worked out very perfectly in every detail, and a high degree of mechanical skill is shown in their construction.

The armature-shafts are of high-grade steel. The bearings are all accurately fitted, and are very long in proportion to their diameter, being, in the smaller sizes, of hard composition, and in the larger, of babbitt-metal. The commutators, which ordinarily are liable to great wear and damage, have received particular attention, being made of a special hard bronze. All the motors are provided with

FIG. 5.

switches for starting and stopping, and in the larger sizes the switches are provided with resistance-coils, an arrangement which is much handier than a separate rheostat.

In respect to simplicity, all parts needing attention, being in plain sight, are easily accessible. The armatures may be removed for inspection or any other purpose, and replaced in running order, in less than one minute. All parts are made to standard gauges, and are interchangeable.

CONSIDERATIONS CONCERNING SOME EXTERNAL SOURCES OF INFECTION IN THEIR BEARING ON PREVENTIVE MEDICINE.'

No department of medicine has been cultivated in recent years with such zeal and with such fruitful results as that relating to the causes of infectious diseases. The most important of these results for preventive medicine and for the welfare of mankind is the knowledge that a large proportion of the causes of sickness and death are removable.

It is evident that efforts to preserve health will be most intelligently and effectually applied when they are based upon an accurate and full knowledge of the agencies which cause disease. Public and private hygiene, however, cannot wait, and fortunately has not waited, for the full light of that day, whose dawn has only begun to appear, when we shall have a clear insight into the causation of preventable diseases. Cleanliness and comfort demand that means shall be taken to render pure the ground on which we live, the air which we breathe, and the water and food with which we are supplied; and we must meet these needs without waiting to learn just what relation infectious agents bear to the earth, air, water, and food.

It is a fortunate circumstance that modern sanitation has been controlled so largely by the belief in the dependence of endemic and epidemic diseases upon organic impurities in the soil and in the water. Incomplete and even erroneous in many respects as are the views which have prevailed concerning the origin and spread of epidemic diseases by the decomposition of organic substances, the sanitary measures which have been directed toward the removal of filth have achieved great conquests in limiting the development and extension of many infectious diseases. The benefits which one commonwealth of this country has derived from the intelligent employment of public sanitary measures were clearly and forcibly presented before this association last year by Dr. Walcott, in his admirable address on State medicine.

While nothing should be said, or need be said, to lessen the importance of cleanliness for public health, it is important to bear in mind that hygienic cleanliness and æsthetic cleanliness are not identical. In water which meets the most severe chemical tests of purity, typhoid bacilli have been found. On the other hand, the air in the Berlin sewers, which certainly does not meet the most 1 Address in State medicine, delivered before the American Medical Association, in Newport, on Friday, June 28, by William H. Welch, M.D., professor of pathology in Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore.

modest demands of aesthetic cleanliness, has been found to be nearly or quite free from bacteria.

It needs only to be stated to be generally admitted that the scientific basis of preventive medicine must be the accurate knowledge of the causative agents of preventable diseases, - a knowledge which can be derived only from a careful study of all of the properties of these agents, the modes of their reception and of their elimination by the body, the circumstances which favor and those which retard or prevent their development and spread, their behavior in the various substances which surround us or which we take into our bodies, and the sources of infection, not only those which laboratory experiments show to be possible, but those which are actually operative.

So long as we were unacquainted with the living organisms causing infection, the means at our disposal for studying the etiology of infectious diseases were limited to the observation of all of the circumstances which we could determine regarding the origin and spread of these diseases. We could only infer what might be the properties of the infectious agents from the study of phenomena often obscure and difficult of interpretation. Chiefly by this method of investigation the science of epidemiology has been built up. It has established facts and laws no less of practical than of scientific importance; but it has left unsolved many problems, and has filled gaps with speculations. Admitted epidemiological facts are often open to various interpretations.

We are evidently at a great advantage when we can study the epidemiological facts with a knowledge of the substances which actually cause infection, and this we are now enabled to do for a limited number of the infectious diseases. This new method of research, which thus far has been mainly bacteriological, has aided us not so much by simplifying the problems of etiology, which still remain complicated enough, as by affording greater accuracy to the results.

It is my aim in this address to consider some results of the modern studies of pathogenic micro-organisms in their bearing upon preventive medicine, more particularly upon the sources of infection. It is, of course, impossible within the limits of the address to attempt a complete survey of this important field. Time will permit the presentation of only some of the salient points.

Infectious diseases are those which are caused by the multiplication within the body of pathogenic micro-organisms.

It has always been recognized that some infectious diseases, such as the exanthematous fevers, are conveyed directly from the sick to the healthy. It is not disputed that in these evidently contagious diseases the infectious germ is discharged from the body in a state capable at once of giving rise to infection.

In a second group of infectious diseases, of which malaria is the type, the infected individual neither transmits the disease to another person, nor, so far as we know, is capable of infecting a locality. Here there is reason to believe that the infectious germ is not thrown off in a living state from the body, but is destroyed within the body. In this group the origin of infection under natural conditions is always outside of the body.

In a third group there is still dispute whether the disease can be transmitted directly from person to person, but all are agreed that the infected individual can infect a locality. It is especially fortunate that the bacteria which cause cholera and typhoid-fever, the two most important representatives of this group of so-called miasmatic contagious diseases, have been discovered and isolated in pure culture. These are the diseases about whose origin and epidemic extension there has been the greatest controversy. They, above all other diseases, have given the impulse to public sanitation during the last half-century. The degree of success with which their extension in a community is prevented is an important gauge of the excellence of the local sanitary arrangements. A clear comprehension of the origin and spread of these diseases signifies a solution of many of the most vexed and important problems of epidemiology and of State hygiene.

It is difficult to understand how those who accept the discovery that the bacteria causing typhoid-fever and cholera have been found and cultivated from the stools of patients affected with these diseases can doubt that these patients are possible sources of contagion, or can entertain the view, once so widely prevalent, that the

infectious germs of these diseases are discharged from the body in a condition incapable of producing immediate infection. In an address delivered on another occasion, I have endeavored to present the considerations which reconcile the comparative infrequency of direct contagion for these diseases with the belief in the elimination of the causative germs in an active state from the body, and have there pointed out several well-known factors which determine the frequency of conveyance of an infectious disease by contagion. There are reasons, some of them very obvious, why diseases in which the infectious substances are operative only when received into the digestive tract, and are discharged usually only with the fæces, are less likely to be transmitted by immediate contagion than those diseases in which the virus is thrown off from the skin on epidermal scales.

But the field of operation of direct contagion for those so-called miasmatic contagious diseases is at most a restricted one, and the chief sources of infection are outside of the body from which primarily the infectious germs may have been derived. It is to these external sources of infection, which are of such importance in public hygiene, that I wish especially to direct attention.

A full comprehension of the sources of infection is, of course, to be obtained only by a detailed study of the etiology of the individual infectious diseases; but this is, of course, impossible within the limits of an address. It may, however, be useful to present some of the facts which have a general bearing upon the subject. Let us consider, then, from the point of view of modern bacteriological studies, what role in harboring or transporting infectious agents may be played by those substances or media with which we necessarily come into intimate contact, such as the air, the ground, the water, and our food.

It is universally admitted that many infectious agents may be transported by the air, but the extent of danger from this source has often been exaggerated. It is a popular error to suppose that most of the minute particles of dust in the air either are or contain living organisms. The methods for determining the number and kind of bacteria and fungi in the air are now fairly satisfactory, although by no means perfect. These have shown that while the number of living bacteria and fungi in the atmosphere in and around human habitations cannot be considered small, still it is greatly inferior to that in the ground or in most waters. Unlike fungus spores, bacteria do not seem to occur to any extent in the air as single detached particles, which would then necessarily be extremely minute, but rather in clumps or attached to particles of dust of relatively large size. As a result, in a perfectly quiet atmosphere these comparatively heavy particles which contain bacteria rapidly settle to the ground or upon underlying objects, and are easily filtered out by passing the air through porous substances, such as cotton-wool or sand. Rain washes down a large number of the bacteria from the air. That the air bacteria are derived from the ground, or objects upon it, is shown by their total absence, as a rule, from sea-air at a distance from land, this distance naturally varying with the direction and strength of the wind.

A fact of capital importance in understanding the relations of bacteria to the air, and one of great significance for preventive medicine, is the impossibility of currents of air detaching bacteria from moist surfaces. Substances containing pathogenic bacteria, as, for instance, sputum containing tubercle bacilli, or excreta holding typhoid bacilli, cannot, therefore, infect the air unless these substances first become dry and converted into a fine powder. We are able to understand why the expired breath is free from bacteria and cannot convey infection, except as little particles may be mechanically detached by acts of coughing, sneezing, or hawking. Those bacteria the vitality of which is rapidly destroyed by complete desiccation, such as those of Asiatic cholera, evidently are not likely to be transported as infectious agents by the air, if we except such occasional occurrences as their conveyance for a short distance in spray.

The only pathogenic bacteria which hitherto have been found in the air are the pus-organisms, including the streptococcus found by Prudden in a series of cases of diphtheria and tubercle bacilli; but no far-reaching conclusions can be drawn from the failure to find other infectious organisms, when we consider the imperfection

of our methods, and the small number of observations directed to this point. The evidence in other ways is conclusive that many infectious agents and here the malarial germ should be prominently mentioned can be, and often are, conveyed by the air. While we are inclined to restrict within narrower limits than has been customary the danger of infection through the air, we must recognize that this still remains an important source of infection for many diseases. All those, however, who have worked practically with the cultivation of micro-organisms, have come to regard contact with infected substances as more dangerous than exposure to the air; and the same lesson may be learned from the methods which modern surgeons have found best adapted to prevent the infection of wounds with the cosmopolitan bacteria which cause suppuration.

We are not, of course, to suppose that infectious germs floating in the form of dust in the atmosphere are dangerous only from the possibility of our drawing them in with the breath. Such germs may be deposited on substances with which we readily come into contact, or they may fall on articles of food where they may find conditions suitable for their reproduction, which cannot occur when they are suspended in the air, in consequence of the lack of moisture.

From the facts which have been mentioned concerning the relations of bacteria to the air, what points of view present themselves to guide us in preventing infection through this channel? Surely something more than that this purpose is accomplished simply by abolishing foul odors.

Certain indications are so plain as to need only to be mentioned in this connection, such as the disinfection and removal, as far as possible, of all infected substances, an indication which applies equally to all channels of infection, and which is much easier to mention than it is to describe how it shall be realized. But there are two indications which apply especially to the prevention of the transportation of disease-germs by the air. One is the necessity of guarding, so far as practicable, against the desiccation, when exposed to the air, of substances which contain infectious germs not destroyed by drying; and another is free ventilation.

For no disease is the importance of the first of these indications so evident and so well established as for tuberculosis, the most devastating of all infectious diseases. Against this disease, formidable as it may seem to cope with it, the courageous crusade of preventive medicine has begun, and is destined to continue.

It is now generally recognized that the principal, although not the sole, sources of tuberculous infection are the sputum of individuals affected with pulmonary tuberculosis, and the milk of tuberculous cows. Cornet, who has made a laborious and most instructive experimental study of the modes and dangers of infection from tuberculous sputum, has also elaborated the practical measures which should be adopted to diminish or annihilate those dangers. These measures have been so recently and so widely published in medical journals, and so clearly presented before a section of this association, that I mention them only to call the attention of practitioners of medicine to their importance, and to emphasize the fact that they are based chiefly upon the principle that infectious substances of such nature as tuberculous sputum should not be allowed to become dry and converted into dust when exposed to the air.

By means of free ventilation, disease-producing micro-organisms which may be present in the air of rooms are carried away, and distributed so far apart that the chance of infection from this source is removed, or reduced to a minimum. It is a well-established clinical observation that the distance through which the specific microbes of such diseases as small-pox or scarlatina are likely to be carried from the patient by the air in such concentration as to cause infection, is small, usually not more than a few feet, but increases by crowding of patients and absence of free ventilation. The well-known experiences in the prophylaxis and treatment of typhus-fever are a forcible illustration of the value of free ventilation.

It is, of course, not to be understood that by ventilation we accomplish the disinfection of a house or apartment. Ventilation is only an adjunct of such disinfection, which, as already mentioned, is of first importance. Time will not permit, nor is it in the plan

of this address, to discuss the details of such questions as house disinfection; but I may be permitted to say that the methods for disinfecting apartments have been worked out on a satisfactory experimental basis, and should be known, at least, by all publichealth officers. Whether it be pertinent to this occasion or not, I cannot forbear to add my protest to that of others against placing reliance upon any method hitherto employed of disinfecting houses or apartments by fumigation; and I would furthermore call attention to the lack, in most cities of this country, of public disinfecting establishments, such as are in use with excellent results in most cities of Europe, and which are indispensable for the thorough and convenient disinfection of clothing, bedding, carpets, curtains, etc. After this short digression, let us pass from the consideration of the air as a carrier of infection to another important external source of infection; namely, the ground. That the prevalence of many infectious diseases depends upon conditions pertaining to the soil cannot be questioned; but the nature and the extent of this influence have been and are the subjects of lively discussion. The epidemiological school led by Pettenkofer assigns, as is well known, to the ground the chief, and even a specific and indispensable, influence in the spread of many epidemic diseases, particularly cholera and typhoid-fever. The statistics, studies, and speculations of epidemiologists relating to this subject probably surpass in number and extent those concerning any other epidemiological factor. The exclusive ground-hypothesis has become an ingenious and carefully elaborated doctrine with those who believe that such diseases as cholera and typhoid-fever can never be transmitted by contagion. These authorities cling to this doctrine with a tenacity which indicates that on it depends the survival of the exclusively localistic dogma for these diseases.

To all who have not held aloof from modern bacteriological investigations it must be clear that views which have widely prevailed concerning the relations of many infectious germs to the soil require revision. The question is still a difficult and perplexing one; but on some hitherto obscure or misunderstood points these investigations have shed light, and from the same source we may expect further important contributions to a comprehension of the relations of the ground to the development of infectious dis

eases.

The ground, unlike the air, is the resting or the breeding place of a vast number of species of micro-organisms, including some which are pathogenic. Instead of a few bacteria or fungi in a litre, as with the air, we find in most specimens of earth thousands, and often hundreds of thousands, of micro-organisms in a cubic centimetre. Fraenkel found the virgin soil almost as rich in bacteria and fungi as that around human habitations. This vast richness in micro-organisms belongs, however, only to the superficial layers of the earth. Where the ground has not been greatly disturbed by human hands, there is, as a rule, about three to five feet below the surface an abrupt diminution in the number of living organisms; and at the depth where the subsoil water usually lies, bacteria and fungi have nearly or entirely disappeared. Fraenkel, who first observed this sudden diminution in the number of microorganisms at a certain level beneath the surface, explains this singular fact by the formation at this level of that sticky accumulation of fine particles, consisting largely of bacteria, which forms the efficient layer in large sand-filters for water. Of course, the number of bacteria, and the depth to which they penetrate, will vary somewhat with the character, especially the porosity, of the soil, and its treatment; but the important fact that all, or nearly all, of the bacteria and fungi are retained in the ground above the level of the subsoil water, will doubtless hold true for most situations.

The conditions are not favorable for the multiplication of bacteria in the depth of the ground, as is shown by the fact that in specimens of earth brought to the surface from a depth of a few feet the bacteria which are at first present rapidly multiply. What all of the conditions are which prevent the reproduction of bacteria in the deep soil has not been ascertained, but the fact necessitates similar precautions in the bacteriological examination of the soil as in that of water.

We have but meagre information as to the kinds of bacteria present in the ground in comparison with their vast number.

Many of those which have been isolated and studied in pure culture possess but little interest for us, so far as we know. To some of the micro-organisms in the soil appears to be assigned the rôle of reducing or of oxidizing highly organized substances to the simple forms required for the nutrition of plants. We are in the habit of considering so much the injurious bacteria, that it is pleasant to contemplate this beneficent function so essential to the preservation of life on this globe.

Among the pathogenic bacteria which have their natural home in the soil, the most widely distributed are the bacilli of malignant œdema and those of tetanus. I have found some garden-earth in Baltimore extremely rich in tetanus bacilli, so that the inoculation of animals in the laboratory with small bits of this earth rarely fails to produce tetanus. In infected localities the anthrax bacillus, and in two instances the typhoid bacillus, so far as it was possible to identify it, have been discovered in the earth. There is reason to believe that other germs infectious to human beings may have their abiding-place in the ground; certainly no one doubts that the malarial germ lives there. As the malarial germ has been shown to be an organism entirely different from the bacteria and the fungi, we cannot apply directly to its behavior in the soil, and its transportation by the air, facts which have been ascertained only for the latter species of micro-organisms; and the same precautions must be observed for other diseases with whose agents of infection we are not acquainted, as, for instance, yellow-fever.

In view of the facility with which infectious germs derived from human beings or animals may gain access to the soil, it becomes a matter of great importance to determine how far such germs find in the soil conditions favorable for their preservation or their growth. We have, as is well known, a number of epidemiological observations bearing upon this subject; but, with few exceptions, these can be variously interpreted, and it is not my purpose to discuss them. The more exact bacteriological methods can, of course, be applied only to the comparatively small number of infectious diseases, the causative germs of which have been isolated and cultivated; and these methods hitherto have been applied to this question only imperfectly. We cannot regard the soil as a definite and unvarying substance in its chemical, physical, and biological properties. What has been found true of one kind of soil may not be so of another. Moreover, we cannot in our experiments bring together all of the conditions in nature which may have a bearing on the behavior of specific micro-organisms in the soil. We must therefore be cautious in coming to positive conclusions on this point on the basis of experiments, especially those with negative result. With these cautions kept constantly in mind, the question, however, is one eminently open to experimental study.

The experiments which have thus far been made to determine the behavior of infectious micro-organisms in the ground have related especially to the bacilli of anthrax, of typhoid-fever, and of cholera; and, fortunately, these are the diseases about whose relations to the ground there has been the most discussion, and concerning which we are most eager to acquire definite information. (Continued on p. 78.)

NOTES AND NEWS.

ACCORDING to the Calcutta correspondent of the London Times, a herd of 100 wild elephants has been captured in Mysore by Superintendent Sanderson. The same correspondent states that there were 6,000 deaths by snake-bites in the North-West Provinces last year. In Madras, 10,096 cattle were killed by wild animals, and the loss of human life by snakes and wild animals was 1,642.

- The United States Bureau of Education has issued as circular of information No. 7, 1888, in the series of contributions to American educational history, edited by Herbert B. Adams, "A History of Education in Florida," by George Gary Bush, Ph.D.

The preparations for the Niagara Falls electrical convention, Aug. 6, 7, and 8, have been completed. The convention will be welcomed to Niagara Falls by the Hon. W. C. Ely, who, in his salutatory address, will touch upon the utilization of water-power for electric-light purposes. President E. R. Weeks will open the convention with an address, including among other things a statistical

account of the present state of the electric light and power industries. The executive committee will report through its chairman, Mr. Benjamin Rhodes, who will record the general work of the association for the last six months, and more particularly that portion of it not fully covered in the other committee and official reports. This will be followed by the usual report of the secretary and treasurer. The committee on harmonizing the electric-light and insurance interests will report through its chairman, Mr. P. H. Alexander, who will present elaborate statistics on the fire losses collected and the insurance premiums paid by electric-light companies; the committee will also recommend measures by which insurance rates on electric-light stations may be lowered. The national committee on State and municipal legislation will report through its chairman, Mr. Allan R. Foote of Cincinnati. This committee, which is now composed of twenty-six gentlemen from as many different States, and whose object was set forth in Bulletin No. 1 of the National Electric Light Association of New York, is now fully organized and ready for work. The committee on the revision of the constitution will report through its chairman, Dr. Otto A. Moses, who will submit a carefully considered revision of the present constitution. Dr. Moses will also address the convention on the recent movement in New York State to introduce killing by electricity as a substitute for hanging in legal execution. He will supplement his remarks with well-digested statistics. The following papers will be read: "The Value of Economic Data to the Electric Industry," by Mr. Allan R. Foote of Cincinnati ; "Electric Street-Railways," by Mr. George W. Mansfield of Boston; "An Ideal Station," a paper in two parts, — from an electrical standpoint, by Mr. Marsden J. Perry of Providence; from a mechanical standpoint, by Mr. John T. Henthorn of the same city; "The Economic Size of Line-Wire," by Benjamin Rhodes of Niagara Falls; "Station Accessories in the Shape of MeasuringInstruments," by C. C. Haskins of Chicago; "The Development and Progress of the Storage Battery," by Mr. William Bracken of New York; "The Theoretically Perfect Arc-Light Station," by M. M. D. Law of Philadelphia; and "The Electrical Transmission of Power," by Professor E. P. Roberts of Cleveland. Mr. A. J. De Camp will address the convention on "The Methods of Arriving at the Cost of the Products of a Station." Gentlemen who propose attending the Niagara Falls convention are reminded, that, to get the two-thirds rebate on their return railroad-ticket, it will be necessary for them to procure a Trunk Line or Central Traffic Association certificate from the ticket-agent when they buy their ticket to Niagara Falls. The secretary and treasurer, Allan V. Garratt, will be at the Electric Club Saturday and Sunday evenings, Aug. 3 and 4, and at the Erie Railroad Depot, at the foot of Chambers Street, New York, at 8.45 o'clock A.M., Monday, Aug. 5, to supply tickets and certificates for the special train at 9 o'clock A.M. on the same day.

- Mr. D. W. Langdon, jun., who has been for a number of years connected with the Alabama Geological Survey, has entered upon the duties of geologist and consulting mining engineer of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, probably with headquarters at Richmond, Va.

- Professor G. E. Morrow of the University of Illinois is now in Europe, in behalf of the United States Department of Agriculture, to make a report on the live-stock exhibited at the Royal Agricultural Society show at Windsor. He will also visit the Continent, and especially France and Germany.

On July 15 a deep-sea exploration party started from Kiel, on board the steamer "National," for the Greenland coast, where they propose to carry on a series of submarine soundings and investigations. The expedition is directed by Professor Hensen.

The next international archæological congress is to be held in Christiania in 1891. It was originally intended that it should be held in London. Dr. Ingvald Undseth of Christiania is the general secretary.

According to a correspondent of the Artisan, a simple plan of preventing sheet-iron stacks from rusting is as follows: if before raising the new chimney, each section, as it comes from the shop, be coated with common coal-tar, then filled with light shav

ings and fired, it will resist rust for an indefinite period, rendering future painting unnecessary. In proof of this, he cites a chimney which was erected in 1866, treated as above described, and is today as bright as it was the day it was raised, without having a particle of paint applied since. The theory by which he accounts for this result is that the coal-tar is literally burned into the iron, closing the pores, and rendering it rust-proof.

- In the Engineering and Mining Journal for July 27, Henry Wurtz maintains that asphalts and asphaltoids are mainly produced from rock-oils by polymerization of certain constituents of such oils under the influence of the air, or of the sun's rays, or of both, together with the influence of acid, saline, or other polymerizing agents incidentally present; and the author defines polymerization as due to and dependent on the coalescence of two or more molecules of an element or compound into one; being inclusive and explanatory, as thus regarded, of the allotropism of Berzelius. - From some notes on the color of the eyes and hair in Norway, by Drs. Abbo and Faye, with tables and annotations by M. Topinard, in the Revue d'Anthropologie, it appears that the population of Norway exhibits a higher percentage (97.25) of light eyes than any other country in Europe. Flaxen hair occurs in 57.5 per cent of the people of the northern provinces; and, while absolutely black hair is found only in the ratio of 2 per cent, red hair does not rise higher than 1.5 per cent in the scale of hair-coloration.

- Nature gives the following summary of a paper on "Hallstatt in Austria, its Places of Burial, and its Civilization," by Dr. Hornes: "This is an extremely interesting summary of the important discoveries made within the last few years in the Hallstattian buryinggrounds of Slavonian Austria, more especially at Watsch in Carniola, where the beauty and finish of the carved baldrics and belts have led contemporary paleontologists to regard them as an evidence of the existence in central Europe of an early civilization, which had already attained to considerable artistic culture before its extinction under the weight of advancing hordes of barbarian invaders. The necropolis of Hallstatt, for our acquaintance with which we are indebted to Baron Sacken, still remains unrivalled for the splendor and variety of its antiquities, notwithstanding the marvellous results of the recent Carniolian and Croatian finds. Between 1846 and 1863, Sacken and Ramsäuer published reports of their explorations of nearly 1,000 tombs, while since that period the number of graves explored has risen to nearly 1,900. Both at Hallstatt and Watsch the rites of interment and incineration had been followed with nearly equal frequency; but, although in the case of the latter the graves appear to have been most richly supplied with gold ornaments and carved bronze arms, the abundance of yellow amber and of decorative objects of the toilet, which are found buried with the unburnt skeletons, renders it difficult to decide which of the two methods of disposing of the dead was regarded as the more distinguished. The cranial type is generally dolichocephalous, with a retreating forehead and long, slightly prognathic face, resembling what is known in Germany as the Reihengräbertypus.' According to Sacken, the necropolis of Hallstatt dates from the third or fourth century B.C., revealing the presence in those regions of the eastern Alps of the so-called Galli Faurisci, who, prior to the Roman domination, must have been familiar with an advanced stage of civilization and decorative art, in which the influence of Greek art is undeniable. This is indeed strongly manifested both in the workmanship and the forms of multitudinous objects revealed by the exploration not merely of the Hallstattian tombs, but of the prehistoric station of Salzberg, whose discovery last year has added new interest to the still contested problem of the origin of the early culture of the Alpine races of central Europe."

- A successful experiment is reported to have been made recently at the laboratory of the Joseph Dixon Crucible Company, in Jersey City, N.J. A piece of iron ten inches long, two inches wide, and a sixteenth of an inch thick, was used, and one-half of its surface painted with silica-graphite paint, while the other half was left unpainted. It was suspended for several days in a bath of dilute sulphuric acid. This bath was much stronger than any sulphurwater met with in mining. On taking the iron from the bath, the unpainted part was found eaten off to about one-half its original.

bulk. The painted part did not sustain even the slightest blemish, thus apparently proving the ability of this paint to withstand sulphuric acid, and demonstrating its usefulness where iron piping is laid in acid water, such as is sometimes met with in mines containing pyrite or other sulphides, which, under certain conditions, produce acid waters in the form of sulphate solutions, resulting from the decomposition of the sulphide minerals.

- We learn from Nature that some interesting facts concerning the element tellurium have been brought to light by Dr. Brauner of Prague during the course of a series of atomic weight determinations, an account of which is given in the July number of the Journal of the Chemical Society. A determination of the atomic weight of tellurium made by Berzelius in 1832 yielded the number 128.3; and a later one in 1857, by Von Hauer, gave the value of 127.9: hence 128 has usually been accepted as the true atomic weight. The properties of tellurium, however, indicate that it belongs to the sulphur group of elements, and that its position in the periodic system lies between that of antimony (of atomic weight 120) and iodine (of atomic weight 127); but, according to the above determinations, the atomic weight of tellurium is higher than that of iodine. Hence we are obliged to admit one of two things, — either that the atomic weight of pure elementary tellurium has been incorrectly determined, or that the periodic law of the elements, that grand natural generalization whose distinguished elaborator English chemists have recently been delighting to honor, breaks down in this particular case. In view of the overwhelming mass of experimental evidence which has now accumulated in support of this generalization, the latter assumption cannot for a moment be tolerated. The redetermination of Dr. Brauner becomes therefore of primary importance, and his results partake of the highest interest. The mode of procedure which afforded the most satisfactory results consisted in the analysis of tellurium tetrabromide (TeBr4), purified in the most complete manner by means of silver nitrate prepared from pure silver. The mean atomic weight from these experiments was found to be 127.61; the maximum being 127.63, and the minimum 127.59: hence there can no longer be any doubt that the substance we term "tellurium" does possess a combining weight larger than that of iodine. Now comes the question, "Is this substance pure elementary tellurium?" If it is, then, as Dr. Brauner says, it is "the first element the properties of which are not a function of its atomic weight." Dr. Brauner, however, finds as the result of a process of fractionation that it is not pure tellurium, and that it consists of probably three elements, - pure tellurium mixed with smaller quantities of two other elements of higher atomic weights; and he is at present engaged in studying the nature of these foreign substances, and in the endeavor to isolate pure tellurium itself. A few of the as yet unpublished results obtained in these latter researches were communicated personally by Dr. Brauner at the meeting of the Chemical Society on June 6, and among them the interesting fact was stated that one of the new elements is probably identical with Professor Mendeleeff's recently predicted dwitellurium (of atomic weight 214), the other new constituent being an element closely allied to arsenic and antimony.

The principal business transacted at the Literary Congress at Paris, over which M. Jules Simon presided," says the London Athenæum of June 29, "has been the passing of the following resolutions, which it is to be hoped may be imported into the Convention of Berne, to which nearly every civilized nation, the United States of America excepted, adhered, and has legislated accordingly: 1. As an author's title to his work includes the sole right to translate it, or to authorize its translation, the author, his successors, and assigns enjoy the right of translation during the term of copyright, even though they may not have the sole right to reproduce the work in its original form; 2. There is no reason for an author notifying in any way that he reserves the right of translation; 3. There is no ground for limiting the period during which the author of a book or his representatives may translate it."

- Arrangements are being made by the local committee of the American Association at Toronto for an excursion, starting Sept. 3 or 4, to the Huronian district. Particulars will be given in a circular to be issued by the American Geological Society. Ar

rangements are also being made for an excursion to the Pacific coast. During the week, two popular lectures, complimentary to the citizens of Toronto, will be given by prominent members of the association. The Canadian Railway companies have made the following concessions to members from the United States who may wish to make local excursions during or after the meeting : Return tickets at single fare from Toronto to any station in Canada. Montreal and return, going and returning all rail, $8; going boat, returning rail, or vice versa, $10; or rail to Ottawa, river to Montreal, returning rail, $10. Quebec, going and returning all rail, $10; going steamer, returning rail, or vice versa, $12; rail to Ottawa, river to Quebec, returning rail, $12. Niagara Falls, going and returning all rail, $2.50; going rail and returning lake, or vice versa, $2; going lake and returning lake, $1.50.

The Entomological Club of the American Association will meet at 9 A.M. on Wednesday, Aug. 28, in the room of Section F, University Buildings, Toronto, where members of the club will register and obtain the club badge. Members of the club intending to contribute papers will send titles to the president, Mr. James Fletcher, Government Experimental Farms, Ottawa, Can. The Botanical Club will hold a meeting as usual on Tuesday, Aug. 27, in the room of Section F, University Buildings. Communications should be sent to the president, Professor T. J. Burrill, Champaign, Ill., or to the secretary, Douglas H. Campbell, 91 Alfred Street, Detroit, Mich. During the week, members will be conducted by local botanists on excursions to points of interest in the neighborhood of Toronto. The Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Science will hold its tenth annual meeting in Toronto, beginning on Monday evening, Aug. 26, in the room assigned to Section I in the University Buildings, and continuing on Tuesday. For further information address Professor W. R. Lazenby, secretary, Ohio State University, Columbus, O. The American Geological Society will hold its meeting apart from Section E, in one of the halls of the university, on Aug. 28 and 29; Professor James Hall, Albany, N.Y., president, and Professor J. J. Stevenson, University of City of New York, secretary. For all matters pertaining to membership, papers, and business of the association, address the permanent secretary, at Salem, Mass., up to Aug. 20. From Aug. 20 until Sept. 9 his address will be A.A.A.S., Toronto, Ont.

One of the most interesting features in the rapid approach of Cossack and Sepoy towards each other is the extensive planting of trees that is being carried on by the engineering branches of both countries, as reported in Engineering. Wherever stations are established in the Quetta district, trees, flowers, and vegetables are planted; and the same is the case with the new Russian settlements along the course of the Transcaspian Railway and the Oxus River. Of the two, the Russians have been more systematic than the English, and have spent considerably more money. This is due to the interest taken in the matter by Gen. Annenkoff, who is a born founder of colonies, and takes as much interest in all that appertains to the Transcaspian settlements as Robinson Crusoe did in his "desert island." At a recent meeting at St. Petersburg, Gen. Annenkoff gave an account of some of his operations in this direction. He admitted very frankly that the tree-planting of the last three years had not been altogether a success, many imported trees and shrubs having perished; but experience had shown what would and would not thrive, and seeds were being obtained from various parts of the world that would thrive in the sandy soil of the Kara Kum, exposed to the widest possible variations of heat and cold, or in the irrigated clayey expanses of the Merv, Tejend, and Atak oases. Meanwhile the Russian authorities are looking well after the local flora. Orders have been given that no bushes are to be cut down within ten miles of the line, and that the existing forests of saxaul are to be preserved. Saxaul is a kind of heavy, extremely knotted brier-wood, attaining a forest growth in places, and provides most of the fuel hitherto used in the country. It grows readily in sand, which it moreover serves to bind together by its long, trailing, clumsy roots. Plantations of this are to be made along the line, with camel thorn and other native bushes that thrive well, and it is expected that in time there will be a sufficient growth of vegetation not only to protect the line, but also to provide shelter for weaker trees and bushes of foreign origin. In the mean