26 



NATURE 



[March 2, lyii 



I 



THE AFFINITIES OF SCHIZOTKYPANUM. 



N a recent number of the Archiv jiir Proiistenkunde 

 (vol. XX., p. 361), Dr. M. Ilartmann makes an im- 

 portant addition to our knowledge of Schizotrypanum cruzi, 

 the trypanosome of human beings discovered by Chagas in 

 Brazil (see Nature, August 4, 1910). Chagas described a 

 process of multiple fission ("schizogony"), taking place in 

 the lung capillaries, of forms not enclosed in cells (Nature, 

 I.e., p. 143, Fig. 2, b-c). In addition to this type of 

 multiplication, Hartmann finds another process of schizo- 

 gony within hypcrtrophied endothelial cells of the lung, as 

 a result of which the cell contains some twenty or more 

 small, pear-shaped organisms, each with a distinct kineto- 

 nucleus and trophonucleus, but no fiagcllum. The chief 

 interest of this discovery lies in the very great resemblance 

 of these intracellular forms of Schizotrypanum to those of 

 Leishmania donovani, the parasite of Kala Azar ; in fact, 

 anyone, looking at the figure given by Hartmann, might 

 suppose that it represented a preparation of Leishmania. 

 Similar forms are stated to have been found in the heart- 

 musculature and brain of human beings that have died 

 from " Schizotrypanosomiasis " (.sic), sit venia verbo ! 



In view of the resemblance, in certain phases, between 

 Schizotrypanum and Leishmania made known by Hart- 

 mann, attention may be directed to some remarks by 

 Donovan, one of the discoverers of the parasite of Kala 

 Azar, in the " Annual Report and Statistics of the Govern- 

 ment General Hospital, Madras," for the year 1908 

 (published 1909), p. 31. Donovan casts doubt on the view 

 advanced originally by Rogers, and further supported by 

 Patton, that the parasite of Kala Azar is transmitted by 

 the bed-bug ; and gives reasons for believing that another 

 bug, Conorhinus rubrofasciatus, is the insect which propa- 

 gates the disease. It would be remarkable if both 

 Leishmania and Schizotrypanum proved to be transmitted 

 by species of the genus Conorhinus, the one in India, the 

 other in Brazil. The etiology of Kala Azar is a problem 

 which calls urgentlv for investigation. 



E. A. M. 



THE ORGANISATION OF TECHNICAL 

 EDUCATION AND RESEARCH.^ 



"\ 7ERY few words of mine are needed to emphasise the 

 * interest and the importance of this annually recurring 



ceremonial at which the varied educational work of the 



City and Guilds Institute receives recognition, well-merited 



recognition, from successive Lord Mayors. 



We gather from the brief r^sumd of the work which 

 has been read by Sir J. Watney that the various agencies 



combined under the control of the institute continue to 



flourish, the students increase in number, their work rises 

 in quality, and the importance of the institution grows 



greater year by year. 



The City and Guilds Central Technical College com- 

 pleted its twenty-fifth session in July, and now has at 

 work 412 students. In the twenty-five years, 1512 students 

 have taken the complete course and 1066 have been 

 awarded the diploma. Out of 306 internal degrees con- 

 ferred in the faculty of engineering in London University, 

 157 have been obtained by students of the college ; and 

 the percentage in honours has been a high one, 56 per 

 cent, first class, 42 per cent. pass. 



The year has been marked in that the relations with 

 the Imperial Technical College have been made definite 

 by the appointment of a delegacy, under the immediate 

 control of which the City and Guilds College is placed, 

 and which contains representatives of the Imperial 

 College, the Institute, and the Goldsmiths' Company. The 

 delegacy, I am informed, held their first meeting last 

 month. 



I will not attempt to review in like manner the year's 

 results for the other branches of the institute. Numbers 

 of young men — some of them not so young now — owe 

 their success in life to the training received at the Fins- 

 bury Technical College from the inspiring teaching of its 

 accomplished head, Prof. S. P. Thompson, and his able 

 staff ; and here I should like to thank Prof. Thompson 



• Address delivered at the prize distribution of the City and Guilds of 

 London Institute on February 17, by Dr. R. T. Glazebroolc, F.R.S. 



for his recent brilliant addition to our scientific bio- 

 graphies. Had he done, nothing else, and this is far from 

 being the case, his life of Kelvin would have left future 

 generations deep in his debt. 



I know less, perhaps, of the other work of the institute, 

 but I know enough to be grateful to the committee and its 

 officers for the large contribution to the advance of know- 

 ledge they have made by their efforts in the past. \ 



The choice of a subject for an address of this kind \> 

 not quite easy, and yet it ought not to be very difficult i 

 for a man whose life is now bound up with the business i 

 of science to find a theme on which to speak to an 

 audience in this centre of industry and commerce — the 

 connection of science and industry is an obvious, perhaps 

 even a hackneyed, one. Nevertheless, I am going to 

 trespass on your patience with some aspects of the question » 

 as they appear to me. 



Not many years ago it would have been said that the: 

 connection was a slight one. Science dwelt in a realm 

 apart from industry and commerce ; her votaries were 

 men who sought the truth without a thought of the gain 

 the search might bring to humanity, or the wealth it 

 might discover for the seeker. ^ 



It was enough for them to arrive at some new law, to 

 roll back a little space the veil that shrouds the mysteries 

 of Nature and to penetrate her shrine. Long may there 

 be such men ; the humbler students of science, those who 

 try to interpret her teachings for the good of men, could 

 advance but little without the torch of truth carried by 

 these their leaders. But it is realised now that there are 

 many ways in which science can further industry. Let us 

 look at two of these. 



It is sometimes said our German cousins are more 

 scientific than ourselves, and that this is the reason of 

 their great material progress during the past fifty years. 

 In a sense this is true ; not that they have made greater 

 discoveries or have contributed more to the sum of human 

 knowledge, but they did realise at an earlier date than 

 we the value of science as a factor in industrial and 

 commercial progress. They showed their appreciation of ,| 

 its importance by the establishment, in the first place, of T 

 technical colleges and universities where students could 

 be trained to apply science to the needs of daily life, and 

 in the second of institutions like the Reichsanstalt and 

 the Versuchsanstalt, where researches on matters bearing 

 on the application of science to industry could be carried 

 out on a fitting scale. 



The colleges and universities which in the past twenty- 

 five years have grown up in our cities show that we have 

 begun to appreciate the need and to make some notable 

 endeavours to supply it. For the success of these 

 endeavours, no small debt is due to those great City Guilds 

 which, with well-judged munificence, have devoted such 

 large funds to the work of education, not only here in 

 London, but also in the ancient universities and in many 

 other parts of the country. 



This gathering to-night, with its long list of prizes and 

 awards, is a speaking testimony to the value of their 

 work in London. The wise leaders of the City Guilds 

 realised that by the work of education they could best 

 advance the welfare of our country and carry on under 

 present conditions the task which previously they per- 

 formed by means of the apprenticeship system. 



Let us look into this educational work in its modern 

 form. It received a notable impulse a few years ago by 

 the establishment of the Imperial College of Science and 

 Technology. That college was founded with a very 

 definite purpose — to afford to English students the oppor- 

 tunity for the highest study and research in any branch 

 of science bearing on industry. Two methods at least 

 were open to the founders, and of these they chose the 

 more difficult. It is our English plan to let our old 

 institutions develop gradually, so as to meet new needs. 

 The committee responsible for founding the Imperial 

 College might have established something quite new_; they 

 decided rather to combine three great agencies existing at 

 South Kensington into one, thus coordinating work already 

 in progress, while maintaining the individuality of the 

 constituent institutions. The Royal College of Science, 

 the Royal School of Mines, and the City and Guilds 

 Technical College still exist, but, combined as they are 

 under one governing body of the Imperial College, their 



NO. 2157, VOL. 86] 



