and costs. Probably tins will make Mr. Coleridge loore rabid tlian ever ; but it ought to teach him a lesson of sense and caution in attack- ing honourable persons engaged in scientific pursuits lov humane and worthy objects. Every one— medical or lay — must sympathise with a movement to minimise the sufferings of animals ; but the method by which this Society and its agents and officers conduct the crusade against cruelty are utiscrupulous and objectionable. It is a pity that they do not direct their efforts towards reducing or abolishing cruelty and suffering in sport. Nothing can be less justifiable, for example, than doing a wretch- ed fox to death in order to gratify murderous instincts, which are a survival of savagery in humanity, and have no other purpose than affording *' amusement " to idle men and women. Killing birds for the sake of trimming hats falls under a similar condemnation, and even when the victims of "sport** are afterwards consumed as food, the killing is associated with the cruel wounding and lingering painful death of many. Some of the opponents of vivisection indulge in pursuits which are inconsistent with their principles, and it would be more logical and rational if they included in their diatribes all forms of cruelty and needless suffering. It is also apparent that if vivisection contributes to the cure of disease and saving of life, their advo- cacy of its abolition is a manifestation of cruelty and wrong towards the human race.
The Microbe of Yellow Fever,
The discovery of the agency of the mosquito in the conveyance from man to man of the infec- tion of yellow fever has stimulated the search for the micro-organism which there is every reason to believe is the exciting and efficient cause of the disease. This search until recently has been infructuous, and it has been alleged that the microbe is " ultra-microscopic," that is so minute as to be beyond detection by the most powerful instruments of the present day. Sir Patrick Manson with his wonted sagacity surmised in the latest edition of his work on Tropical Diseases, that the discovery would be made by careful examination of infected mosquitoes. The prediction appears to have come true. Early in 1902 a medical commis- sion was sent by the Surgeon -General of the United States Army to study the disease in Mexico, Central and South America, more es- pecially from the point of view of etiology. It
consisted of Drs. Beyer, Pothier and Parker, and from a report submitted by these gentlemen in February, 1903, the followingf important conclu- sions have been drawn : —
" (1.) Bacteriological examination of the blood of persons with yellow fever during life, as well as of the blood and organs immediately after death, in uncomplicated cases is negative. (2.) The mosquito ki»own as Stegomyia fasciata, when allowed to suck the blood of a yellow fever patient after the lapse of 41 J hours from the onset of the disease, and subsequently fed on sugar and water for 22 days and one hour and a half, can, if permitted to bite a non-immune person, produce a severe attack of the disease (3.) Stegomyia fasciata contaminated by sucking the blood of a yellow fever patient and then killed, cut into sections and appropriately stained, presents with regularity a protozoon parasite Myxococcidium Stegomyice that can be tmced through a cycle of developments from gamete to the sporozoite. (4.) Stegomyia fasciata, fed on the blood of a person with malarial fever on normal blood or artificially, does not harbour the myxococcidium.
These observers found no evidence that any other description of mosquito was capable of acting as a host of the organism in question- These statements must be taken quantum vale- ant; but they certainly seem to advance the question materially.
K. McL.
I9th November 1903.
Current Topics.
THE HARVEY MEMORIAL.
The portraits of the late Maj<»r.General R. Harvey, c.B., D.S.O., I.M.S., painted by Mr. S. Melton Fisher, London, have arrived in Calcutta, and are on view at Messrs. Thacker, Spink & Co., 5 and 6, Government Place, Calcutta. One is a three-quarters length portrait in uniform f<»r the United Service Club at Simla, and the other is a half-length in civilian clothes for the Eden Hospital, Calcutta. The sum of £200 has been paid as honorarium to the artist ; but he has been obliged to defray the cost of framing and freight to India. A further sum of £25 is re- quired to cover all incidental expenses and to reimburse the artist for charges that should certainly not come out qf his pocket Towards this amount only two subscriptions have been^ received in response to our appeal made inJW-
