144 



SCIEWCE. 



[Vol. IX., No. 210 



Palermo. In this pamphlet he says that typhoid 

 and scarlet fevers, diphtheria, small-pox, and 

 cholera seem to have made their abode in Italy. 

 The country remains unprovided with sanitary 

 laws ; and the government, lacking etiological 

 and hygienic knowledge, makes provision only 

 when any disease appears, and nearly always in 

 consonance w^ith the impression of the moment, 

 issuing confusing or conflicting decrees and un- 

 reasonable instructions, which are nearly always 

 useless. Then the cholera has its sway, and cities 

 are terror-stricken. The sanitary authorities of 

 the kingdom, the superior sanitary council, the 

 minister of the interior, prefects and mayors, fre- 

 quently provide contradictory measures, issuing 

 regulations of no efficacy in preventing the spread 

 of infectious diseases. During the last twenty- 

 six years, iu which Italy has been free, the govern- 

 ment has never occupied itself with public health. 

 In Sicily, Napoletano, Puglie, and Abruzzo, ani- 

 mals dwell in the same rooms with the people who 

 own them. The pamphlet of Professor Albanese 

 clearly demonstrates that sanitary matters in Italy 

 are about as bad as they can be, and that, unless 

 remedies are soon applied, there is nothing in the 

 list of epidemic diseases which may not be looked 

 for in the near future. He recommends that the 

 government should at once assemble a commission 

 composed of the most eminent hygienists and 

 practical physicians, with a view to projecting a 

 re-organization of sanitary systems. 



— No. V. of part iv. of the eleventh volume of 

 the 'Memoirs of the American academy of arts and 

 sciences ' contains the first instalment of a ' cata- 

 logue of 130 jjolar stars for the epoch 1875.0.' The 

 joint authors are Prof. William A. Rogers and 

 Miss Anna Winlock ; and to the latter the credit 

 of the execution of the work, according to Pro- 

 fessor Rogers's plans, is due. The computations 

 involved are very laborious, and one must admire 

 the zeal and patience with which Miss Winlock 

 has carried them through. The catalogue is based 

 upon all observations of the stars fi'om 1860 to 

 1885, and therefore a large number of reductions 

 to the epoch 1875.0 had to be performed. For 

 polar stars these reductions are quite tedious, be- 

 cause terms of higher orders cannot be neglected. 

 It was therefore decided to discuss the various 

 methods of reduction, .and to find out the limita- 

 tions of the approximations employed. The star 

 Groombridge 1119 was chosen for this purpose, it 

 being one degree from the pole, and the computa- 

 tions are given in extenso. The conclusions 

 reached as to the availability of the different 

 methods cannot be explained here, but are of 

 much interest to astronomers. The authors have 



made a really valuable contribution to the litera- 

 ture of the subject. Among other things, the 

 catalogue, when completed, will contain yearly 

 ephemerides of aU of its stars within three degrees 

 of the pole, and data for the reduction of the dif- 

 ferent catalogues employed to the system of the 

 Astronomische Gesellschaft. 



— Dr Lombard has re-investigated the question 

 as to whether or not the upward movement of the 

 leg, when the patellar tendon under the knee is 

 struck, is a reflex act. The main argument 

 against its being so is that the act requires only 

 .03 to .04 of a second, while the reflex act requires 

 .11. The chief point in favor of its reflex origin 

 is that the vigor of the reaction depends on the 

 integrity and health of the spinal cord. The ex- 

 planation that the phenomenon is direct muscle- 

 effect, but that the spinal cord must send down 

 a shower of reflexes or keep up a healthy tonus to 

 have the act result, is very unsatisfactory. Dr. 

 Lombard found that the act follows after the same 

 interval, when the muscle is electrically stimu- 

 lated or the tendon struck, but that the interval is 

 much longer (four times as long) when a reflex 

 contraction is excited by rubbing the skin. Hence 

 it is argued that the phenomenon is a direct mus- 

 cular stimulation, and occurs too quickly to be of 

 a reflex nature. In one case an after- jerk, fol- 

 lowing at an interval that suggested a reflex 

 origin, was recorded ; but this compound nature 

 of the response, though carefuUy looked for, was 

 not again observed. The explanation of the rela- 

 tion of the knee-jerk to the spinal cord cannot 

 yet be given. 



-—George Fleming, LL.D., principal veterinary 

 surgeon of the British army, regards as untrue 

 the generally accepted theory that small-pox in 

 man, and cow-pox, are one and the same disease. 

 One of the best authorities quoted in support of 

 the theory was the late Mr. Ceely, who reported 

 that he had succeeded in producing cow-pox by 

 inoculating a cow with small-pox matter. Dr. 

 Fleming believes that Mr. Ceely was misled in 

 this experiment, and that what he really used was 

 vaccine, and not the virus of small-pox. His ex- 

 periment was subsequently repeated on twelve 

 heifers by Dr. Klein under Mr. Ceely's supervis- 

 ion, and, though small-pox matter was inserted 

 abundantly into the incisions, cow-pox was not 

 developed in any of the animals. Similar experi- 

 ments have been performed in France and Italy, 

 and the results have all been the same as those in 

 England. Dr. Fleming holds that all these ex- 

 periments go to show that the two diseases are 

 not identical, nor can cow-pox be produced by 

 inoculation with small-pox virus. 



