348 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VII., No. 167 



men of a ten-foot gray shark of strange form, of 

 the Mediterranean species, — the first one of its 

 kind ever taken in American waters. It was 

 caught on the Carolina shores by the life-saving 

 crews. 



— Dr. E. M. Crookshank, in a recent paper on 

 the cultivation of bacteria (Journ. roy. micr. soc), 

 describes and figures a peculiar fungus, Acti- 

 nomyces (or the ' gray fungus '), the cause of a 

 singular disease known as actinomycosis, occur- 

 ring rarely in man, but not uncommonly in cattle. 

 The fungus is believed to gain an entrance to the 

 animal by the mouth, through the food, or pos- 

 sibly through the medium of a wound of the gums 

 or a carious tooth. It sets up inflammation, 

 resulting in the formation of a new growth, re- 

 sembling a tuberculous nodule, which eventually 

 terminates in large tumors. In cattle the lower 

 jaw is usually affected, and then the upper jaw 

 and neighboring parts, but the parasite may also 

 occur in the lungs and the subcutaneous and inter- 

 muscular tissue. In man the pulmonary forma- 

 tions tend to break down early, forming fistulae 

 and sinuses. In other cases the disease may 

 originate in the intestines, or occur in the bones 

 and other tissue. It may be transmitted by in- 

 oculation among cattle and rabbits, and presuma- 

 bly to man. The fungus is visible to the naked 

 eye, appearing in the form of rosettes coaiposed 

 of club-shaped elements, and either colorless or of 

 a yellowish or yellowish-green tinge. 



— A recent communication, by Dr. Macgowan, 

 to the China branch of the Royal Asiatic society, 

 in relation to a supposed ancient phonograph, has 

 elicited articles on the subject from several corre- 

 spondents of the North China herald. The instru- 

 ment to which Dr. Macgowan referred is known 

 as ' the thousand-li speaker,' and is described by a 

 writer of the seventeenth century. A correspond- 

 ent of the North China herald, writing from 

 Pekin, quotes from the ' Things of which Con- 

 fucius did not speak,' and describes the instrument 

 as follows: " It was a bamboo tube covered with 

 a disk of glass and opened by a key. After speak- 

 ing into it several thousand words, it was closed and 

 carried to a distance not exceeding a thousand li. 

 On opening it and applying the ear, a voice was 

 still distinctly heard. If carried a greater dis- 

 tance, the voice became indistinct." Although 

 the existence of such an instrument as a phono- 

 graph in China, in the seventeenth century, may 

 be doubted, it is interesting to note one suggestion 

 of Dr. Afacgowan's. A thousand li in China is a 

 considerable distance, and travelling in carts, or on 

 horseback, over such abominable roads, is by no 

 in* ;n is a pleasant pastime ; and it is probable, that, 



from the jogging and bumping up and down sus- 

 tained by the instrument, its mechanism would 

 become disarranged, and the imprints on the me- 

 tallic plates (if there were such) effaced, before a 

 thousand li were travelled over. So long a distance, 

 therefore, would be sufficient to cause the ' voice 

 within the tube ' to grow indistinct. 



— Under the name of 'crystallized hopeine,' 

 the Chemical news states that a substance is sold, 

 having a slight odor of hops, but which has in its 

 appearance, its crystalline form, and in all its re- 

 actions, a close resemblance to morphia. 



— Contrary to the ordinary experience with 

 copper salts, M. du Moulin, says the Chemical 

 news, has succeeded in administering doses of 

 half a gram to one gram of basic copper acetate 

 to dogs and rabbits for six weeks without pro- 

 ducing poisoning. Copper oxide and carbonate 

 have also been administered to rabbits for a year 

 without producing any appreciable injury. 



— The French association for the advancement 

 of science will hold its fifteenth meeting at Nancy, 

 Aug. 12 next, under the presidency of Professor 

 Friedel. 



— The total amount of diamonds discovered in 

 the diamond-fields of South Africa in 1885 is 

 estimated at not less than 2,440,788 carats, valued 

 at over twelve millions of dollars. The quantity 

 is greater, but the value less, than the finds for 

 the years 1883 and 1884. In 1884 the most valua- 

 ble diamond now known was obtained, weighing, 

 when first discovered, four hundred and fifty- 

 seven carats, but which will be reduced, by cut- 

 ting, to two hundred carats. 



— Gambetta's brain was stated by Mr. A. Bloch, 

 a few months ago, to be of unusually small size, 

 weighing only 1,160 grams or 38.4 ounces. At 

 the meeting of the Societe d'anthropologie of 

 March 18, Professor Duval added, further, some 

 interesting details of its conformation and struc- 

 ture. In comparison with brains of subjects who 

 were known to have been of deficient mental 

 powers, such as possess only a feeble develop- 

 ment of the third frontal convolution, Gambetta's 

 brain was found to have an extreme development 

 of this convolution, and the fissures very numer- 

 ous and very complicated. This development 

 furnishes confirmatory evidence of Broca's dis- 

 covery of the localization of speech in this con- 

 volution. In addition to other peculiarities, the 

 right quadrilateral lobe was found to be very com- 

 plicated, with numerous fissures in its lower part ; 

 and the occipital lobe was extremely reduced, 

 especially on the right side. 



— Anent the opinion of Mr. Perry, that a max- 



