July 22, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



101 



country, but the whole civilized world, have derived 

 benefit. 



But this unfortunate inability, caused, in the opin- 

 ion of their lordships, by the exigencies of the present 

 time, does not preclude the despatch of an Antarctic 

 expedition under the sanction and authority of her 

 Majesty's government, led by competent seamen and 

 scientific persons who could perform this difficult 

 service satisfactorilj'. 



Grants from the Treasury for such purposes have 

 been so frequent that they may be considered as part 

 of the public policj' of the country. To mention those 

 only which were directly connected with this Society, 

 tlure were the grants in aid for the expeditions of 

 Schomburgk, of Burton, of Speke, of Livingstone, of 

 Cameron, and, more recently, the grant of £1,000 in 

 connection with Mr. Leigh Smith's Arctic expedition. 

 * * * An Antarctic expedition would be most 

 efficiently conducted if the funds were supplied and the 

 details were organized by the government, perhaps 

 through the agency of a specially appointed committee. 

 At the present time, even apart from naval officers, 

 there are scientific seamen and travelers of experience 

 known to myself and my Council who would form a 

 capable staff. My Council trusts that such an ar- 

 rangement will secure yo.ur lordship's approval. An 

 alternative course would be that, with the aid of 

 grants from the Treasury and the governments of the 

 Australasian colonies, the Council of this Society 

 should undertake the responsibility of equipping and 

 despatching the expedition. 



The final reply from the Foreign Office, dated 

 Jnne 9, 1898, says : 



That after carefully consulting the authorities at 

 the Treasury and the Admiralty, Lord Salisbury is 

 unable, under existing circumstances, to hold out 

 any hope of the government embarking upon an 

 undertaking of this magnitude. Lord Salisbury has 

 made inquiry through the Secretary of State for the 

 Colonies as to the attitude of the Australasian colo- 

 nies towards the proposal for further Antarctic ex- 

 ploration ; and he is informed that at the recent 

 Conference of Premiers held at Melbourne in March 

 last it was resolved that those colonies> should take 

 no joint action in the matter ; and the cooperation 

 anticipated by the Society from that quarter will not 

 apparently be afforded by the colonial governments. 



The Royal Geographical Society will now en- 

 deavor, without the aid of the British govern- 

 ment, to obtain the funds for au expedition to 

 be sent out under the Society's auspices. They 

 have authorized the President to take steps to ob- 

 tain subscriptions to the amount of not less than 

 £50,000 ; the Society itself contributes £5,000. 



PEOFESSOB, EOCH ON THE PLAGUE. 



Professor Koch was the guest of the Ger- 

 man Society for Public Hygiene on July 7th, 

 and delivered au address on the subject of the 

 plague, iu which he dealt especially with his 

 discovery of a plague center in the Hinterland 

 of German East Africa, whither the disease had 

 been introduced from Uganda. According to 

 the report in the London Times he gave a sur- 

 vey of the recent epidemics in Mesopotamia, 

 Persia, China and India, which pointed out 

 that the view entertained ten years ago that the 

 j)lague was no longer a danger to the nation 

 was shown to be untenable. 



A rich harvest of results had been reaped from 

 the study of the plague with the aid of modern 

 means of investigation. The disease had been 

 demonstrated to be caused by bacteria, and 

 useful lessons had been drawn regarding the 

 best methods of combating its ravages. There 

 were excellent prospects of progress in the 

 direction of creating artificial immunity. The 

 part played by rats in the dissemination of the 

 plague has been elucidated, so that it might be 

 said that the plague was really a rat disease. 

 One question, however, to which a satisfactory 

 answer had not yet been given related to the 

 ultimate origin of the disease. The old explana- 

 tion that it was found wherever dirt and social 

 misery prevailed was inadequate. There must 

 be places where it was endemic and whence it 

 was transplanted into districts that had hitherto 

 been free from infection Former outbreaks 

 could be traced back to Mesopotamia, where 

 the plague had never entirely disappeared. 

 But whence came the Chinese plague? It could 

 be proved that its endemic center was in Hu- 

 nan. Tibet was a second center, and the latest 

 outbreaks in China, as in India, had their origin 

 there. The third center was on the west coast 

 of Arabia, in the vicinity of Mecca. This cen- 

 ter had a special importance in view of the nu- 

 merous pilgrims who visited it, but it was, after 

 all, doubtful whether the plague was endemic 

 in the neighborhood of Mecca. The constant 

 cases which occurred there might only be sur- 

 vivals of the disease as introduced by large 

 masses of people from abroad. Nothing had 

 hitherto been known of any other plague center 

 besides these enumerated, but Professor Koch. 



