Jan. 13, 1863] FOR HIMSELF ALONE. crossed to the door and opened it. 25 come when I should see you again. That happy 'Mr Pebworth to think about you, nor to wish for the day to day is here at last.-But here is my niece cousin Frank, the cousin whom we have so often Elma waiting to greet you.-Elma, my pet, your talked about and longed to see.' Mr Pebworth was the first to enter. He was a stout-built, big-boned man of fifty, with irongray hair and closely-cropped whiskers; he had a broad expanse of face, with cheeks that were already becoming pendulous from over-feeding. The normal expression of his small, keen, steelgray eyes was one of suspicious inquiry-they were eyes that seemed to be for ever interrogating you-but he could, when it so pleased him, charge them with a sort of cold twinkle, which the world in general accepted as an outward and visible sign of an inborn geniality of disposition, such as those who knew him best-say his wife or daughter-would have been the last to give him credit for. He had a mellow and unctuous voice, and a slow rotund way of rolling out his periods that lent themselves readily to the same deception. In point of dress he was studiously plain and precise. He wore a black tail-coat and vest, pepper-and-salt trousers, and shoes that were tied with broad black ribbon. He might have worn the same carefully-tied checked neckcloth and the same high stand-up collar from January till December, seeing that they never varied in the slightest particular. hat was worn well back on his head, as if he His silky broad-brimmed courted the world to look in the face of an honest man. Finally, he was seldom seen without a bundle of papers his arm or bulging from one of his pockets. tied with red tape, either under This personage came forward slowly and with a degree of hesitation very unusual with him. His small gray eyes quickly took in the room and its occupants, resting finally and for the second time on Frank, who from his seat on the sofa was regarding his uncle favourable eyes. with no very 'Where is my dearest Frank?' demanded Mr Pebworth. 'Where is my scapegrace boy, whom I have never ceased to cherish in my heart as though he were a son of my own? Without waiting for an answer, he crossed the room with a sort of elephantine lightness, and made his way direct to Frank's sofa. Ah, here the rascal is.-But not ill, I hope. God bless my heart, not ill!' Dick had started to his feet by this time. 'Why, uncle, don't you know me?' he cried. 'Don't you recognise your long-lost nephew? I'll never believe in family likenesses again!' Mr Pebworth turned with a quickness that one would hardly have given him credit for. If disconcerted at all, it was but for a moment. 'What! Oh, ah, to be sure!' he exclaimed. Very stupid of me. time of life. That must be my excuse.' His Rather short-sighted at my back was turned to Frank by this time, and next moment he was shaking Dick warmly by the hand. My dearest Frank, I am delighted to find you! Now that I see you closer, I should recognise you anywhere! Your likeness to my late lamented sister, your poor dear mother, is truly wonderful!' Glad to see you, uncle. A long time since we last met,' responded Dick in a hearty off hand way. 'A long time indeed. But I have never ceased dark-eyed girl of some twenty summers, with The young lady thus addressed was a slender clear-cut aquiline features, an olive complexion, a profusion of soft silky black hair, and a lovely dimple within an inch of her lips when she smiled. She was plainly dressed in a costume of some dark soft material, which she wore with a grace and distinction peculiarly her own. had shaken hands with Mr Gimp on entering the room, and they were She undertone together. Being thus appealed to by Mr Pebworth, she came forward with the quiet now talking in an self-possessed air that seemed a part of herself. How do you do, Cousin Frank?' she asked, proffering her hand as she spoke. swered Dick; and he thought that he had never Frank?' 'A very fine day indeed, Cousin Elma.' to me. You will find me but a dull dog, Cousin Elma. hand resting on an elbow of the sofa. His face ceremony. evidently on thorns, and was wishing himself has, in fact, such a superabundance of affection, 'My aunt is a gem,' exclaimed Miss Deene. "If you don't like her, Cousin Frank, I shall never learn to like you.' "If that be the case,' responded Dick, 'my aunt and I will soon be on the best of terms.' Miss Deene crossed the room to where Frank was sitting. She saw how pale and ill he was looking, and she had not failed to notice how her uncle had turned his back on him. She had brought a tiny basket in with her. 'I have some strawberries here, Mr Drummond,' she said. "They are fresh from Covent Garden. Would you not like a few?' "Thank you, Miss Deene; I should indeed like one or two.' Miss Deene opened her basket, and displayed a tempting array of luscious fruit and cool green leaves. The tea-tray was still on the little round table, and on it was a plate that had not been used. With dainty fingers, Miss Deene picked out some of the finest of the fruit, arranged them on the plate, and then handed the plate to Frank. 'Have you been a long time ill, Mr Drummond?' she asked in a tone that thrilled Frank from head to foot. 'Nearly a month. But I am greatly better, and hope to get out of doors for the first time to-morrow.' 'So tedious, is it not, to be shut up indoors for more than a day at a time? I recollect once, when I had been very ill and was getting better, how I longed to get out of doors, and how the more they refused to let me, the more I wanted to go. Well, I was not to be balked, so I bribed Jem the gardener's boy to put a ladder under my window after dark. Then, about ten o'clock, after I had been left for the night, I dressed myself, got through the window, down the ladder -it was bright moonlight-and ran by way of the shrubbery to the five-acre field. There I caught Dapple my pony, had a bare-backed scamper round the meadows for half an hourgot back unseen by way of the ladder, and next day was nearly well.' Frank laughed. 'A sort of recipe, Miss Deene, that I am afraid would not answer in every case.' Mr Pebworth was prosing away on the opposite side of the room to Dick and Mr Gimp. "Yes, my dear Frank, yours is one of the most extraordinary instances of good fortune that ever came under my notice. I could not sleep for nearly a week after I first heard of it. I presume that you will take up your residence at Waylands? A most charming spot, I have every reason to believe.' 'My dear Frank! I entreat that you will look upon my purse as your own.' And mine too, Mr Frobisher.' 'You misunderstand me, both of you,' answered Dick, while a broad smile overspread his freckled face. 'My last visit to my Lombardian relative was to have been sentimental rather than necessary-a sort of regretful leave-taking of one who had not been unkind to me when my fortunes were very much down-at-heel. But it matters not. To-morrow, I will look up certain sibylline leaves which bear the impress of his establishment. They are somewhat numerous; but you, Mr Gimp, will have no objection to redeem for me the various articles specified in them?' The little lawyer's eyeglass fell from his nose. 'I-John Gimp-in a pawnshop!' Incorrigible Dick only lay back in his chair and laughed. Meanwhile, our two young people at the other end of the room went on chatting to themselves. And now I suppose I am in Bohemia?' said Miss Deene. 'And now you are in Bohemia,' said Frank. How do the denizens of this strange country live?' "They exist; they don't live, in the ordinary sense of the word. They paint pictures that seldom find buyers. They write plays that no manager will look at. There are great actors and great musicians among them, only the public is too pig-headed to recognise their genius. They are always more or less hard up-generally more. They smoke a great deal. They also drink-whisky, when they can get it— fourpenny ale, when they can't. They are never down-hearted, though they don't always know where to-morrow's dinner is to come from. They help one another, as good fellows ought to do. When Jack is lucky enough to pick up a ten pound note, Tom and Harry come in for a share of it; and when Harry's picture finds a customer, be sure his friends are not forgotten.' 'Were I a man, I should like to be a Bohemian,' said Miss Deene with a sparkle in her dark eyes. 'How much nicer to earn five hundred a year in the City, and not be a Bohemian !' By this time, Dick was beginning to feel a trifle bored. He cast one or two longing glances at his meerschaum, but Mr Pebworth held him as the Ancient Mariner held the Wedding Guest. 'You will probably, my dear Frank,' he said, 'be desirous of investing some portion of your 'Why-ah-you see it's too soon yet for me surplus income in one or other of those gigantic to make up my mind about anything. At present commercial enterprises which form such a proI can hardly believe that my good fortune is any-minent feature of the wonderful era in which we thing more substantial than a dream.' 'When Mr Gimp puts into your hand a blank cheque-book and tells you for what sum you can draw upon your bankers, you will begin to believe in it as a golden reality.' 'I think,' said Dick, I should like to run round the corner to my friend the pawnbroker's for the last time, you know-and raise a couple of shillings on a coat or a waistcoat, or something, till to-morrow." Mr Pebworth held up his hands in horror. Mr Gimp looked as if he could not believe the evidence of his ears. live.' "That sounds exactly like a bit out of one of his own prospectuses, murmured Mr Gimp to himself. Of one such enterprise,' continued Mr Pebworth, I have the honour to be chairman. I allude to The Patent Bottled Ozone Company; Chief Offices, 48 Threadneedle Court, City.' "The Patent what Company, uncle?' asked Dick. "The Patent Bottled Ozone Company. Hem! The association in question may be briefly described as one of those happy combinations of Jan. 13, 1883.] A SCIENTIFIC SOUP-KITCHEN. philanthropy with hard cash which are, alas! too seldom met with in this sublunary sphere. We do good to our fellow-creatures, and fill our own pockets at the same time.' 'A truly pleasant combination. But what may be the specific objects of the Company?' "They are readily explained. By means of recent discoveries in chemical science, we are enabled to eliminate pure ozone from the other component parts of the atmosphere, and to bottle it up for transmission to any part of the world. To invalids, to children, to people of moderate means who cannot afford a visit to the seaside, our bottled ozone will prove an inestimable boon. By its means, you may enjoy all the advantages derivable from a visit to Brighton or Scarborough without crossing your own threshold. Hem!' The prospectus again,' whispered the lawyer to himself. Before Dick had time to say a word, the door was opened, and the maid-of-all-work's voice was heard, saying: "This is Mr Frob'sher's room, mum. 'My aunt!' exclaimed Dick as he started to his feet. 'As I said before, an excellent creature, but deficient in culture,' whispered Pebworth in a stage 'aside.' Scarcely had the words left his lips, when Mrs Pebworth entered. She was homely-looking certainly, and plainly dressed; but she had a pleasant good-tempered face, and pretension or affectation of any kind was evidently altogether foreign to her. Mr Pebworth advanced a step. 'Leonora, my love,' he exclaimed in his most unctuous tones, 'behold your long-lost nephew!' His arm took a sweep through the air and his finger pointed directly at Dick. Mrs Pebworth stopped short in utter surprise. 'What! that young man with the red hair my nephew Frank! Wonders will never cease.' 27 time in regard to the nature of disease-germs. These two developments are considerable fullness in the above-mentioned described with consists in the application of the principle of address. Their chief distinguishing characteristic covered microscopic germs, to the two diseases vaccination, in connection with recently disof chicken-cholera and splenic fever: the first being a malady incidental to domestic poultry; and the second, under various names, attacking horses, cattle, and sheep. form a very interesting series. When the descripThe experiments in regard to chicken-cholera tion of them is divested of a few technical expressions, the principles upon which they are conducted-as is frequently the case in the deepest of animals which have succumbed to chickenresearch-are singularly plain. In the blood Pasteur, a collection of germs capable, under cholera, there resides, according to Professor certain conditions, of almost infinite transmission. The power of reproduction possessed by it has been found in practice exceedingly diffithese singularly minute bodies is so great, that procure the poison of the disease in a form cult-under certain conditions, impossible-to sufficiently modified to be safely used for the always keeping in mind the principle of vacpurpose of inoculation. cination for smallpox, the smallest procurable In other words, and quantity of chicken-cholera 'matter, however much diluted, or otherwise apparently reduced in strength, acts on original malady in all its virulence. It is eviwhen applied, so strongly as to develop the a healthy animal-subject, dent that with this effect, inoculation would be worse than useless, as bringing on the unmodified disease which the process was intended to avert. encountered and solved is as follows: Preparatory The method by which this scientific_riddle was to what Professor Pasteur terms 'virus-culture,' A SCIENTIFIC SOUP-KITCHEN. a fowl which has recently died of chicken-cholera is made use of. PUBLIC attention has again been directed to the the entrance of atmospheric germs, which might employed throughout the experiments to prevent The greatest precautions are researches of Professor Pasteur in animal inocu- affect the results. lation with the germs of various diseases. will be remembered that this distinguished con- is taken on the point of a slender glass rod, and It fowl a single drop of blood, as small as we please, From the body of the dead tinental scientist delivered a remarkably inte- dipped into a vessel containing a previously resting address in the August of 1881 before prepared decoction of fowl (bouillon de poule) or the International Medical Congress, giving in clear chicken-soup. This decoction has also been outline the methods and results of his extensive beforehand rendered barren of all life by suband laborious experiments in this particular field. jection to a temperature of two hundred and The details then given are well worthy of thirty-nine degrees Fahrenheit. attention, even from a popular point of view, vessel, with its contents thus impregnated with the as showing the exactness and precision which single drop of contaminated blood, is then placed This culturenowadays characterise scientific investigation; in a temperature of seventy-five to about ninety they are also in a wider sense highly important, degrees, when, after a short interval, it becomes on account of the light which they shed upon cloudy and dull in appearance. In reality it is some of the obscurer diseases affecting our swarming with tiny microbes, the merest points domestic animals. The ultimate result of these under the ordinary microscope, but under the inquiries may yet be of the highest value in most powerful instruments, resolvable into a relation to the nature of all transmissible collection of eight-shaped figures. diseases. The investigations into the nature of ferments, is again abstracted on the glass-rod point, and first culture-vessel a single drop of the contents From this &c., carried on in the laboratory of Professor transferred to a second vessel of fowl-decoction Pasteur have extended over more than a quarter similar to the former one. of a century; and the two more recent develop- vessel, a single drop is in the same way carried ments of what is technically called microbie, go to a third vessel, from a third to a fourth, and From the second far to confirm what is known up to the present so on. This process repeated any number of times, produces the same result in every culture-ductive power, though present, being presumed vessel employed-namely, a clouded appearance to be overcome by the natural life-resistance of in the previously clear fluid, and the same signs the subject operated upon. But-and here we under the microscope. After the vessels have come to the principle of vaccination—when a been exposed for two or three days to a tem- fowl had been made sufficiently ill by a preperature of about eighty-five degrees, a sediment paration of a strength which it yet had power forms at the bottom of each and the liquid becomes to absorb, the most virulent culture had thereclear. As, however, all impure atmospheric germs after no evil effect upon it whatever, or only are excluded, the liquid and the deposit will effects of a passing character. It was proof for remain unchanged even for months. a year or more against the strongest contagion of an infected poultry-yard. In this way inoculation for chicken-cholera could be successfully performed. Let us now compare the relative strengths of our several tinctures, as we may call them; and, strange to say, although we would have thought that one of the more advanced stages-say the hundredth culture in direct order-would have been incomparably less fertile in germ-formation than the earlier ones, the fact is quite different. As proved by experiments in inoculation, the hundredth, even the thousandth culture is as deadly in its effects as the first one, impregnated directly from the poisoned blood. And even the blood itself used to inoculate a healthy fowl is not stronger or more certain in effect than any one of the succeeding cultures; all are equally virulent. Would it not appear, to an ordinary experimentalist, as if the virus of this disease were thus capable of indefinite extension without being attenuated? Perhaps so; but not to Professor Pasteur. This most careful of manipulators discovered at last a means of modifying it. An interval of time was found to be efficacious for this purpose. The process we have described was continuously carried out; no interval of any appreciable extent-only that necessary for the required transferences-elapsing between the successive cultures. This proved to be the secret of the uniform strength of the preparations. But on the other hand, supposing one hundred cultures carried out successively, and the hundredand-first delayed till the expiry of a week, a fortnight, a month, or longer, then the difference was at once observable in the results obtained. The first hundred cultures continuously carried out were uniform; the hundred-and-first was much less potent. Further than this, it became correspondingly weaker or stronger as the interval which separated it from the preceding culture was longer or shorter. It thus became practicable, by varying the intervals, to prepare cultures of different degrees of strength, until a limit was reached when the virulence became null. In this way, by using cultures for inoculation of varying degrees of strength, a certain graduated percentage of mortality amongst fowls was produced. One culture sufficed to kill eight fowls out of ten; another, five out of ten; another, one out of ten; another, none at all. It was remarkable, also, that these varying degrees of culture-strength served as startingpoints from which successive series could be produced-without allowing an interval-all of the same degree of potency as the initial one. It was found, before the actual principle of vaccination was reached in these experiments, first, that one of the modified cultures produced, on inoculation, a purely local disorder in the fowl operated upon-a temporary morbid modification, which after a time passed away; second, that the solution the virulence of which was null produced no evil effects, its own inherent repro The reason why' of this scientific attenuation of the chicken-cholera disease-germs is finely explained by Professor Pasteur. 'May we not, he remarks, 'be here in presence of a general law applicable to all kinds of virus? What benefits may not be the result?' The factor which intervenes to attenuate the microbe is, he concludes, the oxygen of the air. It is this which diminishes in time the virulence of the culture, and renders it fit at last for the purpose of safe inoculation. If its culture, then, be carried on in a glass tube instead of in the ordinary vessel, and the end of this tube be closely sealed, the microbe will in the course of its development speedily absorb all the oxygen in the tube and in the fluid. After that, it will be destitute of oxygen. From that point, as tested by experiment, it does not seem as if any lapse of time has any effect in diminishing its virulence. "The oxygen of the air, then, Professor Pasteur remarks, 'would seem to be a possible modifying agent of the virulence of the microbe in chicken-cholera; that is to say, it may modify more or less the facility of its development in the body of animals.' So far we believe Professor Pasteur's researches and experiments to have resulted in an unquestioned success. There can be little doubt that as regards chicken-cholera, the most valuable and important facts are now known. When we turn, however, to his researches into the corresponding vaccin' of splenic fever (French charbon), although we find the same industrious and unwearying experiments, the results-in other hands, at all events-are, or have been lately, somewhat severely questioned. Into the details of the discovery we do not enter fully. The experiments were attended with great difficulty. Suffice it to say that the germs of splenic fever, called 'anthracoid microbes,' were found to be of a different character from those of chicken-cholera, more especially in the mode of their reproduction. Of the two, the splenicfever microbe proved the much more enduring, having been discovered in pits where animals had been interred for twelve years. Contact with oxygen for any length of time failed, in the culture experiments, to attenuate it in the slightest degree. The requisite weakening of the anthracoid microbe was, however, effected by selecting it at an early reproductive stage, and subjecting it, in decoction of fowl, to a temperature of between one hundred and seven the Siberian pest; in Germany, as the Milzbrand; perhaps in this country it is better known as Anthrax. The germ is scientifically the Bacillus anthracis. This disease is known in Russia by the name of and one hundred and nine degrees Fahrenheit. the value of Professor Pasteur's treatment for At one hundred and thirteen degrees the microbe anthrax should be afforded. Only in this way is no longer cultivable. Between one hundred can the question be settled. It is impossible, of and seven and one hundred and nine degrees course, to judge when the evidence is so strangely it appears entirely free of germs, ultimately dying, conflicting. In the interests of science and in however, in a month or six weeks. Previous those of our raisers of stock, we hope the questo its death, it presents a series of attenuated tion may be authoritatively settled, as it is one virulences. If this opportunity be taken, the in every way of the gravest importance. same graduated cultures can be obtained as in the case of chicken-cholera, and these graduations can be reproduced. Finally, they act as a ' vaccin' for the 'superior' or microbe of full virulence. STUDIES IN ANIMAL LIFE. REVENGE. One of the most striking statements of Professor WHILE it must be conceded that animals posPasteur is that in which he asserts, though he sess most of man's good qualities, it cannot does not supply the details of his experiment, be denied that they share many of his faults. that he can restore to these reduced or attenuated Animals cherish ideas of revenge with almost germs their original full strength-an experiment, human tenacity, and appear to believe thoroughly as he justly remarks, calculated to shed much light on the varying intensity, the rise and fall, of great epidemics, as well as upon their (supposed) spontaneous appearance. in the proverb that declares it to be sweet. Some instances of the chastisement inflicted by brute on fellow-brute may, however, be considered somewhat more typical of justice than of revenge. Dogs, ever to the front in all things referring to animal intellect, afford many curious instances of injuries remembered and punishment inflicted. Medwin, in that singular mélange of his, The Angler in Wales, gives a remarkable anecdote illustrative of our theme. Two terriers, inseparable friends, named Vixen and Viper, were employed by their owner to hunt an otter. Owing to the nature of the ground, selected carefully by the otter, only The splenic-fever vaccin' was no sooner discovered than Professor Pasteur was asked to make public experiments with it. It is estimated that in France alone animals to the value of twenty million francs are annually lost from this disease. Fifty sheep placed at Professor Pasteur's disposal were experimented upon at Pouilly-le-Fort, near Melun. Half were vaccinated, the remainder undergoing no treatment. A fortnight thereafter, the whole of the sheep were inoculated with the most virulent anthracoid microbe. The twenty-one of the dogs, Vixen, was enabled to attack the five vaccinated sheep resisted its effects, while the unvaccinated died within fifty hours. This, we are assured by Professor Pasteur, was only one successful experiment out of many, as he had up to the date of his address vaccinated more than twenty thousand sheep in the departments surrounding Paris, and a large number of cattle and horses. A Commission of doctors, surgeons, and veterinary surgeons of Chartres obtained, he assures us, like results upon vaccinated and unvaccinated sheep, when the blood of an animal which had died of splenic fever was employed direct. In spite, however, of this testimony, several French medical journals insist that numbers of animals constantly die under Professor Pasteur's hands from the effects of the 'vaccin' virus. The most direct contradiction of Professor Pasteur's theory, however, is contained in a communication recently made by Dr Klein, in this country, to the Veterinary Department of the Privy Council. Dr Klein seems to have used every care in procuring reliable 'vaccin' through Professor Pasteur's agent in Paris; and so far as his experiments go, they certainly do not tell in favour of the theory. The preparations Premier vaccin charbonneux and Deuxième vaccin charbonneux were to be exhibited successively, with a certain interval. The results demonstrated that neither of these preparations afforded immunity against fatal anthrax; and also that either of them might of themselves produce the disease in a fatal form! Dr Klein accordingly considers that as this country is as yet comparatively free from anthrax, the introduction of this 'vaccin' is calculated to do much mischief. It seems under these circumstances much to be desired that a fuller opportunity of testing enemy, and she got so fearfully mauled in the encounter that death speedily followed. Viper appeared inconsolable at the loss of his friend. The next morning he was missing, and after some hours' search, was given up as lost. On retracing their steps to the scene of the fatal hunt, Captain Medwin and his companion were surprised to find traces of fresh blood, and on following them up, discovered rolled up together, stiff and cold, in the embrace of death, the otter and Viper. From the appearance of the ground and the gorereddened turf, it was seen that the battle had been a desperate one. Well does Captain Medwin remark: 'It was a memorable incident; a proof of sagacity; an instance of memory, thought, and reason combined,' which led this little terrier to brave that danger which had been fatal to its consort, in order to avenge her death. On one The length of time a dog will treasure up the remembrance of an injury is truly marvellous. He forgets neither friend nor foe,' says Sir Walter Scott; remembers, and with accuracy, both benefit and injury.' In his delightful Anecdotes of Dogs, Jesse furnishes some noteworthy instances of this strength of canine memory. occasion, according to his story, a traveller, in passing on horseback through a small Cumberland village, out of pure thoughtlessness, struck with his whip at a large Newfoundland dog that reposed by the wayside. The enraged animal rushed at him and pursued him for a considerable distance. Twelve months later, his business took him to the same village, and as he was leading his horse, the dog, recollecting him, seized his leg, the teeth penetrating through the boot; and the animal might otherwise have done him serious injury, had not assistance been procured. In another case, recorded, some few years ago, in |