April 2, 1886. J 



SCIENCE. 



303 



large country without any ice at all, — no 

 glaciers nor icebergs : the sea will take a given 

 level around such a country. But suppose that 

 for some reason or another this country gets 

 covered with snow and ice. as is the case in polar 

 regions : the sea-level will rise, because the con- 

 tinent will be denser, and will attract the sea 

 with more force. But if half of the ice melt, 

 the sea-level will be lower : if it melt entirely, 

 the waters will re-assume their first level. We 

 should then find on the seacoast three levels, — 

 the actual one ; one very high up, say a hundred 

 yards ; and another one halfway down. This 

 explanation may perhaps be accepted for some 

 countries, but it seems doubtful that it applies to 

 all cases ; and the theory of slow emersion and 

 immersion of continents and islands — some of 

 them, at least — cannot yet be overthrown. The 

 conference of M. de Lapparent will be published 

 in the Bulletin of the geological society, and a 

 review of it is to come out shortly in Nature. 



The principal event of the last month has been 

 Pasteur's paper, read at the Academy of sciences 

 the 1st of March, concerning the cure of rabies. 

 The meeting was a very fine one. Some persons 

 had heard it rumored that Pasteur was to speak, 

 and to communicate very interesting facts, so the 

 room vvas quite full. M. Gosselin, who had been 

 sick for some time, came ; and nearly everybody 

 was there, except M. Chevreul, who was yet 

 obliged to stay at home on account of the bad 

 weather and a slight illness. M. Pasteur's note 

 was a very long one, but it vvas listened to with 

 great attention ; and at the conclusion enthusiastic 

 applause went up from every hand. M. Vulpian 

 rose immediately after, and proposed that a vacci- 

 nal dispensary be erected for the purpose of admit- 

 ting all persons bitten by rabid dogs, and having 

 them cured by M. Pasteur and his assistants. The 

 fact is, that it is necessary to be able to receive all 

 persons, French or strangers, who desire Pasteur's 

 assistance, and to have some sort of hospital. 

 M. Vulpian's proposal was greeted with many 

 cheers, and M. Pasteur quite approved it. The 

 results of Pasteur's 350 first experiments on the 

 cure of rabies in mankind are certainly very en- 

 couraging, and the subscribers are sending a good 

 deal of money. Pasteur is sure to have all the 

 money that is necessary, and will certainly use it 

 well. He wishes to investigate now the question 

 of diphtheria, and to try and find out the way of 

 preventing or fighting it. It is to be hoped also 

 that tuberculosis may catch his attention. Tuber- 

 culosis is far deadlier than cholera, diphtheria, and 

 rabies put together. 



Apropos of cholera, M. Rochefontaine, who was 

 director of Professor Vulpian's laboratory, died a 



few days ago. It will be remembered that Dr. 

 Rochefontaine tried last year an experiment on 

 the etiology of cholera, swallowing a pill in which 

 choleraic dejections and bacilli formed the promi- 

 nent feature. He recovered, and some months 

 ago he began again, in another manner, inoculat- 

 ing bacilli under the skin. It is, however, believed 

 here that these experiments were very detri- 

 mental to his health, and that his sudden death, 

 in the course of a very mild illness, may have 

 been the consequence of them. Professor Vul- 

 pian made a very heartfelt and appropriate speech 

 at the burial. Rochefontaine has been during 

 seventeen years the preparateur and the assistant 

 of M. Vulpian : he was, in fact, his only pupil, as 

 concerns experimental physiology, and his death 

 is a very serious blow to Vulpian, who will cer- 

 tainly not find so experienced an assistant to help 

 him. 



M. A. Gautier, the professor of organic chemis- 

 try in the faculte de medecine, pupil and succes- 

 sor of Wurtz, has recently published a very in- 

 teresting paper, read before the Academy of 

 medicine, concerning ptomaines and leucomaines. 

 Leucomaines are alkaloids very similar to ptoma- 

 ines, but they are formed in the living body and 

 during life, instead of developing after death. 

 They are very poisonous. In the next letter, I 

 shall perhaps be able to give more information on 

 this point. 



The Concours d'agregation at the Medical 

 school was finished yesterday evening at half -past 

 six, after some two months' duration. The can- 

 didates who have been admitted are MM. Brissand 

 and Ballet, two of Charcot's pupils, neither of the 

 best nor of the worst ; M. Dejerine, Vulpian's 

 pupil, very well known by quite a number of 

 papers and contributions on nervous pathology and 

 physiology — he certainly is the best man of the 

 four in the estimation of all, and is a very good 

 recruit for the faculty ; M. Chauffard, son of the 

 well-known spiritualist professor, who died some 

 years ago — he has no works to speak for him, 

 being yet very young, but his concours was a very 

 brilliant one. V. 



Paris, March 17. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



On the 25th of March, 1826, Alvan Clark, the 

 senior member of the famous firm of telescope- 

 makers, was united in marriage to Miss Maria 

 Pease, and the venerable couple are still living, 

 the former at the age of eighty-two, and the latter 

 seventy-eight. A reception was given in honor 

 of the sixtieth anniversary of then* marriage. 

 During the past year Mr. Clark has painted three 



