-64 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIII. No. 312- 



Simon (Becquerel and Rodier's Pathological Chemistry, p. 

 459) obtained the following results from the analysis of the facal 

 matters in cholera : — 



Water 

 Solid 

 Fat. 



Extractive matter 



Albumen and mucus 



Chloride of sodium, lactate and acetate of sodium, and alkaline 



phosphates 13-40 



Phosphate of lime and magnesia 0.60 



The blood contains, according to Hammerston, from 2.677 P^"" 

 ■cent (horse) to 4.436 per cent (rabbit) of serum albumen ; and yet, 

 according to Von Ermengen, mercuric chloride in solution of i : 800 

 and I : 1,000 sterilizes blood. With these figures before us, can 

 we say that " it is not creditable to a committee of the leading 

 -sanitary association of this country " to recommend a solution of 

 mercuric chloride i : 500 for the disinfection of cholera stools.' 



Practically we know that mercuric chloride does efficiently dis- 

 infect substances containing a hundred times as much proteid as 

 ■cholera stools contain. This is done many times every day in 

 bacteriological laboratories. Gelatine plates and tubes, agar tubes, 

 and blood-serum tubes, laden with all the known germs, are disin- 

 fected with a solution of mercuric chloride i : 1,000. In Koch's 

 laboratory this is the only disinfectant used, and there has been no 

 evidence of its failure. Plates- covered with colonies of theanthrax 

 bacillus, the comma bacillus, etc., are immersed in the solution 

 with the certainty that the sterilization will be complete. Old tube 

 ■cultures are treated in the same way, and with the same result, 

 whether they contain gelatine, agar, or blood-serum. Now, in the 

 gelatine, one litre of beef-tea contains 100 grams of gelatine, 10 

 grams of peptone, and 5 grams of sodium chloride. We have seen 

 that the albuminate of mercury is made with peptone as well as 

 ■with albumen, and there is nearly twenty times as much peptone 

 in this mixture as there is albumen in cholera stools, and nearly 

 two hundred times as much gelatine besides. Certainly no one will 

 question the large amount of albumen in blood-serum. Is it not 

 strange, if the albuminate of mercury is so " inert," that the disin-' 

 faction of these cultures should be so successful .' Even the evac- 

 uations of infants with green diarrhoea, containing a large amount 

 of undigested food, do not contain as much proteids as do gelatine 

 ■cultures, as is shown by the following analysis of Golding Bird : — 



Water goo.oo 



Biliverdin, alcoholic extracts, fat, cholesterine 24.50 



Piyalin, watery extract, colored with biliverdin 11.25 



Mucus, coagulated albumen, and hematin 56.00 



Chloride of sodium, with traces of tribasic phosphate of soda 5.50 



Tribasic phosphate of soda 1.75 



Peroxide of iron i.oo 



In the first report of the committee (1885) a solution of chloride 

 ■of lime was given the first place for the disinfection of excreta in the 

 sick-room, and a solution of mercuric chloride of the strength of 

 I : 500 the second place. In the latest report (1888) carbolic acid 

 'has been given the second place, and mercuric chloride has not 

 been recommended for this purpose. This change was made be- 

 cause the carbolic acid was believed to be sufficient, and not be- 

 cause the mercuric chloride was believed to be inefficient. In the 

 light of the most recent experiments in this country and abroad, 

 we believe that mercuric chloride, in the proportion named, would 

 be effective in the disinfection of the liquid discharges of patients 

 suffering from typhoid-fever or cholera, and that the recommenda- 

 tion made in our first report was justified by the experimental data 

 then given, and not yet contradicted by any new evidence. 



The committee called attention to the action of mercuric chloride 

 on lead pipes in its first report, and this influenced it in substituting 

 carbolic acid for mercuric chloride for disinfecting the excreta in 

 the sick-room. 



To return to our critic, the broad statement is made, that "an 

 •examination of the report of this committee fails, however, to bring 

 to light the slightest particle of evidence upon which such a recom- 

 mendation could have been based ; " viz., the disinfection of excreta 

 with mercuric chloride. Dr. Sternberg, chairman of the committee, 

 made extended researches upon the germicide power of this agent 

 several years before (1883) the committee was appointed, and to 

 those experiments reference is made in the first report. It is for 



this reason that extended experimental researches were not made 

 with this agent in 1885. However, a number of experiments were 

 made, and recorded in our report. These show that even the solid 

 or semi-fluid faeces of a healthy person may be sterilized by the use 

 of the solution recommended by the committee, provided that they 

 are broken up so as to be fairly exposed to the action of the disin- 

 fecting agent. Moreover, the fact is recorded that a certain 

 amount of the mercurial salt remained in solution at the end of 

 twenty-four hours, as shown by a deposit of mercury on a copper 

 wire (experiment of Sept. 8). Yet our critic, without recording a 

 single experimental observation of his own, states that there is not 

 the slightest particle of evidence upon which our recommendation 

 could have been based. 



One who has given no special attention to chemistry may be 

 pardoned for not being acquainted with the chemical nature of the 

 albuminate of mercury, but certainly any one who had read our re- 

 port could not have made the sweeping assertion which we find in 

 Dr. Hills's criticism. 



FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF ETH- 

 NOLOGY. 



The " Report of the Director of the Bureau of Ethnology for the 

 Year 1883-84 " has just been issued, bearing the date 1887. The 

 long delay of this report, which is caused by the pressure of work 

 in the Government Printing-Office, must be greatly regretted, as 

 the interest of science demands that scientific publications of the 

 character of those accompanying the report be known as early as 

 possible. The knowledge that certain statements and opinions are 

 about to be published always acts as a drawback upon the progress 

 of the special field of science, as most workers will delay further 

 investigations until these publications are issued. While a few 

 branches of science may not be very adversely affected by these 

 delays, such is not the case in the science of anthropology, in which 

 the most energetic and unceasing field-work is absolutely neces- 

 sary, as the relics of ancient times, as the natives and their customs, 

 are vanishing with steadily increasing rapidity. Publications of 

 such importance as the one under discussion always prove an in- 

 centive to increased activity. The opinions and suggestions ex- 

 pressed in the papers accompanying the report do not fail to in- 

 fluence the progress of investigations. For all these reasons a 

 more rapid publication of the annual reports is very desirable. 



Major Powell, in the first part of the report, gives a brief review 

 of the work carried on by the bureau. The scope of the researches 

 is constantly increasing. In the year 1883-84 the mound-explora- 

 tions were continued. Messrs. Stevenson and Mindeleff carried on 

 archseological researches in the South-west, while Mr. Frank Gush- 

 ing devoted himself to further studies on the Zufii. Linguistic work 

 was done among the Iroquois, in California, and among the Nav- 

 ajo. While the final results of the works of the bureau will be 

 published as " Contributions to the Ethnology of the North Ameri- 

 can Indians," the papers accompanying the reports generally treat 

 certain phenomena of Indian life or art in the form of monographs 

 or reports on peoples on which no material for exhaustive reports is 

 obtainable. 



Of the latter class, we notice in the present volume Rev. Clay 

 MacCauley's description of the Seminole Indians of Florida, — an 

 interesting sketch of the life and state of this small tribe living in 

 the most inaccessible portion of the southern half of the peninsula. 



The elaborate paper on " The Cherokee Nation of Indians : A 

 Narrative of their Official Relations with the Colonial and Federal 

 Governments," by Charles C. Royce, is an historical document of 

 the greatest importance, the history of this great confederacy in its 

 conflicts with the white settlers encroaching upon their territory 

 being traced fully and exhaustively. The paper is an illustration of 

 a work of wide scope undertaken by the bureau, — an historical 

 atlas of Indian affairs, showing, upon a series of State and territo- 

 rial maps, the boundaries of the various tracts of country which 

 have from time to time been acquired through the medium of treaty 

 stipulations or act of Congress from the several Indian tribes resi- 

 dent within the present territory of the United States. Accompa- 

 nying the atlas will be one or more volumes of historical text, 

 wherein will be given with some detail a history of the official 



