20 



NATURE 



[January 5, 1922 



Canon Norman he published a monograph of the 

 Ostracoda of the North Atlantic and North-western 

 Europe, and also a catalogue of the Crustacea of 

 Northumberland and Durham. 



Prof. Brady's scientific work was done at home. 

 Although he restricted his publications mainly to 

 the results of his examination of Entomostraca from 

 collections made in this and other countries — 

 notably Australia and South Africa — his character- 

 istically neat preparations show that he had interests 

 in all groups which came into the field of his micro- 

 scope. He was a pioneer in marine dredging, and 



took an active part in the Northumberland excur- 

 sions of the early 'sixties, and in the 'nineties he 

 was as keen as before. 



It was a pleasure to know Prof. Brady, to be 

 his friend, to watch him work and hear him talk 

 on men and things, on politics and related subjects, 

 and those who had not this privilege will find from 

 his addresses to the Tyneside Naturalists' Club that 

 he gave a critical and well-thought-out considera- 

 tion to the important questions which arose during 

 his long life and that he had decided opinions and 

 was fearless in expressing them. A. M. 



Notes. 



We are particularly glad to see the names of Prof. 

 C. S. Sherrington and Prof. W. A. Herdman in the 

 list of New Year honours. Prof. Sherrington, who 

 has been appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the 

 Order of the British Empire (G.B.E.), is the president 

 of the Royal Society, and is to be president of the 

 British Association for the meeting to be held in Hull 

 In September next; and Prof. Herdman, who has 

 received the honour of knighthood, vacated the presi- 

 dential chair at the Edinburgh meeting last year. 

 The two leading British scientific organisations are 

 thus most appropriately represented in the honours 

 list. Other honours included in the list are : — Knight-, 

 hoods: Prof. G. E. Cory, professor of chemistry, 

 Rhodes University College, Grahamstown ; Dr. G. S. 

 Buchanan, Senior Medical Officer Ministry of Health ; 

 and Dr. J. H. Parsons, F.R.S. K.C.I. E.: Sir John 

 Biles, professor of naval architecture, University of 

 Glasgow. C.M.G.: Dr. R. T. Paton, Director- 

 General of Public Health and President of the Board 

 of Health, New South Wales. 



This week we begin the publication of a Calendar 

 of Industrial Pioneers, which is intended to supple- 

 ment the Calendar of Scientific Pioneers which ap- 

 peared in our columns last year. It is not necessary 

 here to point out the close association that exists 

 between scientific discovery and industrial progress. 

 The two are inseparable. Problems of communication, 

 transport, mining, agriculture, and manufacture 

 depend for their solution on the co-operation of the 

 laboratory and the works. We believe, therefore, that 

 our readers will welcome the series of biographical 

 notes which will recall the great engineers, inventors, 

 manufacturers, and captains of industry who, by the 

 application of the discoveries of the pioneers of science, 

 have extended existing Industries, created new ones, 

 or in some other way contributed to the advancement 

 of civilisation. 



A CONFERENCE whIch Commenced on December 12 

 last was held by permission of the Government at the 

 Ministry of Health, at which delegates from the 

 Health Committee of the League of Nations dis- 

 cussed the International standardisation of thera- 

 peutic serums and the sero-diagnosis of syphilis. 

 Prof. Madsen, of Denmark, presided, and Austria, 

 Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Poland, 

 ■ Switzerland, Great Britain, and the British Ministry 

 NO. 2723, VOL. 109] 



of Health, the War Office, and the Medical Research 

 Council were represented, and the business was con- 

 ducted by sub-committees. As regards diphtheria and 

 tetanus antitoxins, it was considered both possible and 

 desirable that international units should be fixed for 

 these serums, and a scheme of work to establish them 

 was drawn up. As regards antl-menlngococcic, antl- 

 pneumococcic, and anti-dysentery serums, various 

 criticisms were made of the present technique for 

 standardising these, and a scheme of new investiga- 

 tions to obtain more uniformity was adopted. As 

 regards the sero-diagnosis of syphilis, a scheme for 



j comparing the results obtained by the Wassermann 

 reaction with those of other methods was drawn up. 



I An official luncheon was given by the Government 

 to the delegates and guests, at which Sir Alfred Mond 



i presided. It is understood that the conference will 



j meet again In six months' time, probably at the 

 Pasteur Institute, Paris, to report progress and to 



I make further recommendations. 



The Times of December 24 published a telegram 

 : from Delhi announcing that Mrs. Aldie, who is the 

 widow of the late Lt.-Col. Aldle, I. M.S., has dis- 

 covered a parasite in the salivary glands of the bed- 

 ! bug, which is probably a stage of the Leishmania 

 \ Donovani parasite of kala-azar. If this important dis- 

 covery is confirmed it will furnish the final proof of 

 the truth of the theory of Sir Leonard Rogers that 

 the common bed-bug Is the carrier of the infection. 

 The human stage of the parasite was first described 

 by Sir William Leishman in 1903, and was f6und in- 

 dependently by Lt.-Col. Donovan, I. M.S., while in 

 1904 Rogers cultivated the organism in viiro and 

 discovered the flagellate stage of the parasite. In 

 the following year he recorded experiments showing 

 that sterility and a neutral or slightly acid medium, 

 such as he found in the stomach of bed-bugs, were 

 most suitable for this development, while the plan 

 he had advised as early as 1897, of moving healthy 

 coolies out of infected into new lines only a few 

 hundred yards away, had proved so successful in 

 eradicating the disease from tea estates that the in- 

 fecting agent was not likely to be a flying one, and 

 he pointed out that infection through the ubiquitous 

 bed-bug would explain all the known facts. Major 

 Patton, I. M.S., in Madras next obtained the develop- 

 ment of the flagellate stage of .the. parasite in the 



