April 29, 1887.] 



SCIEJSrCE. 



407 



if carefully prepared and well backed by good 

 documents, will certainly prove most interesting. 

 The evil effects of o\'erwork must certainly be 

 enormous in France, not only from the mental 

 point of view, but also as concerns the influence 

 on physical development ; all the more so that 

 gymnastics and sports are not enough sought for 

 and cultivated to counteract the bad effects of 

 mental strain. 



M. Levasseur, of the Academic des sciences 

 morales et politiques, has recently published a 

 paper concerning the average length of life in 

 France at the present day and a century ago, in 

 1789 and 1881. The following table summarizes 

 the data for different periods of life, the numbers 

 indicating the ratios of survivors per thousand : — 



The following table summarizes the ratio of 

 average life length in France, England, Belgium, 

 and Norway, calculated for a thousand infants of 

 both sexes : — 



It will be easily perceived that the average length 

 of life has increased greatly since a century ago 

 in France, and that it stands generally on a par 

 with that of England, being superior to that of 



Belgium, but inferior to that of Norway. The 

 pre-eminence of Norway is due not only to the 

 low death-rate of infants, but to that of all ages 

 of life. Other tables show that life is generally 

 longer in females than in males. 



M. Armauer Hansen, whose works concerning 

 leprosy are well known, has recently published 

 an interesting paper concerning septicaemia in 

 whales. Near Bergen, each year, one or two 

 Balaenoptera rostrata are regularly caught. The 

 way in which it is done is very simple. The 

 small bay into which the whale has come is shut 

 by means ■of a net, — this is quite enough to pre- 

 vent the egi-ess of the animal, — and then the 

 fishermen try to harpoon it. The animal belongs 

 to the fisherman whose arrow or spear has proved 

 fatal. The fatal wound is recognized easily by the 

 fact that all around it there is a zone of mortifi- 

 cation some days afterwards. The animal does 

 not die immediately. Some twenty-four or 

 thirty-six hours after the wounds have been in- 

 flicted, the animal, which continues roaming 

 about in the bay, seems sick : it comes oftener to 

 the surface to breathe, and is less rapid in its 

 movements. It is then harpooned and hauled 

 ashore. One of the wounds, as before mentioned, 

 is found to be surrounded by a zone of mortified 

 tissues. All the fishermen then dip their arrows 

 and spears into the wound to poison them. In 

 fact, the whales are killed by septicaemia, for both 

 Hansen and Gade have found in the wound a 

 quantity of bacilli, always the same. Cultures of 

 these bacilli succeed very well, and now inocula- 

 tions upon rabbits are going to be tried. The 

 curious feature of this fact is that this method of 

 whale- capturing has been in vogue for many 

 thousand years, since the epoch of the vikings. 



Many interesting books have been published 

 since my last letter. Professor FredSricq of Liege 

 has published the first volume of the annals of 

 his laboratory. It contains many interesting 

 papers by the able young physiologist and many 

 other scientists. 



Professor Hayem has issued a volume on the 

 great therapeutical methods. It is a useful book, 

 in which the philosophy of therapeutics is well 

 expounded. M. G. de Kerville has published a 

 book on evolution. It is a popular but very satis- 

 factory account of the basis of evolution, of the 

 facts adduced in support thereof, and of the diffi- 

 culties the great Darwinian theory encounters. 



It would be useless to say a word in praise of 

 the late Wiirtz's ' Biological chemistry,' which is 

 now complete. This work is a very good one, 

 clear and precise, as that regretted master always 

 wrote. V. 



Paris, April 8. 



