May 10, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



737 



also an adaptation to the different and 

 more active movements made by the cod in 

 feeding. 



C. JuDSON Heerick, 



Secretary 

 {To he continued) 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 

 Second Report of the Wellcome Research 

 Laboratories at the Gordon Memorial Col- 

 lege, Khartoum. Andrew Balfour, M.D., 

 etc.. Director. Department of Education, 

 Sudan Government, Elartoum 1906. Koyal 

 8vo. 255 pp., 21 plates, 106 figures. 

 The functions of the Wellcome Kesearch 

 Laboratories founded by private munificence 

 are thus expressed in the language of the 

 foundation : 



(a) To promote technical education; (b) to 

 promote the study, bacteriologically and 

 physiologically, of tropical disorders, espe- 

 cially the infective diseases of both man and 

 beast peculiar to the Sudan, and to render 

 assistance to the officers of health, and to the 

 clinics of the civil and military hospitals ; (c) 

 to aid exi)erimental investigations in poison- 

 ing cases by the detection and experimental 

 determination of toxic agents, particularly the 

 obscure potent substances employed by the na- 

 tives; (d) to carry out such chemical and 

 bacteriological tests in connection with water, 

 food stuffs, and health and sanitary matters 

 as may be found desirable ; (e) to promote the 

 study of disorders and pests which attack food 

 and textile producing and other economic 

 plant life in the Sudan; (f) to undertake the 

 testing and assaying of agricultural, mineral, 

 and other substances of practical interest in 

 the industrial development of the Sudan. 



The first report of these laboratories covered 

 the history of its work up to January, 1904; 

 the second, now before us, brings the record 

 down to the early part of 1906. The director. 

 Dr. Andrew Balfour, assisted by a staff of 

 five or six scientists, has achieved a piece of 

 work that from every standpoint deserves the 

 highest praise. The difficulties of scientific 

 work in a region so far removed from sup- 

 plies and necessities, to say nothing of con- 

 veniences, one where " native helpers have 

 proved to be only broken reeds," " not to be 



trusted beyond the bottle washing stage," can 

 not easily be over-estimated. Despite this the 

 field covered both in territory and in topics 

 investigated, is so broad and the results pre- 

 sented in the report so extensive, that only 

 the most important can be noted here. 



F. V. Theobald, the consulting ento- 

 mologist, has written a fine chapter on the 

 mosquitoes, as well as others on human, 

 animal and vegetal pests. E. E. Austen, of 

 the British Museum, London, has contributed 

 also a valuable chapter on blood-sucking 

 diptera from the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. 



The work reported by the director himself 

 is full of interest. It begins with a record 

 of mosquito work in Khartoum and the Anglo- 

 Egyptian Sudan. By the persistent work of 

 the mosquito brigade anophelines have been 

 practically abolished and the town kept in a 

 fairly satisfactory condition, one vastly differ- 

 ent from that which used to obtain. " At 

 Khartoum the subject is complicated by the 

 presence of mosquito-carrying steamers, boats 

 and barges. Were it not for these, success 

 would have crowned the efforts at extinction." 

 For about $350 in 1905 Khartoum was kept 

 free from malaria, and to a very large extent 

 also from the annoyance which usually adds 

 so much to the discomforts of life in the 

 tropics; a trivial expense for such immunity. 



Of other biting insects the distribution of 

 Glossina morsitans, the carrier of trypano- 

 somiasis in animals has been found to be 

 somewhat general in the southern Sudan, and 

 G. palpalis, the vector of the human try- 

 panosome, has been positively identified from 

 the extreme southern limits of the country. 

 Valuable data are given on the habits of other 

 biting insects, including the Congo floor mag- 

 got, and the true jigger, or Chigoe, not here- 

 tofore reported from the Sudan. Some records 

 of ticks and an extended discussion of Aphis 

 sorghi and of locust swarms, and their de- 

 structive work as well as of their parasites, are 

 worthy of note. 



A hsemogregarine from the jerboa, or desert 

 rat, which was the first to be found in mam- 

 mals, is described in detail and well illus- 

 trated. It is similar to one since reported by 

 Captain Christophers in India. The free 

 motile stage was observed only three times, but 



