688 



NATURE 



[May 27, 1922 



cuts off the light altogether when the mirror is deflected, 

 is used in place of the graduated screen in the receiving 

 apparatus. 



M. Belin has perfected a portable form of the trans- 

 mitting apparatus for connection to any telephone line. 

 Considerable possibilities, both in illustrated journalism 



and in police work, by the prompt transmission of 

 portraits, finger-prints, handwriting, etc., are opened 

 up by apparatus of this kind, and obviously the system 

 preserves secrecy, as regards all ordinary listening-in 

 apparatus, as the actual signals sent furnish no clue to 

 the nature of the picture being transmitted. 



Current Topics and Events. 



On May 17 the House of Lords, again prompted by 

 Lord Sudeley, asked the Government to encourage 

 the educational use of museums, and the Govern- 

 ment, by the mouth of Lord Hylton, expressed the 

 willingness of the Treasury " to consider in a very 

 sympathetic spirit any further requests " for the 

 appointment of guide-lecturers, also its own " desire 

 to encourage all steps that can be taken to develop 

 the sale of " photographs and other reproductions of 

 objects in the national museums. Fair words ! And 

 progress has been made since the debate initiated by 

 Lord Sudeley fourteen months ago. How does the 

 Government translate word into act ? It has just 

 cut down the grant for the production of these popular 

 publications, and, if its threat to reimpose admission 

 by payment be enforced, it will deal a severe blow at 

 the whole business and at the usefulness of the guide- 

 lecturers. Never was anything so ridiculous per- 

 petrated in the name of economy. That the sale of 

 publications is a source of income is admitted by the 

 Treasury. At the British Museum (Bloomsbury) an 

 advanced policy has raised the receipts under this 

 head from 3400/. in 1920-1921 to 6200Z. in 1921-1922, 

 thus more than paying for the whole cost of guide- 

 lecturers. The introduction of pay-days will in- 

 evitably check this sale, and what will it bring in ? 

 The average receipts from admission at the Victoria 

 and Albert Museum during the twelve years the 

 system was in force were about 650^. per annum. At 

 the Natural History Museum an expensive stall has 

 just been fitted and saleswomen engaged, and now the 

 authorities expect to have to spend 250/. on turn- 

 stiles and to lose 400/. on sales. One after the other 

 the leaders of industry tell us that the secret of 

 recuperation is' more production ; yet the Govern- 

 ment, when it has a paying business, proposes to 

 economise by checking production. 



The Metropolitan- Vickers Electrical Co., Ltd., which 

 has a large works at Trafford Park, Manchester, de- 

 voted to the manufacture of electrical machines and 

 apparatus, proposes to take up the manufacture of 

 radio receiving equipment, and for this purpose will 

 work in conjunction with the Radio Communication 

 Co. of London. The Radio Communication Co. . which 

 is associated with the Indo-European and Eastern 

 Telegraph Cos., was formed in 1919 to carry on 

 business in connection with the establishment of 

 radio telegraph and telephone installations and is 

 well known for its important work during the war. 

 The manager of the Metropolitan- Vickers Co.'s Re- 

 search and Education Departments, Mr. A. P. M. 

 Fleming, has been negotiating during the last few 

 months with the Postmaster-General with reference 

 NO. 2743, VOL. 109] 



to the establishment of broad-casting stations, and 

 the companies propose to establish two stations im- 

 mediately, one at Trafford Park, Manchester, and 

 the other at Slough. Other stations are projected as 

 required. Immediately the official arrangements are 

 made with regard to the areas to be covered and sites 

 of the broad-casting stations, active steps will be taken 

 to provide suitable programmes for broad-casting and 

 to manufacture the necessary receiving equipment. 

 The Westinghouse Co. of America initiated the broad- 

 casting of information and entertainment by radio 

 telephony and has very extensive experience in con- 

 nection with it. The Metropolitan-Vickers Co. is 

 technically very closely associated with the Westing- 

 house Co. and will be able to draw upon this 

 unique experience, which with the utilisation of a 

 number of fundamental patents in connection with 

 wireless telephony, the experience of the Radio Com- 

 munication Co. and its own selling, manufacturing, 

 and research organisation, should place the Company 

 in an exceptionally favourable position in entering 

 this new field. 



A TELEGRAM has been received from Fiji reporting 

 the successful treatment of more than 12,000 hook- 

 worm cases by carbon tetrachloride with 90 per cent, 

 of cures with one dose, and the removal of 98 per 

 cent, of the worms. This method was tried first on 

 dogs by Dr. Maurice C. Hall of the United States 

 Bureau of Animal Industry, who found that 0-3 c.c. 

 of the drug for every kilogram of live weight expelled 

 all the hookworms of those animals, a result he had 

 never previously obtained by any other method of 

 treatment, while it could be given after fasting in 

 hard gelatin capsules without purgation being neces- 

 sary. As the new drug is much less toxic and far 

 cheaper than either thymol or oil of chenopodium, the 

 last of which has given rise to a number of fatalities 

 owing to the uncertain amount of the active principle 

 in different samples, these are matters of great 

 practical importance, and the remarkable success of 

 the trial now reported will, if confirmed by further 

 observations, prove a notable advance in dealing 

 with this the most widespread health- and labour- 

 destroying scourge of immense areas of the world. 



With reference to the reported discovery of a 

 stage of the Leishmania donovani parasite of kala- 

 azar in the salivary gland of a bed bug in Assam, 

 information has now been received that Lt.-Col. 

 Christophers, I. M.S., has reported the specimens of 

 Mrs. Aidie to show only a normal parasite of the bed 

 bug, which has no relationship to the organism of 

 kala-azar, so the solution of the problem of the 

 carrier of that disease is still incomplete. 



