400 



NATURE 



May 27, 1920 



Majors McKendrick and Morison have investigated 

 statistically the occurrence of cases of influenza on 

 shipboard, from which they deduce a mean incubation 

 period in this disease of 32-7 hours, some 90 per cent, 

 of the cases having- an incubation period within two 

 days (Indian Journal of Medical Research, vol. vii., 

 No. 2, p. 364). 



' In a general review of influenza in Medical Science : 

 Abstracts and Reviews (vol. ii.. No. 2) the influenza 

 epidemic of 19 18-19 i" Switzerland is surveyed. It 

 is estimated that there were 2^ million cases. The 

 case rnortality was i-i per cent. ; 65 per cent, of the 

 cases occurred between fifteen and forty-nine years 

 of age, and only 5 per cent, in persons of fifty and 

 more. The total deaths were 17,575, a much heavier 

 death-roll than that caused by other epidemic diseases. 



Attention is directed in a paper by Mr. Mottram 

 and Mr. Clarke (Archives of Radiology and 

 Electrotherapy, No. 237, April, 1920) to the reduction 

 in the number of the white blood corpuscles in those 

 handling radium for curative purposes, a reduction 

 amounting to |-f of the normal number. They 

 estimate that the physician-in-charge receives daily 

 about 1-4 per cent, of the total radiation received by 

 a patient during a course of treatment for cancer, 

 and in ten weeks the same quantity of radiation as 

 the patient. 



The Committee on Food and Nutrition of the 

 National Research Council, Washington, U.S.A., has 

 just issued a report on meat and milk in the food 

 supply of the nation which gives some interesting 

 facts on the relative values of these two important 

 dietary substances in comparison with the value of 

 the food required to produce them. The Committee 

 supports the British estimates on the same subject, 

 viz. that the good milch cow returns 20 per cent., the 

 poor milch cow 12 per cent., and the good beef steer 

 only 6 per cent, of the energy-value of the food con- 

 sumed. Crops grown on a given area may be ex- 

 pected to yield four to five times as much protein and 

 energy for human consumption when fed to dairy 

 cows as when used for beef production. 



An address on the work of the Medical Research 

 Committee was delivered by its secretary. Sir Walter 

 Fletcher, to Members of Parliament at the House 

 of Commons on March 9, and has been published 

 in pamphlet form by the Research Defence Society. 

 The history of the committee was first briefly 

 sketched. Some 50,000?. a year has hitherto been 

 devoted to the advancement of medical research, but 

 the Treasury has announced that in the immediate 

 future 125,000?. per annum is to be allocated for 

 this purpose. Sir Walter Fletcher then described 

 some of the researches that have been prosecuted 

 by means of these funds. A disease, bilharziasis, due 

 to a parasitic worrri, is very prevalent in Egypt. Its 

 life-history was unknown, and Dr. Leiper, of the 

 London School of Tropical Medicine, was sent out 

 to investigate. He found that the bilharzia worm 

 passes part of its life-cycle in certain fresh-water 

 snails, from which larval forms hatch out ; and these 

 constitute the infective agents. They soon die, how- 

 NO. 2639, VOL. 105] 



ever, unless they enter the human host, so that water 

 kept for twenty-four hours is safe. This work cost 

 less than 500?., but bids fair in time to eradicate 

 bilharziasis. Trench nephritis, a kidney disease, was 

 very prevalent during the war. Investigations into 

 its causation indicated that it is probably of an infec- 

 tive nature. Means were devised by which the effi- 

 ciency of the kidney could be gauged, and it was 

 possible to decide which of the thousands of cases 

 at the base hospitals were likely to grow worse 

 and should be sent home, and which could probably 

 soon go back to duty. The same tests have been 

 employed since in judging claims for pensions based 

 upon supposed damage to the kidneys. By this 

 means it is estimated that the Pensions Ministry has 

 saved, during the first year, no less than 150,000?. ; 

 yet the total cost of this piece of work was some- 

 where between 2cooi. and 3000Z. Sir Walter Fletcher 

 put in a plea for the better remuneration of scientific 

 research, and the address was followed by an interest- 

 ing discussion. 



In the British Journcd of Psychology (vol. x., 

 March) Mrs. S. Brierley discusses the present atti- 

 tude of employees to industrial psychology. She 

 finds, in talking to working-men, much opposition to 

 the suggested introduction of psychological methods 

 into industry — an opposition which cannot be dis- 

 missed as characteristic of the more ignorant and 

 less skilled workman. Several reasons for this atti- 

 tude of mind are considered, of which the most vital 

 seems to be the not unreasonable fear that the 

 introduction of these methods will inevitably lead to 

 an increase of monotony and a diminution in the 

 possibility for initiative or creative work on the part 

 of the individual worker ; some of these so-called 

 scientific methods do seem to imply that the manager 

 is to be the brains of the machine, and the worker 

 merely the muscles. It is unfortunately only too true 

 that some enthusiastic exponents of these methods 

 have allowed their enthusiasm to limit their point of 

 view to increased . production, and in so doing they 

 have lost sight of the eff'ect on the individual worker. 

 The problems of monotony, mechanisation, specialisa- 

 tion, and self-government must be considered not only 

 as bearing on increased output, but also as affecting 

 the whole development of the worker; work must 

 offer an outlet for the healthy satisfaction of the crea- 

 tive impulse. The author raises many problems con- 

 nected with present-day industry and shows what 

 psychology as applied to industry has to face before 

 it can win the whole-hearted support of the workers. 

 The paper should prove interesting to all whose 

 scientific work brings them into contact with in- 

 dividual workers in industry. 



Since the early experiments of Cu^not, Castle, Miss 

 Durham, Little, and others on the inheritance of coat- 

 colour in mice, these animals have been a favourite sub- 

 ject for the study of spotting as well as of self-colour. 

 In a recent paper by S6 and Imai (Journal of 

 Genetics, vol. ix., No. 4) the authors distinguish two 

 factors concerned in spotting, one of which (D) is 

 epistatic to self-colour, which it modifies to the 

 " Kasuri " pattern characterised by fine silvered 



