268 



SCIENCE. 



LVOL. Yin., No 190 



In a recent number of Science it was stated 

 that cholera did not seem to be very active in 

 Italy, although it had extended thence to Trieste 

 and Fiume. From here it has invaded Carmola 

 and Croatia. At Lie, a village of Croatia, it seems 

 to have awakened to new life, developed doubtless 

 by reason of the unsanitary condition in which 

 it has found the inhabitants of that place, some 

 nine hundred in number. Although it seems to 

 have but just appeared in that place, ninety persons 

 are reported as having contracted the plague, of 

 which number twenty eight are already dead. It 

 will be seen from this that the disease must be of 

 a very virulent type. The excitement among the 

 people is said to be intense and uncontrollable. 

 The scenes which were enacted in Spain during 

 the epidemic which ravaged that country are be- 

 ing repeated in Croatia. The physicians are 

 being stoned, and wives and children deserted. 

 The superstition of these people is so great that 

 almost any form of barbarity may be expected. 

 The matter begins to have a serious aspect for 

 central Europe, when cholera in a viiailent form 

 has obtained so firm a foothold in Austria ; and, 

 if the disease continues to spread, something like 

 a panic may be anticipated. If the report of the 

 appearance of cholera at Pesth is confirmed, the 

 danger is greatly increased, as the onward march 

 of this epidemic disease is greatly favored, when 

 it reaches cities situated upon rivers which are 

 great highways of travel. 



The fever which broke out in Biloxi, Harrison 

 county, Miss., in August last, has occasioned great 

 excitement and alarm throughout the length and 

 breadth of the Mississippi valley. The opinion 

 was expressed by us at that time, that it was un- 

 doubtedly yellow-fever. This was based upon our 

 knowledge of the skill and experience of Dr. 

 Joseph Holt, president of the Louisiana state 

 board of health, who declared the disease to be 

 of that nature. This opinion has been contro- 

 verted by the physicians of Biloxi, which is not a 

 matter of surprise, and also, as appears in the 

 daily press, by the physicians of the U. S. marine 

 hospital service. We have just received from Dr. 

 Holt a detailed account of the outbreak and its sub- 

 sequent history, and are more convinced than ever 

 that the citizens of Biloxi have had true yellow 

 jack in their midst, and that, if the disease is 

 now under control, that result has been attained 

 by the vigorous action of the Louisiana board in 



instituting a quarantine against the infected city. 

 Had this not been done, the existence of the fever 

 would probably have been concealed until it had 

 obtained such a hold that months rather than 

 weeks woxild have elapsed before it was con- 

 quered. It is a sad commentary on human nature, 

 that not only the people, but even medical men 

 and officials, will attempt to dekide themselves 

 into the belief that a pestiferous disease does not 

 exist in their midst, simply to avoid the risks to 

 reputation and commerce which a knowledge 

 of the true state of things would create, when 

 they must know, from an expei'ience which has 

 been repeated over and over again in the past, 

 that concealment or suppression can at best avail 

 nothing, and that such a policy can but result 

 in a wide-spread and probably uncontrollable 

 epidemic, which will cause untold suffering and 

 misery, and increase the mortality a hundred-fold. 



THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOB THE 

 ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



The British association meeting is now drawing 

 to a close, and may be said to have been very suc- 

 cessful in all respects, but without any gi'eat sen- 

 sation. About twenty-five hundred tickets have 

 been taken for it, and the local arrangements were 

 most complete. A special feature in them is a 

 large exhibition of the manufactured products of 

 this so-called ' workshop of the world.' Great care 

 has been exercised in the selection of the exhibits, 

 which must have been produced within a radius 

 of fifteen miles from the centre of the town, and 

 they illustrate in a remarkable degree the ai^phca- 

 tions of science and art to manufacturing pro- 

 cesses. A very large number of firms have also 

 thrown open their works to the inspection of 

 visitors. An unusual number of colonial and 

 American visitors are attending the meeting, 

 among the latter of whom Professor Barker and 

 Prof. Carvill Lewis, both of Philadelphia, are 

 pi-ominent figures. The president, Sir W. Daw- 

 son of Montreal, opened the meeting with an ad- 

 dress upon " The geology of the Atlantic Ocean 

 and the land on its borders," which, together with 

 the addresses of Prof. G. H. Darwin, president of 

 the section of mathematics and physics, and of 

 Mr. Crookes, president of the chemical section, 

 will be found in full in Nature for Sept. 2. The 

 subject of the former was " The value of the unit 

 of geological time, from the point of view of 

 cosmical physics." Mr. Crookes dwelt, in some- 

 what hypothetical fashion, it is true, with the 

 genesis of the chemical elements, and he suggested 

 a process for then- evolution by the gradual cool- 



