NA TURE 



713 



"i-KX 



V 



k hJ. 



SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1923. 



CONTENTS. 



-Prof. A 

 Robinson 



-Prof 



Small-pox and Vaccination 

 A National Education Week . 

 Carl von Linne .... 



Chemistry of the Metals . . 

 Alpine Tectonics and other Problems 

 Our Bookshelf . . . • 



Letters to the Editor :— 



The Polarisation of Double Bonds. 

 Lapworth, F.R.S., and Prof. R 



F.R.S 



River Tollution.- Prof. A. Meek 



The "J " Phenomena and X-ray Scattering. 



C. G. Barkla, F.R.S. • 

 Scientific Names of Greek Derivation. — Prof. 



GrenvilleA. J. Cole, F.R.S. 

 Is the Pentose of the Nucleotides formed under the 



Action of Insulin ?— C. Berkeley 

 An Uncommon Type of Cloud. (//Ius(ra/e(i.)—Dr 



William J. S. Lockyer 



The Tides.— Evan McLennan; The Writer of 



the Previous Notes 

 Stirling's Theorem.— Prof. Stanko Hondl ; James 



Henderson 



Thunderstorms and Globular Lightning. By Dr 



G. C. Simpson, F.R.S . 



Unusual Forms of Crystallisation of Cementite in 



Steel. (Illustrated.) P>y H. C. H. C. • 

 Some Developments of Modern Zoology. By Prof 



J. H. Ashworth, F.R.S. 

 Obituary : — 



Prof. James Sully .... 

 Dr. E. K. Muspratt .... 

 Dr. P. W. Latham . . • • 



Current Topics and Events 

 Our Astronomical Column 

 Research Items . • 

 Palaeontologists at Vienna .... 

 Deterioration of Structures in the Sea 

 Invention and Research in Mechanical Engineering 

 The New Chemistry. By Dr. E. F. Armstrong, 



F.R.S. 



University and Educational Intelligence . 

 Societies and Academies .... 

 Official Publications Received . . . . 

 Diary of Societies 



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Advertisement J and business letters should be 



addressed to the Publishers. 



Editorial communications to the Editor. 



Telegraphic Address: PHUSIS. LONDON. 

 Telephone Number : GERRARD 8830. 



Editorial and Publishins Offices : 

 MACMILLAN 6- CO , LTD., 

 MARTIN- S STREET. LONDON, W.C.2. 



Small-pox and Vaccination.^ 



THERE is something refreshingly interesting in the 

 new practice of arranging for the education of 

 our legislators by means of addresses by experts on 

 subjects in which Parliament is concerned, and Dr. 

 McVail's recent address may be regarded as an admir- 

 able example of good that may thus be achieved. 



Small-pox has, however, more than a practical in- 

 terest. Next perhaps to influenza it is a disease the 

 epidemiology of which has more scientific interest than 

 that of any other disease ; and it is unique in being a 

 disease in which pandemic outbreaks, — invading man- 

 kind at irregular intervals in an unexplained manner, 

 — can be entirely and have been largely controlled by 

 vaccination and by the public health measures which 

 circumscribe the action of the virus of small-pox. 



Small-pox furthermore is a disease which in recent 

 years, and probably also in the past and even in the 

 pre- vaccination period, has prevailed as two different 

 varieties. One no physician could cure, and one no 

 malapraxis could render fatal to the patient. Thus, in 

 ten cities in the United States, of every loo persons 

 attacked by small-pox in 1922, 28-4 died, whereas in 

 1920 the fatality rate in the same cities was only 0-2 

 per cent. Evidently we are dealing in this experience 

 with two diseases or with two definite mutations of the 

 same disease. That the second is the right explana- 

 tion is shown by the fact that vaccination protects 

 against the mild as well as against the severe small- 

 pox. In recent years our knowledge of the milder 

 variety of small-pox has greatly increased. It has 

 prevailed widely throughout America, spreading from 

 the Southern Atlantic across to the Pacific. It has 

 invaded Great Britain, and the recent mild outbreak 

 of small-pox in Gloucester and the Midlands belongs 

 to this type. 



The mild character of the small-pox in unvaccinated 

 persons in the recent outbreak has raised doubts in 

 some minds as to the necessity for vaccination ; but 

 the following facts show the fallacy of this view. First, 

 vaccination protects against the mild as against the 

 severe small-pox. Secondly, there is a difference in 

 degree of severity of attack, — on a lower grade than 

 with the more serious type of disease, — of vaccinated 

 and unvaccinated respectively ; and thirdly, although 

 details of current outbreaks are not yet available, it 

 will doubtless be found that, as in the mild outbreaks 

 of a few years ago, unvaccinated are attacked at a 

 much earlier age than the vaccinated. 



Nevertheless, if it could be certified that all subse- 

 quent outbreaks of small-pox would be of this unusual 



■ TA4 Fi'sM a«Mii< Dittatt. Smallpox and Vaccination, by Dr. John C. 

 McValL An Address to Members n( the Mouse of Commons in Committee 



Room No. 14, July 25, 

 (London : MacmiUan and 1 



1933. llie Minister of Health in the chair. 

 Co., Ltd.) Price 5^. 



NO. 2820, VOL. 112] 



