PHOTOGRAPHIC EFFECTS PRODUCED BY BACTERIA.

1079

beyond all other devices directed towards obtain- that it is allowable to make black smoke because smokeless. ing healthy equilibrium in household affairs. Yet such is not coal is unobtainable is absurd. To slightly modify the. beyond the bounds of possibility, for the energies of investi- remarks of Mr. Gilbert’s "Mikado," "That’s the slovenly gators are being concentrated upon the prospects of being way in which these Acts are drawn. There is nothing, able to turn coal to account for the direct production of an about not being able to get smokeless coal, or not knowing," electric current. If coal can be made the positive element but the Act says that Any chimney not being thein a battery the problem is solved, and this is exactly the chimney of a private dwelling-house sending forth black direction in which recent investigation has turned, and not smoke in such quantity as to be a nuisance shall be deemed without hope. This accomplished, however, everything would to be a nuisance liable to be dealt with summarily." The. depend upon our coal-supply and the time during which it electric lighting companies were the chief offenders, but the. comfort far a

of force with which abundantly supplied us, and by the fortunately time this has failed we shall probably have arrived at new methods of utilising natural force, as in the rise and fall of tides and the flow of water, on a scale which will provide the whole community with power and to spare. would hold out.

Coal is

a source

nature has

great hotels and restaurants, and at one time the National Liberal Club, were also conspicuous examples of how to foul

atmosphere which is at no time too clear. We hope the London County Council will continue its crusade, for its public health work is beyond reproach. an

BRUTALITY AND ALCOHOL. PHOTOGRAPHIC EFFECTS PRODUCED BY BACTERIA. THE "rapid"dry photographic plate with its extremely sensitivefilm has become a most remarkable aid to knowledge. It has brought countless stars to view which otherwise had escaped observation even with powerful instruments and it has more recently demonstrated the existence of dark light, so to speak-i.e., of radiations which are not realised by the eye, having no apparent effect upon the optic nerve. Recent experiments have shown that almost all substances give off a dark radiation or, at any rate, something which affects the sensitive silver film. This has been attributed to the throwing off of vapour in minute quantity, but sufficiently to act upon the photographic plate in the same way as actinic rays. Dr. Percy Frankland has now shown that certain bacteria have the property of producing images. With some organisms the effect is obtained when the sensitised plate is placed at a distance of half an inch over the culture, whilst when in contact with the film definite pictures of the bacterial growths result. Since the interposition of a piece of glass prevents the action it is probable that the action is due to the evolution of volatile chemical substances. But with phosphorescent bacteria the phenomenon is evidently a different one, since the interposition of glass makes no difference, the organisms emitting a radiation which traverses the glass easily. It is suggested that it is quite possible that considerable differences as regards activity towards a photographic plate may be found to exist with different bacteria, in which case this property may become of importance in their diagnosis. If the method could be applied to the identification of typhoid fever and cholera bacilli in water its value in the service of public health would indeed be great. -

THE SMOKE NUISANCE. IN Dr. Gwynn’s presidential address to the Incorporated Society of Medical Officers of Health, an abstract of which we give in another column, it will be seen that he is dissatisfied with the way in which sanitary authorities neglect the Smoke Acts. As long, however, as magistrates deal with offences under these Acts in the lenient way in which some magistrates do or did deal with them, so long will there be small inducement to sanitary authorities to prosecute. The Public Control Committee of the London County Council has just issued a report in which the various steps taken to deal with the smoke nuisance in London are set forth. We are glad to see that the committee mentions that the view taken by certain metropolitan magistrates

difficulty in obtaining smokeless coal was a reason which justified persons in causing a serious nuisance was to be regretted. In our issue of June 25th we said the same thing when commenting upon a decision of Sir James Vaughan. To say

that

of many of the acts which occupy theand our law courts is becoming serious. It is quite a special feature of the time. We are spending ten or eleven millions a year over popular education, yet, every day’s newspaper reports some deed which is simply brutal in its coarseness and its causelessness. It does not represent anything deeply malicious in the criminal, but in its vulgarity and brutality it is exceptional and discreditable. Opinion is divided as to the exact explanation of such a state of things at the end of a century unprecedented for its strides in knowledge, in science, and in civilisation. It defies law and the ordinary penalties of law. Politicians, moralists, and sociologists are apparently helpless to control it. Perhaps the two most revolting instances of Tate have been firstly that of William Carey, aged thirty-two* years, who was taken to Guy’s Hospital, where he died on Sept. 24th from a fractured skull. The deceased was knocked down during a fight outside the Swan public-house,. Old Kent-road, on the morning of Sept. 23rd, and when he fell his head struck the tram lines. According to the: Times report of the inquest Walter Wood, a labourer, said that he had been drinking with deceased, and they had about twenty half-pints of ale each. After leaving the. Swan Carey and some men began quarrelling, with the result of Carey’s death. The other instance is in the murder of the young policeman, James Baldwin, by stabs with a knife. John Ryan has been committed for trial for the murder. We offer no opinion as to his, guilt; but according to the evidence of Constable Henry Bendall he was the worse for drink and "the crowd were mostly drunken." They gathered round and the were with police pelted pots and cans. The invariable element in all such brutal acts is alcohol. It is’ sincerely to be hoped that the Royal Commission on Licensing Laws now in existence will take some evidenceon the association of such offences with drinking and with the public-house system as at present conducted. The common British working man may be ignorant and at his wit’s end when the day’s work is done, but he is not the cruel monster which he appears to be in these midnight scenes as he leaves the public-house, and something must be done to prevent such wholesale demoralisation. THE

time of

brutality

our coroners

THE ROENTGEN RAYS IN ITALY.1 ACCORDING to a review by Dr. Emile Boix in the current number of Duplay’s Archives, one of the latest additions to the series of manuals which, to the number of over 600, have been issued by the well-known Milanese publisher Ulrico Hoepli with a view to the popularising of science, art, and literature, consists of a volume by Italo Tonta on the nature, history, and practical application of the Roentgen rays. The

1

Italo Tonta: Raggi di Röntgen e loro pratiche 160 pp., 65 figs., and 14 plates. Milan : Hoepli, 1898.

applicazioni.