280 



MEETING 



Held on the 15th of March, 1911, at 20 Hanover Square, W., 

 H. G. Plimmer, Esq., F.R.S., etc., President, in the Chair. 



The Minutes of the Meeting of February 15th were read and con- 

 firmed, and signed by the President. 



The following Donation received since the last Meeting was an- 

 nounced, and the thanks of the Society voted to the donor : — 



From 



T. H. Blakesley, Geometrical Optics. (8vo, London, 1903) .. Mr. E. M. Nelson. 



Dr. Ralph Vincent, in his preliminary remarks to his demonstration 

 on " The Morphology of the Organisms concerned in the Production 

 of Acute Intestinal Toxaemia in Infants," said that he felt considerable 

 diffidence in giving this demonstration before the Society. But a member 

 of the Council had urged him to do so, and he had accordingly yielded. 

 Before dealing with the main subject of his demonstration, he wished to 

 acknowledge his great indebtedness to his friend and colleague, Mr 

 Robert Mond, Treasurer of the Infants Hospital. The Research 

 Laboratories at this Hospital had been established and maintained 

 entirely at Mr. Monet's expense, and when he said that practically all his 

 work in connexion with this particular research had been carried on in 

 these laboratories, his reference to Mr. Mond would be readily under- 

 stood. 



Before showing the series of lantern-slides illustrating the various 

 organisms concerned in the production of acute intestinal toxaemia in 

 infants, he wished briefly to explain the nature of the disease so pro- 

 duced, referring those who desired a fuller and more detailed account 

 to his address given on the subject before the Glasgow Obstetrical 

 and Gynaecological Society in November of last year.* Those who had 

 had experience in dealing with the diseases of infants were only 

 too familiar with the high rate of mortality occurring in hot summer 

 weather among babies. In the year 1904 (the extreme example in re- 

 cent years of a hot and dry summer) there were many towns where in 

 the three mouths, July, August, and September, nearly one half of the 

 babies died. Of 1000 infants living on June 1, nearly 500 had died by 

 October 1. If the breast-fed infants were eliminated, and the enquiry 

 was confined to bottle-fed babies, the mortality was found to be appalling. 

 The difficulties in grappling with the problems of this disease arose 

 largely from the fact that it was officially described as "epidemic 



* On Acute Intestinal Toxaemia in Infants : an Experimental Investigation of 

 the Etiology and Pathology of Epidemic or Summer Diarrhoea. London, 1911. 



