76 



8CIENCE. 



[Vol. Vin., No. 181 



tion bills. Mr. W. C. Hodgkins, who has been 

 prosecuting the work of the survey on the North 

 Carolina coast, near Cape Lookout, has returned 

 to Washington, and is stationed at the office for 

 the present. New editions of the charts of the 

 north-west coast of America will be out within 

 ten days. 



— The total amount subscribed to date to sus- 

 tain the Pasteur institute in France is $113,719. 

 The sultan has jDresented Pasteur with the grand 

 order of Medjidie, and $2,000, and will send a 

 commission to Paris to stiidy his methods of rabies 

 prevention. 



— Sixteen of the wolf-bitten Russians who were 

 treated by Pasteur have reached Smolensk on 

 their way home, and, being in perfect health, have 

 telegx'aphed their gratitude to their preserver. 



— Professor Ormond Stone has just issued part 

 ii. of the first volume of the publications of the 

 new Leander McCorniick observatory. Part i.. 

 an account of the observations of the transit of 

 Venus in December, 1882, was published in 1883. 

 Part ii. is a small quarto pamphlet of seventeen 

 pages, a series of notes on the tail of the great 

 comet of 1882, accompanied by six plates of 

 sketches made by the observers, Messrs. Leaven- 

 worth and Jones. These drawings will furnish 

 useful material to those engaged in the interesting 

 study of the theory of comets' tails, — a subject in 

 which considerable interest has been aroused by 

 the researches of Dr. Bredichin, director of the 

 Moscow observatory. 



— The Library bureau of Boston has issued the 

 first number of a quarterly journal. Library notes, 

 under the editorship of Prof. Melvil Dewey, libra- 

 rian of Columbia college. While the journal is of 

 especial value to the professional librarian, we 

 should judge from an examination of the June 

 number, and from what is promised for succeed- 

 ing numbers, that it will also prove of consider- 

 able value to individual literary and scientific 

 men who are interested in lightening the purely 

 mechanical portion of their labors by the nu- 

 merous ingenious devices which are constantly 

 being brought forward. For instance, almost 

 every scientific specialist nowadays finds it neces- 

 sary to keep for himself a bibliography of some 

 particular branch of his subject : he will find de- 

 scribed in the number before us the size and qual- 

 ity of catalogue or index cards, with all the neat 

 and convenient accessories which years of ex- 

 periment or experience have pointed out to be 

 best adapted to such purposes. The ' labor-saving 

 notes ' promise to be particularly useful to the lay 

 readers, the aim being to bring to light, by co- 



operation and an interchange of ideas, the best 

 literary tools and methods. 



— The Spanish government has recently de- 

 cided to establish a ' Maritime station for experi- 

 mental zoology and botany,' to be in charge of a 

 director, one assistant, and two fellows, all 

 salaried. It is to be opened to students from all 

 parts of the world, the results of all investigations 

 to be published by the department of public works. 

 In addition to the salaries of the officers, two 

 thousand dollars annually will be appropriated 

 for its support. The site has not yet been fixed 

 upon, and Cronica cientifica justly complains of 

 the inadequate provisions made for its establish- 

 ment and support. Spain is almost the last of the 

 chief civilized nations to found a zoological sta- 

 tion. 



— Roetheln, or German measles, has been very 

 prevalent in Savannah, Ga. , during the past year. 

 This disease is very rare in the United States, and 

 there are many physicians of established practice 

 who have never seen a case. It prevailed in New 

 York City during 1873 and 1874. As a rule chil- 

 dren are attacked, but it is not exclusively the 

 young ; an old lady of seventy-seven was affected 

 with it in the Savannah ejaidemic. It resembles 

 both measles and scarlet-fever, so much so that 

 the diagnosis is sometimes very difficult. It is 

 contagious, and usually very mild, requiring but 

 little ti'eatment. Although it is doubtless a germ- 

 disease, the specific microbe upon which it de- 

 pends has never been identified. 



— The legislature of Vermont at its last session 

 passed a law prohibiting the adulteration of maple- 

 sugar or honey, and f»unishing the offender with 

 a fine of from twenty-five doUars to fifty dollars. 



— M. Lessenne claims that a certain sign of death 

 is the permanent gaping of a wound made in the 

 skin by puncturing it with a needle. If the per- 

 son be living, blood will usually follow the with- 

 drawal of the needle, but whether it does or not, 

 the wound will close at once. The puncture made 

 in the skin of a dead person will remain open, as 

 if made in leather. 



— The North Carolina state board of agriculture, 

 on Thursday, July 22, opened the new buildings 

 of the experiment farm, near Raleigh. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



♦♦* Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The 

 writer's name is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 



Glaciers and glacialists. 



In a note on glaciers in the Alps in the number of 

 Science for June 25, p. 570. are the following words : 

 " The longest is the Aktsch glacier in Austria, meas- 

 uring over nine miles." 



