August 19, 1892.] 



SCIENCE. 



103 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



The question whether an attack of influenza confers protec- 

 tion from subsequent infection is one which must have often 

 arisen during the experiences of the last three years, but the data 

 for its solution are not yet fully available. The amount of infor- 

 mation which must have been gleaned by the family practitioner 

 in all parts of the country upon this and many other points con- 

 cerning the malady would, if collated, go far to settle the matter. 

 It is of course notorious that certain individuals have suffered 

 from more than one attack ; but the conviction is pretty general 

 that such cases really form but a small minority of the large num- 

 bers who have suffered. Then, again, it must be deemed possible 

 that the degree and duration of the protection may depend on the 

 severity which the primary attack exbibited, for one can hardly 

 invoke the doctrine of attenuation of virus in the case of this dis- 

 ease, which shows so much variation from the ordinary course 

 of infective disorders in general. In a highly interesting con- 

 tribution upon the features of the present epidemic in Berlin, ac- 

 cording to Lancet, Dr. Ruhemann directs especial attention to 

 this question of protection and affords valuable evidence of it. 

 He aptly remarks that the more gradual evolution and persistent 

 character of the present epidemic, as compared with the rapid 

 and stormy course of the pandemic of 1889 to 1890, have afforded 

 opportunity for more closely studying the character of the malady, 

 and that it has especially enabled us to recognize more clearly its 

 contagious nature. According to him, influenza has prevailed in 

 Berlin ever since the beginning of last September, and he notes 

 how on this occasion the stress of the outbreak had fallen to a far 

 greater extent upon women and children and less upon men than 

 was the case two years ago. His own practice affords proof of 

 this, especially in the fact of the greater frequency of uncom- 

 j)licated cases among women than among men. As to the ques- 

 tion of protection, he has observed that members of families who 

 were severely attacked two years ago have either escaped entirely 

 at present or been only slightly affected; whilst, conversely, the 

 most serious cases of the present time have arisen in households 

 which the influenza spared during its earlier visitation. He notes 

 the statement of Dr. Edward Gray, to the effect that "many per- 

 sons who escaped the epidemic of 1775 w»ere affected by that of 

 1782, and many who escaped the latter were affected by the for- 

 mer," as showing that a century ago this question of immunity 

 had not passed unnoticed. Dr. Ruhemann gives his experience 

 of 55 families, numbering 193 individuals. In 1889-90 there were 

 64 cases of influenza among this group, whilst in the present out- 

 break only 40 have been attacked, and, what is of special interest, 

 only 5 out of this number were affected (and that but slightly) 

 two years ago, whilst of the 64 then attacked only 4 have again 

 become victims. Should this prove to be anything like the gen- 

 eral experience it would go far to substantiate a fact that has hith- 

 erto been much disputed, even to the extent of declaring that one 

 attack predisposes to another. That one individual may have 

 several recurrences during the prevalence of a single epidemic 

 does not, in Dr. Ruhemann's opinion, mitigate against the general 

 doctrine of protection, since he thinks many such recurrences 

 may be explained by lack of caution on the part of the patients 

 against exposing themselves to fresh infection before they are re- 

 stored to full health. That influenza does protect from a sec- 

 ond infection should reassure many persons who, having once 

 suffered severely from it, dread a repetition of so depressing a 

 malady, and it may be further comfort to them to learn that the 

 more they have to suffer at first, the less likely are they to suffer 

 at all again. If, then, influenza shares this common property of 

 all infective diseases, it is not so remarkable that it should not 

 apparently select the young in preference to the adult and aged, 

 seeing that the whole community is more or less " unprotected "' 

 when it first reappears after an absence (in pandemic form) of 

 years. 



— At the meeting of the Qesellschaft Deutscher Naturforscher 

 und Aerzte held last year in Halle, it was arranged that the 

 sixty-fifth meeting should be held this year at Nurnberg, from 

 the 12th to the 16th of September. This society, similar to the 

 English and American associations for the advancement of science, 



together with a medical association, is divided into thirty-two sec- 

 tions, about two-thirds of which belong to the medical side, and 

 the remaining are scientific, if it be allowed to use the word in 

 the narrow sense. The three general sittings are to be opened 

 by addresses from Professors His of Leipzig, von Helmholtz of 

 Berlin, and Giintherof Munich respectively; and in the meetings 

 of the sections — for example, in chemistry — papers will be read, 

 among others, by Ostwald and E. v. Meyer; in physics by Wiede- 

 mann and Boltzmann; in mathematics by G. Cantor, F. Klein 

 and Kbuigsberger. On one of the days of the meeting excursions 

 are to be made by certain of the sections. Those of physics and 

 zoology and some of the medicinal sections go to Erlangen, where 

 the apparatus of the University laboratories will be used in demon- 

 stration of papers. On the same day the sections of botany, 

 mineralogy, and geology, ethnology, and anthropology make a 

 scientific excursion toNeuhaus or Pommelsbrunn. As before, the 

 German Mathematical Society meets with the general Science So- 

 ciety, and thus the number of papers in the section of mathematics 

 is probably larger than in any other section. There is to be a 

 technical industrial exhibition in charge of the general society 

 and the Bavarian government, and the Mathematical Society has 

 undertaken an exhibition of "mathematical models, drawings, 

 apparatus, and instruments, serving both for teaching and research 

 in pure and applied mathematics." This latter exhibition is to 

 include only those instruments having an interest primarily mathe- 

 matical, while the instruments having to do with the experi- 

 mental sciences, and of more practical use, are to be placed in the 

 general exhibition, which will be especially rich historically, as the 

 collections of the Niirnberg Industrial Museum are to be utilized. 

 The mathematical exhibition is to include historical surface and 

 curve models, such as those constructed. by PIticker and Klein, and 

 later those of the Brill collection; and certain unique models 

 which have been in university collections, and which have become 

 dilapidated, are to be as much as possible re-set. In connection 

 with these models explanitory lectures are to be delivered, those 

 thus far announced being as follows: Dyck, introductory lecture 

 on the mathematical exhibition; Bjerknes, hydrodynamic phe- 

 nomena analogous to electric and magnetic; Finsterwalder, sur- 

 face curvature; Mehmke, reckoning machines. Other lectures 

 are to be given on function-theory surfaces, etc. In this connec- 

 tion it is of interest to note that Professor Klein, who probably 

 exerts the most influence in the German Mathematical Society, 

 and who is a member of the mathematical advisory committee of 

 the Chicago exhibition, suggests that such an exhibition of models 

 with demonstrations be introduced there. 



— For some eight years the theory has been before the scientific 

 world that the great ice-sheet bridged the Ohio River near Cin- 

 cinnati, Ohio, sufficiently to block its channel and raise the waters 

 above the place of bridging to a height of 500 to 600 feet above 

 the present river-bed. Silt deposits east of Cincinnati near the ice 

 margin have been cited as evidence of this dam since they stand 

 about 600 feet above the Ohio. These silts have been found by 

 Frank Leverett, U. S. Geological Survey, Madison, Wis., to be too 

 widespread to admit of this explanation, since they extend west 

 past Cincinnati, covering much of southern Indiana as well as 

 portions of States farther west. They are also of later date, s^ince 

 they rest upon the drift deposited by the ice when it bridged the 

 Ohio, and are separated from it by a considerable time-interval, 

 shown by humus stain, leaching of till, and erosion of surface of 

 the underlying drift. The apparent absence of strias south of the 

 Ohio River and the meagre amount of drift there indicate a thin 

 ice-sheet with feeble movement. These facts and a comparison 

 with other districts where conditions for damming appear to 

 have been more favorable than on the Ohio, lead to the conclu- 

 sion that the river would not be blocked except for very brief 

 periods. 



— Neptunia, May, 1892, reports a singular phenomenon from 

 the Balearic Isles. On March 4, about 9 o'clock in the morning, 

 a violent wind from the north blew over SoUer in Majorca. As 

 the wind died away, the rain by which it was accompanied in- 

 creased, and at the same time the ground was covered by a yel- 

 lowish coating, which proved to be sulphur. 



