5IO 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[June I, i8 



in 1868. During the month of December he found the 

 atmosphere perfectly calm and the dryness extreme. Meat 

 was never tainted and paper was especially electric to 

 the touch. Under these conditions the solar action on 

 the surrounding atmosphere was remarkably distinct and 

 regular. The slight vapour emitted by the Alpine 

 vegetations of the valleys condensed itself at sunset into 

 a light hazy bank, which settled in the plains. At sunrise 

 this bank rose little by little, and striking the very dry 

 air above, instantly dispersed, the hygrometer alone dis- 

 closing its presence. As the sun sank, the vapours 

 re-united and once more settled in the valleys, only to 

 undergo the same transformation the next day. This 

 regular state of things continued until Januarj', when 

 the winds from the Indian seas brought torrents of 

 watery vapour, and all these phenomena were upset ; 

 in their place came storms so terrific that Europeans 

 can scarcely form an idea of them. To analyse these 

 changed atmospheric conditions, an exact knowledge of 

 the importance of these new agents which thus modified 

 the local elements would have been necessary, but it is 

 evident that a very complete series of judiciously taken 

 photographs would have been of inestimable value when 

 combined with the sum total of the meteorological 

 observations. 



Some of the photographs taken from the Pic du Midi 

 showed very interesting sunset effects ; another gave a view 

 of the east side of the chain, in which the sun was rendered 

 positive by an excess of exposure ; and another showed 

 the snowy slopes of the Pic du Midi, upon which, on close 

 examination, a series of little black consecutive points 

 could be seen ; the little points were in reality 

 the photographs of the members of the French 

 Association for the Advancement of the Sciences, 

 who, on the 4th of October, 1887, went to visit 

 M. Janssen at the summit of the Pic. He had been 

 informed of their intended arrival, and had arranged the 

 apparatus for an instantaneous photograph, which proved 

 perfectly successful. 



The station on the Pic du Midi is admirably situated 

 for studies of this nature, and M. Janssen mentioned 

 M. Vaussenat, the courageous and extremely devoted 

 director, in the highest terms of praise, expressing his 

 hope that his appointment, when it expired, would be 

 immediately renewed. M. Janssen also expressed his 

 regret at the rumoured abolition of several elevated 

 meteorological stations in the United States, a step the 

 more to be lamented, as this kind of observing station is 

 available for special observations of great interest, par- 

 ticularly for those photographic studies which will, 

 before long, lend as much assistance to meteorology, as 

 they have already given to the sister sciences. 



M. Janssen summed up the assistance rendered by 

 photography to meteorology as follows : — 



1 . By giving combined images of phenomena, by aid 

 of which these phenomena could be discussed, and 

 which would give a new value to observations of 

 meteorological elements. 



2. By giving in particular cases, and by the employ- 

 ment of appropriate methods, measures of distances, 

 altitudes, cloud dimensions, meteors, etc. 



3. By unfolding a new process of photometrical 

 measures of the light of the stars in their relation to the 

 atmosphere. And 



4. By enabling us to bequeath to futurity a mass of 

 documents which will continue useful, even in the face of 

 the rapid progress of science. 



A NEW ANTISEPTIC SOAP. 



UNTIL quite recently a satisfactory soap containing 

 as an antiseptic one of the salts of mercury, has 

 been difficult to prepare, on account of the alkaline soap 

 refusing to yield a good lather, oleate of mercury being 

 formed — a compound which has little or no germicidal 

 action. One of the most powerful antiseptics of the 

 mercury salts is, as is well known, the bichloride. More- 

 over, it is cheap, and easily soluble, but it has the dis- 

 advantages of being extremely poisonous and easily 

 reduced by albuminoid matter, with which it combines, 

 thus being rendered inactive. In a paper recently read 

 before the Society of Chemical Industry in Glasgow, by 

 Mr. John Thomson, the solubility of the red biniodide of 

 mercury (which is claimed to be even a more powerful 

 antiseptic than the bichloride) in iodide of potassium has 

 been made use of A soap can thus be easily prepared 

 containing a certain portion of the biniodide in a soluble 

 form. It is stated to be permanent, having no tendency 

 to separate, and to be more germicidal in its properties 

 than any other antiseptic soap j'et known. Experiments 

 were made to demonstrate this. Sterilised silk threads 

 were suspended in a solution of the biniodide soap (i 

 gramme of soap in 120 cubic centimetres of water) for 

 ten minutes, after being saturated with solutions con- 

 taining well-known micro-organisms, amongst which were 

 streptococcus scarlatinas (Klein), bacillus subtilis, orange 

 sarcina, white bacillus from Tweed water, organisms 

 from putrid urine, the micrococcus of osteo-myelitis, 

 aspergillus nigrescens, spores from various fungi, yellow 

 micrococcus from pus, putrefactive organisms, bacterium 

 termo, and bacillus scarlatinas (Edington). The threads- 

 were then carefully washed to remove the soap, and 

 placed in sterilised gelatine in the ordinary way. The 

 threads were controlled by first sterilising, and then 

 plunging into nutrient gelatine ; if no growth occurred 

 they were accepted as being fit for use in the experiment. 

 Washing the threads previously contaminated with 

 organisms two or three times carefully with distilled 

 water, was shown by experiment not to remove the 

 organisms, for on being placed in the gelatine growth 

 readily took place. The results, as shown in tables, are 

 very remarkable. In all the experiments, with a few 

 very uncertain exceptions, growth of the organisms was 

 completely prevented, even after the lapse of four days. 

 Similar experiments made with " carbolate of mercury " 

 soap showed it to be less powerful as a disinfectant, and 

 much slower in its germicidal action. In experiments 

 carried out in the same manner with other antiseptic and 

 ordinary soaps, it was shown that the growth of the 

 organisms in many cases was not prevented. The im- 

 portance of such a soap in medical and sanitary science 

 is very obvious. The biniodide soap has been used in 

 the treatment of eczema with well-marked success,, 

 especially where the irritation is due to the fermentations 

 of accumulated secretions, the fermentations being set up 

 by micro-organisms. It has also met with similar success 

 when used in parasitic skin diseases, such as favus and 

 ringworm. As a parasiticide, too, the importance of its- 

 application to patients during the period of desquamation 

 in scarlet fever is evident. — Lancet. 



- — ■>^«s^x«5tf-» 



Carnivorous Character of the Squirrel. — Mr. E. E. 

 Barclay, of Cedar Lawn, Essex {Field) gives, from an 

 eye-witness, an instance of a squirrel attacking and 

 killing a full-grown thrush. 



