March ti, 1920] 



NATURE 



51 



Ir to the development of the subject of radiology, it 

 ~ urijed by the thirty signatories of the appeal that, 

 the wider claims of the subject arc to be met, there 

 :!ould be an X-ray institute. The applications of 

 \ -rays in medicine have vastly extended both in 

 i. (gnosis and in treatment during the last ten years, 

 lit the new knowledge as to the properties of X-rays 

 vealed by cr>stal analysis has opened out many new 

 fields both of investigation and of application. If the 

 subject is widening in these respects, there are signs 

 no less clear of a growing need for improved teaching 

 in the many fields of X-ray activity. The institution 

 of a diploma in radiology by the University of Cam- 

 bridge is but one indication of the demand that exists 

 at the present day for instruction in the subject of 

 X-rays. .\ well-equipped and well-organised institute 

 seems the rriost likely way in which the multifarious 

 interests of X-rays can best be welded into an efficient 

 working whole, and it is hoped that the response to 

 the appeal will ensure that the brilliant X-ray work 

 done in this country may be augmented. 



^ The first post-war "meeting of the International 

 ^ Council for the Exploration of the Sea was held in 

 ■[ London last week, March 2-6. The countries repre- 

 M sented were Belgium, Britain, Denmark, Finland, 

 B France, Holland, Norway, and Sweden. France sent 

 Ba delegate for the first time, and the United States 

 V of .America was informally represented. The British 

 (iovernment entertained the delegates and others at 

 a dinner at Lancaster House, the Royal Society held 

 a reception at Burlington House, and the Trustees of 

 the British Museum and the Royal Geographical 

 Society also received the delegates. The meeting re- 

 solved itself into a number of sections for the con- 

 sideration of particular questions ; these were the 

 formulation of a scheme of research to enable the 

 various Governments to make a convention for the 

 better regulation of the North Sea fishing-grounds ; 

 the future conduct of the hydrographic and plankton 

 researches ; biological, statistical, and historical in- 

 vestigations with respect to the herring ; the European 

 eel fisheries ; the fisheries of the seas to the south- 

 west of the British Isles ; a limnological survey ; inter- 

 national fishery statistics; and certain basal phvsical 

 and biochemical matters. Much interest was ex- 

 hibited with regard to the "plaice problem," and the 

 section concerned held several meetings. The 

 • hydrographic sectional meetings were very in- 

 teresting, but it was clear that no immediate 

 results were to be expected. The personnel of the 

 ''ouncil had not undergone much change. In the 

 ith of Sir John Murray the organisation has 

 affered a great loss, but the genial and forceful 

 personality of Dr. Johaii Hjort is still an asset of 

 much value. Prof. Otto Pettersson vacated the chair 

 to Mr. H. G. Maurice, of the English Ministry of 

 Agriculture and Fisheries, to whom the continued 

 existence of the international investigations through- 

 out the period of war is largely due. 



.According to the British Medical Journal, Sir 

 Frederick Banbury's Bill to Prohibit the Vivisection 

 of Dogs is down for second reading on March 19. It 

 NO. 2628, VOL. 105] 



will be remembered that when the same Bill was intro- 

 duced last year a Government amendment allowing 

 experiments to be made on dogs under sp>ecial certi- 

 ficates was carried. The title was also changed. Sir 

 Frederick Banbury himself moved the third reading 

 with these amendments. The Bill was, however, 

 rejected. It is now brought forward again in the 

 form in which it existed before the Government 

 amendments— that is, jjrohibiting all experiments on 

 dogs. .Although there seems some hope that the 

 prospects of its progress in Parliament are not verv 

 favourable, its unexpected temporary success last year 

 must not be forgotten, and careful watch is impera- 

 tively necessary. It is inconceivable that the Govern- 

 ment can allow a Bill of this kind to pass, nullifying, 

 as it does, the activities of so many of their Depart- 

 ments. Sir Frederick Banbury admitted that he had 

 " failed to mention " the safeguards against possible 

 cruelty already existing in the Statute Book. The 

 opinion of the medical profession is sufficiently shown 

 by the unanimous vote of the clinical and scientific 

 meeting of the British Medical .Association in London 

 last .April. It was agreed that such prohibition of 

 experiments on dogs would have a deplorable effect in 

 hampering the progress of physiological and patho- 

 logical investigation, since many important fields of 

 research are only available when dogs can be u.sed. 

 They are the only large animals that can be kept in 

 health and comfort under laboratory conditions. 



The admission of qualified medical women to the 

 fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edin- 

 burgh reminds us of the fight waged in the late 

 sixties and early seventies of last centurv for 

 the admission of women to the classes and examina- 

 tions of the faculty of medicine of the Universitv of 

 Edinburgh. The fight was lost by the gallant band 

 of women — septem contra Edincm. It has been 

 fought and won in the fifty intervening years, and 

 this resolution of the Royal College marks the fall 

 of the last barrier to equality of the sexes in medicaf 

 education in this ancient seat of learning. Women 

 medical students have recently been admitted to the 

 complete courses in the faculty of medicine, and the 

 extrti-mural Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women 

 has been merged into the University. It remains to 

 be seen whether the new regime will justifv those 

 who have borne much anxiety and labour fo promote 

 it. We believe it will. The Scottish women proved 

 their quality in the hospitals they equipped and staffed 

 in the various stoats of war. They have started a 

 small hospital in Edinburgh staffed by women only. 

 There is an increasing body of medical women and 

 women students attached to the Universitv, and 

 among them will be found doubtless the same capacity 

 for work and leadership which was so nobly exem- 

 plified by the late Dr. Elsie Inglis. With all the 

 examinations open to women which lead to hospital 

 staff appointments, it is hoped that an increasing 

 number of highly qualified women will present them- 

 selves as candidates when vacancies occur, and that 

 appointments will be open to merit irrespective of 

 sex. Much of the work to be done in the future in 

 the .State-aided hospital is obviously of a character to 



