Mat 7, 1886.] 



SCIENCE. 



413' 



— The Smithsonian institution received last 

 week a foetal pygmy sperm-whale (Kogia brevi- 

 ceps) from Mr. George Sayers, keeper of the Sea 

 Island city life-saving station, New Jersey. It 

 has been discovered that this species of Kogia 

 breeds at this time of the year. Last May a 

 specimen was also sent to the institution. Early 

 this winter a female of this species was received, 

 containing the smallest foetus of this cetacean 

 ever found, not more than six weeks old. 



— The naturalists of the fish commission 

 steamer Albatross, which is now engaged in tak- 

 ing soundings among the Bahamas for the hydro- 

 graphic bureau of the navy department, have 

 recently sent home a part of then collections in 

 this locality. Besides several new species of 

 birds, the collection contains a number of speci- 

 mens of Kirtland's warbler, which, ornithologists 

 will remember, is a very rare species to our fauna. 

 Very few specimens have ever been taken within 

 the limits of the United States, and it is not until 

 recently that its habitat has been discovered ; in 

 this locality, however, it is found in abundance. 

 The Albatross will return from her work in the 

 Bahamas on or about the 12th of this month. 



— The off-shore seal-fishery of Newfoundland 

 this year has not proved a success. The largest 

 fare taken was about 34,000 seals ; the average, 

 less than 12,000 ; the total, about 163,300, divided 

 among fourteen vessels. The fine steamer Reso- 

 lute was driven by the ice upon a reef north-east 

 of Fogo, and is a total loss. Once in every ten 

 or fifteen years it happens, that, owing to the 

 prevalence of easterly winds, about the time for 

 taking the young seal, the ice on which they are 

 is driven landward, and forced, a compact mass, 

 into the northern bays, where vessels cannot fol- 

 low. The residents along the shore then reap a 

 harvest as long as the wind is favorable and the 

 ice clings to the land. It is estimated that from 

 100,000 to 150,000 seal have been taken in this way 

 this season, which is a godsend to the people, who 

 are mostly very destitute. In some places the 

 land-catch has averaged thirty per man, each 

 worth about two dollars, of which the captor 

 owns the whole ; while on the steamers the own- 

 ers of the vessels receive one- third of the catch. 



— In a communication before the French 

 academy of sciences on April 12, M. Pasteur 

 stated, that, of the 726 persons treated for hydro- 

 phobia by him up to that date, 688 were bitten by 

 mad dogs, and 38 by mad wolves : among the 

 former there had been one, among the latter three 

 deaths. From a collection of cases in man from 

 the bites of mad wolves, he finds the percentage 

 of mortality as high as 82, and the duration of 



incubation much shorter : he therefore concludes 

 that there is greater virulence in the poison from 

 this source. Instead of three deaths so far, among 

 those bitten by the mad wolves, he believes that 

 there should have been fifteen or sixteen, had his 

 treatment been ineffectual. 



— A lively discussion on the subject of the 

 poisonous mussels of Wilhelmshaven (Science, vii. 

 175) yet continues hi the German medical periodi- 

 cals. From the conclusions already reached, it 

 appears evident that simple stagnation of sea- 

 water is capable of giving rise to poisonous quali- 

 ties in the animals inhabiting it ; and that, too, 

 when the water may be uncontaminated by sewage 

 or other impurities. Poisonous qualities precisely 

 similar to those of the mussels have been observed 

 in the star-fishes of Wilhelmshaven. The poison 

 in the mussels has been isolated, and described as 

 a ptomaine under the name of mytilotoxin ; but 

 Professor Virchow says it cannot be a true 

 ptomaine, as it is not a product of decomposition. 

 A large share of attention has been given, by the 

 various writers on the subject, to the question 

 whether these mussels are of a new and in- 

 troduced form or not. It is generally agreed that 

 they are not, yet there seems to be tolerably con- 

 stant differences from the true Mytilus edulis, 

 probably due to the conditions in which they 

 grow. Professor Virchow adds a point of practi- 

 cal importance ; viz., that the experienced fisher- 

 men of Christiania warn consumers against the 

 use for food of mussels and oysters which have 

 been attached to ships' bottoms, old wood-work, 

 etc. 



— The new microscope objectives, of wilich 

 notice was given in Science, are more fully de- 

 scribed in the last number of the Journal of the 

 Royal microscopic society. They are receiving 

 high praise, — ' the microscope of the future,' as 

 Professor Abbe calls them, — and it is believed 

 that high-power work hereafter will almost neces- 

 sarily be done with them. The two £ objectives 

 which have been received in England are com- 

 posed each of ten single lenses, combined to form 

 five separate lenses, with a single front lens ; but 

 the special point in their construction is that they 

 are made of the new kind of optical glass which 

 Professor Abbe and Dr. Schott have been work- 

 ing for the past five years to perfect. Of the ten 

 lenses, two only are of siliceous glass, the other 

 eight being made of borates and phosphates. 

 The crown and flint glass ordinarily used by 

 opticians does not contain more than six chemical 

 elements, while the new glass contains no less 

 than fourteen. This glass was discovered nearly 

 three years ago, and objectives were then made 



