November 27, 1885.] 



SCIENCE. 



475 



of attention. Tliis liberal programme is a cheer- 

 ing sign, and only shows that even the ultra- 

 conservatism of this old-established journal has 

 had to yield to the spirit of modern progress. 



— Dr. Currier of New York has invented an 

 apparatus by which the large class of deaf persons 

 who have some small amount of latent hearing 

 can learn to speak with greater uniformity and 

 exactness. The difficulty is that the person af- 

 fected hears only the voice of the teacher or the 

 speaker through the tube, but does not hear his 

 own tones. To accomplish this, a tube goes first 

 from the mouth to the ear of the deaf person, and 

 from there to the moutb or ear of the speaker. 



— A stalactite cavern has been discovered in a 

 hill called Kalksberg, near Wolmsdorf . The work- 

 men were quarrying for marble, when they unex- 

 pectedly broke into the cavern, which they ex- 

 plored for about a mile and a half. In some 

 places there were deep ponds, and an inner cavern 

 was found that could only be entered by means 

 of a ladder ; they have only explored the cavern 

 very imperfectly as yet. 



— M. Duclaux, a disciple of M. Pasteur, has 

 been studying the effect of sunlight on germs of 

 parasitic life. For three years he has been watch- 

 ing tubes containing cultures of Tyrothrix scaber. 

 This organism grows very well in milk, or in 

 Liebig's infusion, by destroying albuminoid mat- 

 ter as pathogenic bacteria do. Drops of milk con- 

 taining the organism were taken at the moment of 

 spore formation, and enclosed in glass tubes plugged 

 with cotton wool, so as to exclude external germs. 

 The milk having been evaporated, some of the 

 tubes containing the remaining spores were ex- 

 posed to various degrees of sunlight for various 

 periods, — a few days, a month, two months, a 

 whole summer. Others were placed in a stove at 

 a temperature equal to the maximum of tropical re- 

 gions, in the dark or in diffused light. Eventually 

 small quantities of milk were introduced into the 

 tubes, so that the spores might be provided with 

 the means of growth. None of the tubes sub- 

 jected to warmth, but sheltered from the sun, have 

 proved sterile, — a fact which shows that the s^^ores 

 of the microbe in question, even after being re- 

 tained in a dry state and subjected to tropical heat 

 for three years, do not lose their vitality if shel- 

 tered from the sun's light. Fifteen days' exposure 

 to the light produces no observable effect, but 

 after a month's exposure germination becomes ob- 

 viously slower, while 50 per cent of the tubes ex- 

 posed for two months have proved sterile. Spores 

 subjected to sunlight proved much more feeble in 

 Liebig's infusion than in milk ; that is, a much 

 larger proportion of the tubes remained sterUe 



after a given exposure, if development in the for- 

 mer beverage was attempted, than if the latter was 

 the medium of culture. Hence we must infer that 

 not only is sunlight a powerful hygienic agent, but 

 that much depends upon the character of the 

 liquid to whicli a disease germ obtains access. M. 

 Arloing has tried similar experiments with the for- 

 midable Bacillus anthracis, the organism asso- 

 ciated with that malady so destructive to sheep, 

 which, when transmitted to man, is known as the 

 terrible wool-sorter's disease. He finds not only 

 that sunlight has an attenuating influence, so that 

 by its aid the germs can be converted into a vaccine, 

 but that the influence can be transmitted and in- 

 tensified through several generations. A spore 

 born of a ' solarized ' bacillus is more susceptible 

 to the reforming influence than its parent was. 



— The Henry Shaw school of botany, in Wash- 

 ington university, St. Louis, was opened on the 6th 

 of November by an inaugural address given by the 

 professor, Dr. Trelease, which has been printed. 

 While the school bears the name of its founder, 

 and will in due time take its full development in 

 connection with the Missouri botanic garden at 

 Tower Grove, the first professorship, as we are 

 delighted to learn, commemorates in its title the 

 late Dr. Engelmann. By this address the earnest 

 and judicious young professor begins to open the 

 eyes of the St. Louis people to the breadth, the 

 interest, and both the educational and practical 

 importance, of the subject which he is to teach. 



— Felix Plateau has recently pubHshed {Bull, 

 soc. zool. France) a series of interesting experi- 

 ments on the palpi of insects, the results of which 

 are quite opposed to the current idea that these 

 oral appendages are essential both to the recogni- 

 tion and the seizure of food. He found that 

 beetles, cockroaches, etc., may be deprived of 

 either the labial or maxillary palpi, or both, and 

 still retain the power of identifying and masticat- 

 ing their food. It is very curious that the function 

 of such w^ell-developed organs should so enth-ely 

 elude us. 



— The Congress of German anthropologists will 

 meet at Stettin next summer. Pi-of. Hugo 

 Lemcke, president of the City college, as chah*- 

 man of the local board of managers, tenders an 

 invitation to be present to all American students 

 of anthropology desu'ous of attending the congTCSS 

 at Stettin, where they will meet Vu'chow, Schlie- 

 mann, Schaffhausen, and others, and where theu' 

 presence will be especially appreciated by the 

 cordial hospitality of the Stettiuers. ISIx. E. 

 Lemcke, of B. Westermann & Co., New York, 

 will undertake to forward applications. 



