Janxjart 38, 1887. .1 



SCIEJSrCE, 



97 



lowing the advice of some friends, the man went 

 to Pasteur to be submitted to his treatment ac- 

 cording to the new method, which was explained 

 in a recent 'Paris letter' to Science. Matters 

 progressed favorably till the 12th of December 

 (the accident was early in November). On that 

 day Reveillac felt pain, at first slight and after- 

 wards more severe, in the points where the inocu- 

 lations had been made, while no pain was felt in 

 the bitten finger. This important point was testi- 

 fied to by the patient himself and by the persons 

 who lived with him, and it has been corroborated 

 after careful investigation. 



Following this pain were other symptoms, 

 prominent among which was a general feeling of 

 restlessness and great weakness. The weakness 

 was so great, even on the first day, that the 

 patient, on being advised to visit Pasteur and ask 

 for relief, answered that he wished to, but felt 

 utterly unable to do so. The second day the weak- 

 ness increased, and the patient could hardly eat. 

 He died on the 16th of December. During the 

 last two days of the illness, the attending physi- 

 cians witnessed symptoms in the throat of an im- 

 possibility of swallowing liquids. There were no 

 convulsions, but only weakness and paralysis. 



Professor Peter called attention to the facts, 

 first, that the premonitory pain was not in the 

 finger where the original poison had entered, but 

 at the points where the inoculations had been 

 made ; second, that the other symptoms had not 

 been those of common rabies, but of experimental 

 hydrophobia. Instead of convulsions, paralysis 

 was the principal symptom. 



A discussion followed the reading of the paper, 

 and the objections were made that it was by no 

 means certain that Reveillac had died from rabies, 

 that paralytic rabies is very rare among men, and 

 that many symptoms of that disease were wanting. 

 Professor Peter's criticism is, however, interesting, 

 and is likely to attract attention. It is unfortu- 

 nate, however, that we have no certain proof that 

 Reveillac died from the inoculations. If care had 

 been taken to inoculate animals from the tissues 

 likely to be most affected in the patient, we should 

 have had a better basis for deciding on the merits 

 of the case. 



THE RUBY-MINES OF BURMAH. 



For some time past a considerable share of 

 European political and military interest has 

 centred in south-eastern Asia, The fact that in at 

 least one of the countries of that region, Burmah, 

 precious stones are reputed to be found in great 

 quantities, will attract attention of a different 

 order. In view of the report that British troops 



were about to take possession of the Burmese 

 ruby-mines, a correspondent of the London Times 

 has furnished that journal with a description of 

 them and an estimate of their probable value. 



It seems that most of our information concern- 

 ing these mines comes in a more or less amended 

 form, from the account of Tavernier, — informa- 

 tion of two hundred years ago, to be sure, but 

 still the basis of all subsequent accounts. He 

 describes the place where the rubies are obtained 

 as "a mountain twelve days' journey or there- 

 abouts from Siren (i.e., Siriam) towards the north- 

 east, and it is called Capelan (i.e., Kyat-pyen). If 

 is the mine whence is obtained the greatest quan- 

 tity of rubies, spinelles, or mothers of rubies, yel- 

 low topazes, blue and white sapphires, hyacinths, 

 amethysts, and other stones of different colours. 

 . . . Siren is the name of the city where the King 

 of Pegu resides, and Ava is the port of the king- 

 dom. From Ava to Siren you ascend the river in 

 large flat boats, and it is a voyage of about six- 

 teen days. You cannot travel by land on account 

 of the forests, which abound with lions, tigers, 

 and elephants. It is one of the poorest countries 

 in the world : nothing comes from it but rubies, 

 and even they are not so abundant as is generally 

 believed, seeing that the value does not exceed 

 100,000 crowns per annum. Among the multi- 

 tude of these stones you would find it difficult to 

 meet with one of good quality, weighing three or 

 four carats, because the king does not allow any 

 to be removed till they have been seen by him, and 

 he retains all the good ones which he finds among 

 them." 



Two other authorities, men who have visited 

 these mines during this century, are Father 

 D'Amato, who saw the mines about 1830, and a 

 Mr. Bredemeyer, who was in charge of mines in 

 the vicinity about 1868. 



Father D'Amato's account is that Kyat-pyen is 

 situated about seventy miles to the north-east of 

 Mandalay. The gem-gravel occurring there was 

 reached by pits of from twenty to thirty feet in 

 depth ; but extensive working, owing to the in- 

 flux of water, was impossible with the primitive 

 methods followed by the miners. Besides rubies, 

 sapphires, topaz, and oriental emeralds were also 

 found, and spinelles were abundant. All stones 

 above a certain weight became the property of 

 the king, provided they were not stolen and 

 smuggled away. Facilities for this were, how- 

 ever, afforded by the visits paid to the mines an- 

 nually by merchants from China and Tartary. 



Still more recent visitors to Mandalay have 

 found that the majority of the rubies found are 

 less than a quarter of a carat in weight, and the 

 larger ones are generally flawed. Sapphires, 



