January io, 1890.] 



SCIENCE. 



23 



perience of the profession on this point, and its difficulty is shown 

 by the fact that opinions were much divided. 



The constancy of type of influenza, the mode of its transmission, 

 its independence of climatic and seasonal conditions, all suggest 

 that its cause is " specific," — that is, having the properties of 

 growth and multiplication which belong to a living thing. 



Whether the disease affects the lower animals is not absolutely 

 ■certain, but the human epidemic has often been preceded or ac- 

 companied by an epidemic among horses of a very similar disease. 

 It is pretty well known that such a disease is now prevalent among 

 horses in London. 



It is important that there should be observed and recorded dur- 

 ing the present outbreak, as carefully as the great demands at such 

 a period upon the time and strength of practitioners will permit, 

 'the cases they are called to. There are some especial points upon 

 which more light is needed. Any observations which bear upon 

 the accompanying insomnia, or upon the question of contagious- 

 ness should be noted with precision. The questions of relapse, of 

 recurrence, of remission, of second attacks after complete recovery 

 ■from a first attack, should all receive further elucidation from the 

 present outbreak. The duration of the epidemic in different local- 

 ities, its behavior with reference to climatic changes, the direction 

 and force of the winds, etc., merit close attention. It can scarcely 

 'be doubted that the poison is a microphyte multiplying in the air, 

 and yet there is reaspn to believe that it sometimes travels, and 

 that not slowly, against the course of the winds. It will be inter- 

 esting to learn whether the " influence" was encountered by our 

 European "squadron of evolution " in its voyage across the Atlan- 

 tic. We have heard that a rrionth ago cases occurred on a steamer 

 crossing the Pacific Ocean from Japan to San Francisco. 



There has been a somewhat greater variation in the symptoms 

 in different cases than is ordinarily encountered in most acute dis- 

 eases dependent upon recognized specific poisons, although very 

 possibly it may prove that these may be classified under two heads. 

 It is desirable to note how far the present cases of influenza re- 

 semble and wherein they differ from dengue. 



It must, of course, be borne in mind that the mild, moist, open, 

 variable season which has thus far prevailed, predisposes to ca- 

 tarrhal troubles ; and again that a prostrating affection like this " in- 

 fluenza" brings as an accompaniment or sequel to the weak, bron- 

 chitis and pneumonia. It is, on the other hand, remarkable that in 

 not a few of the severest cases of " influenza " lately encountered, 

 catarrhal affections of the mucous membranes have been very 

 slight. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 

 During the past summer, at the Agricultural Experiment Sta- 

 tion of Cornell University, investigations have been made on the 

 general subject of the deterioration of farm yard manure, in three 

 main directions ; namely, (i) What loss does horse-manure suffer 

 when thrown out in a pile unsheltered from the weather ? (2) 

 What loss does mixed farm-yard manure suffer when piled in a 

 close pile so that fermentation is very slow ; but without protection 

 from rainfall .? (3) Is there an appreciable loss of valuable matter 

 when manure simply dries without fermentation ? The results of 

 one season's trial seemed to show that horse-manure thrown in a 

 loose pile and subjected to the action of the elements will lose 

 nearly one-half of its valuable fertilizing constituents in the course 

 of six months ; that mixed horse and cow manure in a compact 

 mass, and so placed that all water falling upon it quickly runs 

 through and off, is subjected to a considerable, though not so 

 great a loss, and that no appreciable loss takes place when manure 

 simply dries. Professor Shelton, from the results of somewhat 

 ■similar experiments carried on at the Kansas Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station, concludes as follows : " The moral which the experi- 

 ment plainly emphasizes is, that, farm-yard manures must be 

 hauled to the field in the spring; otherwise the loss of manure is 

 sure to be very great, the waste in the course of six months 

 amounting to fully one-half the gross manure and nearly forty per 

 cent of the nitrogen that it contained." To show that a large 

 number of the farmers in the State are uninformed in this matter, 

 or at least not sufficiently alive to its importance to take proper 

 care of their manure, Mr. I. P. Roberts and Mr. Henry H. Wing, 



who had charge of the investigation, have had engravings made of 

 photographs of two actual "farm steadings " as they were found 

 to exist, early last spring. These show particularly the watery, 

 miry condition of the yards and the heaps of manure under the 

 eaves. These are not isolated cases, but are fairly representative 

 of a large number of similar views that were taken in one day in 

 the course of a not very extended walk in a single locality, and 

 that a dairy district. From what they have seen from car windows 

 in their journeys through the State, much the same condition of 

 things prevails generally. 



— In a recent paper on zoogeography, in Humboldt, as condensed 

 in Nature, Dr. Lampert states that a good many wolves are still 

 captured in the east and west provinces of Germany, e.g., about 

 fifty annually in Lorraine. In France, 701 wolves were destroyed 

 in 1887 ; in Norway, only 15. It is estimated that in Russia the 

 yearly loss in domestic animals through wolves is over ten million 

 dollars, and the loss of game from the same cause, over thirty-five 

 million. The German mole swarms apparently, in the neighbor- 

 hood of Aschersleben, where 97,519 individuals were taken last 

 year, and rewards amounting to nearly five hundred dollars were 

 paid. In great part of Germany, however (Upper and Lower 

 Bavaria, East and West Prussia), it is not met with. Mecklenberg 

 and Pomerania are its northern limits at present. The beaver is 

 nearly extinct in Germany, but a new settlement of thirty individu- 

 als was recently discovered at Regenwehrsberg, not far from 

 Shbnebeck, on the Elbe. A recent catalogue of diurnal birds of 

 prey in Switzerland (by Drs. Studer and Fatio) gives thirty-two 

 species. The disappearance of the golden vulture is here notewor- 

 thy. Early in this century it was met with in all parts of the Al- 

 pine chain ; whereas now, only a very few individuals survive on 

 the inaccessible heights of the Central Alps. 



— An interesting inquiry into prehistoric textiles has been re- 

 cently made by Herr Buschan. As stated in Nature, he examined 

 tissues with regard to the raw material used, to their distribution 

 in prehistoric Germany, to their mode of production, and to their 

 alteration by lying in the ground. With certain chemical re-agents 

 he was able to distinguish the various fibres, though much altered. 

 The oldest tissues of Germany (as we now know it) come from the 

 peat-finds of the northern bronze period. On the other hand, 

 some articles of bone found in caves of Bavarian Franks, and evi- 

 dently instruments for weaving or netting (bodkins, knitting nee- 

 dles, etc.), show that already in the Neolithic period textiles were 

 made. The art of felting probably preceded that of weaving. 

 Herr Buschan sums up his results as follows : (i)in the prehistoric 

 times of Germany, wool (mostly sheep's) and flax were made into 

 webs, but no hemp ; (2) the use of wool preceded that of flax ; (3) 

 the wool used was always dark ; (4) most of the stuffs were of the 

 nature of huckaback (not smooth) ; (5) the textiles have, on the 

 whole, changed but little in course of time. The author has 

 some interesting observations on the oldest kinds of loom. The 

 pile-builders on the Pfaflfiker, Niederwyl, and Boden Lakes were 

 busy weavers ; and they knew how to work flax fibres not only 

 into coarse lace, fish-nets, or mats, but into such finer article as 

 fringes, coverlets, embroidery, and hair-nets. 



— A point of great importance for the progress of Western 

 science in the Chinese Empire is whether it should be taught in the 

 Chinese or in a foreign language. The subject has been frequently 

 discussed, and quite recently the opinions of a large number of 

 men most prominently engaged in the education of Chinese were 

 collected and published in a Shanghai magazine, the Chinese Re- 

 corder. The editor says that nine-tenths of these authorities are 

 of opinion that the Chinese language is sufficient for all purposes 

 in teaching Western science. One gentleman states that Chinese 

 students can only be taught science in their own language, and 

 that the long time necessary for them to acquire English for this 

 purpose is wasted; another says that " science must be planted in 

 the Chinese language in order to its permanent growth and de- 

 velopment ; " a third sees no reason why the vernacular should not 

 be enough to allow the Chinese student to attain the very highest 

 proficiency in Western science, although he admits that there is at 

 present a want of teachers and text-books. Professor Oliver of 

 the Imperial University at Pekin says he has never found English 



