I50 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVIII. No. 449 



to the work of the experiment stations themselves. I cannot 

 help feeling that much of their effort has not heen so eco- 

 nomically applied as it might he. It is, of course, an inter- 

 esting fact to know what the growing power of a pumpkin 

 is, for example. How many tons a water-melon vine can 

 lift in the course of a year, and similar items of information, 

 may, in the course of time, when all added together, produce 

 valuable practical resiilts; but I cannot but believe that a 

 much larger share of the time and effort should be devoted 

 to ascertaining the possible uses of the thousand-and-one 

 forms of vegetable life around us. Man progresses but 

 slowly. Of the thousands of plants which cover the face of 

 the earth we have found use for comparatively few. They 

 are mostly still ranked in the category of weeds, i.e., useless 

 or injurious plants. It has not been so very long since the 

 potato was in this categor;y. Now it is my opinion that 

 every plant has some valuable use or other if we only knew 

 it. It is pre-eminently the work of such scientific stations 

 to enlarge the number of useful plants by such experimenta- 

 tion as shall test their applicability to one or another of the 

 practical arts. He who makes two blades of grass to grow 

 where only one grew before is a benefactor of the race. 

 How much more a benefactor he who gives two useful plants 

 instead of one. Who can calculate the advantage to hu- 

 manity of the development of the potato or of the sugar 

 beet? 



The scientific experimental station, then, should give us 

 new plants, naturalize those already known, and determine 

 the best conditions for the cultivation of all kinds which may 

 be made to grow in any given locality. The same thing 

 should be done, of course, for animals as for vegetables. 

 There is little doubt that in each State, for example, many 

 plants and animals could be profitably cultivated which are 

 practically unknown at present. The experimental stations 

 should work at these problems until they are successfully 

 solved. I say at each station, for the station of Pennsylva- 

 nia, or that of Illinois, or Ohio, will benefit Alabama only 

 indirectly, since crops which will grow very well in the for- 

 mer States will not grow well in the latter, and many which 

 might prove profitable in the latter would not grow in those 

 States at all. Each locality must solve its own problems in 

 this respect for itself. It has been found, for example, even 

 in such a small country as Germany, that a beet which will 

 produce a large quantity of sugar in one part of the country, 

 when taken to another loses its sugar very quickly. How 

 much more would that be the case in such a country as our 

 own. 



Let us keep up our experiment stations then. Watch 

 them' closely, to see that they are at work at useful things, 

 but support them liberally. See to it that the federal gov- 

 ernment, which has now begun the support of these institu- 

 tions, shall deal liberally with them. Give them all the 

 money they can wisely use. We shall flud that that will be 

 a great deal, and you will find that it will very well pay for 

 itself. 



HEALTH MATTERS. 



The Tetaniferous Man. 



Veeneuil applies this term to the individual who carries the 

 virus of tetanus around on his person, although unaffected by the 

 disease himself. The author discusses the causes and means of 

 prevention of this affection from a clinical standpoint. If one 

 considers the horse, with its secretions, excretions, arid surround- 

 ings, as all-capable of propagating tetanus, we cannot regard as 

 impossible infection by the secretions and excretions of man. The 



tetanic property of equine saliva has been demonstrated. The 

 saliva of a human being may, for the time being, contain tetanus 

 germs, and thus a bite from such an individual may cause tetanus. 

 A case is given illustrating this. The secretions and excretions 

 are only infected by the ingesta, so that the sperm, milk, and 

 urine are never infected by the virus. He says, according to the 

 University Medical Magazine: "I have already admitted, and 

 now I admit more than ever, that a surgeon vvho lias dressed a 

 tetanoid patient may communicate the disease to other patients. 

 I also admit that any person whatever, but above all a pliysician 

 whose hands have been in contact with a horse, not tetanic, but 

 simply tetaniferous, may infect the wounds of his fellow-beings, 

 as in the cases cited. I also admit, finally, that such a man is not 

 only dangerous to those whom he approaches, but may even give 

 himself tetanus by auto-inoculation, either by wounding a part of 

 the skin impregnated with the virus, as the plantar and palmar 

 regions, or touching a wound on any part of his body with his 

 impure hands." Two cases follow, in %vhich he traces the cause 

 to a wound inflicted on the skin, which Was previously infected 

 with the tetanic vii-us. The bacillus of Nicolaier was found in one 

 of these cases. Three additional cases are given with a very care- 

 ful analytical study of each. 



London's Soot. 



The amount of carbonaceous and other particles dejiosited upon 

 glass houses is a good indication of what the London atmosphere 

 contains, and in many places it is only possible to procure a due 

 admission of light to the plants by frequently washmg the glass 

 roofs. At one establishment, says the Pharmaceutical Record, 

 two tanks constructed to collect the rain from a house completed 

 a few years since, were cleared out, and no less than ten barrow- 

 loads of sooty matter were removed, all of which must have been 

 conveyed into the tanks from the glass. One scientific man has 

 been engaged in computing the amount of soot deposited from 

 London air, and arrived at the following conclusions. He collected 

 the smoke deposited on a patch of snow in Canonbury one square 

 link (about 8 inches) in extent, and obtained from it two grains of 

 soot. As London covers 110 square miles, this would give us for 

 the whole area 1,000 tons. As the quantity measured fell in 10 

 days, a month's allowance would need 1,000 hoi'ses to cart it off, 

 and these stretched in a line would extend four miles. 



Origin and Role of Pus Cells. 



Professor Ranvier made an interesting communication at a re- 

 cent meeting of the Academy of Sciences on the orisjin and signi- 

 fication of pus cells. He said (Brit. Med. Jour.) that for some 

 years past histologists generally were agreed that the cells of pus 

 were none other than the white corpuscles of the blood, which had 

 emigrated from the vessels at the time suppuration was set up. 

 He found it difficult, however, to believe that the blood could 

 yield in this way, and in a time comparatively short, the enormous 

 quantity of pus found in many pathological conditions, such, for 

 example, as the purulent infection of wounds, accidental ,and 

 operative. That the white cells do emigrate in the manner gen- 

 erally accepted he had no doubt. This takes place under normal 

 physiological conditions, while it is still more pronounced in cer- 

 tain pathological states not ending in actual inflammation, in the 

 process of which it is, of course, abundantly evident. What his 

 experiments led him to establish, however, was that pus cells had 

 also quite another origin, viz.. the transformation into lymph cells 

 of clasmatocytes, elements derived from migratory cells, which 

 under the influence of irritation revert to an embryonic condition 

 and proliferate rapidly. As to the role of the pus cells, M. 

 Metchniboff has shown the importance of lymphatic cells in the 

 combat of the organism against microbes. In simple inflamma- 

 tion determined by caustics, or other irritant agents, their rvle is 

 not less important. They eliminate the dead elements, and thus 

 prepare the way for the processes of regeneration. 



The Value of the Tongue as a Respirator. 



J. M. Elborough writes as follows to the Lancet : It is not gen- 

 erally known that nature has provided each of us with the best 

 respirator always at hand in the tongue. For years I have per- 



