March 28, 1890.] 



SCIENCE. 



201 



«nt aspect of words: they serve our purpose very well as they 

 are, and we are iuclined to deprecate any alteration, lest it 

 might give a foreign or a mutilated look to what is now familiar 

 and symmetrical to our eye. We should not think of ourselves 

 at all in this matter, hut think only of the helpless juvenile 

 throng who crowd into the places which we vacated years and 

 years ago. Simplify spelling for the sake of the little ones 

 •who must suffer from our neglect. 



One other point calls for notice; namely, the moderate char- 

 acter of the present proposal. The full amount of change that 

 can result from this measure of simplified spelling is but a small 

 part of what is necessary to make the writing of our language 

 phonetic. We shall still have to use double letters for single 

 sounds in a large proportion of both vowels and consonants, 

 and to tolerate many irregularities in such compounds. In 

 fact, the utility of a purely phonetic initiatory method, such 

 as that of ''World-English," will be still almost as marked 

 as it is now. 



Why, then, advocate this measvue? Because it is a step in 

 the right direction, and step by step is the best mode of mak- 

 ing progress. There is more to be done than can be effected by 

 one impulse, and improvements once commenced will be car- 

 ried farther and farther by succeeding generations. Our lan- 

 guage is apparently destined to spread over the world. It is 

 worthy of the most perfect vehicle of communication that skill 

 can devise. If we cannot complete the work, we can at least 

 help it on, and leave it one stage more advanced than we 

 found it. 



Something must be done. Our spelling is a disgrace. Re- 

 sponsibility for its lawless condition attaches nowhere in par- 

 ticular, but rests everywhere. The burden of this responsi- 

 bility should be laid on some accountable official empowered to 

 consider and inaugurate improvements. In the absence of any 

 such delegated authority, the direct action of the representa- 

 tives of the people is invoked, not to- impose changes on the 

 unwilling or the indifferent, but only to exemplify, and by 

 example to invite adoption of the method of improvement 

 recommended by competent advisers. 



Private efforts have already been most liberally devoted to 

 the work of amending orthograi^hy ; but no private efforts can 

 he made on the scale, or with the influence, of a measure 

 emanating from Congress. Besides, this work is peculiarly of 

 public and not of private benefit. It must be done by you, or 

 else it must remain unaccomplished. 



HEALTH MATTERS. 



The Bacteriology of Whooping-Cough. 

 At the third general meeting of Russian medical men at St. 

 Petersburg, Professor Afanasieff read an able and exhaustive 

 bacteriological essay on the subject of pertussis. At the sug- 

 gestion of Professor Afanasieff, who was anxious to verify his 

 results, Dr. Semtchenko took up the line to further investigate 

 the matter, especially in clinical regards. The conclusions 

 arrived at by the Kazan pasdiatrist, says the London Medical 

 Recorder, may be given thus: 1. Afanasieff' s bacterium is 

 actually specific, and hence fulh^ entitled to bear the name of 

 the hacilbis tvssis conndsivce ; 2. The micro-organism makes 

 its appearance in the sputum during the catarrhal stage, some- 

 where about the fourth day of the disease, but possibly still 

 earlier; 3. Subsequently its numerical strength increases, the 

 intensity of paroxysms keeping pace with the increase; 4. The 

 microbes disappear from the discharge, apparently somewhat 

 before a complete cessation of whoops (about the time when the 

 number of paroxysms sinks down to four or two per day) ; 5. 

 As soon as pertussis becomes complicated with catarrhal pneu- 

 monia, the bacilli in the patient's sputa show an enormous in- 

 crease in number ; 6. Altogether, the pertussis pneumonia seems 

 to be quite different from other varieties of pulmonary imflam- 

 mation; 7. The bacillus tiissis convulsivce presents a great im- 

 portance not only in etiological and diagnostic, but also in 

 prognostic regards; 8. As to the behavior of the microbe 

 toward antiseptic agents, its vitality is destroyed as soon as 



the medium (jelly) contains corrosive sublimate in the propor- 

 tion of 1 to 60,000, or resorcin in that of 1 to 1,200, or phenol 

 in the same one, or hydrochlorate of quinine in that of 1 to 

 800. Drs. Afanasieff's and Semtchenko's researches were re- 

 peated (at lease partially) by Professor Tschamer (Wiener med. 

 Wochensch., No. 17, 1888) and Dr. E. C. Wendt of New York 

 (Medical News, June 2, 1888). On the whole, both of the 

 authors confirmed the statements made by the Russian observers. 

 Dr. Wendt, however, differs from Dr. Semtchenko in some more 

 or less subordinate points. Thus, he could not detect the pres- 

 ence of the bacilli in earlier stages of the affection; neither 

 was he able to notice any co-relation between the number of 

 paroxysms and that of the bacteria in the patient' s sputa ; 

 while, on the other hand, he found still the bacilli in the dis- 

 charge, even after a complete disappearance of whoops. In 

 conclusion. Professor Afanasieff draws attention to the several 

 points which demand further elaborate investigations. It is 

 necessary, he says, (1) to more closely examine the distribution 

 of the microbes in the respiratory mucous membrane, as well as 

 in broncho-pneumonic foci ; (2) to study the behavior of the 

 bacterium toward various coloring-matters (in order to discover 

 a characteristic differential test for the bacillus) ; (3) to study 

 the spore-formation (which is important, especially in prophy- 

 lactic regards) ; (4) to most carefully inquire into a clinical 

 bacteriology of the pertussis sputa from the beginning to the 

 end of the attack, and even during convalescence (which is 

 important for diagnostic, prognostic, and prophylactic pur- 

 poses) ; and (.5) to further study the behavior of the bacillus 

 toward all possible parasiticide agents (to possibly discover 

 some specific bactericidal substances, which discovery would 

 prove of untold value in regard to the therapeutics of the 

 infantile scourge in question) . 



Sea-Water and the Nutrition of Marine Animals. 



Drs. Pouchet and Chabry have recently conducted some 

 experiments of great biological interest. They have reared 

 larval germs of sea-urchins in artificial sea-water and in sea- 

 water deprived of all or more or less of its lime, in order to 

 observe the influence of the composition of the water on the 

 development of the larvse. Normally a distinct skeleton should 

 develop. According to the British Medical Journal, it was 

 found, that, when the larvse were reared in sea-water deprived 

 of about nine-tenths of its lime, not even a rudimentary skele- 

 ton was developed. A very trifling diminution in the normal 

 amount of lime, effected by careful precipitation by chemical 

 re-agents, was found sufficient to interfere markedly with the 

 growth of the skeleton in the larvas: hence the medium in 

 which some marine germs of life exist would appear to act as a 

 nutritive agent as well as an atmosphere whence oxygen may 

 be obtained for respiration. The influence of the chemical 

 composition of the water in different seas probably determines 

 many differences in the anatomy of marine animals, but Drs. 

 Pouchet and Chabry admit that this question requires much 

 consideration. How far the embryo in the higher terrestrial 

 forms of life may receive nutrition direct from substances in 

 solution in the liquor amnii, as well as through the placental 

 circulation, is another question worth solving. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



Professor C. S. Plumb of Knoxville, Tenn., has accepted the 

 position of vice-director of the Agricultural Experiment Station 

 of Purdue University, Lafayette, Ind., and after the 1st of April 

 next his address will be at the latter place. 



— At a recent meeting of the Paris Geographical Society, as we 

 learn from Nature, an interesting lecture was delivered by Dr. 

 Hamy on the history of scientific missions in France under the 

 old monarchy. He commenced practically with the reign of 

 Francis I., and described many missions abroad, with purely 

 scientific aims, which are now either forgotten, or the results of 

 which have never been published. Thus, the apothecary to Henri 

 IV. went all over the globe in search of the peculiar products of 

 each country, especially medicinal and food plants ; still earlier. 



