440 



SCIENCE, 



[Vol. VI., No. 145. 



ulcerations, septicaemia, pyaemia, etc., are caused 

 by these inoculations. But as these dire results 

 are mentioned by only one writer, and are explicit- 

 ly denied by other unprejudiced witnesses, they 

 seem hardly worthy of credence. It furthermore 

 seems certain that no one has contracted cholera 

 by being inoculated according to Ferran's method. 

 When we come to consider the statistics as 

 returned by the French and German officials who 

 have been sent to Spain to investigate Dr. Fer- 

 ran's experiments, we find numerous obstacles in 

 the way of arriving at a satisfactory conclusion. 

 In the first place, there is no accurate census report 

 on which to base the calculations ; in the second 

 place, the number of inoculations actually per- 

 formed is not exactly known by any one except 

 Dr. Ferran, and it is chiefly from him that our 

 information comes as to the relative number of 

 deaths and inoculations ; and, in the third place, 

 the total number of deaths is not known with any 

 certainty. Yet the figures are of some interest, 

 as showing what those who have had the best 

 opportunity to investigate the matter think of the 

 efficacy of anti-cholera inoculation as practised in 

 the villages of Alcira (a), Alberique (b), and Alge- 

 mesi (c). They read as foUows : ^ — 



rin, Albarran, and others have been mistaken or 

 deceived in regard to the facts, than that anti- 

 cholera vaccination as practised by Dr. Ferran is a 

 success. F. S. Bunker. 





k ^ 







Re-inocu- 





I 



o 



Non-inoculated. 



Inoculated. 



lated. 





o . 



^a 











au 



_2 o 



a 



a 



03 





t-i 



03 





ii 



aj 







"3-^ 



•^^ 



F1 



a 



M 



^ 



^ 



O 





XJ 



o 



X) 





o 



2 



3 



(8 





1^ 





1 





a 



3 



i 



03 





O 



Ph 



a 



s 



< 



Q 



^ 



< 



Q 



^ 



< 



Q 



a 



16000 



23000 



5500 



12500 



374 



169 



10500 



37 



7 



3011 



35 



6 



b 



5000 





4000 





192 



173 



938 



10 



2 



.... 



3 





c 



7856 



10500 



6600 



9300 



484 



208 



1202 



21 



5 



623 



1 



1 



It was in these three towns that Dr. Ferran 

 carried on his experiments most extensively, and, 

 if it could be proved that these statistics were ac- 

 curate, a very strong point would certainly be 

 made in favor of anti-cholera inoculation ; for it 

 would be almost inconceivable that chance should 

 give results very far from the truth, where so 

 large a number of individual cases are concerned. 

 But when we consider the a priori improbabihty 

 that a disease which by its first attack confers no 

 immunity against a second attack can be guarded 

 against by any form of inoculation, and when we 

 consider the alleged nature of the process by 

 which this wonderful result is said to have been 

 reached, and the character of the man who says 

 he has reached this result, the inference seems 

 very clear that there is something wrong with 

 the statistics : in other words, it seems more rea- 

 sonable to suppose that Messrs. Brouardel, Char- 



1 Bulletin acad. med., xiv. 902-933. 



THOMAS BLAND. 



This well-known naturalist, after an illness of 

 some two years' duration, died August 20, 1885, in 

 Brooklyn, N.Y. 



He was born in Newark, Nottinghamshire, 

 England, October 4, 1809. His father was a 

 physician, and his mother related to Shepard, the 

 naturalist. He was educated at the Charter house 

 school, London, and had Thackeray for a class- 

 mate. Subsequently he studied and practised 

 law. He went to Barbadoes, West Indies, in 1842, 

 and later to Jamaica ; visited England in 1850, and 

 in the same year accepted the superintendency of 

 a gold mine at Marmato, New Grenada. While 

 a resident of Jamaica it was visited in 1849 by 

 Prof. C. B. Adams of Amherst, and, stimulated 

 by his friendship and enthusiasm, Bland began 

 those investigations of the land- shells for which he 

 afterward became so distinguished. In 1852 he 

 came to New York, which, for most of his sub- 

 sequent life, became his home. Mr. Bland was of 

 a studious and rather grave demeanor, but nota- 

 bly com-teous, and always ready to assist young 

 students or others interested in his favorite pur- 

 suit. In spite of his extreme modesty, Mr. Bland 

 was several times called to posts of honor and 

 responsibility. By those privileged to know him, 

 he was held in high esteem, which was not les- 

 sened by his bearing under tribulation and poverty 

 during his later years. 



Mr. Bland was the author of more than seventy 

 papers treating of the Mollusca, especially of the 

 United States and the Antillean region. His work 

 was not confined to description of species, but 

 comprised valuable contributions to their anatomy, 

 classification, geographical distribution, and the 

 philosophy of their development. No American 

 student has shown a more philosophic grasp of 

 the subject ; and his discussion of the geographical 

 distribution of the land-shells of the West Indies, 

 published in 1861, gave him a wide reputation. 

 He several times returned to this subject in later 

 years, and always with marked success. Since 1869 

 Mr. Bland was associated with Mr. W. G. Binney 

 in several important works, especially the ' Land 

 and fresh- water shells of North A qi erica,' issued 

 by the Smithsonian institution. Mr. Bland was a 

 fellow of the Geological society, and an active 

 member for many years of the New York lyceum 

 of natural history. A convenient bibliography of 

 his papers and contributions to malacology was 

 prepared by Mr. iirthur F. Gray in 1884. 



