282 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VII., No. 164 



day for the sixty years from 1814 to 1873. Over 

 the greater part of the British Islands, this Feb- 

 ruary was one of the coldest Februarys on record ; 

 the Greenwich mean being 33°. 8, or 6°. 8 below 

 the average, while through Great Britain gen- 

 erally, from the Grampians to the Channel, the 

 mean temperatures were from 5° to 7° below the 

 monthly averages. Severe snow-storms blocked 

 the lines on the east coast in the first few days of 

 March, and also in North Wales, as many as thirty 

 trains being snowed up between Newcastle and 

 Berwick alone. 



It has long been observed, that, for every degree 

 below the average temperature in any week, a 

 definite increase takes place in the average num- 

 ber of deaths, chiefly among elderly people. 

 Among recent victims, two may be mentioned, — 

 the famous Scotch naturalist, Mr. C. W. Peach, 

 who was a most remarkable example of the irre- 

 pressible instinct of a true lover of nature ; and 

 Dr. Storrar, for many years chairman of con- 

 vocation of the University of London. To him 

 the medical graduates of that university owe far 

 more than most of them are aware of. In the 

 early days of the university, nearly half a century 

 ago, its degrees were, for various reasons, looked 

 on with much suspicion, and the other medical 

 bodies in authority were inclined to deny any 

 status whatever to the new graduates ; hi fact, 

 attempts were made to prevent them from enga- 

 ging in ordinary medical practice. Dr. Storrar 

 sacrificed his own professional prospects in order 

 to fight this question, and at the present day the 

 London university degrees in medicine rank as 

 the highest which it is possible to obtain. 



The engineering tripos at Cambridge, alluded to 

 in a former letter, has now been fairly established, 

 and the chief regulations in connection therewith 

 appeared in the university intelligence of the 

 Times a few days ago. Inquiries as to the desira- 

 bility of establishing degrees in engineering have 

 been issued on behalf of the University of Lon- 

 don. 



The annual report of the director of the French 

 agricultural department on the proceedings of the 

 Phylloxera commission has just been published. 

 It has been decided that none of the processes 

 made known during the year 1885 entitle the in- 

 ventors to the prize offered by the government, 

 and accordingly the old remedies continue to be 

 recommended. These are, 1°, submersion, which 

 was applied in 1885 to 24,339 hectares ; 2°, carbon 

 disulphide, to 40,685; and, 3°, potassium sulpho- 

 r;irl>onat<\ to •Vi'JT. American vines which have 

 been planted now replace those destroyed, over a 

 surface of 72,302 hectares. The surface which 

 has resisted the attacks of the insect is about 



twenty-two per cent of the whole surface suffer- 

 ing from the disease. 



The hydrophobia scare is still sufficient to keep 

 the muzzles on the unfortunate dogs. Questioned 

 last night in the house of commons by Sir Henry 

 Roscoe on the subject of M. Pasteur's cure for 

 this terrible disease, Mr. Chamberlain replied, on 

 behalf of the government, that he hoped to be 

 able to arrange for such an investigation as would 

 enable a just estimate to be formed of M. Pasteur's 

 method, and its applicability in this country. In 

 a recent paper read before the French academy of 

 medicine, M. Pasteur gave details of three hun- 

 dred and fifty cases, all of which, with one ex- 

 ception, he had treated successfully ; and he has, 

 whenever possible, secured certificates from doc- 

 tors and veterinary surgeons as to the existence 

 of rabies in the animals concerned. M. Pasteur 

 hopes soon to turn his attention to diphtheria. 



W. 



London, March 13. 



VIENNA LETTER. 



The struggle between gas and electricity as 

 means of lighting has reached a new stage in the 

 invention of Dr. Auer of Welsbach, Austria, a 

 young Vienna chemist who has been experiment- 

 ing at Professor Lieben's laboratory. The princi- 

 ple of Dr. Auer's invention is no new one. Every 

 one knows the Drummond light, in which a cylin- 

 der of lime is brought to incandescence by a 

 burning mixture of hydrogen and oxygen. But, 

 in all previous attempts of this kind, a tempera- 

 ture was required too high for ordinary use. Dr. 

 Auer has found a substance — the composition of 

 which he unfortunately keeps a secret — which 

 becomes incandescent at the temperature of a 

 Bunsen burner. His lamp consists of such a 

 burner, surrounded by a common lamp-cylinder, 

 in the flame of which is hung a hollow cylinder 

 of thin ' organtine ' impregnated with a metallic 

 salt solution. By the action of the flame, the 

 organic matter of the 1 organtine ' is destroyed ; 

 the salt is converted into an oxide ; and a white, 

 very elastic, porous cylinder remains, which be- 

 comes incandescent. Dr. Auer's lamp has given, 

 according to recent measurements, a luminous 

 power of twenty candles at a gas-supply of fifty- 

 six litres per hour. 



A very important discovery, both for practical 

 and theoretical medicine, has been made here by 

 Mr. Ernst Freund, a pupil of Prof. E. Ludwig, at 

 Professor Strieker's laboratory. From earlier ex- 

 periments, it is known that blood does not coagu- 

 late so long as it is contained within the living 

 healthy vessels ; though clotting occurs whenever 

 the vessels are injured, or have lost their vitality, 



