Sept. 30, 1875] 



NATURE 



471 



opposition. "Whoever will be careful to read the 

 last public report, and the short but most weighty 

 statement with which Mr. Simon introduces it to 

 his chiefs, will see plainly that this kind of opposi- 

 tion is founded in misapprehension or ignorance. 

 The information sought is such as may help to inform 

 the State how to offer most effectual resistance to 

 the introduction of disease from without, and to the exten- 

 sion of disease within. It concerns resistance to typhoid 

 fever, small pox, and many other diseases of well recog- 

 nised contagious nature, and the possibiUty of controlling 

 the extension of diseases less recognised as having like 

 nature, as for instance what Mr. Simon calls " the tuber- 

 cular infection." " It aims to be a systematic study of the 

 intimate pathology of the morbid infections, acute and 

 chronic." 



Mr. Simon in his remarks points out that much of 

 the study involved is most elaborate and purely scientific, 

 never immediately convertible to pecuniary profit, but 

 perhaps, on the contrary, involving heavy cost ; not pre- 

 tending to immediate popular application, but addressing 

 itself primarily to the deeper scientific requirements of 

 the medical profession, and therefore in an extreme 

 degree technical. Studies of this sort cannot be culti- 

 vated to any adequate extent by private medical investi- 

 gators, and the scientific investigations set going by the 

 2,000/. grant have a distinctive intention to supplement 

 the ordinary resources of private medical observation in 

 the direction already indicated. The work connects 

 itself with the objects of preventive rather than with the 

 objects of curative medicine, and in addition to inves- 

 tigations into the aetiology of infective diseases, it in- 

 cludes some very elaborate research concerning normal 

 standards, histological and chemical, of the tissues in- 

 volved in the morbid infective processes. 



The latest published volume, entitled " Report made 

 to the Lords of the Council on Scientific Investigations 

 made under their direction, in aid of Pathology and 

 Medicine," contains the result of five researches : — (i 

 Dr. Sanderson's Further Report on the Intimate Path- 

 ology of Contagion ; (2) Dr. Klein's Research into the 

 Contagium of Variola Ovina ; (3) Dr. Klein's Research 

 into the Lymphatic System and its relation to Tubercle ; 

 (4) Dr. Creighton's Anatomical Research towards the 

 y^tiology of Cancer ; (5) Dr. Thudichum's Research into 

 the Chemical Constitution of the Brain. 



Dr. Sanderson's paper is a sequel to a former Re- 

 port on the nature of infecting agents or contagia, in 

 which Chauveau's opinion, expressed in the sentence " All 

 contagia are probably particulate," was supported. The 

 present paper treats of the infecting agents and morbid 

 processes in diphtheria, erysipelas, splenic fever, and 

 relapsing fever. In relation to all of these a mass of 

 evidence collected from many observers is adduced to 

 show that vegetable forms are connected with the con- 

 tagions or with the morbid process. In splenic fever and 

 relapsing fever organisms of a distinctive and specific 

 form are declared to be present in the blood ; bacterium- 

 like rods accompanying splenic fever, minute organisms 

 to which the name of spirilla has been given accompany- 

 ing relapsing fever. In an "addendum" some observations 

 of Dr. Letzerich, of Bramfels, Nassau, and of Dr. Oertel, 

 of Munich, on the inoculation of animals with diphtheric 



poison are reported. From these it appears that in 

 animals receiving the poison (derived from the throat of 

 a child) by subcutaneous injection, the characteristic 

 affection of the throat was developed after a few hours, 

 and that the infiltration of tissues with the same sort of 

 micrococci as are found infiltrating them in diphtheria 

 always occurred. 



Dr. Klein's first communication relates to the con- 

 tagium of Variola Ovina, and describes certain small 

 organised forms — bacteria, micrococci,, and microsphaera 

 gathered into colonies by long filaments— as found in the 

 lymph from vesicles. The same forms are found in cavi- 

 ties formed in the rete Malpighii and subjacent corium, 

 where the pock is developed after inoculation, extending 

 afterwards into and occupying in vast numbers the lym- 

 phatics of the corium. 



Dr. Klein's second communication treats of the Lym- 

 phatic System in relation to Tubercle. It commences 

 with a minute and original description of the micro- 

 scopical anatomy of the serous membranes, and their 

 relation to the lymphatics, and compares with this the 

 conditions in acute and chronic inflammation, noting in 

 particular the processes leading to the formation of new 

 blood-vessels and lymphatics both in healthy and diseased 

 membranes. The second part of this communication relates 

 to the lymphatics of the lungs in health, in certain chronic 

 inflammations, and in tubercular infection. The appear- 

 ances in the lungs of guinea-pigs after the production of 

 artificial tuberculosis and in human lungs in tuberculosis 

 are compared. Dr. Klein comes to the conclusion that 

 the two processes are only to a limited extent similar (a 

 conclusion opposed to the opinions of Sanderson and 

 Wilson Fox). According to Dr. Klein, " in artificial 

 tuberculosis of the lung of the guinea-pig the parts first 

 attacked are the small branches of the pulmonary artery 

 or pulmonary vein, whereas in acute miliary tuberculosis 

 of man the capillary blood-vessels of the alveoli seem to 

 be the tissue from which the action of the morbid agent 

 starts. 



Dr. Creighton's paper is a very thoughtful contribution 

 to the present knowledge of cancer. It relates some 

 unsuccessful attempts to propagate cancer by inoculation, 

 and a number of careful observations as to the process of 

 formation of secondary cancerous tumours. The atten- 

 tion is chiefly fixed upon the epithelium in relation to 

 hyperplastic and heteroplastic (endoplastic) growth. Dr. 

 Creighton infers from his observations that the efficient 

 cause of secondary tumours in the liver is the substitution 

 of the endoplastic for the normal (or excessive but still 

 homo- though hyper-) plastic activity of the liver cells. 

 The operation of deeper or extraneous causes is dis- 

 cussed, but left undecided. Hope is expressed that aids 

 to a decision may be obtained from the results of a syste- 

 matic examination of mammary tumour now proceeding. 



Dr. Thudichum's research is a study of the normal 

 chemical constitution of the brain, undertaken to pre- 

 pare the way for a study of the brain in fevers, and 

 other morbid states and processes. The paper is very 

 long, occupying more than half of the 247 pages of the 

 Report, and most elaborate. Dr. Thudichum believes 

 that he has both added to and corrected former know- 

 ledge of the chemistry of Jhe brain. In particular he 

 describes with careful detail a number of newly observed 



