November 5, 19 14] 



NATURE 



257 



reality of this effect the following sentences in a letter 

 just received from a correspondent in Florence bear 

 witness : — "' . . . e sapendo, d'altra parte, che I'lnghil- 

 terra sta fortemente sostenendo la sua bella lotta, 

 senza perdere il tradizionale sangue freddo ; per modo 

 che la vita continua costa quasi inalterata. La rego- 

 larita, con la quale i periodici scientifici continuano ad 

 apparire ne e la prova migliore." F. A. B. 



THE CARE OF THE WOUNDED. 



APURTHER paper by Medical Inspector- 

 General Delorme was read before the Paris 

 Academy of Sciences on September 28, on the 

 general subject of the treatment of wounds in 

 war {Coinptes rendus de I'Academie des Sciences, 

 October 5, 1914). 



The paper begins with a very welcome state- 

 ment that the health of the French Army is excel- 

 lent. "The persistent mildness of the weather 

 since the war began, the extreme carefulness of 

 he Government, the watchfulness of the Com- 

 mands, from the lowest to the highest, — such 

 fatherly watchfulness as you would not find, so 

 intense and so alert, in any other campaign — the 

 organisation and the regular methodical active 

 working of the Army Medical Service, the great 

 care given to the food-supply, the sites chosen for 

 the troops — all these, up to now, have resulted in 

 the maintenance of a perfect sanitary condition. 

 The wounded Frenchman is a healthy man. 

 Diseases are at a very low point. . . . Dysentery 

 I ad typhoid are almost unknown : the proportion 

 if cases has seemed to me to be even less than 

 1 time of peace." And, he adds, the spirit of 

 :he wounded men is perfect : it plays its great 

 part in the work of a speedy and permanent 

 recovery, "ce moral, qui est la traduction fidele 

 t tangible de la vitalite de I'homme." It is not 

 the wounded who are broken-hearted : " le trouble 

 n'est que dans le cceur des m^res." 



We are thankful to know that the general health 



>f the French Army, and of our own Expeditionary 



Force, is thoroughly satisfactory. How long this 



blessing will last we do not know. But we may 



>e quite certain that the Army Medical Services 



,;re working day and hight for it, not in vain. 



General Delorme 's paper goes on to consider 

 what more can be done for the wounded. He 

 urges, very justly, that the large proportion of 

 shrapnel-wounds and shell-wounds indicates the 

 advisability of having a rather elaborate field- 

 hospital system, as near the front as may be. 

 Wounds of this kind, of course, are infected from 

 the very moment of their occurrence : and it is 

 a matter of the highest importance that they 

 -hould be attended to, very thoroughly, at the 

 arliest moment possible. The "first dressing" 

 which may suffice for a cleaner wound, made by 

 a bullet, will not suffice for them. The occasion 

 nay require the use of X-rays, the extraction of 

 oreign bodies, the immediate administration of a 

 protective serum or vaccine, and .so forth : none 

 ■A them to be delayed. 



In the discussion of this communication the 

 speakers were Laveran, Roux, and Landouzy; 



NO. 2349, VOL.- 94] 



and the discussion was no less interesting than 

 the paper. One, and that the worst, consequence 

 of these infected wounds is, happily, under the 

 control of a protective serum-treatment; and we 

 may be sure that the money to provide that treat- 

 ment will not be lacking. It is not simply a 

 question of money : it is a question of what can 

 be done, in this colossal fighting, to avoid loss 

 of time in dealing thoroughly with so many in- 

 fected wounds. As Landouzy says — and it is 

 pleasant for an Englishman to read — " II faut que, 

 dcrns les armees des pays de Pasteur et de Lister, 

 la Chirurgie active soit concentree en partie et 

 resolument vers I'avant, si Ton veut que I'asepsie 

 et I'antisepsie des blessures de guerre soient 

 possibles." Stephen Paget. 



THE TRANSIT OF MERCURY ON 

 NOVEMBER 7, 1914. 



MERCURY is one of the two planets which 

 revolves round the sun in an orbit smaller 

 than that of our earth, and consequently at a 

 time of inferior conjunction generally passes just 

 to the north or south of the sun. The reason why 

 it does not always pass exactly between the sun 

 and us is because its orbit is inclined at an angle 

 of 7 degrees to the plane of the ecliptic, and the 

 planet is only twice during a revolution at the 

 cutting points or nodes, and is not necessarily 

 at one of these points when passing on the near 

 side of the sun. 



When, however, conjunction does occur and 

 the planet is near a node, it is seen to cross the 

 sun as a small black spot, but it requires the use 

 of a telescopje to discern it. In May and Novem- 

 ber of each year the earth passes the nodal points, 

 and it is only during these months that a transit 

 can occur. On November 7 a very favourable 

 transit will take place, and the whole phenomenon 

 from start to finish will be visible from these 

 islands during the interval comprising the two 

 hours on each side of noon. Transits of Mercury 

 are suflficiently rare to attract attention, as only 

 about twelve occur in a century. The last one took 

 place on November 12, 1907, and we shall have to 

 wait until 1924, May 7, before another will be on 

 view. 



The planet makes first contact with the sun at 

 9h. 57m. 15s. on the morning of November 7 at 

 a point on the sun's limb 156° from the north 

 point of the sun counting towards the east. It 

 takes the planet 2m. 14s. to place his whole disc 

 completely on the sun. While it does not actually 

 cross the centre of the solar disc, the time of its 

 least distance from that centre is i2h. 3m. 22s. 

 p.m. At 2h. 7m. i6s. p.m. the planet will have 

 reached the sun's limb again, touching it at a point 

 255° from the north point, still reckoning in the 

 same direction towards the east; it will take 

 again 2m. 14s. to pass clear of the sun. It should 

 be noted that the above times, although accurate 

 enough for general observers, refer to the pheno- 

 menon as observ'ed from the centre of the earth, 

 and not as seen from the earth's surface. 



