722 



NA TURE 



[June 3, 1922 



an insight into the conditions of rural hygiene which 

 was most useful to him in after life. So valuable did 

 the central health authority of those days consider 

 Bruce-Low's work in Helmsley that he was invited in 

 1887 to become a medical inspector of the Local Govern- 

 ment Board, an invitation which he readily accepted. 

 Here he came into intimate association with Buchanan, 

 Thorne-Thome, and Power, who, as successors to John 

 Simon, were engaged in building up the English public 

 health service. Bruce-Low conducted several inquiries 

 and wrote many important reports for the Local 

 Government Board, the best known of which are those 

 cm the progress and diffusion of plague, cholera, and 

 yellow fever, the epidemiology of typhus fever, acute 

 anterior poliomyelitis (1916), and smallpox (1918). 

 Through his epidemiological studies Bruce-Low 

 acquired an intimate knowledge of port sanitary 

 administration, and in reply to an inquiry, furnished 

 the Rockefeller Institute with a statement on the facts 

 which led to the abandonment of quarantine in the 

 United Kingdom. After holding many examinerships 

 for the diploma of public health, he was appointed by 



the General Medical Council their Inspector of Examina- 

 tions for degrees and diplomas in pubhc health, work 

 which occupied him for the greater part of the last 

 two years of his life, and the outcome of which was a 

 valuable report and a revised scheme of examination, 

 now under consideration. Bruce-Low became assistant 

 medical officer of the Local Government Board in 

 1900, retiring in 191 1. He served on the War Office 

 Anti-typhoid Inoculation Committee, 1904-12, and 

 on the outbreak of war he was recalled to the Local 

 Government Board, finally retiring in 1920. 



Bruce-Low was always ready to help his colleagues, 

 to whom he was a true friend ; he was proud of being 

 a Civil Servant, and his distinguished services to his 

 country and to the science of preventive medicine 

 were officially recognised in 191 9, when he was ap- 

 pointed C.B. R. T. H. 



We notice with much regret the announcement in 

 the Lancet of the death, on May 18, of Prof. Charles 

 Louis Alfonse Laveran, Foreign Member of the Royal 

 Society, at the age of seventy-six years. 



Current Topics and Events. 



The Royal Academy of Belgium celebrated the 

 one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of its foundation 

 on May 23 and 24 in the presence of a large number 

 of its members and of delegates from other academies 

 and learned institutions. On the Wednesday after- 

 noon, May 24, numerous congratulatory addresses 

 were presented at the Palais des Academies, and the 

 members and visitors were afterwards received at the 

 Hotel de Ville by the Mayor of Brussels, M. Adolf 

 Max, and his Aldermen, MM. Steens, Vande Meule- 

 brouck and Coelst ; a reception was held at the Palais 

 des Academies in the evening, where an exhibition of 

 medals and portraits connected with the history of 

 the Academy had been arranged. The anniversary 

 celebration itself was held in the large hall of the 

 Academy on the afternoon of May 25 in the presence 

 of the King, the Minister of Arts and Science, M. 

 Hubert, formerly Rector of the University of Liege, 

 Cardinal Mercier, and the English, French, Dutch, 

 Spanish, and Japanese Ambassadors. The president, 

 M. Vauthier, in an address of welcome, briefly sketched 

 the history of the Academy and its influence on the 

 intellectual development of Belgium. The Minister 

 of Justice, M. Masson, tendered the congratulations 

 of the Belgian Government, and Monseigneur Baud- 

 rillart spoke in the name of the Institut de France. 

 Sir W^illiam B. Leishman, as vice-president of the 

 Royal Society, represented the British universities 

 and learned societies ; he referred to the activities 

 of Belgian bacteriologists and paid a high tribute to 

 the work of M. Jules Bordet. MM. Lameere, Pirenne, 

 and Verlant, representing respectively the classes of 

 science, of letters, and moral and political sciences, and 

 of fine arts, contributed summaries of the activities 

 of their several sections of the Academy. Later the 

 visitors were received by the King and the Queen at 

 the Palace of Laeken, and in the evening a banquet 

 was held at the Hotel Astoria. 



NO. 2744, VOL. 109] 



The Council of the Museums Association has 

 addressed an emphatic protest to the Prime Minister 

 against the proposal to reinstitute charges for admis- 

 sion to the National Galleries and Museums. It is only 

 in recent years that the importance of Museums and 

 Art Galleries as factors in the educational machinery 

 of the country has been fully recognised, and this is 

 due largely to the progressive action of the Govern- 

 ment in advocating consistently the policy of free 

 admission and in providing guides which have 

 advanced materially the popularity and usefulness of 

 our National Institutions. The Association feels that 

 the proposed reversal of a policy adopted after many 

 years' experience will be a serious set-back to Museum 

 work, both in regard to the wider education of the 

 nation and the provision of wholesome recreation for 

 the people. If the proposal is adopted it is bound to 

 have an influence on the policy of provincial Museums, 

 the governing bodies of which are largely influenced 

 by the example set by the State. The Association 

 suggests that the far-reaching injury likely to follow 

 the imposition of admission fees would greatly out- 

 weigh the small additional income, 10,000/., which is 

 expected to accrue. 



The highly controversial subject of the college- 

 trained engineer was chosen by Prof. Frederic Bacon 

 for his presidential address to the Swansea Engineer- 

 ing Association of Students of the South Wales 

 Institute of Engineers. Prof. Bacon had a good deal 

 to say about the conditions which the student is 

 likely to find in works after he leaves college, and 

 the kind of experience which he will then acquire. 

 One of the least satisfactory features of the pre-war 

 position was that scarcely any British firms were 

 undertaking new development work ; nearly every 

 innovation in engineering practice was imported from 

 the continent or the United States, a state of affairs 



