November 4, 1887.] 



SCIENCE. 



221 



American Cattle-Plague. — Dr. Frank S. Billings, director 

 of the patho-biological laboratory of the State University of Nebraska, 

 claims to have discovered the germ of the American cattle-plague, 

 commonly known as Texas-fever. This germ, he says, belongs to 

 that class of septic germs represented by our swine-plague and rab- 

 bit septicasmia. It is a bacterium. It colors at its poles, and has a 

 clear or non-coloring middle piece to its body. It has a motility in 

 hanging drop-cultures, and also in the blood serum from the origi- 

 nal blood of a diseased animal. Dr. Billings gives no experimental 

 evidence to support his claim, but states that this will follow in 

 course of time. 



Health of Prisoners. — Dr. Watkins, inspector of the State 

 Board of Health of Louisiana, has recently examined the prisoners 

 in the parish prison of New Orleans. He found a number of the 

 inmates suffering from acute dropsy of the legs, arms, face, and 

 body, due to confinement and insufficient and unwholesome food. 

 Each prisoner is allowed a piece of bread and a pint of tea early in 

 the morning, and one meal consisting of soup, the beef cooked in 

 the soup, and bread. The beef is supplied by a contractor at five 

 cents and a half per pound, and has been repeatedly condemned by 

 the resident surgeon. 



Typhoid-Fever Contagion. — We have repeatedly called the 

 attention of our readers to what we believe to be a dangerous error 

 in the management of typhoid-fever. The tendency to look upon 

 drinking-water as the usual, if not indeed the only, channel by 

 which the disease is propagated, is so prevalent among sanitarians 

 and physicians, that other means are very liable to be overlooked, 

 and the necessary precautionary measures neglected. An instance 

 of the probable communication of this fever by other instrumen- 

 tality than water is reported by M. Bonamy of Nantes. Two 

 households used drinking-water from the same source. In one six 

 cases of typhoid-fever occurred, four of which were fatal : in the 

 other no cases occurred. It is true that this is negative evidence. 

 It is, however, notwithstanding, of some value ; not perhaps taken 

 alone, but in connection with other facts which have from time to 

 time been recorded touching the methods by which typhoid is 

 propagated. 



Scarlet-Fever in London. — Scarlet-fever is very prevalent 

 in London, there being in the hospitals alone nineteen hundred 

 cases under treatment. 



Yellow-Fever at Tampa. — The disease which appeared in 

 Tampa, Fla., in the early part of October, has developed into un- 

 doubted yellow-fever. To Oct. 24 there had been 180 cases re- 

 ported, with 27 deaths. Under the auspices of the United States 

 Marine Hospital Bureau, a hospital has been provided, and a corps 

 of experienced nurses has been obtained from Savannah to take 

 care of the sick. The weather is very favorable for the spread of 

 the fever, and the extension of the disease to the suburbs of the 

 town is conceded. 



EXPLORATION AND TRAVEL. 



The Kuango. 



Mr. Mense, who accompanied the energetic missionary Gren- 

 fellon his exploration of the lower Kuango, has described the inter- 

 esting journey in a lecture delivered before the Geographical Society 

 of Berlin. He describes the exploring of the tributaries of the 

 Kongo as not connected with great difficulties, which only begin 

 when an overland journey is attempted. In the trip up the Kuango 

 a lady even participated. The principal difficulty was the obtaining 

 of fuel for the boiler of the steamboat. Food was plentiful, as the 

 river swarmed with hippopotamuses. In many places their meat 

 could be bartered for fuel. When arriving near Kindjungi, a reef 

 running right across the river, the hippopotamuses got scarce, but 

 in their stead an abundance of shell-fish was found. The inter- 

 course with the natives was generally peaceable ; but, as those 

 tribes who had hostile intentions had no fire-arms, their attacks 

 were not dangerous. Grenfell had provided his steamer with a net 

 of steel, which protects the crew and the passengers from the 

 arrows. The reef Kindjungi stopped the progress of the expedi- 

 tion. The river forms a fall three feet in height, and has dangerous 

 whirlpools. It rushes through a narrow gorge cut about a thou- 



sand feet into the plateau, which consists of laterite. The tribes 

 inhabiting this district have had no intercourse with Europeans. 

 They wear self-manufactured clothing, and their language differs 

 from those spoken near Stanley Pool. The country is thickly 

 wooded, and caoutchouc is found in considerable quantities. Ele- 

 phants and buffaloes are numerous, but there are only few villages. 

 The lower part of the river runs through a grassy plain, while near 

 Kindjungi the country becomes mountainous. As Major von 

 Mechow descended the Kuango to Kindjungi, and as Dr. Biittner 

 reached its middle course coming from the west, the position of 

 the whole river is now fairly laid down. 



Travels in Africa. — Captain van Gele's attempt to reach 

 the Welle, according to Le Motcvement Gdographique, has unfor- 

 tunately been unsuccessful. When he arrived on the upper Itim- 

 biri, he unexpectedly found the country uninhabited and poor. As 

 he was not prepared for this, and had no provisions to last him for 

 a journey through unknown territory, he had to return. He will 

 probably resume his enterprise. According to the Proceedings of 

 the Geographical Society of Berlin, Dr. H. Meyer has succeeded in 

 reaching the summit of the Kilima Njaro, while all former travellers 

 failed in their attempts. The summit is occupied by a crater. It 

 is covered with snow, which sends forth a glacier that extends to 

 a comparatively low level. The Germans are making vigorous 

 attempts to penetrate into the extensive unknown area of West 

 Africa. Two expeditions are being organized in Kamerun to ex- 

 plore the interior, which forms the watershed between the Kongo 

 and Benue systems. Lieutenants Kund and Tappenbeck, who 

 made important discoveries in the southern Kongo basin, will 

 push eastward, while Dr. Zindgraff will try to penetrate into the 

 interior in a north-easterly direction. So far, the hostility and 

 jealousy of those tribes who command the trade between the 

 interior and the coast have prevented all expeditions from entering 

 the unknown country. 



Greenland. — The Danish expedition to the coast of northern 

 Greenland, says Nature, has just returned to Copenhagen. It has 

 been absent since the spring of 1886, and was directed by Mr. C. 

 Ryder. During the two summers it was enabled to proceed from 

 latitude 72° to latitude 74^°. It investigated the Upernivik glacier 

 during the winter. Many meteorological, magnetic, and astronomi- 

 cal observations were made, many anthropological measurements 

 were taken, and botanical and zoological collections have been 

 brought back. The investigations of the western coast of Green- 

 land are not likely to be continued for the present. It is to be re- 

 gretted if the latter statement should be true. The Danish expe- 

 ditions to Greenland have resulted in so numerous and valuable 

 contributions to our knowledge of this immense island that their 

 continuation seems very desirablef The exploration of Melville 

 Bay is of the greatest importance, as here many questions regard- 

 ing the character of the ice of Davis Strait must be solved, and as its 

 topography is utterly unknown ; but so far the Danes have not 

 extended their researches beyond their most northern settlement, 

 Tassiussak, which lies at the southern extremity of Melville Bay. 



British Columbia. — Dr. George M. Dawson, chief of the 

 party sent by the Canadian Government to explore the country ad- 

 jacent to the Alaska boundary, has returned to Victoria. Two of 

 his party, Messrs. Ogilvie and McConnell, will winter in the district, 

 making astronomical observations, which will give data for the es- 

 tablishment of the international boundary. The expedition so far 

 has secured a great deal of geological, geographical, and general 

 information of the country. The point from which the doctor 

 turned back was at the junction of the Lewis and Pelly Rivers. It 

 is one thousand miles north of Victoria. There the flora was found 

 to differ but little from that on the banks of the Eraser. A great 

 deal of open, grassy countiy exists along the streams tributary to 

 the Yukon. No areas of tundra or frozen swamps, such as are to 

 be met with in the interior of Alaska, were discovered by the expedi- 

 tion. The doctor's conclusion is that the whole country from Cas- 

 sian to the vicinity of Forty Mile Creek, on the Yukon River, yields 

 more or less gold in placer deposits. This would constitute a gold- 

 bearing region fully five hundred miles in length by an indefinite 

 width, and which so far, in comparison to the area, has been very 

 little prospected. 



