362 



8CIE]srCE. 



[Vol. Vm., No. 194 



LONDON LETTER. 



The series of congresses, more or less scientific 

 in character, which in England claim a share of 

 attention from men of science, who devote some 

 of their hardly earned vacation to them, may be 

 considered to have closed with the Sanitary con- 

 gress at York. Sir Spencer Wells presided over 

 it, and in his opening address observed that the 

 main question now to be considered is, how sani- 

 tary improvements may be carried still further by 

 the co-oj)eration of investigators, legislators, and 

 administrators. For this puri)ose he suggested 

 the formation of a college of health, to organize 

 a well-directed attack against existing obstacles. 

 Much, however, had been done : in the last fifty 

 years, for example, the average duration of life 

 in Great Britain had been raised from thirty to 

 forty-nine years. Of the various subjects dis- 

 cussed at the congress, probably the disposal of 

 the dead was the one which excited the great- 

 est interest. There appeared to be decided evi- 

 dence that the feeling in favor of cremation was 

 on the increase ; and the opinion of the represen- 

 tative clergy present was to the efi'ect that they 

 were waiting for a decisive word from the scien- 

 tific men upon the matter, by whom they were 

 willing to be guided. 



The return to England of the Solar eclipse ex- 

 pedition on Sept. 20 was speedily followed by a 

 letter from the Times correspondent ■who accom- 

 panied it, in which the chief results obtained 

 were discussed in preliminary fashion. Most of 

 this letter is reproduced in Nature for Sept. 23. 

 The new facts obtained were chiefly due to the 

 work of Professor Tacchini, who satisfied him- 

 self that there was a great distinction between the 

 eclipse prominences and those seen by the ordi- 

 nary method. Both he and Mr. Lockyer consider 

 that the former are due to down-rushes of com- 

 paratively cool material upon the sun's surface, 

 and that they form a whitish fringe roimd the 

 more incandescent centre. This, if well estab- 

 lished, has a very important bearing on the theory 

 of solar physics. Captain Darwin's work ap- 

 peared to demolish entirely the idea entertained 

 by Dr. Huggins and others, that the solar corona 

 could be and had been photograiihed at times other 

 than those of eclipses. 



The opening of the medical schools in connec- 

 tion with the metropolitan hospitals, at the begin- 

 ning of October, is always signalized by the de- 

 livery of some thoughtful introductory addresses 

 by prominent members of the staff. One of 

 the most remarkable of these was delivered at 

 St. Mary's hospital by Dr. Malcolm Morris, and 

 clealt with mysticism, scepticism, and materialism 

 in medicine. He thought that the element of 



mysticism in medicine had been forced on it by 

 the public. It was the result of two opposing 

 conditions, — ^the absolute knowledge demanded 

 by the laity, on the one hand ; and the more or 

 less extensive ignorance of the professor of the 

 healing art, on the other. This ignorance, where 

 it existed, he must not acknowledge : he was 

 expected to be able to recognize disease, and to 

 know how to treat it. Despite recent strides, 

 medicine was still extremely defective. The ab- 

 solute knowledge insisted on by the public could 

 not be obtained, and therefore had to be invented. 

 Scepticism in medicine was neither more nor less 

 than modern fatalism. The tendency of the 

 present day was to devote attention to the part 

 rather than the whole, and it was too commonly 

 supposed that truth lay at the bottom of the 

 microscope. At King's college. Dr. G. Johnson, 

 F.R.S., urged at some length the value of the 

 study of chemistry as a mental training and dis- 

 cipline, and then proceeded to jioint out that the 

 only safe foundation for specialism was a thorough 

 knowledge of disease in general ; and this he 

 illustrated by reference to diseases of the eye and 

 of the larynx. The principal of the Royal veteri- 

 nary college pointed out that in both human and 

 veterinary medicine the elaboration of the germ 

 theory of Pasteur, in its earlier triumphs in the 

 department of surgery, was likely to be surpassed 

 by what might reasonably be expected would yet 

 be achieved in the domain of medicine. 



True to the exceptional character of the year in 

 matters of temperature, October has set in un- 

 usually hot, 78° being recorded in the shade in 

 London on Oct. 1. Such an October temperature 

 has only once been exceeded during the mainte- 

 nance of existing records. W. 



London, Oct. 3. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



Captain Baker, British steamship Red Sea, 

 Liverjiool to New Orleans, reports to the U. S. 

 hydrographic office that on Sept. 19, when some 

 miles north of the Azores (exact position not 

 given), he experienced what he considers an 

 earthquake shock, on account of its suddenness, 

 force, and after-effects. The first warning of a 

 meteorological change was noticed in the dropping 

 of the barometer for a tenth or more, and the 

 freshening of the breeze, though veering. This 

 was suddenly followed by a shock, sudden and 

 powerful, causing the vessel to be thrown on her 

 beam ends. She quickly righted, and was headed 

 on just in time to meet the immense sea which 

 suddenly rushed towards the port bow. She rode 

 it gallantly, throwing her propeller far out of the 



