October 30, 1885.] 



SCIENCU. 



393 



THE ACTION OF COLD ON MICROPHYTES.' 



Professor McKendrick, of Glasgow, gave at 

 the recent meeting of the British association an 

 interesting account of the methods of trying to 

 .destroy small organisms like bacteria, not as is 

 commonly done by heat, but by cold. It is known 

 that by means of Coleman's cooling machine meat 

 may be kept from putrefying for a considerable 

 time, but in attempting to sterihze a putrescible 

 solution by means of cold, it was found that, 

 though in some cases putrescence was delayed, in 

 no case were the organisms completely destroyed. 

 Organic fluids were exposed to temperatures more 

 than 120° below 0° F., but on thawing they were 

 found to contain living organisms still. Thus the 

 hope of preserving putrescible matter by means 

 of cold — an important economical result — is, so 

 far as investigation yet goes, destroyed. The 

 organisms under cold seem to be in a nearly solid 

 state, though we cannot call it a chrystalline state. 

 In a paste solution the water is chrystaUized under 

 cold, the paste remaining spongy. Possibly cold 

 may separate from these minute organisms the 

 water they contain, and this water is again 

 absorbed on thawing. Meat under cold becomes 

 very friable, while yet minute fragments of it 

 show the same microscopic constitution of muscle. 

 It is well known that frogs have been found in 

 blocks of ice and been revived. Frogs have been 

 frozen at 20° F. in about half an hour. On thaw- 

 ing slowly, the animal, in two instances, com- 

 pletely recovered. When it was frozen for longer 

 than half an hour it did not recover ; but, though 

 reflex action was gone, there remained some 

 irritability both in nerves and muscles. It was 

 found also that certain vital functions may be 

 arrested by cold, and thus conceivably higher 

 organisms may be kept vitaUy inert for an in- 

 definite time. Experiments were also tried on 

 warm-blooded animals. A rabbit subjected to 

 a temperature 100° below 0° F. recovered. No 

 temperature lower than 73° below 0° F. has been 

 obtaiaed in free atmosphere. 



PRELIMINARY REPORT OF THE COMMIS- 

 SION APPOINTED TO REPORT ON THE 

 SPANISH EARTHQUAKES. 

 The commission appouited by the Spanish gov- 

 ernment to LQvestigate the Andalusian earthquake 

 of December 25, 1884, has made a prelimuiary 

 report of its labors and conclusions up to March 7, 

 1885 (Terremotos de Andalucia, Madrid, 1885, 

 107 p.). This report is based upon a personal exami- 

 nation, which the members of the commission 

 made of the region affected, and upon some 

 1 From Nature. 



thousands of answers received in response to a 

 series of interrogations which were widely distrib- 

 uted. A more detailed discussion of their work is 

 to follow at a later date. This report, however, 

 deals quite fully with the matter in hand, and 

 states conclusions which, although often only 

 negative, are yet of considerable iaterest. We 

 must be content with presenting here a brief resume 

 of its contents. 



Beginning with a statement in seven pages of 

 the theories proposed by various writers to account 

 for earthquakes, classifying them as volcanic or 

 non-volcanic, and attributuig them to the internal 

 heat of the earth, to the presence of vapors of high 

 tension, or to the solution of the rocks by subter- 

 ranean waters ; it proceeds to give in seven pages 

 more a description of the orography and hydro- 

 graphy of the two provinces of Granada and 

 Malaga, and then devotes twenty-one pages to the 

 geology of the same district, describing in detail 

 the rock formation, with the location and direction 

 cf its principal fault lines. 



Coming to the present occasion, a brief discus- 

 sion of the times observed at different places leads 

 only to the conclusion that the origia is to be 

 sought to the west of Granada and east of Malaga, 

 any exact result being vitiated by the uncertainty 

 of the time data; this being due to the lack of 

 good clocks and to the fact that, in places where 

 much damage occurred, the attention of the in- 

 habitants was pretty thoroughly occupied with 

 caring for their own safety. The area affected is 

 described as limited toward the north by Madrid 

 and Segovia, toward the west by Caceres and 

 Huelva, toward the east by Valencia and Murcia, 

 and on the south by the Mediterranean ; but the 

 tremor of the earth was also indicated by instru- 

 ments even so far distant as Rome and Bmssels. 

 Examination of the direction of the cracks in. the 

 ground and in buildings, as well as of the curves 

 of intensity, estimated according to the Rossi- 

 Forel scale, leads to the conclusion that the focus 

 is to be found in the valley of Zafarraya, where 

 the greatest damage was caused. 



The latter half of the report is mostly occupied 

 with the phenomena preceding, accompanying, 

 and following the earthquake, such as, changes 

 in the course of streams, perturbations of mag- 

 netic apparatus, barometric depression preceding 

 the shock, subterranean noises, dynamic effects, 

 etc. In estimating the amoimt of damage done, 

 the number of buildings injui'ed in the two 

 provinces of Granada and Malaga is stated as 

 17,178, of which number 4,399 are classed as to- 

 tally destroyed. The injured persons were : 745 

 dead, 1,485 wounded. In discussing the causes of 

 this earthquake, the commission accepts the Italian 



