620 



NA TURE 



[M 



AY I 



1922 



McNee demonstrated that it could be transmitted 

 from man to man by the inoculation of a small quantity 

 of blood, and suggested that the usual manner of spread 

 was by the agency of the innumerable lice infesting 

 our soldiers. In 191 7 a committee to study this new 

 disease was appointed by the War Office with Sir David 

 Bruce as chairman, and Bacot was invited to join as 

 entomological member. The British Trench Fever 

 Committee showed first that McNee's suggestion was 

 correct and that this disease was transmitted by lice, 

 a fact subsequently confirmed by the American Com- 

 mission in France. In the course of their experiments 

 Arkwright and Bacot confirmed the observation of 

 Topfer that minute pleomorphic bodies, of the order 

 of magnitude 0-3 to 0-5 \x. and somewhat similar to 

 Rickettsia prowazeki, supposed by Rocha Limas and 

 others to be the cause of typhus, were present in the 

 gut of lice which had been fed upon patients suffering 

 from trench fever. They failed to find them in lice 

 with an unexceptional family history, brought up for 

 generations by Bacot and nourished upon his own 

 blood. Bacot studied the development of the little 

 microbes in the gut of the louse day by day after its 

 meal of infective blood, and he and his colleagues 

 established that only lice in which these bodies 

 were present were capable of transmitting trench 

 fever. All attempts to cultivate the organisms have 

 so far failed and the supposed causality of trench fever 

 rests upon these observations of association. 



Similar structures had been described by Ricketts and 

 Wilder in 1910 in the gut of lice fed upon typhus fever 

 cases, and later by Wolbach in the tissues of patients 

 who had fallen victims to this disease. There was thus 

 reason for supposing that the virus of both trench fever 

 and typhus was of the same nature, and consisted of 

 a new type of microbe which propagated in the tissue 

 of the gut of lice and in the human body should it 

 find access thereto. 



Accordingly, when trench fever disappeared from 

 this country, on the cessation of war, leaving many 

 problems concerning it unsolved, Bacot turned his 

 attention to typhus, as this disease presented analogies 

 both as regards etiology and method of transmission. 

 In 1920 he joined the Typhus Research Commission of 

 the League of the Red Cross Society and went to Poland, 

 taking with him a supply of his lice with a clean family 

 history. He was responsible for the insect side of the 

 investigation which, in view of the nature of the prob- 

 lem, was not the least important. The Commission, 

 which has recently published its report, made many 

 valuable observations. It was able to confirm under 

 more rigid conditions of experimentation, earlier work 

 which had been carried out in various parts of the 

 world. The probability that Rickettsia prowazeki is 

 the virus of typhus was thereby materially increased, 

 but the labours of the Commission left the evidence 

 resting upon association only. 



In the course of work at Warsaw, Bacot accidentally 

 infected himself with trench fever. Being in want of 

 a further supply of lice for his experiments, he collected 

 them from a public bath-house and nourished them 

 upon his person. A sharp attack of the fever followed, 

 and some of the insects were found to harbour the 

 Rickettsia he and Arkwright had described in their 

 work for the Trench Fever Committee two years pre- 



NO. 2741, VOL. 109] 



viously. Afterwards, for some months, he was able to 

 infect his clean stock of lice by feeding them on himself. 

 Returning to London in the summer of 1920, with the 

 collaboration of his colleagues Arkwright and Atkin, 

 Bacot continued his endeavours to settle the matter 

 of the virus of typhus. They were unfavourably situ- 

 ated in London to obtain a supply of typhus material. 1 

 Consequently, when towards the end of last year an I 

 invitation came from the Egyptian Government to study 

 the problem in Cairo, where typhus is endemic, the 

 opportunity was welcomed . In company with Arkwright 

 he proceeded to Egypt early in the year, and was soon 

 installed in the excellent laboratories of the Depart- 

 ment of Public Health, presided over by an old colleague. 

 Dr. Charles Todd. The research was advancing with 

 promise and his letters expressed enthusiasm regarding 

 its progress. On March 24 he became ill and died on 

 April 12. 



Bacot had a passion for knowledge and a natural 

 aptitude for scientific research. If the attainment of 

 his quest promised to be of service to his fellow- 

 creatures, this was an added attraction. He was well 

 acquainted with the risks attending some of his work 

 but, whilst never reckless, he was not a man to be 

 deterred by danger from the pursuit of a useful inquiry. 

 Its existence indeed appealed to a side of his nature 

 which contributed to the charm of his personality. 



His comrades at the Institute are proud of his attain- 

 ments, but will rather remember him as a dear friend 

 who was always helpful and was never known to be 

 inconsiderate or unkind. C. J. M. 



Loms Ranvier. 



It must come as -a^urprise to many of the younger 

 generation of biologists that Ranvier, whose name 

 is immortalised in countless text-books, has but 

 recently passed away. Born at Lyons in 1835, Louis 

 Ranvier was attracted at the outset of his medical 

 career to the study of histology, both normal and 

 pathological. As concerns the minute investigation of 

 the tissues, research and discovery were to all intents 

 and purposes stagnant in France when the youthful 

 Ranvier, full of indomitable zeal and unquenchable 

 enthusiasm, devoted himself to the subject and deter- 

 mined that a study, the foundation stones of which 

 had been laid by the great Frenchman, Bichat, should 

 be worthily pursued. His early work was carried 

 out in a small private laboratory which he equipped 

 in the Rue Christine in Paris, where he and his friend 

 Cornil not only taught the principles of histology to 

 students but also produced, as a result of their joint 

 efforts, the " Traite d'anatomie pathologique," a 

 treatise which rapidly became classical. 



Ranvier soon attracted the notice of Claude Bernard, 

 who, recognising his great technical skill, enlisted his 

 services for the College of France in 1867. He was 

 soon put in full charge of a newly instituted Laboratory 

 of Histology, where his reputation and fame grew so 

 rapidly that a chair of general anatomy was created 

 for him, into which he was installed in 1876. For a 

 period of thirty years he was associated with the College 

 of France, where he laboured with untiring zeal and 

 where his most important discoveries were made. 



The field covered by Ranvier's researches is exceed- 



