412 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VII., No. 170' 



ing interesting details of his work, and also of his 

 own character and temper. The passage is worth 

 while quoting: "There are two men in me, — 

 the one, timid, self-defiant, and of humeur facile, 

 who accepts thankfully good advices and discus- 

 sion ; the other is a great deal less easy to manage. 

 When, after having thoroughly used all the re- 

 sources of experimental science, I am quite sure 

 of havmg attained to truth, a second man arises 

 in myself, absolute, very harsh in discussion, and of 

 humeur farouche. ... I am no more in Novem- 

 ber, 1885, timid, troubled, sleepless, always haunt- 

 ed by the nightmare of rabies. We are in April, 

 1886. Having called to aid all the resources of 

 experimental science, I am now in possession of 

 the exact scientific truth concerning this ques- 

 tion." M. Pasteur concluded in proposing the 

 joint health of America and France, " two nations 

 formerly sisters on the battle-ground." Toasts 

 were next proposed by M, de Blowitz and de 

 Lesseps, and the meeting broke up after mutual 

 expressions of sympathy and good feeling had 

 been freely exchanged. H. V. 



Paris, April 15. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



A strange nuisance of rats has developed 

 itself in some parts of New York City, reaching 

 such an extent as to call for an examination of 

 the circumstances by the proper city authorities, 

 and making dwellings almost uninhabitable. These 

 animals are known to possess a remarkable migra- 

 tory instinct, congregating in large numbers, and 

 overrunning whole regions, to afterward as sud- 

 denly and strangely disappear. Dr. Buckland 

 relates instances of their migration from house to 

 house at certain times of the year, influenced 

 probably by the lack or abundance of food. In a 

 certain part of Berkshire, England, there were 

 situated a number of isolated barns on the bleak, 

 barren downs ; and the rats were frequently met 

 in colonies at early morning, marching in long 

 lines direct from one barn to another. They were 

 watched, and seen to go directly across the country 

 in a straight line ; and the most curious part about 

 the circumstances was the instinct that told them 

 where to go, or to find those barns which contained 

 grain. At Central park there is no unusual num- 

 ber, though they find in spring plenty of food 

 along the lakes in the grain fed to the swans and 

 other aquatic birds. This grain is placed in boxes 

 at some little distance from the water's margin, 

 but the rats are not thus hindered from purloining 

 it : they swim to the boxes, extract the grain, and 

 then swim with it back to the shores. In the 

 winter they collect about the animal houses. In 



the Philadelphia zoological gardens they have been 

 very numerous, and not a little of a nuisance. 



— Mr. Charles Rhodes of Oswego, N.Y., has 

 lately published a circular giving the monthly and 

 annual levels of Lake Ontario at Oswego for a 

 number of years, as determined by records of the 

 army engineers. The variations of level seem to 

 be irregular, and are not well explained. For ex- 

 ample, in April, 1873, after eighteen months of 

 low water, the lake rose about two feet and a half 

 in twenty days. When it is considered that the 

 whole inflow of the Niagara during that time 

 would scarcely more than produce the rise, even 

 if the escape by the St. Lawrence were stopped 

 meanwhile, the magnitude of the change may be 

 appreciated, but can hardly be well accounted for. 

 Yx. Rhodes also gives account, in a personal letter, 

 of oscillations in the water of the lake that seem to 

 correspond to the seiches of Lake Geneva and 

 other Swiss lakes. He describes sudden flows of 

 the water from Lake Ontario into the Oswego 

 River, with a rise of ten to eighteen inches, fol- 

 lowed, in half an hour or so, by an equally sudden 

 discharge and fall, going as much below the ordi- 

 nary level as the rise had been above it. Smaller 

 oscillations succeed, gradually fading away. All 

 such large and sudden fluctuations are followed 

 by storms of wind, rain, or both. These singular 

 phenomena, so well studied out by Forel in Switz- 

 erland, have received but little attention in this 

 country. The records of lake-levels kept by the 

 army engineers would probably afford many ex- 

 amples that should receive investigation. 



— At one of the recent sessions of the Prussian 

 Landstag, it was stated that the rigorous laws 

 adopted in 1880, relating to rabid animals, had 

 produced most excellent results. These laws im- 

 press the necessity of veterinary examination of 

 all animals suspected of rabies, and if, in any case, 

 the presence of the disease is determined, require 

 that all animals which have been exposed to 

 danger shall be immediately killed. Further- 

 more, in any district where a rabid cat or dog is 

 seen, it is ordered that all dogs shall be confined or 

 muzzled. As a result of these laws, there has 

 been a steady decrease in the number of mad 

 dogs. In 1880-81, 672 rabid dogs were killed ; 

 in 1881-82, 532 ; in 1882-83, 431 ; in 1883-84, 350 ; 

 in 1884-85, 352. During the first of these years 

 (1881-82) 2,400 other dogs, which had been ex- 

 posed to the danger of contagion, were killed ; in 

 1884-85 the number was 1,400. The number of 

 human deaths has decreased in the same ratio : 

 thus in 1880-81 there were ten ; in 1881-82, six ; 

 in 1882-83, four ; in 1883-84, one ; and in 1884-85.. 

 none. 



