Abstract
ADVICES from Lieutenant G. M. Wheeler, United States Engineers, whose movements during the past year we have had frequent occasion to chronicle, announce his arrival at Tucson about Dec. 4, with the men and animals nearly exhausted. The trip from Prescott to Camp Apache had been very severe, on account of the snow and high winds on the Colorado plateau. During their exploration one party had been sent to the San Francisco mountains, and made the ascent of the principal peak. These mountains consist of three prominences, grouping in the form of a crater, the north-eastern rim being wanting. The principal peak was occupied as a topographical, barometrical, and photographic station. It is believed to be nearly 1,000 feet higher than the peak usually ascended; and Lieutenant Wheeler was of the opening that his party was the first to occupy its summit. This, however, was a mistake, as Dr. Edward Palmer, of the Smithsonian Institution, made the ascent in 1870, and obtained a number of new species of plants and insects.—A document which has been for some years in preparation, and toward which much expectation has been directed by agriculturists, has just appeared from the Government press, namely, the Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture upon the Diseases of Cattle in the United Sates. About the middle of June, 1868 a disease broke out at Cairo, Illinois, among a number of Texas cattle, known as the Spanish fever, or the Texas cattle disease. In consequence of the rapid extension of this disease, very serious alarm was excited, and the services of Prof. John Gamgee, a distinguished English veterinarian, then in the United States, were secured by General Capron, the Commissioner of Agriculture, for the purpose of instituting a cartful inquiry as to its cause, course, and methods of treatment. The Professor immediately visited the infected districts in Illinois, and in the spring of 1869 examined that part of Texas on or near the Gulf coast, where the transportation of the native cattle begins. In this last journey he was accompanied by Prof. Ravenel, of South I Carolina, a specialist among the fungi, and whose particular object was to determine what part such plants played in tire infection. Dr. J. S. Billings and Dr. Curtis, of the army, were also associated in the inquiry, having special reference to the microscopic investigations. A second investigation by Prof. Gamgee, under the authority of the Commissioner of Agriculture, had reference to the subject of pleuro-pneumonia, in the course of which numerous microscopic observations were made by Dr. Woodward, of the Army Medical Museum. Full reports on these various subjects made by the different gentlemen are embodied in the volume referred to, which appears in quarto form, with numerous well-executed plates in chromo-lithography. It is also accompanied by a report by Mr. Dodge, the statistician of the Agricultural department, upon the history of this Texas cattle disease, also known as splenic fever, in which the devastations of this peculiar native malady are traced back into the eighteenth century. This report was considered by General Capron as simply preliminary, and further investigations are indicated as important. Among those especially mentioned are inquiries as to the best mode of arresting the contagion, and the proper way of transportation of the cattle northward. He thinks that a general law of the United States, in the interest of public health, of an enlightened humanity, and of the cattle trade, should regulate this traffic, not only throughout the Gulf Sfates, but on the great routes throughout the country.—A valuable document lately issued by the Surgeon-General's Office at Washington, prepared by Dr. G. A. Otis, consists of a report of surgical cases treated in the army of the United States from 1865 to 1871, covering almost every possible variety of injury, whether by gun-shot wounds, lacerations, fractures, dislocations, amputations, &c. The report, which is a quarto of nearly 300 pages, is illustrated in the same excellent style as its predecessors, and the woodcuts are especially worthly of all praise.—Bills have been introduced both in the Senate and House of Representatives providing for the reservation of that portion of the region about the Yellow Stone Lake, in which the wonderful geysers and hot springs occur, to which we have repeatedly called the attention of our readers. The thorough exploration of that country made during the past season by Dr Hayden has enabled him to define the limits within which these natural features occur, and the bill is based upon a plan prepared under his direction. The area proposed to be preserved is about sixty five miles in length by fifty-five in width, and it is suggested that the reservation be placed under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, who is to be empowered to take such steps as may be required to protect the natural curiosities from injury or destruction. It is highly important that this should become a law at the present session, as the glowing accounts given by Dr Havdcn will cause a great many persons to visit the country duting the coming year, and with the natural iconoclasm of the Anglo-Saxon race, there is great danger that the wonderful water basics and formations of sulphur and of calcareous arid siliceous rocks will be knocked to pieces for the purpose of securing mementoes of a visit.
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Scientific Intelligence From America * . Nature 5, 251 (1872). https://doi.org/10.1038/005251a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/005251a0