288 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVI. No. 407 



SCIENCE: 



A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



PUBLISHED BY 



N. D. C. HODGES. 



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 mailed the author on request in advance. Rejected manuscripts -will be 

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Vol. XVI. NEW YORK, NovEaBER 21, 1890. 



No. 407. 



CONTENTS: 



Thb Problems of Comparative 

 Osteology 281 



Report of the Marine Biologi- 

 cal Laboratory at Wood's 

 HOLL 282 



Aid to Astronomical Kesearch. 283 



Health Matters. 

 Small-Pox Extinct in Ireland 284 



Book-Reviews. 

 Dragon-Flies versus Mosquitoes. 284 

 Manual Training in Education. . . 284 



The Myology of tne Raven 285 



The Distribution of Wealth 285 



Sociology 285 



Life of Arthur Schopenhauer.... 285 

 The Colours of Animals 286 



Notes and News '■ 



Editorial i 



Koch^s Discovery. 

 The American Folk-Lore Society i 

 The Cinquemani ' Chronologe".. ) 

 Letters to the Editor. 

 Mohawk Folk-Lore 



A. F. Chamberlain : 

 Mount St. Ellas and the Culmi- 

 nating Point of the North 

 American Continent 



Angelo Heilprin '. 



Strawberries. T. Greiner : 



Structure of the Plesiosaurian 



Skull. S. W. Williston i 



Among the Publishers 1 



So FAR AS any definite infojniation has reached this country in 

 regard to the discovery by Koch of a cure for consumption, it ap- 

 pears tliat the announcement of Koch's discovery was somewhat 

 premature, and that his experiments have not advanced so far as 

 he wished before h^ would, from preference, have published 

 them. But the interest excited has induced him to make a pre- 

 liminary statement of results in the Deutsche medicinische 

 Wochenscrift for Nov. 14. Even now he simply states that the 

 remedy is a brownish, transparent liquid, which must be injected 

 subcutaneously, preferably on the back between the shoulder- 

 blades and the lumbar region. Small doses do not affect the 

 healthy human being; while with tuberculous patients the 

 re-action consists in an attack of fever, which usually begins 

 with rigors. This is accompanied by pain in the limbs, cough- 

 ing, great fatigue, and often nausea, the whole beginning four 

 or five hours after the injection, and lasting abcut twelve. In 

 case of any tuberculous affection on the surface, local re actions 

 take place, which In the case of lupus result, after one or mere 

 injections, in the falling-off of the lupus- tissue, leaving a clean, 

 red cicatrix behind. The symptoms above described occurred in 

 all cases in which a tuberculous process was present, showing the 

 remedy to be at least an aid to diagnosis. In what way the cure 

 takes place cannot as yet be stated with certainty; but Koch be- 

 lieves that the remedy does not kill the bacilli, but the tuberculous 

 tissue, and that it may be necessary to even resort to surgical aid 

 to remove the dead tissue if the organism affected cannot throw 

 it off. Glandular, bone, and .joint tuberculosis were similarly 

 treated, with the same result as in lupus, of a speedy CUre'iii re- 

 cent and light cases, and slow improvement in others. With 

 consumptive patients the dose had to be still further reduced. 

 The results were, that those in the first stage of phthisis were 

 freed from all symptoms of the disease, and might be pronounced 

 cured, patients with cavities not much developed were improved, 

 and only those with large cavities in their lungs showed no im- 

 provement in condition. Relapses may occur, of course. A most 

 important point is the need of early application of the method. 



THE AMERICAN FOLK-LORE SOCIETY. 



The second annual meeting of this society will be held in New 

 York City on N.iv. 28 and 29, being the Friday and Saturday fol- 

 lowing Thanksgiving Day. By the courtesy of President Seth 

 Low, LL.D , the sessions will be held in Room 15, Hamilton Hall, 

 Columbia College, Madison Avenue and Forty-ninth Street. 



On Friday there will be three sessions for business and reading 

 of papers. At 10 a.m. the council will meet. At eleven o'clock 

 the president. Dr. Daniel G. Brinton, will take the chair, and an 

 address of welcome will be delivered by Professor John S. New- 

 berry, president of the New York Academy of Sciences. The 

 council will then present its report to the society. Reports of 

 officers and committees will be received, and general business will 

 be transacted. At one o'clock the session will adjourn, and the 

 members are invited to a lunch provided by the local committee. 

 At 2.30 P.M. the society will re assemble for the reading of papers. 

 At 8 P.M., by invitation of the New York Academy of Sciences, a- 

 joint meeting of the Folk-Lore Society and the academy will be 

 held in the same hall, at which papers will be read. 



On Saturday there will be a single session beginning at 10 a.m. 

 The meetings of the society will be open to the public, but only 

 members will take part in the business and discussions. 



The following papers are announced to Nov. 17: Rev. W. M. 

 Beauchamp, D. D., "Hiawatha;" Dr. Franz Boas, "Dissemina- 

 tion of Tales among the Natives of North America:" Dr. H. Car- 

 rington Bolton, "Some Hawaiian Pastimes;" Dr. Daniel G. Brin- 

 ton, "The Worship of Astarte in America," and "The Ethnic 

 Side of Folk-Lore;" Mr. A. F. Chamberlain, " Naniboju among 

 the Ojebways and Mississagas;" Rev. Heli Chatelain, "West 

 African Folk-Lore;" Mr. L. E. Chittenden, "Note on an Early- 

 Superstition of the Champlain Valley, — the Whip-poor-will;" Mr. 

 Charles F. Cox, " Faith-Healing in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth 

 Centuries;" Mr. Stewart Culin, " Children's Street Games, Brook- 

 lyn, N.Y.;" Rev. J. Owen Dorsey, " Siouan Cults;" Mr. George 

 F. Kunz will make an exhibition of rare objects of folk-lore in- 

 terest; Professor Daniel S. Martin, "Survival of Superstitions 

 among the Enlightened;" Professor Otis T. Mason, " The Natural 

 History of Folk-Lore;"' Dr. John S. Newberry, " The Ancient 

 Civilizationsof America, Date and Derivation;" iMr. William Wells 

 Newell, " The Practice of Conjuring Noxious Animals as Surviv- 

 ing in the Folk-Lore of New England;" Dr. Frederick Starr,. 

 " The Folk Lore of Stone Implements;" Mr. Louis Vossion, " The 

 Nat- Worship among the Burmese;" Mr. Tiiomas Wilson, "The 

 .\mulet Collection of Professor Belucci, Perugia, Italy, and hoiv 

 it came to be made." 



The Wellington Hotel, corner of Forty-second Street and Madi- 

 son Avenue, will take a limited number of members at favorable 

 rales. —rooms from $1 to $2 per day, and meals from $1.50 to $3 

 per day, the hotel being on the restaurant plan. The Wellington 

 is very conveniently situated, beiuL' only one block from the Grand 

 Central Depot, and seven short blocks from Columbia College,^ 

 while three lines of horse-cars pass its_ doors. Persons desiring 

 less expensive accommodation will find the Kingsboi'ough, 58 

 West Tbirty-third Street, near Broadway, comfortable at $2 per 

 day (on the American plan). 



The committee has made efforts to obtain reduced rates on the 

 railroads centring at New York, but without success, owing to the 

 resti ictive regulations of the companies. For further information 

 address the chairman of the local committee, H. Carrington Bol- 

 ton, at the University Club, New York City. 



THE CINQUEMANI " CHRONOLOGE." 



This is a very singular and interesting contrivance. As de- 

 scribed by a correspondent of Nature, it is a clock with only one 

 toothed wheel, yet it shows the hours, minutes, days of the week, 

 etc., and strikes the hours and quarters at each quarter of an hour. 

 Moreover, there is an arrangement for repeating the hours and 

 quarters at will. The single toothed wheel spoken of is the- 

 escape-wheel, and this propels a pair of pallets and pendulum in 

 the ordinary way. The rest of the work is done in the fall of a 

 small leaden ball, a long chain of these balls being intermittingly 

 elevated, and one of them discharged over a revolving drum each 



