December 3, 1886.] 



SCIENCE. 



511 



is composed of three classes of members, — regu- 

 lar, honorary, and corresponding. The regular 

 members are twenty-five in number, and the first 

 eighteen nominations "were made by the king. 

 He named MM. ( 'laeys, de Hondt, Delaet, Delcroix, 

 de Pauw, de Potter, Gaillard, Genard, Gezelle, 

 Hiel, Nolet de Brauwere van Steeland, Roersch, 

 Rooses, Snieders, Stroobaut, van Beers, Vander- 

 hiegen, and P. Willems. M. Willems is president, 

 and M. de Potter secretary, of the academy. It 

 was opened on Oct. 10 by the minister of agri- 

 culture, industry, and public works. 



— The London Times notices that Signer Cos- 

 tanzo SteUa, one of the Italian deputation which 

 visited Spain last summer, has written an inter- 

 esting account of what he saw, and in it shows 

 that Spain, though behind most nations of western 

 Europe, is not by any means absolutely unprogres- 

 sive. Signer Stella says that in 1799 the popula- 

 tion of Spain scarcely reached ten millions, but at 

 the end of 1882 it exceeded eighteen millions, 

 this being tantamount to an increase of 8.40 per 

 1,000 inhabitants every year. The agricultural 

 population, which was only 3,615,000 eighty-five 

 years ago, is now 9,328,000, and the area under 

 cultivation has increased from 53,000,000 to 193,- 

 750,000 acres, while there are now 38,000,000 head 

 of cattle as against just half that number at the 

 beginning of the century. The industrial popula- 

 tion of Spain has risen from 1,035,000 to 3.038,000, 

 and the number of manufactories, etc., from 883 

 to 13,911. The trade of the country has increased 

 in proportion, the progress during the last twenty- 

 five years being particularly remarkable, as, while 

 the imports and exports together amounted to 

 only £25,800,000 in 1860, they have been gradually 

 increasing, and now reach £56,000,000. The in- 

 crease extends to all branches of trade ; for while 

 Spain now produces 461,256,000 gallons of wine, 

 of which about two-thirds are consumed in the 

 country and the remainder exported, her railway 

 system, which but five years ago did not reach 

 4,200 miles, is now not far short of 6,000 miles. 



— The new edition of the ' Lectures and essays ' 

 of the late Professor Clifford brings the delightful 

 writing and acute thinking of that wonderful 

 intellect within the reach of a large number of 

 readers. In this edition the introduction has been 

 revised by its author, Frederick Pollock, and two 

 essays which were included in the former edition 

 have been omitted. They were those on 'Types 

 of compound statement ' and ' Instruments used 

 in measurement,' and are to be found now among 

 the ' Mathematical papers' published in 1882. We 

 are glad to notice that Professor Clifford's portrait 

 is retained. 



— From the Medical gazette of Nantes, we leam 

 that the Japanese have a remedy for hydrophobia 

 which they call hoang-nan. It has recently been 

 tried in twenty-four suspected cases. The daily 

 dose of the drug in the form of the powdered root 

 was from a hundred to a hundred and fifty 

 grains. It is stated, that, up to the time of the 

 last report, none of the patients had died. The 

 histories of the cases are so incomplete that no 

 inferences of any value can be drawn from them. 



— A death has recently occurred from hemor- 

 rhage of the lungs, brought on by the irritation 

 caused by the presence in that organ of six pine- 

 leaves. Under what circumstances they found 

 their way into the lungs is not reported. 



— Professor Poncet, at a meeting of a medical 

 society in Lyons, France, narrated an extremely 

 interesting case in which pieces of bone were 

 taken from a kid and grafted on to the tibia or 

 leg-bone of a boy who had so suffered from the 

 death of the bone as to necessitate the removal of 

 a considerable portion of it. The wound in the 

 leg healed, and the boy has now a firm and solid 

 tibia. 



— According to the Medical record, Dr. Louis 

 Jobert has published a work on the cause and fre- 

 quency of left-handedness. No purely left-handed 

 race has ever been discovered, although there 

 seems to be a difference in different tribes. Seventy 

 per cent of the inhabitants of the Pend jab use the 

 left hand by preference, and the greater number 

 of the Hottentots and Bushmen of South Africa also 

 use the left hand in preference to the right. Dr. 

 Marro, as a result of his study of criminals, has 

 found that from fourteen to twenty -two per cent 

 of those who have been convicted of crime were 

 left-handed, the highest ratio among people of all 

 classes being only nine in the hundred. 



— The contagiousness of leprosy has for a long 

 time been a mooted question. The Royal college 

 of physicians, in order to obtain the best informa- 

 tion on this subject, sent inquiries to physicians 

 throughout the world, whose practice had brought 

 them in contact with the disease, and whose 

 opinions would therefore be of value. Thirteen 

 of these have no doubt of its contagiousness, and 

 thirty -four entertain no doubt of its non-con- 

 tagiousness. Twelve regarded leprosy and syphi- 

 lis as being intimately related ; twenty-one be- 

 lieved thei'e was no relation. Most of those to 

 whom the inquiries were sent regard leprosy as 

 hereditary, and also that it may originate spon- 

 taneously under suitable conditions. 



— During a recent voyage of the U. S. S. 

 Juniata to South America, observations were 



