December 30, 19 15] 



NATURE 



483 



from child-bearing is practically the same in St. 

 Helens and in Croydon — two towns which differ 

 markedly in general social and sanitary circum- 

 stances, and West Ham, a relatively poor and 

 squalid neighbourhood, has a rate lower than 

 that of towns like Brighton, Bournemouth, and 

 Hastings ! When it is realised that the mortality 

 j from child-bearing varies from 8' 54 in Dewsbury 

 to 2 '20 in West Ham, it follows that by the adop- 

 tion of improved measures of care of the prospec- 

 tive mothers before and at childbirth, we may 

 hope materially to reduce what is one of the most 

 pathetic forms of loss of life. The care of pro- 

 spective mothers is still more necessary at the 

 present time, when there is such a considerable 

 increase in female labour, and such care will, in 

 addition, diminish the number of still-births and 

 of damaged children born. 



Not only the maintenance, but the further in- 

 crease, of our present rate of increase of popu- 

 lation must be regarded as one of the most serious 

 and urgent of national problems and responsi- 

 bilities at the present time. The child is now a 

 national asset of great price, and for the successful 

 rearing of the greatest possible number we must 

 look to improved care of prospective and actual 

 mothers, and improvement of mothercraft and of 

 infant and child welfare. R. T. Hewlett. 



^B MEDICAL RESEARCH. 



^^BPHE first annual report (1914-1915) of the 

 HV' Medical Research Committee has been pub- 

 '^lished. It bears date October 18, which is very 

 appropriate, because that is St. Luke's day, the 

 day of the beloved physician. St. Luke's medical 

 knowledge, doubtless, was that which Browning 

 ascribes to Karshish : we have improved on St. 

 Luke, so far as medicine is concerned. This re- 

 port is a notable bit of work. The Medical Re- 

 search Committee, as we all know, was born of 

 the Insurance Act, and was endowed, at birth, 

 with a penny in the pound. It was intended to 

 study the diseases of civil and industrial life. It 

 was born in August, 191 3. A twelvemonth later 

 came the war. Pendent opera interrupta — the 

 work on the diseases of dangerous trades, the 

 w ork on the commoner maladies of our big cities, 

 was more or less declared off. The nation was 

 thrown, all of a sudden, all unprepared, into that 

 most dangerous of all dangerous trades, War. 



In this crisis, this day of judgment — for that 

 is the meaning, and the only meaning, of the 

 Greek word crisis — the Medical Research Com- 

 mittee took a very wise course. It added to its 

 first scheme of work a series of proposals for 

 special work, to be undertaken by the committee, 

 in direct connection with the war and for the 

 assistance of the Army Medical Department ; and 

 it made up its mind that as the war goes on 

 there will be less and less work to be done for the 

 nation apart from the Navy and the Army. 



Not only was the plan of work upset by the 

 war, but the Central Research Institute, the build- 

 NO. 2409, VOL. 96] 



ings of the Mount Vernon Hospital at H amp- 

 stead,^ had to be transformed into the Hampstead 

 Military Hospital. And, as the proposals for 

 amalgamation with the Lister Institute, after very 

 careful consideration, have been suspended, we 

 might say that the Medical Research Committee is 

 still without a proper home of its own. But it has 

 found many temporary homes or resting-places for 

 its work, and a welcome for it everywhere. 



The researches into subjects connected with the 

 war cover a very wide range. Work has been 

 done at many of the general hospitals of the 

 Territorial Force, and at other military hospitals. 

 Valuable help has been given towards the prepara- 

 tion of the medical history of the war. Wound 

 infections, typhoid and paratyphoid infections, and 

 cerebro-spinal fever have been very carefully 

 studied; so have many problems apart from 

 bacteriology. Special interest attaches to Dr. 

 Leonard Hill's study of asphyxiating gases, and 

 to Dr. John Freeman's expedition to Galicia, 

 whence he brought back cultures of strains of 

 cholera-bacilli, for St. Mary's Hospital to make 

 anti-cholera vaccines for the Serbian Government 

 and for our Mediterranean forces ; and to Dr. 

 Leiper's discovery that a fresh-water snail is the 

 intermediate host, between man and man, of the 

 Bilharzia parasite. Other important studies in- 

 clude the work done on " neurological " cases, and 

 the testing of British makes of salvarsan. 



In brief, this report is a very fine record of good 

 work done under most unexpected conditions. 

 The moral is, that he or she who works for the 

 forces of the Allies is working also, in the long 

 run, for the nation at home. It is not a weak- 

 ness, but an added strength, of science, that it 

 can adapt itself to circumstances, and venture into 

 new fields of research at a moment's notice. When 

 the war is over, there will be time enough for the 

 workers under the Medical Research Committee to 

 come back to win other laurels for science in the 

 ways of peace. 



FOOD ECONOMY. 

 A NUMBER of useful pamphlets are being 

 -^^- issued just now on how to economise in war 

 time in the matter of food. One of these, by 

 Prof. W. H. Thompson, of Trinity College, 

 Dublin, we noticed a short time ago. The latest 

 that has come into our hands, entitled " Food 

 Economy in War Time " (Cambridge : At the 

 University Press, price 6d.), should be widely read 

 and acted upon. It is written by Profs. T. B. 

 Wood and F. G. Hopkins, both of whom can 

 speak with authority, one from the agricultural, 

 the other from the physiological, point of view. 

 It is written in a clear style, such as the man in 

 tHe street, or, what is more important, the woman 

 in the kitchen, can understand. 



There are many in this country who cannot 

 economise; they already exist on the minimum. 

 Saving must therefore be accomplished by the 

 comparatively well-to-do, and that this can be 

 done without detriment to health is clearly shown. 



