August ii, 1898] 



NATURE 



349 



men, five in number, were, when last seen, fully 300 

 miles from Lhasa, to which place they had declared their 

 intention of proceeding, as they had little or no food, 

 and the country all around was uninhabited, it is very 

 probable that they all perished from starvation. Out of 

 the ten muleteers and servants who had left Leh, only 

 three reached the Chinese frontier with the two European 

 travellers and the Indian surveyor. 



Of thirty-nine mules and ponies, but three mules 

 survived the hardships of travel, and during the latter 

 part of their journey in Tibet, before meeting the 

 merchants' caravan, the travellers appear to have lived 

 chiefly on game — not always easily procurable — and wild 

 onions. 



The account of the journey is well written and fairly 

 illustrated, although, as is so frequently the case, some 

 of the " process blocks" used for cuts illustrate very little 

 •except the imperfections of the photographs from which 

 they are copied. It is questionable whether any useful 

 information is afforded by figures like those on pp. 180, 

 200 and 238. Unfortunately, too, the best views are from 

 the accessible regions of Kashmir and China, not from 

 " Unknown Tibet " ; but this is easily understood. The 

 scenery in the Tibetan wilderness is difficult to photo- 

 graph, and the time of the travellers must have been 

 fully occupied with more urgent matters. The two 

 examples herewith given will serve as specimens of the 

 illustrations. 



MEETING OF THE BRITISH MEDICAL 

 ASSOCIA TION. 

 npHE meeting of the British Medical Association, which 

 -•- has just terminated at Edinburgh, must be regarded as 

 a great success, both with regard to business and pleasure. 

 At the end of July there is a strong predisposing cause 

 towards holiday ; and an excitant which draws the medical 

 man towards so favourite an area for holiday-making as 

 Scotland at this time of the year is naturally welcome to 

 all. A congress is a very good beginning to a holiday, 

 as the recollection of it tends to alleviate what is often 

 the boredom of idleness ; and doubtless thoughts born of 

 discussion in Edinburgh are now being developed and 

 bearing fruit a hundredfold in the remoter holiday-taking 

 places of Scotland. 



In giving in these columns a short account of the 

 business accomplished at the meeting, it will be best, 

 perhaps, to limit one's attention to those regions of 

 medicine and the allied sciences which are of interest to 

 the general scientific reader. 



An interesting address in medicine was delivered by 

 Dr. Eraser. He reviewed succinctly the importance with 

 regard to diagnosis of modern bacteriological method, 

 and then proceeded to give some account of the toxic 

 origin of infectious diseases, emphasising the great 

 activity of some toxins killing as they do— at least, in 

 the case of the tetanus toxin — six hundred million times 

 their own weight of living tissue. He then passed on to 

 consider the production of artificial resistance to disease, 

 and the origin of the protection-producing substances, 

 concluding his lecture with a brief review of the present 

 slate of serum therapeutics. 



Dr. George Balfour gave an interesting address upon 

 a personal experience of an almost forgotten episode in 

 medical history, the episode in question being the treat- 

 ment of pneumonia by blood-letting. The lecturer gave 

 an amusing account of how he was treated at the hands 

 of the local medical autocrats of the time when he 

 advocated the abandonment of blood-letting in this 

 disease. 



Sir William Broadbent opened a discussion on the 

 significance and consequences of different states of 

 vascular tension with their general management. He 



NO. 1502, VOL. 58] 



discussed the different clinical conditions giving rise to 

 increased and diminished vascular tension respectively, 

 and indicated the lines of treatment appropriate to each. 

 He did not enter into the vexed (question of the accurate 

 measurement of blood pressure m man, and practically 

 limited his remarks to arterial tension. 



Prof. Bradbury, of Cambridge, read a paper upon the 

 management of general vascular conditions with special 

 reference to the use of erythrol tetra-nitrate. This drug, 

 it will be remembered, was introduced by Prof. Bradbury 

 as a result of experiments made by him and Mr. Mar- 

 shall at Cambridge some few years ago. Its vaso- 

 dilating action is less transient than that of the vaso- 

 dilators hitherto at the command of the physician. Prof. 

 Bradbury's later experience seems in every way to have 

 confirmed the earlier results he obtained with this drug. 

 Dr. Haig emphasised the significance of uric acid in the 

 production of high arterial tension. 



A discussion was opened by Dr. Alexander James on 

 the clinical varieties of hepatic cirrhosis. An interesting 

 paper was communicated in this connection by Prof. 

 Adami, of Montreal. The author pointed out that the 

 experimental injection of alcohol, although resulting in 

 fatty degeneration of the liver, only gives rise to a very 

 slight amount of cirrhosis, the typical hobnailed liver 

 having never been produced experimentally. He also 

 referred to the views of Hanot, who regards the enlarged 

 cirrhotic liver associated with jaundice as being of an 

 infectious origin. The author then described his o\yn, 

 researches, which were made in connection with a very . 

 remarkable disease affecting cattle in a limited area of 

 Nova Scotia, the main lesion of this disease being ex- : 

 tensive cirrhosis of the liver. From all the animals he 

 obtained a characteristic micro-organism, which appar- 

 ently presented considerable resistance to staining re- 

 agents. Time has not yet permitted the author to make 

 cultures of this organism, but he is about to do so. His , 

 results in this connection will be awaited with consider- - 

 able interest. 



Prof MacCall Anderson pleaded for the more general -. 

 use of tuberculin. He thinks much might yiet be done 

 with tuberculin m cases of consumption if it were 

 combined with suitable hygienic and dietetic measures. 

 The open-air treatment of consumption received much 

 consideration, many of its votaries giving their results. 



The meetings of the Section of Psychology were, 

 especially interesting. In the presidential address given 

 by Dr. T. S. Clouston upon "The Neuroses and Psy- 

 choses of Decadence," the lecturer contrasted these with 

 the neuroses of development. He pointed out that 

 man's normal average life may be divided into three 

 periods of twenty-five years each ; he then proceeded to 

 give statistics which tended to show that the neuroses 

 prevail largely in the period of brain growth and develop- 

 ment of function, the very best years of life being very 

 free from them. They come on during decadence with 

 a rush and to a far more deadly degree than even 

 during development, senility being the most deadly 

 period of all. 



Dr. John Sibbald opened the discussion upon Suicide, 

 its Social and Psychiatrical Aspects. The author con- 

 tributed a paper giving the statistics of suicide for 

 England, Wales and Scotland. He showed that the 

 rate of suicide per annum per million of population 

 had risen during the past thirty years from sixty-seven 

 to eighty-six in England and from forty to fifty-four in 

 Scotland. He then proceeded to give statistics with 

 regard to the methods of suicide. Dr. Haigh read a 

 paper on the cause cf suicide, the all toxic uric acid 

 according to this author playing here a most important 

 rdle. Dr. Morselli, of Genoa, contributed an interesting 

 paper on the characteristics of suicide by the insane as 

 compared with those of suicide by the sane. On Friday, 

 the 29th, this Section proceeded to consider the subject 



