SEPTEMBER 3, 1897. ] 
Apropos of argentaurum, Dr. Emmens 
and Newton W. Emmens publish in the 
Chemical News a short article on ‘ Migrant 
Matter,’ describing an experiment in which 
a dise of pure lead connected with a disc of 
pure silver by a copper spiral was kept in a 
wide-mouthed bottle for twelve weeks. At 
the end of this period the lead dise on cu- 
pellation is said to have given a silver bead 
weighing 0.00003 gram. ‘It would appear 
from this experiment that what is com- 
monly recognized as solid silver is, in part 
at least, a migrant mode of matter * * *, 
We use the term ‘ migrant matter’ because 
the traveling particles to which we refer are 
(in common with odors generally) much 
more akin to Crookes’s ‘ fourth form’ than 
to gases.” 
J. L. H. 
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 
THE INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CONGRESS. 
THE New York Medical Record, with great 
enterprise, secured by cable a report, extending 
to a number of pages, of the Twelfth Interna- 
tional Medical Congress, which opened at Mos- 
cow on August 19th. After the Congress had 
been opened by the Grand Duke Sergius and 
welcomed by the Minister of Public Instruction, 
Hospodin Dylianoy, Professor Sklifosovsky, the 
President of the Committee of Organization, 
made an address in which he dwelt especially 
on the relations of Russia to the rest of Europe in 
regard to medical and scientific work. Hesaid 
that one great obstacle to medical progress was 
the want of a common medium of communica- 
tion between the men of science of different 
nationalities. Nowhere was this almost fatal 
lack so fully realized asin Russia. The great 
mass of Russian medical literature was a sealed 
book to Western peoples, and few outside of the 
country had any conception of the enormous 
amount o¥ scientific work that was being done 
there. Russians recognized that their language 
was too difficult ever to become universally 
known, and they were therefore the more 
keenly alive to the necessity of the adoption of 
some international speech. He would suggest 
SCIENCE. 361 
the appointment of a committee to draft a pre- 
liminary agreement on the subject, which should 
be laid before the next congress for considera- 
tion. The General Secretary, Professor Roth, 
reported an attendance of 7,300 members in 
Moscow. Of this number more than 3,500 were 
from Russia, 800 from Germany, as many from 
Austria, 400 from France, 300 from Italy, 300 
from England, 120 from the United States, 30 
from Mexico, 10 from Japan and 4 from China. 
Prince Gallitzin, the Mayor of Moscow, then 
greeted the members of the Congress on behalf 
of the municipality and announced that the city 
of Moscow had decided to establish a prize of 
5,000 frances, to be awarded at each interna- 
tional congress, to the person who in the interval 
since the preceding congress shall have done 
that medical work which shall be deemed of 
the greatest benefit to humanity. Addresses 
were then made by the national delegates, and 
the honorary presidents were announced as 
follows: Germany—Virchow, Leyden, Ziems- 
sen and Waldeyer; Austria — Gussenbauer, 
Hlawa and Rudiger; Great Britain—Stokes, 
MacCormac and Simpson; United States—Senn 
and Thayer (Billings, it was announced, would 
have been one of this number had he not been 
absent); Spain—Robert; France—Lannelongue, 
Le Dentu, Grasset and Pinard; Italy—D’An- 
tona, Bottini and Lombroso. 
General addresses were given by Professor 
Virchow on the continuity of life; by Professor ~ 
Lannelongue on the sclerogenic treatment of 
surgical tuberculosis; by Dr. T. Lauder Brunton 
on the relationship of physiology, pharma- 
cology, pathology and practical medicine; by 
Professor von Krafft-Ebing on etiology of pro- 
gressive general paralysis; by Dr. Senn on 
classification and surgical treatment of acute 
peritonitis ; by Dr. Metchnikoff on the plague, 
and by Dr. Robert on the mutual relations of 
pathology and therapeutics. 
The next international congress will be held 
at Paris in the summer of 1900, with Professor 
Lannelongue as President of the Committee of 
Organization. 
THE SEAL FISHERIES. 
Dr. DAVID STARR JORDAN, Commissioner-in- 
chief of the fur seal investigations for the United 
