2l8 



SCIENCE. 



poison. Some salivas are more fatal than othe'rs — that 

 of Dr. Sternberg being especially virulent. It will be 

 noticed in our report that Dr. Sternberg attributes the 

 poisonous element to the presence of Micrococci — 

 having found this form of Bacteria both in the saliva 

 employed and in the poisoned blood of the victims. 



These facts may be considered in conjunction with 

 experiments by M. Pasteur in the same direction. 



SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES IN WASHINGTON. 



The Biological Society. — At the last two meetings 

 the Society has listened to four papers: A Fatal Form 

 of Septicemia in the Rabbit produced by Subcutaneous 

 Injection of Human Saliva, by Dr. George M. Sternberg ; 

 On the Mortaliiy of Marine Animals in the Gult of Mex- 

 ico, by Mr. Ernest Ingersoll ; A Statistical View of the 

 Flora of the District of Columbia, by Professor Lester F. 

 Ward ; and Notes on Scale Insects, by Piofessor J. H. 

 Comstock. All of these papers were of the highest 

 scientific value, prepared by specialists in connection with 

 their own immediate investigations. Dr. Sternberg has 

 been making experiments for the past two j ears under 

 the patronage of the National Board of Health, concern- 

 ing the causes and development of epidemic diseases. In 

 the course of his labors he has made carefui observations 

 with reference to inoculation, and in the paper referred 

 to above gave the Society the benefit of his experiments 

 on saliva injected under the skin of the rabbit. As an 

 elaborate report will appear in the proceedings of the 

 Board of Health, it will be necessary to state only the 

 conclusions arrived at, which are as follows : The rabbits 

 impregnated died invariably in less than 48 hours. Other 

 animals which did not succumb were afflicted with sores. 

 Dogs resist the poison, guinea pigs yield less readily than 

 rabbits, fowls escape entirely. Some salivas are more fatal 

 than others ; that of Dr. Sternberg is especially virulent. 

 The presence of Micrococci in the saliva, in the blood of 

 the poisoned animals, and in that of animals infected with 

 this poisoned blood led the author to the conviction that 

 the evil effect was owing to these minute bacteria. 



Mr. Ernest Ingersoll, who has been studying the waters 

 of the Gulf of Mexico in the interest of the U. S. Fish 

 Commission, reported that in certain years there occurred 

 a great mortality among the marine animals. In the years 

 1844, 1854 and 1878 such disasters had been noticed, but 

 the one most injurious in its consequences was in the year 

 1880. Oysters, clams, fish, and even sponges, were in- 

 volved in the universal ruin. The beaches were so 

 thickly covered with the dead bodies that the inhabitants 

 were driven from their homes. Various attempts were 

 made to account for the phenomenon, but with indifferent 

 success. 



Professor Ward is preparing a work to be entitled " A 

 Catalogue of the Flora of the District of Columbia." It 

 will include all the phaenogamous plants and the vascular 

 cryptogams. The number of species enumerated is 1233, 

 distributed among 526 genera, as follows : 



Polypetalous genera, 173 



GimopeUlous " 169 



Monochlamydeous " 47 

 Monocotyledonous " 120 

 Conifer x " 4 



Vascular Cryptogams " 13 



Speries, 354 



122 

 321 



7 

 41 



526 1233 

 Professor Ward then proceeded to give the census of 

 these species with reference to the orders, to the position 

 of the district north and south, and east and west, as well 

 as in comparison with local floras which have been de- 

 scribed with sufficient accuracy. 



Professor Comstock's paper on the Coccida, or scale 

 insects, was a very entertaining treatment of a very dry 



subject. The group under discussion is usually re- 

 garded as the most uninteresting of all the animal king- 

 dom as well as the most anomalous. It is true that the 

 lac of commerce and that of Arizona is the product of 

 these insects, but the most of them are worthless or per- 

 nicious. They infest greenhouse plants and most of our 

 useful fruit and timber trees. A specimen was exhibited 

 which had been taken from Europe to Los Angeles, Cal , 

 and back to Washington, upon a lemon, and at the end 

 of its nine-thousand-mile trip was as lively as ever. The 

 method of hatching, of the deposit of the meal, or lac, and 

 of moulting in the male and female, were described and 

 illustrated with drawings and cabinet specimens. The 

 method of classifying these animals into species has been 

 a very uncertain one. Even the later used characteristic, 

 namely, the series of pores or openings on the penulti- 

 mate ring not being always invariable. Professor Com- 

 stock has found the fringe on the last segment of the 

 abdomen to be the most constant specific characteristic. 

 An interesting point in the paper was a discovery made 

 by Mrs. Comstcck, that the poisers behind the wings are 

 furnished with a hooklike process which fits into a groove 

 on the back of the wing and helps to sustain it in flight. 



The Anthropological Society. — The entire ses- 

 sion of the Society at its last meeting was occupied with 

 the reading and discussion of a paper read by the Rev. 

 Clay McAuley upon the Seminole Indians still remaining 

 in Florida. Of this once formidable but now humbled 

 tribe there remain in the vicinity of Lake Okeechobee 

 208 individuals, 37 families, 22 camps, and 5 settlements. 

 There are no half-breeds among them, the occurrence of 

 such a birth would probably subject the author to toiture 

 or death. They are healthy, have an abundance of food, 

 and are probably increasing. The men are tall, well pro- 

 portioned, erec, lithe, and graceful. The women are 

 shapely, agreeable, vigorous, and many of them hand- 

 some. Dr. McAuley singled out three, whom he charac- 

 terized as the stately, the beautiful, and the handsome 

 among all the Indians whom he had visited. A very 

 minute description was given of the diess, ornament, 

 customs, and language of these people. A full report will 

 appear in the publication of Major J. W. Powell's Bureau 

 of Ethnology. 



THE ULTRA-GASEOUS OR RADIANT STATE 

 OF MATTER.* 

 By Prof. H. S. Carhart. 



The announcement by Mr. William Crookes, F. R. S., 

 some six years ago, that he had produced mechanical 

 motion by the direct impact of waves of light created a 

 profound impression in the scientific world. But when 

 it was found that the Radiometer, which was sup- 

 posed to exhibit this new action of light, carried a system 

 of blackened vanes, delicately balanced in a very high 

 vacuum, it impressed most physicists as being an interest- 

 ing form of heat engine receiving its supply of heat by 

 absorption of radiant energy. 



Mr. Crookes subsequently adopted the same view, 

 which was the only tenable one, and investigated the sub- 

 ject in a long series of exceedingly skillful and ingenious 

 experiments. His researches on the Radiometer formed 

 the introduction to a more extended series of investiga- 

 tions into the movement of the residual gas of very high 

 vacua, under the influence of heat and the negative dis- 

 charge of electricity. These investigations carry us to 

 the very farthest boundary of matter thus far attained, 

 and furnish an ocular demonstration of some of those 

 molecular movements that have heretofore been merely 

 imagined. In fact the phenomena observed are such that 

 Mr. Crookes has felt himself justified in announcing a 

 fourth, or ultia-gaseous state of matter. Such an an- 



*Lecture delivered before the New Vork Electrical Society on May 5, 

 t88i. 



