February 12, iSgi;.] 



SCIENCE 



89 



early period in the life of the time- service, the telegraphic 

 lines have been in charge of the electricians, Messrs. Stearns 

 ■and George, and their successor, Mr. C L. Bly. 



Edward C. Pickering, 

 Director of the Astronomical 



Observatory of Harvard College. 



Cambridge, Mas3. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



Me. J. L. KiPUNG says of tbe monkeys of India: "They 

 have a game like the English boys" cock of the dung hill or king 

 of the castle, but instead of pushing each other from the top of a 

 knoll or dust-heap, the castle is a pendant branch of a tree. The 

 game is to keep a place on the bough, which swings with their 

 weight as with a cluster of fruit, while the players struggle to dis- 

 lodge one another, each, as he drops, running round and climbing 

 up again to begin anew. This sport is kept up for an hour at a 

 time with keen enjoyment, and when one is nimble as a monkey 

 it must be splendid fun." 



— In 1890 was published the important discovery by Behring 

 and Kitasato that blood serum taken from animals that had been 

 rendered immune to tetanus and di23htheria was capable of curing 

 other animals suffering from those diseases. Drs. G. and F. 

 Klemperer {Berliner klinisehe Wochensclirift, Aug. 24 and 31, 

 1891) publish a research carried out in regard to pneumonia, wilh 

 the object of discovering how immunity against the pneumococ- 

 ■cus could be best produced, whether recovery from the disease 

 rendered an animal immune, and whether it was possible to cure 

 pneumonia by the blood serum of animals that have recovered 

 from tbe disease. Their experiments, which were confined to 

 rabbits, revealed that every nutrient medium in which the pneumo- 

 coccus has been cultivated will, if inoculated, render an animal 

 immune against pneumonic septicemia, even after the cocci have 

 been removed by filtration. The power of producing immunity 

 is more speedily acquired, and is increased if the infected nutrient 

 medium (before or after removal of the cocci) is exposed to a tem- 

 perature of between 41° and 42° C. for two or three days, or of 60° 

 for an hour or two. In every case, however, it was found neces- 

 sary that some interval (varying from three to fourteen days) 

 should elapse between the inoculation and the production of im- 

 munity. Hence it was too late to cure a diseased animal or even 

 to prevent the onset of an attack if the injection was given simul- 

 taneously with the outbreak of the disease. On the other hand, 

 serum taken from animals enjoying immunity was found able, 

 especially when introduced directly into the circulation, to cure 

 pneumonic septicsemia. The serum was injected twenty-four 

 hours after infection, while the animals had a febrile temperature 

 of between 105° and 106,5° F. Eight cubic centimetres were in- 

 jected, with the result that the temperature gradually sank dur- 

 ing the next twenty- four hours. In twelve successive cases a 

 successful result was obtained. This research therefore confirms, 

 in regard to pneumonia in rabbits, what Behring and Kitasato did 

 for tetanus and diphtheria Drs. Klemperer next studied the 

 ■question how the blood serum of an immune animal cures an at- 

 tack of pneumonic septicaemia, and discovered that when the 

 pneumococcus is introduced into the body of an animal it gener- 

 ates a poisonous substance which can be isolated, and to which the 

 name of " pneumotoxin" has been given. This pneuraotoxin sets 

 up a febrile condition which lasts several days, after which an- 

 other substance is found to have been produced called " antipneu- 

 motoxin," which is able to neutralize the pneumotoxin. The se- 

 rum taken from an immune animal contains this autipneuniotoxin, 

 and it is by means of this substance that it cures an attack of 

 pneumonic septicsemia in other animals. The relation of pneu- 

 monia as seen. in rabbits with that met with in man was next in- 

 vestigated, and the conclusion arrived at that the disease in both 

 cases is produced by the pneumocopcus, but that the human body 

 is much less susceptible to the latter than the rabbit is. Thus it 

 was found that serum taken from pneumonic patients after 

 the crisis could cure pneumonia in rabbits; moreover, pneumo- 

 toxin and antipneumotoxin were found to be present in human 

 serum as in that taken from rabbits. The crisis of pneumo- 



nia, according to Drs. Klemperer, takes place as soon a anti- 

 pneumotoxin is produced in sufficient quantity to neutralize the 

 pneumotoxin. Why immunity against further attacks lasts so 

 short a time in man is still uncertain, but possibly less antipneu- 

 motoxin is formed iu man than in rabbits in proportion to the 

 pneumotoxin. Some attempts have already been made to cure 

 patients suffering from pneumonia with the help of antipneumo- 

 toxin, but further observations are necessary. 



— It is a well-known fact that, with the same temperature by 

 the thermometer, one may have, at different times, a very differ- 

 ent feeling of heat and cold. This varies with the temperature of 

 the skin, which is chiefly influenced (according to M. Vincent of 

 Uccle Observatory, Belgium), by four things: air- temperature, 

 air-moisture, solar radiation, and force of wind. M. Vincent re- 

 cently made a large number of observations of skin-temperature 

 in the ball of the left hand, and constructed a formula by means 

 of which the skin-teraperatui'e may be approximately deduced 

 from those four elements. He experimented by keeping three of 

 the four constant, while the fourth was varied, and a relation 

 could thus be determined between the latter and skin-temperature. 

 One fact which soon appeared was, that the relative moisture of 

 the air has but little influence on skin-temperature. It was also 

 found that for every 1" C. of the actinometric difference (excess 

 of black bulb thermometer) the skin-temperature rises about 0.2° ; 

 and with small wind-velocities, every metre per second depresses 

 the skin- temperature about 1.2°. In testing his formula M Vin- 

 cent found, with cold or very cold sensation, considerably greater 

 differences between the calculated and observed values than in 

 other cases. This he attributes to the great cooling of the rela- 

 tively small mass of the hand. Taking the cheek or eyelid the 

 results were better, says Nature. 



— Last winter, in December and January, M. Chaix made a 

 number of observations of the temperature of, the air, the snow, 

 and the ground at Geneva, of which he has given an account to 

 the Physical Society there. He observed the air at four different 

 heights; granular, pulverulent, and bedded snow, on the surface 

 and at different depths; and the surface of bare ground as well as 

 of ground covered with snow. There was no difference in mean 

 temperature between the air at one and two metres; and very 

 little between the former and that on the snow surface. The sur- 

 face of the ground was 4. 265° 0. warmer than the surface of the 

 snow (0.13 m. above), through arrest of radiation. But the bare 

 ground was not cooled so much as the snow surface, and it was 

 only 2 04° colder than the snow-clad ground. This shows the 

 frif^orific influence of snow on climate. Air passing over bare 

 ground would have been 2° warmer than if it passed over the 

 snow. The snow surface was sometimes warmer, sometimes 

 colder than the air one or two metres above. In the dry winters 

 of Siberia and Sweden, the snow-surface is generally (according 

 to Woeikof) much colder than the air. M. Chaix explains the 

 variations observed at Geneva by fluctuations in the relative hu- 

 midity, involving alternate vaporization and condensation at the 

 snow-surface. In two-thirds of the cases, indeed, abnormal cool- 

 ing of the snow corresponded with a low humidity, and heating 

 with a high humidity, and often formation of hoar frost at the 

 surface, according to Nature. 



— An illustration of the height of breaking waves is afforded by 

 the following paragraph, which vs-e take from the San Francisco 

 Chronicle of Jan. 6: "Portland, Jan. 5 The lighthouse tender 

 •Manzanita" reached Tillamook Rock Sunday for the first time 

 in six weeks, and brought away the keeper, George Hunt, who 

 has been on the rock for four years, and has been transferred to 

 the Cape Mars Light. He says, in the storm of Dec. 7 the waves 

 swept clear over the house, washing away their boats, and tearing 

 loose and carrying away the landing platform and tramway, which 

 were bolted to the rock. On the 39th the waves were still higher, 

 and streams of water poured into the lantern through the ventila- 

 tors in the balloon top of the dome, 157 feet above Jhe sea-level. 

 The lighthouse was shaken to its foundation by the impact of seas 

 against it, and the water found its way into the house. Men were 

 on duty all night to keep the lamp burning, and but for the wire 

 screen the shutters of the lantern would have been demolished." 



