136 



scwwcu. 



[Vol. VUL, No. 184 



volcanic showers of mud at times took very eccen- 

 tric courses, overleaping one section of land and 

 then striking another further on, in the same line. 

 Dr. Hector, who is making a scientific examina- 

 tion of the volcanic districts, said he expected that 

 the volcanic cone which was thrown up in Lake 

 Eotomahana during the disturbances had already 

 on July 1 attained a height of six hundred feet, and 

 was daily adding to its stature. He has named it 

 Mount Hazard, after the gentleman of that name 

 who lost his life on the first night of the great 

 eruption. A chemical examination of the volcanic 

 ashes shows that they are mostly composed of fine 

 basaltic soil. Every human being has abandoned 

 the entire ]Dortion of country situated within the 

 limits of the volcanic system. Photographers 

 were busily engaged taking views of the region." 



serviceable ; and the thoroughness of the work 

 augurs well for the series of publications wliich 

 the Economic association has undertaken. 



GAS SUPPLY. 



Numbers two and three of the publications of 

 the American economic association are covered by 

 a monograph, entitled " The relation of the mod- 

 ern municipality to the gas supply," prepared by 

 Edmund J. James, Ph.D. The pamphlet contains 

 a thoroughgoing investigation of the various 

 systems of gas supply, and for that reason should 

 commend itself to all interested in municipal 

 administration and economic i3henomena. The 

 author, as is well known to readers of Science, is 

 disposed to widen the sphere of state activity, 

 basing his reasoning on philosophic conceptions. 

 The present discussion, however, is not limited to 

 a scholastic treatment, but assumes an intensely 

 practical form. It is viewed from two stand- 

 points : that of the individual, who is interested in 

 obtaining a good quality of gas at a low price ; and 

 that of the municipality, which is interested in 

 acquiring a revenue by legitimate economic 

 methods. On both these points, Dr. James sup- 

 plies abundant data. He shows how many Euro- 

 pean, and especially English, cities have been able 

 to save large sums for the taxpayers by managing 

 gas trusts on a business basis ; while on the other 

 hand, " the general opinion in England seems 

 to be that the gas furnished by the public com- 

 panies is better than that made by private com- 

 panies." The experience of city upon city is ad- 

 duced to support the belief that a transfer of 

 ownership from private parties to municipal 

 authorities would be of immense benefit. In the 

 United States, there are at least three city corpora- 

 tions, Philadelphia, Richmond, and Wheeling, 

 which undertake the manufacture and sale of gas. 

 In each of these the results, upon the whole, have 

 been favorable. The monograph is enriched by 

 statistical information which makes it exceedingly 



LONDON LETTER. 



Several weeks ago, attention was drawn in 

 this correspondence to a remarkable outbreak of 

 scarlatina in a London district, in which the hy- 

 pothesis that the disease had spread from the milk 

 drawn from one particular farm, seemed to be 

 suggested and supported by the facts of the case. 

 The proof, then wanting, that the disease of the 

 animals could really produce scarlatina in man, 

 has now been supplied by the investigations of _ 

 Dr. Klein (conducted mainly at the ' Brown insti- M 

 tution.'), whose report has just been issued by the * 

 local government board. Four calves were 

 inoculated with the matter from sores on the 

 udders of the diseased cows, and similar sores 

 were jDroduced in them. Dr. Klein states that 

 this disease, thus artificially produced in the calf, 

 ' bears a close resemblance to human scarlatina,' 

 and he specially quotes the api^earances found in 

 the kidney of the animal as indicative of the scar- Jj 

 latina attack. It is remarkable, however, that 1 

 the milk of the affected cows is harmless, and 

 does not contain, per se, the germs of the disease, 

 but that it is contaminated after it has passed 

 from the udder of the cow. Dr. Klein says that 

 the fingers of the milker must of necessity bring 

 down into the milk diseased particles from the 

 ulcerations on the teats of the animal, and he 

 points out that in the milk ' the disease germs 

 find a good medium in which to multiijly.' 



As the last important act of his present official 

 existence, Mr. Mundella, the president of the 

 board of trade, has just announced that a ' Fish- 

 ery department ' is to be forthwith created, with 

 an assistant secretary of state at its head. Mr. 

 Berrington, who is to be the chief inspector, will 

 be recognized as the right man in the right place, 

 since he has already won his spurs as the succes- 

 sor in that post of Professor Huxley. The new 

 department promises to be strong in practical 

 knowledge. 



The latest large engineering scheme which has 

 been broached is that for a tunnel between Scot- 

 land and Ireland, at two pomts (Port Patrick and 

 Donaghadee) where the distance from land to 

 land does not exceed twenty miles. A shaft is to 

 be sunk at once to test the strata. The cost of 

 the tunnel has been estimated by competent au- 

 thorities at $25,000,000, and that of the land ap- 

 proaches on either side, $5,000,000 more. The 

 distance from Moville, in Lough Foyle (where the 

 Allan line steamers now call), to London will be 



