i 882 .j 
Correspondence . 
435 
that if the temperature of a hen is reduced by a prolonged im- 
mersion of the feet in cold water, she then becomes susceptible 
to the disease. 
Proceeding in the opposite direction, M. P. Gibier has shown, 
in a paper lately read before the Academy of Sciences, that cold- 
blooded animals, — e.g., the frog, — though ordinarily insuscep- 
tible, can be rendered liable to the disease by placing them in 
water of about 95 0 to 98° F. 
Now I should like to ask those “ Anti-Vivisedtionists ” who 
are neither fanatics nor charlatans seeking to advertise them- 
selves, how the above fadts could possibly have been ascertained 
without experiments on living animals ? Unless they are pre- 
pared to point out some method they can no longer maintain that 
Vivisedtion is useless. If they maintain that the fadts are unne- 
cessary, because perhaps not immediately applicable in pradtical 
medicine, they place themselves on the very lowest “ plane ” of 
purblind Philistinism. Now the value of abstradt research is 
being admitted by manufacturers, are even a minority of medical 
men about to raise the standard of immediate utility ? 
Freiburg in Breisgau. 
MISTAKEN “ INSTINCT.” 
To the Editor of the Journal of Science. 
Sir, — In South Africa horses are passionately fond of the so- 
called “ Caffre corn,” and will stray away to great distances to 
get at a piece of ground where it grows. In small quantities it 
seems to be perfedtly harmless, but if indulged in freely it makes 
the animals seriously ill, and not unfrequently proves fatal. Is 
not this a case of mistaken instindl ? — I am, & c., 
E. A. S, 
