March 4, 1892.] 



SCIENCE. 



131 



tion with death first made man think of spiritual things, and, from 

 the sense of immortality which he felt in himself, led him to con- 

 clude upon a certain imraorlalily of the soul, or survival of the 

 spirit. Hence the various food-offerings to the dead, because the 

 spirit was supposed to revisit the body as long as it was not de- 

 cayed, and the tomb was looked upon as the habitation of the 

 dead. Similar ideas are found among the oldest vestiges of man 

 in western Europe, in the caves of the neolithic period. 



— Dr. A. Woeikof of St. Petersburg, who is engaged on an in- 

 vestigation into the cause of the famine in Russia, says Nature, 

 writes that it is chiefly due to drought from August to October, 

 1890, which injured the winter crops; to partial and insufficient 

 snow, which melted early in the spring, and was followed by 

 frost in April; and lastly to droughts and hot winds from May to 

 July, 1891. In the southern portion of the Government of Sa- 

 mara the prospects up to June 10 were excellent, but the harvest 

 was destroyed by two days of hot vvinds, on June Hand 15. And 

 in the southern central provinces also, where the winter crops had 

 greatly suffered, a moderate harvest was hoped for after the mid 

 die of July, but four hot days, from July 13 to 16, quite destroyed 

 the crops. 



— The number of persons who approve of cremation seems to 

 be steadily increasing, according to Nature. From the report of 

 the Cremation Society of England for 1891, we learn that in 1885, 

 the first year the crematorium at Woking was used, only 3 bodies 

 were sent there; in 1886 the number was 10; in 1887, 13; in 1888, 

 28: in 1889, 46; in 1890, 54; and during the past year, 99. Cre- 

 matoria are being buUt in various parts of the country. At Man- 

 chester a crematorium is in course of erection, and will, it is 

 thought, be completed and opened for use during the coming 

 spring. A company has also been formed, and is making rapid 

 progress, with the same object at Liverpool; and the City of Lon- 

 don Commission of Sewers is taking steps to obtain powers to erect 

 a crematorium at their cemetery at Ilford. TheCremation Society 

 at Darlington, and other associations, are moving in the same di- 

 rection. 



— The Journal of the Scottish Meteorological Society (third 

 series. No. 8) contains a very interesting paper on silver thaw at 

 Ben Nevis Observatory, by R. O. Mossman. The phenomenon is 

 somewhat common at that observatory, and occurs during an in- 

 version of the ordinary temperature conditions, the temperature 

 being considerably lower at the surface than at higher altitudes, 

 causing the rain to congeal as it falls. In the six years 1885-90, 

 198 cases of silver thaw were observed, with a mean duration of 

 4j hours in each case, and they nearly all occurred between No- 

 vember and March, during times of perfectly developed cyclones 

 and anticyclones. An examination of the weather charts of the 

 Meteorological Office showed that for the 198 days on which the 

 phenomenon was observed the distribution of pressure was cy- 

 clonic on 137 days, and anticyclonic on 61 days. In anticyclonic 

 conditions there was a cyclonic area central off the north-west coast 

 of Norway, while the centre of the anticyclone was over the south 

 of the British Isles. In cyclonic cases, an anticyclone lay to tiie 

 south, over the Iberian Peninsula. The lowest temperature at 

 which the phenomenon took place was 18°, and was rarely below 

 27°. Fully 90 per cent of the cases occurred when the thermom- 

 eter was between 38° and 31.9°, so that the greater number of 

 cases occurred just before a thaw. The most common type of 

 cloud which preceded both cyclonic and anticyclonic cases of sil- 

 ver thaw was cirro-cumulus, frequently accompanied by cirrus 

 and cirro stratus ; and the changes showed that the higher strata 

 of the atmosphere came first under the influence of the moist cur- 

 rent, which took from three to eight hours to descend to the height 

 at which cumulo-stratus forms. An examination of a series of 

 storm charts prepared by Dr. Buchan disclosed the somewhat re- 

 markable fact that 73 per cent of the cyclonic and 63 per cent 

 of the anticyclonic cases of silver thaw on Ben Nevis were fol- 

 lowed or preceded by gales on our northern and north-western 

 coasts; and it would appear from the wind conditions that the 

 barometric gradient at the height of Ben Nevis (4,407 feet) must 

 be totally different from what obtained at sea-level during the 

 occurrence of silver thaw on the hill-top, says Nature. 



— There has been much talk in Germany about Dr, Peters's 

 discovery of saltpetre in the Kilima Njaro district. This discov- 

 ery accords with statements which were already well known. Dr. 

 Fischer, after an examination of the Donjongai volcano, reported 

 that in the neighborhood of the crater there were a series of curi- 

 ously-shaped veins of a white substance which he took to be either 

 saltpetre or soda. In 1879 Herr Jarler asserted that large quanti- 

 ties of sulphur would probably be found in the crater. The Ber- 

 lin correspondent of the Times, by whom these facts are noted, 

 adds that not far from the volcano there lie great swamps from 

 which soda is obtained. It is expected that an expedition for the 

 exploration of the district will soon be sent out by the German 

 East Africa Company. 



— It is well known that yellow-fever never develops in a cold 

 or temperate climate, and several attempts have been made at 

 various times to apply this fact to the treatment of the disease in 

 tropical climates by artificially cooling the patient. Thus some 

 thirty-five years ago trials tvere made with a cold chamber, the 

 air of which was charged with oxygen, but without appreciable 

 success. Quite recently Dr. Garcia has reintroduced a somewhat 

 similar plan, an iced chamber being constructed so that the air 

 within should be maintained at a temperature varying from 32° 

 to 50° F., and nearly saturated with moisture. A fair trial was 

 made with this at the works of the Juragua Iron Company in Cuba, 

 where an epidemic of yellow-fever had broken out, seventeen 

 well-marked cases, in all of which black vomit was present, being 

 treated by means of the " polar chamber." Eleven of them re- 

 covered, the mortality consequently being at the rate of 35.3 per 

 cent, or about the same as the usual rate of mortality at the mines 

 under other methods of treatment. The course of duration of the 

 disease did not appear to be in any way modified by the low tem- 

 perature; the urine, though in some cases considerably increased, 

 was not altered qualitatively. The phenomena depending on 

 acholia occurred in the same manner and at the same period as in 

 cases treated in the ordinary way. The same may be said of the 

 gastric haemorrhage. The cost of a patient's treatment by cold 

 was found to amount to about |100, says Lancet. 



— The sixteenth annual commencement of Meharry Medical 

 Department of Central Tennessee College was held at Nashville, 

 Tenn., Feb. 18. Twenty-five young men recefved the degree of 

 M.D., one that of D.D.S , and three were awarded diplomas for 

 having completed the course in pharmacy. G. W. Miller of South 

 Carolina delivered the salutatory address, on ' ' Practical Bacteri- 

 ology." He gave an account of the different kinds of bacteria, 

 how they could be cultivated, stained, and examined, and how 

 one variety could be distinguished from another. The pharma- 

 ceutical class was represented by Robert Tyler of Mississippi, who 

 gave an address on " The Relations between Physicians and Phar- 

 macists." The valedictory address was given by J. W. Holmes 

 of Texas, his subject being " The Advance of Modern Surgery." 

 The speaker referred to the early history of surgery, especially 

 that practised by the Egyptians and Grecians. He spoke of the 

 reforms in surgery and the leaders in these reforms, the principal 

 operations of importance from the sixteenth to the present century 

 inclusive, and of some of the appliances which had accomplished 

 much for surgery, such as an anaesthetics and antiseptics. He also 

 gave elaborate descriptions of cranial and abdominal surgery, 

 mentioning some of the most hazardous operations performed in 

 these cavities, and also paid a high tribute to the modern surgeon 

 for the achievements accomplished by him. The past year has 

 been the most successful and encouraging ever known in the his- 

 tory of this school, the number of students and graduates being 

 about fifty per cent greater tljan that of any previous session, one 

 hundred and eighteen medical, and seven dental and nine phar- 

 maceutical students being enrolled. The record of the alumni of 

 Meharry Medical College has been most gratifying. Of those who 

 have graduated within the past six years only two have failed to 

 pass the required examination before the " Boards of Medical Ex- 

 aminers," standing equal with the white applicants from the dif- 

 ferent medical colleges of the South, with whom they were ex- 

 amined at the same time, and have been well received by the 

 white physicians. 



