io8 



NA TURE 



[December 2, 1897 



sentations tended to strengthen the Home Government in their 

 disposition to afford encouragement to M. Yersin to labour in 

 the stricken district. 



The vague rumours which reached us some time ago regard- 

 ing his work in Bombay were not of an encouraging character. 

 But I was glad to see from a paper read lately by M. Metchnikoff 

 at the International Medical Congress in Moscow, that the 

 treatment had been by no means a complete failure, and that 

 the smaller degree of success than that obtained in China was 

 sufficiently explained by the fact that the serum in the present state 

 of knowledge takes a very long time to prepare, and Yersin had 

 been obliged to employ what he knew was not as potent as that 

 which he used in China. We may therefore fairly hope that in 

 due time, if the pestilence should last so long, the original full 

 measure of success will be again obtained. 



The communications made to the Society during the year have 

 been of a high order of excellence. In illustration of this I must 

 content myself with referring to two examples taken from the 

 domains of physics and biology respectively. The remarkable 

 series of ten papers by Profs. Dewar and Fleming, describing 

 their continued researches on the electric and magnetic proper- 

 ties of matter at low temperatures, have brought before us new 

 facts of fundamental importance. Such, for instance, is their 

 discovery that at very low temperatures the electrical resistance 

 of bismuth is remarkably increased by transverse magnetisation ; 

 so much so that the observations seem to indicate that at the 

 absolute zero pure bismuth would be a perfect conductor if not 

 in a magnetfc field, but a perfect non-conductor if transversely 

 magnetised. 



The illustration wh'cli I will take from the domain of biology 

 is the recent communication of Mr. Gardiner on the Histology 

 of the Cell-Wall. Before 1883, when his former paper on this 

 subject was published in our Proceedings, other observers had 

 seen and described threads passing through the walls of certain 

 vegetable cells, and supposed to connect the protoplasm of one 

 cell with that of adjacent ones. But the observation had only 

 been made in certain exceptional cases, and, moreover, they 

 were not of such a character as in Mr. Gardiner's opinion to 

 afford conclusive evidence that the threads really consisted of 

 protoplasm. Since the date referred to he has laboured at this 

 most important subject with remarkable ingenuity and perse- 

 verance ; and by new methods of preparation varied to overcome 

 the special difficulties presented by the various forms of tissue, he 

 has succeeded in demonstrating, throughout the long series 

 of cases which he has already examined, the presence of 

 threads of undoubtedly protoplasmic nature, often of exquisite 

 delicacy, passing in large numbers through the walls of adjacent 

 cells, not only where they are thinned by the presence of pits, 

 but elsewhere also. And to use his own words, " there can be 

 little doubt that such connecting threads occur universally in the 

 cells of all the tissues of all plants. From this arises the 

 fundamental conception that the plant body must be regarded 

 as a connected whole." And the transmission of impulses and 

 of nutrient material from one part of the vegetable organism to 

 another, quite unintelligible as long as the protoplasm of each 

 cell w-as believed to be shut off from that of its neighbours by a 

 wall of cellulose, receives a ready explanation. 



The attendance at our meetings during the past session has 

 been very satisfactory. There can be no doubt that the great 

 improvement which has taken place of late years in this 

 respect has been in no small measure due to the alteration 

 of the time of meeting to the afternoon, which is more con- 

 venient to the large majority of the Fellows than the evening. 

 I thus freely admit that the change has been very advantageous, 

 although I was opposed to it when it was made, as I was 

 apprehensive that it would interfere with participation of 

 members of my own profession in the work of the Society ; 

 for I should greatly regret anything like a severance of Medicine 

 from the Royal Society, believing as I do that they are very 

 helpful to each other, medical practice affording the suggestion 

 and stimulus of much scientific investigation, while it is often the 

 ultimate test of the validity of the conclusions arrived at. 



At the risk of seeming to dwell too much upon matters con- 

 nected with the healing art, I am tempted to refer to one recent 

 instance of its intimate connection with science. In the Society's 

 Proceedings for 1893 (vol. liv. p. 187) appeared a paper by Dr. 

 Monkton Copeman, relating important researches on Variola 

 and Vaccinia, and referring to a discovery which he had an- 

 nounced two years previously at the International Hygienic 

 Congress, in London ( Trans, of Internat. Congress of Hygiene, 



NO. 1466, VOL. 57] 



1891), that an admixture of glycerine in certain proportions with 

 vaccine lymph derived from the calf had the effect of causing, in 

 no long time, the disappearance of what he termed the " ad- 

 ventitious microbes " invariably present in that material at the 

 outset, without diminishing the efficacy of the lymph for the 

 purpose of vaccination. It had been known before that glycerine 

 might be added to the lymph without destroying its vaccinal 

 property, but that it would thus cause the disappearance of con- . 

 comitant microbes was quite new. In the scant intervals of 

 leisure permitted by his duties as inspector under the Local 

 Government Board, Dr. Copeman has continued to prosecute 

 his researches. He has ascertained, among other things, that if 

 tubercle bacilli are intentionally mixed in considerable quantity 

 with the lymph, they soon lose their life under the influence of 

 the glycerine, thus removing the last rational objection that 

 could be urged against vaccination. For while the use of calf 

 lymph excludes the possibility of conveying human disease in 

 general by the process, the cow, like man, is liable to tuber- 

 culosis. It is true that tubercle is very rare in the young animal, 

 and that the practice of killing the calf after it has furnished the 

 vaccine and subjecting the body to competent inspection before 

 the lymph is .set aside for use, would reduce the risk of com- 

 munication of the disease almost to zero. But it is .satisfactory 

 to learn that Dr. Copeman's process makes such a thing 

 absolutely impossible. It further turns out that the use of 

 the glycerine, so far from impairing the efficacy of the lymph 

 for vaccination, considerably enhances it ; so that it becomes 

 susceptible of large dilution, one calf thus furnishing material 

 for a much greater number of vaccinations than was formerly 

 thought possible. And further the glycerinised lymph being 

 stored in sterile glass tubes, the chance of contaminating 

 the vaccination scratches with extraneous impuriies, some- 

 what difficult to prevent in vaccinating directly from the 

 calf, is entirely avoided. Lastly, it has been found that the in- 

 flammatory disturbance at the seat of vaccination in the human 

 arm, with concomitant febrile disturbance, is greatly lessened by 

 the use of the pure essential ingredient. 



Comparatively little advantage has yet been taken of the 

 system in this country. But it has been otherwise abroad ; and 

 the English Commission on Vaccination having made favourable 

 reference to the subject, the President of the Local C^overnment 

 Board recently requested their Medical Officer, Sir Richard 

 T. Thome, to make a tour of inspection of the continental practice. 

 In this he was accompanied by Dr. Copeman, and we learn 

 from the report which they have issued that they found our 

 countryman's precepts very extensively acted on in the various 

 countries which they visited. In Germany, especially, they are 

 carried out with the thoroughness characteristic of that nation, 

 so much so that while arm to arm vaccination has been entirely 

 discarded, the use of glycerine-stored lymph has almost entirely 

 superseded the practice of vaccinating from calf to arm. 



It has given me pleasure to learn that Mr. Chaplin is 

 likely soon to propose legislation for the purpose of giving 

 the full benefits of this valuable process to the country of its 

 discoverer. 



It afforded great though melancholy satisfaction to the 

 Treasurer and myself to be present last Christmas at the final 

 obsequies of the man to whose labours is due the possibility of 

 carrying on such investigations as those just referred to. M. 

 Pasteur was buried in his own " Institut " with a splendour 

 befitting the memory of so great and good a man. 



I have also been glad to be the means, as President of the 

 Society, of aiding our French brethren in erecting a monument 

 to him to whom the world in general owes so much. Having 

 received last year a letter from the Perpetual Secretary of the 

 French Academy inviting my help in raising a fund to supple- 

 ment that which was being subscribed in France, I called a 

 meeting held here on March 26 of last year, at which it was 

 decided to form a committee, in order to collect contributions to 

 the International Pasteur Memorial. I wrote in the first 

 instance to such of our Fellows as are members of the Academy, 

 requesting them to allow their names to be on the committee, 

 and received in almost every instance a cordial assent. Our 

 Treasurer having consented to act as treasurer to the fund, and 

 Prof. Percy Frankland undertaking the somewhat onerous 

 duties of secretary, a sum has been raised, amounting in all 

 to 877/. OS. 3a'., from which 17/. "js. 2d. was deducted for 

 expenses, leaving a balance of 859/. 13.?. \d. 



I know that our French friends were much gratified by this 

 result ; and I learn from a letter written to the Treasurer by 



