January 23, 1885. 



SCIENCE. 



75 



designed to explode wet gun-cotton, the bureau has 

 under consideration a plan of a piece which is in- 

 tended to project an aerial torpedo, charged with a 

 hundred pounds of wet gun-cotton, to be exploded 

 over or upon an enemy's deck. 



RECENT RUSSIAN GEOGRAPHICAL EX- 

 PLORATIONS. 



At the meeting of the physical section of the 

 Imperial Russian geographical society, held Dec. 9, 

 mention was made of Melnikow's archeological re- 

 searches in the district of Troitzk and in the prov- 

 ince of Mohilew. A few tumuli and prehistoric 

 buildings had been examined, among which Melni- 

 kow claimed to have discovered cromlechs. Pro- 

 fessor Sorokin travelled in central Thian Shan from 

 Wernoje to the Issyk-Kul, thence by the Ula-Khom 

 Pass to the Naryn valley, and by Mart Pass to Na- 

 Manghan in Ferghana. Old buildings were found 

 on the shore of the Issyk-Kul, but no traces of any 

 under the water. Limestones of very new formation 

 were discovered in the lake. Professor Muschketow 

 gave a resume of Konshin's travels in the steppe east 

 of the Caspian, including a part of the old beds of 

 the Amu-Daria, which was followed by an interest- 

 ing discussion in regard to these beds. 



At a later meeting of the society, Dec. 17, Mr. Les- 

 sar read a communication on the country and tribes 

 on the Afghan frontier. He first recalled his re- 

 marks made last year, that the only means of thor- 

 oughly subduing the Turcoman steppe was to annex 

 Merv, and that it was comparatively easy at that 

 time on account of the prestige of Russia. His ex- 

 pectations had been more than realized, as not only 

 Merv had been peacefully annexed, but the country 

 of the Saryks, southern Turcomania, had submitted. 

 The peaceful annexation of Merv was said to be 

 partly due to the conviction of the people that they 

 would never have peace while there was not a power 

 strong enough to enforce it, and that Russia was 

 this power. After the subjection of Merv, the Rus- 

 sians came in contact with the Saryks, who had been 

 hitherto very little known. Lessar found a great 

 difference between the natives of Jalatan, near 

 Merv, and of Pende, which is farther south. The 

 former are very poor, not even possessing the com- 

 modities most prized by nomads, viz., good field- 

 tents, fast horses, etc. ; while this kind of wealth is 

 more abundant in Pende. The people are not en- 

 tirely nomadic, but know something of agriculture. 

 They make use of artificial irrigation, though their 

 method of storing and conducting water is very 

 crude, and they know nothing of levelling. Lessar 

 made the interesting discovery that the mountains in 

 the south are very low, and composed of soft strata ; 

 while the same chain is much higher and steeper to 

 the west and east. The Salors, a small tribe living 

 near Merv, are very poor, the probable reason being 

 the long cessation from robbing expeditions, while 

 agriculture and stock-raising are rendered insecure 

 by the incursions of their neighbors. A. Woeikof. 



EMMERICH ON THE CHOLERA BACIL- 

 LUS. 



The Lancet of Dec. 27, 1884, gives a very inter- 

 esting resume of a paper by Dr. Rudolf Emmerich, 

 which is to be published in the forthcoming number 

 of the Archiv Jur hygiene. The remarks are taken 

 from advance proofs, and the original article has not 

 yet reached us. The observations were made during 

 the epidemic in Naples, and at the instance of the 

 Bavarian government. 



Dr. Emmerich did not limit himself to observations 

 upon the comma bacillus, but attempted to discover 

 other organisms by means of various culture-media 

 and methods. He procured blood upon a sterilized 

 platinum needle from the median vein of a young 

 woman in collapse from cholera, and about six hours 

 before death. He inoculated ten tubes containing 

 nutrient gelatine in three places each, and found or- 

 ganisms in three of them, the other seven remaining 

 sterile. 



The organisms were all of one kind, cylindrical, with 

 rounded ends, and occurring singly or in pairs, the 

 length being about one and one-half times more than 

 their width. They grow at ordinary temperatures in 

 slightly alkaline nutrient gelatine, which they liquefy 

 in solid opalescent patches. Under a low power (-y 11 ), 

 the colonies in the deeper portions of the gelatine pre- 

 sent the form of a hone: those more superficial are 

 like flat, circular mussel-shells. 



The deeper colonies are yellowish brown by trans- 

 mitted light, white by reflected light, and are finely 

 granular. Those on the surface are pale yellow in the 

 centre, whitish at the margin, and spread over the 

 gelatine in a film. 



These organisms were cultivated from the blood 

 and from the internal organs of nine persons dead of 

 cholera. They were most numerous in the kidneys 

 and liver, then in the lungs, and least abundant in 

 the spleen. They were found in sections of the in- 

 testines and kidneys (other organs not yet examined), 

 and in very large numbers in the dejections and in- 

 testines after death. They grew in every culture ex- 

 periment with alvine cholera material, whereas the 

 comma baccilli only occurred in some cases. 



Inoculation experiments were made at the Hygienic 

 institute of Munich in conjunction with Dr. Sehlan. 

 The animals used were mostly guinea-pigs, and symp- 

 toms were produced similar to those of cholera. The 

 changes noticed varied from a simple desquamative 

 catarrh, with rice-water-like intestinal contents, to 

 hemorrhagic exudation, and destruction of the mu- 

 cous coat. 



The inoculations were made by the injection of two 

 drops of a solution of a portion of a pure culture the 

 size of a pin's head in two drams of water into 

 the lungs, or subcutaneously. This produced an ill- 

 ness of from five to six days, with marked changes 

 in the intestinal mucous membrane. The injection 

 of a large quantity produced death in from sixteen to 

 thirty hours, but with much less marked changes in 

 the intestines. 

 The publication of the full paper is awaited with 



