188 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. IX., No. 213 



sixty thousand may be found in a moment, and on 

 the back of it is a complete record of the crimi- 

 nal's past life, together with an accurate descrip- 

 tion of him. The bureau is very serviceable, the 

 criminals being the only ones who find any fault 

 with its workings. 



An interesting paper upon the physiological 

 action of saccharine — discovered some years ago 

 by Fahlberg — has been contributed by MM. 

 Aducco and'Mosso. They find that frogs cannot 

 live in a solution of this substance, on account of 

 its acidity, though strong doses of a concentrated 

 solution of it do not seem to affect them. Upon 

 dogs, saccharine has no definite action. The weight 

 of the animals is not changed by its use, and it 

 has no efi'ect upon the quantity or quality of the 

 urine voided. Chlorides seem to be ejected in 

 greater proportion, but this is all. Saccharine 

 passes through the body without change, its only 

 effect being to render the urine less putrescible 

 than usual. Upon man the effects are similar, 

 five-gram daily doses having no effect whatever, 

 passing away wholly with the urine, entirely un- 

 changed. Upon the whole, saccharine seems to 

 be an inoffensive substance, having the valuable 

 quality of being a substitute for sugar without the 

 injurious effects of the latter in certain ailments, 

 such as diabetes. 



An excellent work upon hygienic dietetics has 

 recently been published by M. Dujardin-Beaumetz, 

 in which he ably reviews previous works upon the 

 physiology of digestion, and advances sound 

 ideas of what dietetics must be as governed by 

 the various states of health and disease. Another 

 work, by M. Dangeard, upon the inferior organ- 

 isms, will prove useful to zoologists and botanists. 

 It is a book of reference concerning a very small 

 division of protozoa, but contains no general ideas 

 upon physiology or morphology. V. 



Paris, Feb. 11. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 

 Africa. 



The European population of Algiers in 1886 

 numbered 261,500 French and 210,000 foreigners. 

 Among the latter the Spanish element is the most 

 numerous. As among the French population 

 there are 38,000 soldiers, and about a thousand 

 foreigners are naturalized every year, the foreign- 

 ers actually outnumber the French. The Euro- 

 pean population has doubled during the last 

 twenty-five years, and the native population, 

 which numbers 3,300,000 Arabs and Kabyles and 

 48,000 Israelites, is increasing at a rate of about 

 80,000 a year. Since 1881 the increase was 423,000. 



Stanley publishes a letter in which he states 



that all the political authorities and experts in 

 Cairo are opposed to the idea of his taking the 

 Kongo route for reaching Emin Pasha. As his 

 expedition will be well armed, they do not con- 

 sider the obstacles he would find on the Karagwe 

 or Masai route insuperable. Stanley, however, 

 wishes to avoid a struggle with Uganda, as he 

 fears that the missionaries now in Mwanga's 

 power will be murdered in case of war. He 

 estimates the length of the Kongo route at 157 

 days, — twenty days by steamer from Zanzibar to 

 the Kongo, three days by steamer on the Lower 

 Kongo, thirty-five days on the Upper Kongo, and 

 ninety-nine days of land journey to Lake Mwoo- 

 tan. The Karagwe route he calculates at 156 

 days land journey-, the Masai route at 154 days. 



No news has been received of Mr. Ltideritz, 

 who went on an exploring expedition in south- 

 western Africa last fall. He has not been heard 

 of since he embarked on the Orange River in a 

 canoe. 



Dr. E. Holub's party has been attacked by the 

 Bechuanas, and his companion was killed in the 

 fight. Holub escaped unhurt. After the news of 

 this disaster was received, a committee was formed 

 in Vienna to raise funds for enabling Dr. Holub 

 to resume his explorations on the upper Zambezi. 



The French are making use of their occupation of 

 Madagascar, says Nature, to gain a thorough knowl- 

 edge of the natural history of the island. There 

 have already issued from the national press several 

 fascicules of a magnificent ' His toire physique, nat- 

 urelle, et politique de Madagascar,' edited by M. Al- 

 fred Grandidier, to be completed in thirty volumes 

 quarto. The subjects to be comprised in this 

 work are : 1°, physical and astronomical geog- 

 raphy ; 2°, meteorology and magnetism ; 'd°, eth- 

 nology, anthropology, and linguistics ; 4°, political, 

 colonial, and commercial history ; 5°, natural his- 

 tory of mammals ; 6°, natural history of birds ; 7®, 

 natural history of fishes ; 8°, natural history of 

 reptiles ; 9°, natural history of Crustacea ; 10°, 

 natural history of terrestrial and freshwater 

 mollusks ; 11", natural history of plants ; 12*^, geol- 

 ogy and paleontology. The various sections are 

 intrusted to competent authorities ; and the geo- 

 logical portion is to be illustrated by about five 

 hundred chromo-lithographs or colored plates, the 

 anatomical details being represented in lithog- 

 raphy and photography. The total number of 

 plates will not be less than 1200. 



America. 

 Mr. Chaffanjon was going to leave San Fer- 

 nando de Atabapo on the Upper Orinoco in No- 

 vember, 1886, to explore the sources of that river. 

 Through the support of the government he got 



