364 
may become a pathogenic organism when by any 
chance it is introduced into the circulation of such 
an animal. The culture fluid — blood —and tem- 
perature being favorable, it is only a question of 
superiority by vital resistance on the one hand, or by 
reproductive activity on the other. 
‘‘That harmless species of bacteria may develop 
pathogenic properties in the manner indicated seems 
extremely probable; and we should @ priori expect 
that such a result would occur more frequently in the 
tropics, where the elevated temperature and abun- 
dance of organic pabulum furnish the favorable con- 
ditions required. In this way we may, perhaps, 
explain the origin of epidemics of pestilential dis- 
eases, such as yellow-fever and cholera. If these 
diseases do not at the present day originate in the 
manner indicated, they, at all events, have their 
permanent abiding-place in tropical countries.”’ 
Much space is properly devoted to the status 
of science regarding the individual diseases, 
and the treatment of them by the author is 
highly satisfactory. ‘The volume closes with 
an admirable literature of the subject, for which 
all students will thank him. But in another 
edition he should add information as to where 
the papers of E. C. Hansen can be found. It 
would be better, also, to give the titles of Ger- 
man papers throughout in the German; and it 
surely is as needful to mention Schwann and 
Kiitzing as Cagniard de Latour, while the failure 
to record the translation of Schiitzenberger’s 
work is a serious omission. Aside from these 
and other insignificant and pardonable errors, 
the bibliography is very satisfactory. The al- 
phabetical arrangement which has been wisely 
adopted has one slight disadvantage: we miss 
the striking evidence of the growth of the sub- 
ject, which a chronological arrangement such 
as was employed in the translation of Magnin’s 
book in 1880, and which was in this respect 
impressive, gave. 
On the whole, this book is the most prac- 
tical, the most complete, and the most useful 
which we possess upon the subject. It is 
both a storehouse of principles and a hand- 
book for the laboratory. If a physician or a 
student, a biologist or a pathologist, can have 
but one book, this one, because of its lucidity of 
style, its cool, cautious tone, its breadth and 
yet its comprehensiveness, and particularly 
because of its excellent illustrations, is em- 
phatically the one to get. It is deeply to be 
regretted that Dr. Sternberg cannot be kept 
busily at work under every favorable condition 
at the expense of a country to whose service 
his life has been devoted, and that he is, on 
the contrary, obliged to write sentences so 
melancholy as these : — 
‘* All this is admitted, and the experiment is in- 
troduced mainly to call attention to a method, which, 
carefully applied, should enable us to solve the ques- 
SCIENCE. 
tion as to the pathogenic réle of this micrococcus. 
The writer had mapped out for himself a series of 
experiments in this direction, and many others relat- 
ing to etiological questions; but circumstances have 
not been favorable for the prosecution of experimen- 
tal work, and he finds himself, somewhat reluctantly, 
engaged in a review of the field, when it would be 
far more to his taste to interrogate nature by the ex- 
perimental method, and thus to aid directly in the 
solution of these interesting problems”’ (p. 447). 
SCIENTIFIC LINGUISTICS. 
Internationale zeitschrift fiir allgemeine sprachwis- 
senschaft. Herausgegeben von F. 'TECHMER. 
Hefti. Leipzig, Barth, 1884. 16+256 p.,7pl., 
illustrs §3c- 
TuHIs new journal appears with an excellent 
though only partial list of contributors, repre- 
senting various nations and languages. The 
articles may be in German, English, French, 
Italian, Latin, and, under exceptional circum- 
stances, even in some other language ; and the 
international character it is meant to have is 
perhaps the best justification for its existence. 
The editor, Dr. Techmer, privatdocent at Leip- 
zig, has previously published a work on pho- 
netics ; and the most noteworthy article in this 
number is one by him on the same subject. 
Most, if not all, of the other articles might well 
enough have been published in already exist- 
ing journals. They are all in German, except » 
two in English (together occupying some 
twenty-two pages out of over two hundred and 
fifty) and one of about four pages in French. 
The writers are Pott (Einleitung in die all- 
gemeine sprachwissenschaft), Techmer, G. 
Mallery (Sign-language, largely a reprint), 
Friedrich Muller, Max Muller (a short article 
in German on a Vedic name which he supposes 
to be identical with our word ‘ zephyr,’ and to 
have been originally a name for the setting sun, 
zephyr meaning the west wind as coming from 
sunset), L. Adam (De la catégorie du genre), 
Sayce (The person-endings of the Indo-Euro- 
pean verb), and Brugmann. 
Techmer has two articles, —one devoted to 
the analysis and synthesis of audible speech ; 
the other, to the transcription of sounds; both 
accompanied by illustrative figures and tables. 
The former is intended to give briefly what is 
known on the subject, and to add new contri- 
butions. The treatment of vowels is what is 
likely to interest phoneticians most in this 
latest work on the subject, especially its posi- 
tion with regard to the English school. It must 
occasion surprise, not that the English system 
is rejected, but that the arguments against 
it are so brief and insufficient; hardly any 
thing but Bell’s work being considered, while 
