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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



various recent methods of treatment, 

 such as Rontgen rays, Finsen's light, 

 radium and Bier's passive hyperemia. 

 The ideal treatment, however, of bac- 

 terial disease is to put into the blood 

 a substance, like an antiseptic, which 

 will kill the bacteria or neutralize 

 their toxines, but which will not injure 

 the tissues with which it is brought 

 in contact. This has been done to a 

 certain extent by the antitoxin of diph- 

 theria, but there has not been discov- 

 ered, up to the present time, a scien- 

 tific and exact method by means of 

 which the therapeutic use of such 

 agents as tuberculin could be controlled 

 in order that the smallest amount of 

 detriment possible might ensue to the 

 patient during the course of the treat- 

 ment. That there exists a certain sub- 

 stance in the serum of the blood which 

 is capable of aiding phagocytosis, is 

 shown by the history of a case cited 

 by Wright in which there was a condi- 

 tion of furunculosis (boils) due to 

 staphylococci. The patient's serum, his 

 corpuscles and an emulsification of dead 

 staphylococci gave a count of 26 ; while 

 the patient's serum, the corpuscles from 

 a normal person and the emulsion, 

 gave 27 ; the normal serum, the normal 

 corpuscles and the emulsion, gave 13; 

 the normal serum, the patient's cor- 

 puscles and the emulsion also giving 

 13. This would show that the corpus- 

 cular elements had nothing to do with 

 the increased number of staphylococci 

 which were taken up by the leucocytes 

 and would show that the property of 

 increasing the nrmber of staphylococci 

 in the leucocytes is to be attributed to 

 the so-called opsonin in the serum itself. 

 By using this index after the injec- 

 tion of the vaccine, it will be seen that 

 there is usually a slight decrease in the 

 opsonic index, followed by a marked 

 secondary rise; though if the dose be 

 too large or a second dose be adminis- 

 tered too quickly, this secondary rise 

 may not occur at all. The interesting 

 fact was brought out by Wright in his 

 lectures that a surgical operation, or 



even massage, or sitting up in bed, may 

 cause a similar reaction in a tubercu- 

 lous foci. The disadvantage of secur- 

 ing the reaction by these methods is 

 that live tubercle bacilli may be intro- 

 duced into the blood stream and that 

 their lodgment and subsequent multi- 

 plication may take place. Dr. Wright 

 is so sanguine of the success of this 

 mode of treatment that he believes that 

 every case of localized tuberculosis may 

 be now cured by the proper use of the 

 vaccines of tuberculosis. 



SCIENTIFIC ITEMS 

 A meeting to commemorate the life 

 and service of Samuel Pierpont Lang- 

 ley, secretary of the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution from 1887 to 1906, was held 

 in the lecture room of the United 

 States National Museum on December 

 3. The following addresses were de- 

 livered : ' Introductory Remarks,' by 

 the chancellor of the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution, the Honorable Melville W. 

 Fuller, chief justice of the United 

 States ; ' Memorial on Behalf of the 

 Board of Regents,' by the Honorable 

 Andrew D. White, LL.D.; 'Mr. Lang- 

 ley's Contributions to Astronomy and 

 Astrophysics,' by Professor E. C. Pick- 

 ering, director of the Harvard College 

 Observatory ; ' Mr. Langley's Contribu- 

 tions to Aerodynamics,' by Octave 

 Chanute, Esq., of Chicago. 



Dr. Henry Fairfield Osborn, Da 

 Costa professor of zoology in Columbia 

 University, curator of vertebrate pale- 

 ontology and vice-president of the 

 American Museum of Natural History, 

 geologist and paleontologist of the U. 

 S. Geological Survey, has declined the 

 secretaryship of the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution to which he was elected by 

 the regents on December 4. — Dr. An- 

 drew Fleming West, professor of Latin 

 at Princeton University and dean of 

 the graduate school, has declined the 

 olfer of the executive committee of the 

 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 

 to nominate him for the presidency. 



