingered in the south 

 and east of Europe and the west of Asia until called into fresh ac- 

 tivity by the Crimean war. Every country in Europe and 

 America was again invaded. The incidents of the outbreaks in 

 America threw great light on the conveyance of the disease by 

 fomites. The epidemic of 1865-66, which was the first to come 

 wholly by the Red Sea, spread rapidly over Europe and America ; 

 but had scarcely subsided when a fresh explosion occurred at the 

 Hurdwar fair in India in 1867, whence it was carried to Persia 

 and Russia, being re-intensified en route by the pilgrimage at 

 Great Mesched in 1868, and the fairs at Nijni Novgorod in 1869 

 and 1870. 



At the close of the Franco- Grerman war every country in Europe 

 was attacked except Great Britain, and America succeeded in 

 averting its importation until 1873. By 1874 it had, however, 

 disappeared everywhere on this side of India. In 1881-83 it pre- 

 vailed in Arabia and Egypt; in 1884 it made its appearance in 

 France, and soon raged throughout Italy and Spain. The influ- 

 ence of pure water supplies was brought into special prominence, 

 not only in the case of single towns in Italy and Spain, but in the 

 almost complete immunity enjoyed by Germany, which had pre- 

 viously suffered heavily in every epidemic. 



Cholera lingered in the south until the end of 1885, since which 

 date it had been absent from the continent of Europe untU the 

 isolated outbreak in Spain in 1890. This, Dr. Willoughby was 

 convinced, was not imported from the East, but was a recrudes- 

 cence of the epidemic of 1884^-85, brought about by excavations 

 in infected ground. Still cholera had, since 1888, been slowly 

 but steadily advancing by the Persian Gulf and the extensions of 

 that route. It had last year reached the shores of the Caspian and 

 Black Seas, and had raged at Mecca, though Egypt had almost 

 miraculously escaped, and it had persisted at Aleppo and the 

 Syrian ports certainly as late as January of the present year. He 

 had little doubt, that, as its march had closely corresponded with 

 that in 1845-47, we might expect history to repeat itself in an in- 

 vasion of southern and eastern Europe during the coming sum- 

 mer, unless, as in 1823 and 1839, it should retire, after having 

 thus approached the confines of Europe. If, however, it had not 

 already really died out, the vast increase of communication be- 

 tween the two continents rendered such recession less probable 

 than it was fifty years ago. The paper was illustrated by a num- 

 ber of maps showing the great routes and the course of each epi- 

 demic in Asia, Europe, and America. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



DtmiNG the early part of May, according to the Cairo corre- 

 spondent of the London Times, there have been in Upper and 

 Lower Egypt large swarms of locusts, which have caused much 

 alarm, as it is believed that they originate from eggs laid last 

 year. The damage done to the young maize, sugar, and cotton is 

 as yet insignificant, though some individual growers have had to 

 re-sow cotton patches which had been devastated. The provincial 

 mudirs have received orders to do everything in their power to 

 secure the extermination of the locusts. The correspondent says 

 that this is the most serious reappearance of an old Egyptian 

 plague that has been recorded for about forty years. 



— The National Geographic Society was organized in January, 

 1888, ''to increase and diffuse geographic knowledge." It is in- 

 corporated under the laws of the District of Columbia, and has at 

 present an active membership of about four hundred. The publi- 

 cation of a magazine was early determined upon as one of the 

 means of increasing and diffusing geographic knowledge, and two 

 volumes of the National Geographic Magazine have been pub- 

 lished in the form of a quarterly journal. During the past two 

 years it has been found that the form of publication adopted at 

 the outset meets but imperfectly the needs of the society. In the 

 first place, since the season of active work in the society includes 

 the winter months only, there was an excess of material for the 

 two earlier numbers and a dearth of material for the two later 

 numbers of the volume; and in the second place, the necessity for 



holding articles until sufficient material for a number was re- 

 ceived sometimes led to delay in publishing interesting and im- 

 portant matter. Accordingly it has been decided to discontinue the 

 quarterly form and to publish the magazine in the form of a series 

 of brochures, each issued as promptly as possible after reception 

 of the material. While the National Geographic Magazine is 

 edited by and constitutes the organ of the National Geographic 

 Society, it is not limited to this function; and, as was announced 

 in the first number of the journal, " its pages will be open to all 

 persons interested in geography, in the hope that it may become a 

 channel of intercommunication, stimulate geographic investiga- 

 tion, and prove an acceptable medium for the publication of re- 

 sults." The aim of the founders has been to form a continental 

 rather than a local society. That this aim has measurably suc- 

 ceeded is indicated by the fact that although the National Gecj- 

 graphic Society is only three years old there are fifty-seven non- 

 resident members, distributed over twenty-seven states and terri- 

 tories. One of the means adopted by the National Geographic So- 

 ciety for increasing geographic knowledge has been, as is well 

 known, that of exploration. 



— The annual report of Daniel Draper, Ph.D., director of the 

 New York Meteorological Observatory for the year 1890, shows 

 that during the past year the daily work of the observatory 

 has been uninterruptedly kept up, and complete registers have 

 been obtained of the temperature and pressure of the air ; of the 

 direction, force, and velocity of the wind ; of the total amount of 

 every rain, the temporary variation of every shower, and the 

 depth of every suow. Not a day, even including Sundays and 

 holidays, has been lost. The registers containing all this large 

 amount of information have been properly arranged and filed 

 away in suitable books. Readings are taken at Smithsonian 

 hours, and also hourly readings from self-recording instruments. 

 Eye observations of clouds are recorded, and the daily and 

 monthly means, etc., are calculated from the instrumental rec- 

 ords. 



— Bulletin No. 49 of the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station 

 contains a communication from Mr. G. B. Strong of Cuyahoga 

 County, Ohio, giving an account of his experience in spraying 

 plum-trees the past season. He sprayed forty trees with London 

 purple, at the rate of one pound to 150 gallons of water. Three 

 applications were made, the first one being applied when the fruit 

 was about the size of a small pea. The spray was put on until 

 the leaves began to drip. Twenty-five bushels of plums were 

 gathered from the forty trees, and not one per cent of the crop 

 was stung. Two trees in the vicinity that were not sprayed had 

 all their fiuit stung. The foliage was injured somewhat, so Mr. 

 Strong says that the solution was too strong, and that hereafter he 

 will use one pound of London purple to 300 gallons of water, 

 spraying more lightly, and applying only twice unless a third ap- 

 plication becomes necessary. It is probable that Paris green 

 would be better for spraying plum-trees than London purple, as it 

 usually contains less soluble arsenic, and consequently is less liable 

 to injure delicate foliage. It may be used at the rate of three 

 ounces to fifty gallons of water. Some spraying experiments were 

 also made by Mx. William Jliller, a leading fruit grower of Ottawa 

 County, Ohio, Having two pear orchards several rods apart, the 

 fruit of which had for some years been greatly injured by the 

 plum curculio, he determined to spray one of them. The larger 

 orchard, containing several hundred trees, was accordingly 

 sprayed twice with London purple — four ounces to fifty gallons 

 of water. The fruit in this orchard was very much less injured 

 by the cui-culio and other insects than that in the other orchard, 

 which had not been sprayed. Mr. Miller also found the spraying 

 machine a decided help in fighting the curculio in his plum or- 

 chard, although ho did not rely upon it altogether, but used the 

 jarring method part of the time. In 1888 the station sprayed a 

 number of pear trees with London purple in the proportion of 

 eight ounces to fifty gallons of water. At the same time other 

 trees were sprayed with the same mixture, except that half a peck 

 of fresh slaked lime was added. It was then found that while the 

 trees sprayed with London purple alone had their foliage decidedly 

 injured by the application, those sprayed with the lime and Lon- 



