mm 



714 



NA TURE 



November 17, 1923 



mild type, the neces«ity for vaccination would be less 

 urgent than it nuwr is. It might be limited to persons 

 cxfwsed to actual infection, or living in the neighbour- 

 hood of outbreaks. No such assurance can be given. 

 In New York, both types of small-jwx have been known 

 to prevail at the same time. Our knowledge of the 

 causation of variations in type of disease and of the 

 correlative changes in virulence of virus and in fatality 

 of attack is almost nil ; and in practice we must be 

 guided by the experience of the past, which shows that 

 Great Britain is liable to be invaded at intervals not 

 only with a relatively innocent type of small-j)ox 

 coming from the west, but also with a virulent type, 

 hailing from Asia and Africa. We cannot afford to 

 relax our sanitary precautions against both types of 

 the disease, nor can we afford to neglect the artificial 

 immunity against attack which vaccination affords. 



Whether in the future the secrets of the origin of 

 the milder type of small-pox will be revealed, or whether 

 it may be practicable to isolate the virus of small-pox 

 or of this virus as organically modified in vaccine lymph, 

 and afford a method of vaccination on a completely 

 scientific basis, one cannot prophesy; but meanwhile 

 the preventive measures already in our hands must be 

 utilised to their fullest extent, and these enable us to 

 control with absolute certainty the epidemic course of 

 small-pox in its intermittent raids on mankind. Of no 

 other disease can this be said with equal certainty, 

 except in regard to certain tropical diseases, and to 

 such water-borne diseases as typhoid fever and cholera. 

 In a few years we may find that the same confident 

 statement can be made in respect of diphtheria, if 

 parents can be educated to realise the practicability 

 of testing their children's susceptibility to this disease 

 by what is known as the Schick test, and to appreciate 

 the equal practicability of securing artificial immunity 

 by means of toxin-antitoxin. 



Meanwhile we hope that Dr. McVail's pamphlet will 

 receive wide circulation. It establishes very clearly 

 and succinctly the propositions which it sets out to 

 prove, namely, that small-pox is worth preventing, 

 that it can be prevented by vaccination, that it cannot 

 be prevented without vaccination, and that properly 

 conducted vaccination is ver>- safe. 



A National Education Week. 



THE institution of a national " Education Week " 

 has been officially blessed by the new President 

 of the United States in an impressive Proclamation in 

 which, after reciting the benefits of education, especially 

 adult education, Mr. Coolidge declares an annual 

 observance of Education Week to be desirable '* in 

 order that the people may think on these thin-s. ' 

 He proclaims the week beginning November i8 as the 



NO. 2820, VOL. 112] 



Education Week for 1933, and recommends that State 

 and local authorities co-operate with the civic and 

 religious bodi«" ♦" -<••••■<• \*^ ""»-• "<•"•-•! ■■"'! '"-Ipfiil 

 observance. 



Last year, President Harding and 42 State Governors 

 issued proclamations or statements on the subject, and 

 the week was said to have been a gigantic success. 

 It was estimated that the campaign reached ^o million 

 people, including 20 million in motion-picture houses. 

 It is probably due largely to the enthusiasm aroused 

 by these annual campaigns that the membership of 

 " parent-teacher " associations increased in two years 

 from 189,000 to 500,000. Reciprocally the associations 

 contribute enormously to the success of the Education 

 Weeks. Without some such machinery the effer- 

 vescence of the Education Week might subside without 

 leaving any permanent beneficial results. The efficacy' 

 of this kind of propaganda depends partly on the 

 interest already taken by the general public in education 

 and partly on their suggestibility, and what Americans 

 call " the magic of ' together '." 



In England a notable success was achieved last year 

 by the West Ham Education Week. This year local 

 weeks have been organised in Nottingham, Hastings, 

 Warrington, and Gillingham, and probably elsewhere. 

 Should an attempt be made to organise such oljserv- 

 ances on a national scale in England, experience gained 

 in organising the National Health Weeks initiated in 

 1913 by the Agenda Club might afford useful precedents. 

 The striking success of the Education Exhibitions 

 organised in London in connexion with the Imperial 

 Education Conference last July by the Board of 

 Education and the London County Council's Education 

 Committee indicates that a national Education Week, 

 if properly managed, would appeal to a ver>' large 

 public. Many recent developments in the schools, such 

 as the increased attention paid to the teaching of 

 science, drawing, manual training, dancing and other 

 physical training, dramatic performances, Montessori 

 methods, the use of " educational " films, and so on, 

 lend themselves readily to exhibitional purposes. On 

 the other hand, there are reasons for belie%ing that too 

 little effort has been made to cultivate close relations 

 between the schools and the communities they ser\-e. 



During the past twenty-five years the achievements 

 of science have been greater than in any previous 

 similar period of time in the history- of the world, but 

 less is done with the object of enlightening the public 

 regarding them than in the Victorian era. A Science 

 Week would do much to promote public appreciation 

 of the worth of science, and among other beneficial 

 results that might be looked for from such an enter- 

 prise is a much needed stimulation of interest in 

 University Extension work in the field of science. 



