June 11, 1886.J 



SCIENCE. 



521 



destitute of wood, and it is Mr. Hornaday's opin- 

 ion that an attempt to find these few would be 

 hopeless. Skins of buffalo-heads are now valued 

 by taxidermists in Dakota at fifty dollars each, 

 from which it may be assumed that they have 

 given up all hope of procuring any more. 



Should this endeavor be fruitless, the sugges- 

 tion has been made that buffaloes may still be ob- 

 tained in the British possessions. 



PARIS LETTER. 



The town of Montdidier (department of Somme), 

 in the north of France, has recently held a series 

 of festivals in honor of Parmentier, who, as is well 

 known, was the first who brought that hunible 

 but useful vegetable, the potato, into France. 

 It was in 1786, or thereabout, that Parmentier ob- 

 tained from Louis XVI. permission to cultivate 

 potatoes in the Plaine des Sablons, near Paris, to 

 show what service could be expected from the 

 new food. The festival of Montdidier consisted of 

 an agricultural exhibition, an exhibition of horses 

 and dogs, and of farming implements, and also of 

 a meeting at which were discussed the names 

 by which the different varieties of potatoes are to 

 be designated hereafter. M. Chevreul was to pre- 

 side, but could not attend. He wrote a letter, in 

 which he said that Montdidier was for him a sec- 

 ond birthplace, ""because there was born Mile. 

 Sophie Davalette, whom I married in 1818, and 

 who made the happiness of my life during nearly 

 half a century."' This is certainly a very interest- 

 ing fact, but has not much to do with Parmentier. 



Some days ago there was held in the palace of 

 the Trocadero a festival for the benefit of the 

 Pasteur institute. The very first artists, dramatic 

 and musical, offered then time and talents : and 

 the meeting was a success. The house, which is 

 enormous, was crowded, although prices were 

 high ; and after the recital by Coquelin, of some 

 verses of E. Manuel, a very fine ovation was given 

 to Pasteur. He was very pale aud much over- 

 come. The whole audience rose, and cheered with 

 all their might. This festival was got up under 

 the direction of Scientia, a young scientific society 

 founded by Charles Richet, G. Tissandier, and 

 Max de Xansouty. 



Dr. Lagneau has recently presented his report 

 on the principal epidemics of Paris during 1884. 

 (This is an annual report sent to the Conseil d'hy- 

 giene.) Some interesting facts are to be noticed 

 in it. It has long been thought and said that 

 typhoid-fever is the most prevalent and most fatal 

 of Parisian epidemics. This, however, is quite 

 untrue : diphtheria is entitled to the first place in 

 the scale. Typhoid-fever, small-pox. and whoop- 



ing-cough are becoming more rare than formerly. 

 In 1884 there were 2,592 deaths from diphtheria. 

 Dr. Lagneau's report is a very interesting and use- 

 ful one, and indicates great progress in the hygi- 

 enic and sanitary conditions of Paris. 



A few days ago I was present at the inaugura- 

 tion of the Exposition d'hygiene urbaine, a very 

 interesting display indeed. I specially noticed a 

 hot-air room for the disinfection of mattresses 

 and clothing (for military and colonial purposes), 

 Redard*s method for disinfecting wagons and rail- 

 way-cars by over-heated steam, etc. The number 

 of implements exhibited is very great, and one 

 might spend many hours in the exhibition with- 

 out feeling a decrease in interest. It is impossible 

 to enumerate the useful and ingenious apparatus 

 to be seen, and I shall not attempt it. 



There has been a very sharp discussion in the 

 Academy of medicine between Pasteur and 

 Bechamp. It is pretty well known that Bechamp 

 has got up. a theory on microzymas, which no- 

 body save himself well understands. Microzymas, 

 according to his idea, are molecular granulations 

 which have existed since the beginning of the 

 world, — he does not say which day of creation, — 

 and are possessed of eternal life. But what is the 

 role of these microzymas, what is then influence 

 on health and disease, what is their use and their 

 modus vivendi, nobody knows. In short, M. 

 Bechamp having attacked Pasteur's experiments 

 with unusual fury, Pasteur arose and said that 

 such discussions were entirely useless, and that 

 the only thing to do was to begin experimenting 

 again, and that M. Bechamp would surely recog- 

 nize his errors if he only took care to experiment 

 seriously. Pastern- contested every result of 

 Bechamp's experiments, and asked for the appoint- 

 ment of a commission to examine the facts and 

 arguments on both sides : he wants to have done 

 with the microzymas, and to show where the 

 errors lie. We shall certainly have some very 

 interesting discussions soon. The commission has 

 been appointed on Professor Trelat's proposal ; and 

 it is believed that M. Bechamp's last idea. viz.. 

 that microzymas transform themselves into bac- 

 teria, bacilli, and other pathogenetic organisms, 

 will not live much longer. 



The statistics concerning rabies in animals dur- 

 ing 1885 have just been published. They show 

 that in Paris, or rather in the department of the 

 Seine, the number of rabid animals was 518. Of 

 these animals, 503 were dogs ; 13, cats : and 2, 

 horses. Nineteen persons have died of rabies. It 

 should be remarked that the number of cases of 

 rabies in animals was much larger in 1885 than in 

 1884, — 518 instead of 301, an increase that is not 

 easily accounted for. 



