January 6, 1898J 



NATURE 



22 1 



stances attaching to the chair almost preclude possibility to 

 treat its subject as a province of experimental science. Physi- 

 ology, inseparable from chemistry and physics, could, one might 

 have imagined, at an Institution so famous for the character of 

 its lectures on those subjects, have been advantageously placed. 

 That, from Prof. Waller's letter, is evidently the reverse of 

 its present case at the Royal Institution. Not a workroom, 

 even of the smallest size, could he obtain for conduction or 

 preparation of his experiments. This must be a revelation to 

 many who know the Institution as connected with the names of 

 men. such as Davy and Faraday, who contributed by research 

 to physiology— who, in other words, considered the chemistry 

 and physics of living material as well as that of dead to lie within 

 the scope of study and inquiry supported by the Institution. 

 It is true that the Fullerian chair of Chemistry has proved 

 fruitful in measure exceeding the productiveness of the Fullerian 

 chair of Physiology. The latter has been declared comparatively 

 sterile. This is regrettable ; but its reason does not seem far to 

 seek Both chairs have been held by men of high distinction ; 

 but the former has rested upon a laboratory, while the latter — 

 so far from resting upon a laboratory — " does not possess even 

 one small room in which to keep itself alive." Is this condition 

 irremediable? I ask although by circumstance outside the 

 Institution ; and ask simply as one interested in the welfare of 

 physiological science, and as a unit of a public who esteem 

 the Institution as a place of instruction for the educated masses 

 of a great city where at present such opportunities as the 

 Institution offers are lamentably few. 

 Liverpool, December 31, 1897. Ch. S. Sherrington. 



A Mechanical Theory of the Divining Rod. 



The review in Nature (October 14, 1897, pp. 568, 569) of 

 a publication relating to the "divining rod," recalls to my 

 mind a purely mechanical theory of that rod, which was given 

 me years ago by a friend. 



This theory has been repeatedly tested by me and shown to 

 be correct in the presence of my classes. The process is ex- 

 ceedingly simple. Take any forked twig of a reasonably tough 

 fibre in the clenched hands with the palms upward. The ends 

 of the limbs forming the twig fork should enter the closed fists 

 on the exterior side of each fist, i.e. on the two sides of the 

 clenched hands furthest from each other. 



When a twig is grasped in this position it will remain 

 stationary if held loosely, or with only a moderately firm grasp ; 

 but the moment the grasp is tightened, the pressure on the 

 branches will force the end of the twig to bend downwards. 

 The harder the grip the more it must curve. 



The curvature of the twig is mechanically caused by the 

 pressure of the hands forcing the limbs to assume a bent and 

 twisted position ; or the force that causes the forked limb to 

 turn downwards is furnished by muscles of the hands, and not 

 from any other cause. 



The whole secret of the "divining rod" seems to reside in 

 its position in the hands of the operator, and in his voluntarily 

 or involuntarily increasing the closeness of his grasp on the two 

 ends of the branches forming the fork. 



If the above conditions are fulfilled the twig will always bend 

 downwards — water or no water, mineral or no mineral ; any 

 one can be an operator, and any material can be used for the 

 instrument, provided the limbs forming the fork are sufficiently 

 tough and flexible. 



It can be easily understood how an ignorant operator may de- 

 ceive himself, and be perfectly honest in supposing that some 

 occult force, and not his hands, causes the fork to curve 

 downwards. M. E. Wadsworth. 



Michigan College of Mines, Houghton, 

 Michigan, December 8, 1897. 



Growth of the Tubercle Bacillus at a Low Temperature. 



A BROTH culture of the tubercle bacillus a month old was 

 filtered through a sterilised Berkfeld filter ; the filtrate was 

 ascertained to be sterile ; it was then sown with a trace of B. 

 tuberculosis and incubated at a temperature varying slightly 

 between i8°-2o'' C, but never higher than 20°. 



The bacillus developed well, but not so rapidly as at the 

 customary temperature, i.e. 37 8° C. ; the growth had not the 

 usual flocculent appearance, but was granular. 



Microscopically the organism was unchanged. 



London, December 20, 1897. F. J. Reid. 



NO. 147 I, VOL 57] 



THE STORY OF GLOUCESTER. 



1979 cases of small-pox, 434 deaths; or a mortality of 21*9 



per cent, during a period of thirteen months. 



Cases. Deaths. P"centage 



mortality. 



Previously vaccinated ... 121 1 120 9-8 



Unvaccinated ... ... 768 314 40*8 



1979 



434 



CUCH, in brief, is the story told by Dr. Sidney Coup- 

 *~-^ land in his Report to the Royal Commission on 

 Vaccination on the outbreak of small-pox in the city of 

 Gloucester in 1895-96. 



These figures, in all their baldness, convey a lesson 

 such as no long garnished account can accentuate or 

 emphasise ; but in Dr. Coupland's Report a number of 

 most interesting facts and statistics have been brought 

 together, which will form the basis of many future reports 

 and arguments. 



One of the most interesting points brought out, apart 

 from the mortality, was the proportion of severe and 

 mild cases in vaccinated and unvaccinated patients. Of 

 those vaccinated in infancy, there suffered from — 



Malignant small pox 

 Confluent ,, 

 Coherent ,, 



Discrete ,, 



Mild 



Per cent. 



2*4 of the whole of those attacked. 

 I9'i 



9*6 

 287 

 40'o ,, ,, 



When we come to those who are said to have been 

 vaccinated, but of which there is no very strong evidence, 

 we find : — 



Per cent. 

 Malignant small-pox I7"5 of the whole of those attacked. 

 Confluent ,, 52*5 ,, ,, 



Coherent ,, lO'O ,, ,, 



Discrete ,, 12-5 ,, ,, 



Mild „ 7-5 



Being a marked rise in malignant and a great fall in 

 mild cases. 



.A.mongst the unvaccinated the proportion of severity 

 of attacks at all ages was : — 



Per cent. 

 Malignant small-pox ... ... ... ... 5*0 



Confluent ,, ... ... ... ... 72*3 



Coherent ,, ... .. ... ... iO"3 



Discrete ,, ... ... ... ... 87 



Mild „ 3-6 



Showing a very high percentage, indeed, of the severe 

 type of case. 



These figures are given in full because they afford 

 evidence, quite apart from the mortality, of the enormous 

 influence that vaccination e.xerts on the course of an 

 attack of small-pox. 



The Gloucester epidemic appears to have differed from 

 almost every other recent outbreak of small-pox in the 

 fact that its incidence was especially heavy on infants 

 and young children. Below one year the proportion of 

 deaths was no fewer than 14 per cent, of the whole, 

 whilst at ages from i to 10 years it was exceedingly 

 heavy — 50*4 per cent. This, of course, was accompanied 

 by a corresponding diminution in the proportion of 

 deaths at later years ; and from 10 to 30 years the pro- 

 portion had fallen to 12*6 per cent., though from 30 

 years and upwards (the effect of early vaccination having 

 worn off to some extent) it had again risen to 227. 

 When these figures are compared with the earlier out- 

 break of 1873-75 in Gloucester and with the Dewsbury 

 and Leicester outbreaks, it is found that the proportion 

 of deaths amongst children is exceptionally high. It 

 was noticed, too, that the disease spread amongst these 

 children with enormous rapidity, and that it occurred 

 amongst them in an e.xceptionally severe type, both as 

 regards the proportion of malignant cases and the height 

 of the mortality. 



