June 18, 1886.] 



SCIENCE. 



545 



doubt that the cows of the dairy were infected 

 with a specific disease of a constitutional charac- 

 ter, whose local manifestations were external sores 

 on the animals, and that the milk from these cows 

 was capable of imparting scarlatina to human 

 beings, and was the real cause of an epidemic of 

 scarlatina in a large district (Marylebone) in Lon- 

 don. Two of these animals were purchased for 

 the Brown institution (established in connection 

 with the University of London for the investiga- 

 tion of animal pathology) ; and the exact nature 

 of the diseased milk is still being inquired into by 

 Dr. Klein. 



The ensilage commissioners have just issued 

 their complete parliamentary report, one of the 

 most valuable documents ever put into the hands 

 of the English farmer. They have gone about 

 their work in a thoroughly judicial spirit, and the 

 result of their inquiry is to establish the use of the 

 silo as an essential part of the procedure of suc- 

 cessful agriculture. Green forage well preserved 

 in a silo is, weight for weight, one-third of the 

 same forage made into hay ; but, as the weight of 

 the most perfect silage is five times that of the 

 hay, it is sixty per cent more valuable. The full 

 conclusion of the commissioners can best be ex- 

 pressed in their own words : " After summing up 

 the mass of evidence which has reached us, we 

 can without hesitation affirm that it has been 

 abundantly and conclusively proved to our satis- 

 faction that this system of preserving green-fodder 

 crops promises great advantages to the practical 

 farmer, and, if carried out with a reasonable 

 amount of care and efficiency, should not only 

 provide him with the means of insuring himself 

 to a great extent against unfavorable seasons, and 

 of materially improving the quantity and quality 

 of his dairy produce, but should also enable him 

 to increase appreciably the number of live-stock 

 that can be profitably kept upon any given acre- 

 age, whether of pasture or arable land, and pro- 

 portionately the amount of manure available to 

 fertilize it." 



The deputy master of the mint has just issued 

 his report for 1885, a document of much interest. 

 The coinages required by the English colonies were 

 more numerous than, and exceeded by £85,000 

 in amount, those of any previous year. This is 

 attributed in great measure to the depression in 

 the West Indies. The balance of receipts over 

 expenditures was more than £70,000, one of the ex- 

 penses being the preparation of medals for troops 

 engaged in suppressing the Canadian rebellion. 

 Mr. Fremantle reports, that ''although during the 

 year 1885 a considerable amount of coinage has 

 been executed in the British and United States 

 mints, and in those of some European nations, 



hardly any addition has been made in several 

 countries, and notably in France and Germany, 

 to the metallic currency of the world ; " and 

 also that "the questions connected with coinage, 

 which have of late years been discussed with the 

 greatest interest, have not made any appreciable 

 progress toward solution.'" 



A large private electric-lighting installation 

 has just been inaugurated at the London terminus 

 of the Great western railway. The whole district 

 lighted is 1| miles long, and covers 67 acres of 

 ground ; 4.115 glow-lamps of 25 candle-power 

 each are used, 93 arc-lamps of 3,500 candle-power, 

 and 2 arc-lamps of 12.000 candle-power. The two 

 dynamos employed are those of Mr. J. E. H. Gor- 

 don, and weigh 45 tons each, one-half of which is 

 due to the ten-foot revolving magnet wheel, which 

 runs at 146 revolutions per minute. The electro- 

 motive force is 150 volts. The mains are all un- 

 derground, and the glow-lamps are all in parallel 

 arc. Two lines of steam-pipe supply the engines, 

 and a third dynamo is kept in reserve. The Tele- 

 graph construction and maintenance company 

 have contracted with the railway company to 

 work it for three years. 



At the last meeting for this season, of the Society 

 of telegraph engineers, etc., about thirty-five can- 

 didates were elected into the society. There was 

 an interesting discussion, in which Dr. Jacques, 

 electrician to the Bell telephone company, U.S.A., 

 took part, on the use of the telephone as a receiv- 

 ing-instrument for Morse signals in warfare, and 

 on the general military question of recording 

 versus non-recording receiving-instruments. 



In continuation of brief comments upon ex- 

 ceptional weather in Britain, which have appeared 

 in this correspondence, it may here be mentioned 

 that from May 11 to May 15 the mean temperature 

 was from 6° to 8° below the average ; and that 

 torrents of rain fell over a very wide district, 

 more than four inches in three days (11th, 12th, 

 and 13th) being not uncommon. The valleys of 

 the Severn and Trent suffered severely, railway 

 traffic being suspended, and many inhabitants 

 driven from their homes. Severe tornadoes oc- 

 curred at Madrid, Krossen, Linz, and other Eu- 

 ropean towns, two or three days after those in 

 Kansas City and other parts of the states. 



English pathology has suffered a severe loss by 

 the death, at the early age of forty-five, of Sur- 

 geon-Major T. R. Lewis, the assistant professor of 

 pathology at the Army medical school. He had 

 made a special study of microscopic organisms 

 and their relations to disease, and was the author 

 of several most valuable reports to the govern- 

 ment of India on cholera and the fungus disease 

 of India. In the autumn of 1884 he visited Mar- 



