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��Mr. K. a. Phoctob attempts to explain liow earthquakes are caused, in the June number of Harper's mngazine, and attributes tbeir energj- to the action of interior beat on percolatiDg water, and their opportunity to the time of clianging presauiea caused by atmos- pheric or lidaL loading and nnlonding of the sensitive crust of the earth. Formidable num- bers I'epresont the tons of air or water brougiit on or taken off certain parts of the earth's surface in the passage of cyclones and anti- cyclones, and in the rise and fall of tides : but it may he strongly ucstioned whether these changes of pressure arc very effective in deter- mining Ibe thne of earthquake snaps; for the clianges are gradual and short-lived, the press- ures are relatively light, and the surfaces on which Ihey have eHect are so broad that the extremely small deformation needed for ad- justment of equilibrium might be produced without any cracking or snapping. The omis- sion of clear reference to orogenic earthquakes in such an article is very unfortunate, for Mr. Troctor will have many readers who lake him for an autliority on such matters! and, in the present attitude of seismology, the orogenic theory is certainly strongly supported by those who give the study the closest attention. It is rather remarkable to find no reference to grav- itative distortions of the earth's crust, except in explaining the beat of the interior, after Mallet's metlind, and no mention of earth- ■quakes following the making of cracks ihat are freely assumed as the passages by which water enters the sublerranean regions, there to be exploded into steam.

��an American of loiij; standing and considerable a servation in such matters. I never heard 'eel' " _ itself used In the senw of 'comprehend ' or 'iiitder- atand.' To 'eet huld of,' i? a not nncomtnoii eollo- quiftl funn. But in Ihp Bame parajn'aph Mr. Forties pa-ise^ itiinotice<l a real and most [irevali'ut Amirt- cauism: 'Ido not tliirik I tcnulil like losuagest,' «t&,| And again, at Die close of thi^ lectures: "Ik most happy to look forward Ui another conference.^ This Bubstltutlou of ' would ' for ■ should ' « charge to the reporter, and fi-el sure tUat he was bnrn I west ot New England and New York, where tli« just di«tinc(inn bBlwpen ' will' and 'shall.' ' woalil' and 'utiould,' Is innute, while it la lost farther west and souLh. But ihe coiifiision is reaching EiiglaiK], as gome recent books and TieirspH]>era allow. I i* notbelieve that Sir WIIIiani Thomson has csii^Ul r' prevalent epidemic, much as be has been in 1 ._ affected dinriets. A. G.

The cholera baoillna. The exact rOlB ot the ■eommabscillos" in the eti- ology of cholera Aalntica remains nusetlled. .\r^ii- ments for and against the cnnelu-ions of Kocli Hr«

��in Etcrlln, Uunich, and Limdon. Inoeulatliin whlcli completes the chain of evidence required to make good Knch'i case, has In bi!> hands, and in lli'iseof Ni- cail, Rii>lMb, Ermeiigen. Babes, ami Watson Clieyae, prixjueed positive results. Dr. Crooksliauk "f Kinu's eollfae hospital, London, who has. been working in the bacteriolKgiual laboriitory bi-re. and to whom I am Indebted for the accompanying drawing*, tellan that lu B.ibea's Quaes three guiuea-pi^, out ' "*

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���LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

•,* Oarre'pondmtw ni

Real and imaginaTy Americanlama.

Is the verbatim report of Sir William Thomson's famous Baltimore lectures occurs the expression, ■'and that Is why I cannut get Mie electromsgnetic theory." To this, Mr. George Forbes, in his com- mentary in Nature for April 'M, appends a footnote: "These reports are iipnerally quite verbiUhn; but I am sure Sir William Thomson is not responsible for this chara«terisllc Amerlcnnlsm." Is it not, rather, aScotticl^ni? ULs no Americanism at all. Although

��Inoculated in the duodenum, presented the lealoti. cholera; and pure cultivaLious of the bacillus of E were obtained from Ihe iiitt-stlnal content*. K has just introduced a new melliiKl of operation n out ihe production of any external legion, mi^ re[iorla the cases as completely contlrmlug >hBi9 of the pathogenic nature of the bacillus. Eleia % Glhba liave denied ibe existence of the cholera h ius in the intestinal tissue. On the other haad,a Koch's original proof, ihey hHve been demoiiota^ by Babes, and confirmed by Crookshank, by aiMld the sections afier the method introduced ira tm [Bide flgiire). This coDslsli in cutting very ^lin | liom tn cliise proximity la a Peyer's patch, idaclq in an aqueous soliuinn of gooil fuchsin for tV4L four hours, washing in a sublimate solution (1-101

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