120 



SCIENCE, 



[YoL. yi., No. 131. 



— The commission appointed by the Belgian gov- 

 ernment to experiment on Pasteur's method of pro- 

 tecting cattle and sheep from anthrax by inoculation 

 with the attenuated virus have published their re- 

 port. They find, from very numerous vaccinations 

 which have been performed at Hervd since the spring 

 of 1883, on farms where anthrax breaks out every 

 year, that Pasteur's method preserves both sheep and 

 cattle from the disease. No case of anthrax has been 

 observed among a thousand fully-grown cattle which 

 have been vaccinated, while the non-vaccinated have 

 died, as usual. As regards the duration of the protec- 

 tive influence, it has been found to be one year for 

 young animals in the proportion of ninety per cent, 

 and at least two years for all mature animals. They 

 confirm Mr. Pasteur's statement that places where 

 animals which have died of anthrax have been buried 

 are dangerous, the soil retaining the germs- 



— The Austrian central tourist club has addressed 

 a petition to the assemblies of all Austrian alpine 

 provinces to pass a law prohibiting the wholesale 

 uprooting of edelweiss now carried on. The peti- 

 tioners point out that hundreds of thousands of the 

 plants are dug up, and sent abroad, even to America; 

 so that there is a fear that the favorite plant of all 

 lovers of the Alps will be exterminated, except in a 

 few remote places. Several Swiss cantons have 

 passed such a law. 



— Professor Milne has been engaged in researches 

 on the oscillations of sea-level in the Kurile Islands. 

 He finds that the two islands Iturup and Kunashiri 

 form the first two of the series of stepping-stones 

 which connect Japan by means of Karatchatka with 

 Asia. They contain a greater proportion of rounded 

 hills and of deeply cut valleys than any of the islands 

 farther north, and may therefore be regarded a«; older 

 than those which are built up almost entirely of finely 

 formed volcanic cones. The neighboring island of 

 Urup presents appearances similar to these two. 

 The formation of an island like Iturup probably 

 commenced as a number of volcanic peaks forming 

 islands, which were subsequently elevated, of which 

 there are indications in the stratified rocks and 

 terrace formations. All the appearances, however, 

 which Professor Milne has ascribed to a raising of the 

 land, might, he observes, be also explained by rais- 

 ing and lowering of the sea, such as that which Mr. 

 Croll argues might be produced by the accumulation 

 of ice at the pole; and the fact that the height of the 

 terraces increases northwards appears to confirm this 

 view. 



— Mr. J. Macdonald Cameron has printed a report 

 on the bituminous deposits of the Camamie basin of 

 the province of Bahia in Brazil. In addition to the 

 purely commercial portion of the report, there is 

 much interesting information with regard to the 

 various descriptions of these oleaginous deposits. 

 Mr. Cameron has some interesting remarks on the 

 influence of the mangrove on the muddy swamps on 

 the coast. The dirty grayish black mud in which the 

 mangrove vegetation is very luxuriant, resembles 

 that noticeable in England in rivers and streams on 



the banks of which oil or soap works are situated. 

 He inclines to the opinion that this mud is principally 

 formed by the continuous decomposition of the roots 

 and branches of the mangrove trees. The tidal 

 currents ebb and flow slowly, and hence do not 

 sweep away the mud. Thus abundant food for the 

 tree is insured ''as well as a store of oleaginous 

 material for the use of distant generations of human 

 beings." 



— The articles of scientific interest in the English 

 general magazine for July are as follows : Grant Al- 

 len has an article ' Concerning clover ' in the Gentle- 

 man's magazine, — a very interesting account of the 

 various kinds of clover, the object of the different 

 modes of flowering, and the general points of inter- 

 est concerning the plant. The science notes in the 

 same magazine, conducted by W. Mattieu Williams, 

 contain a few remarks upon the recent scientific 

 events of popular interest. In Longman's magazine, 

 Grant Allen is also the scientific writer of the month. 

 His article entitled ' The first potter,' is a resume of 

 our knowledge of prehistoric pottery. Under the 

 title of ' Recent progress in biology,' in the Nine- 

 teenth century, Ray Lankester takes up, in an accu- 

 rate manner, all the recent steps of progress in this 

 science, laying most stress upon Koch's and Cald- 

 well's investigations. The article in the same maga- 

 zine, entitled 'Transylvanian superstition,' by Mme. 

 Gerard, is a very complete enumeration of the vast 

 number of superstitions of this very superstitious 

 country, which cannot fail to be of great interest 

 to anthropologists. An article in Blackwood's Edin- 

 burgh magazine on ' Footprints,' proves that the 

 human footprints often found on the rocks in many 

 countries are artificial, and the remnants of the sign- 

 system of the aborigines. The National review has 

 an article upon ' Some higher aspects of mesmerism,' 

 by E. Gurney and F. W. H. Myers. The title ex- 

 plains itself, and it is interesting to find the subject 

 so well treated in a general magazine. In the Con- 

 temporary review, G. J. Romanes publishes his Rede 

 lecture for 1885, — a long dissertation on the relation 

 between ' ]\[ind and motion.' Under the title of 

 'Dangers of medical specialism,' II. B. Donkin takes 

 an opposite view from that entertained by Dr. M. 

 Mackenzie in a recent article, and urges that special- 

 ism in medicine should not be made a trade. 



Among the American magazines, there are few 

 really good popular scientific articles. In the Catho- 

 lic world, there is a very popular article of some sci- 

 entific interest, entitled 'Among insects in a southern 

 city,' by T. F. Gabney. The Andover review con- 

 tains an article by Rev. E. M. Bliss, upon ' Kurdistan 

 and the Kurds,' which is a very good description of 

 the people and the country. The article in the North- 

 American review upon the 'Subterranean history of 

 man,' by S. C. Bartlett, is a rehash of the results 

 obtained by the recent investigators of this subject. 

 ' Mohammedans in India,' by F. Marion Crawford, 

 in Harper's, possesses some scientific interest. The 

 Century has an article on the * Gate of India,' with a 

 map, and one upon ' Frank Hatton in North Borneo,' 

 by his father, with notes from the explorer's diary. 



