NATURE 



n 



THURSDAY, MAY 28, 1891. 



MEDICAL RESEARCH AT EDINBURGH. 

 Laboratory Reports of the Royal College of Physicians of 

 Edinburgh. Vol. III. (Edinburgh and London: 

 Young J. Pentland, 1891.) 



NOW that for three years the laboratory of the Edin- 

 burgh Royal College of Physicians has shown 

 steady advancement in every direction — in the number of 

 workers engaged within it, in the volume of work accom- 

 plished, and more especially in the quality of that work — 

 Dr. Grainger Stewart and his Council must congratulate 

 themselves heartily that they were undeterred by any 

 misgivings from entering upon a venture which has been 

 so abundantly successful, and which has added so much 

 to the renown of the College. It must be a source of 

 very sincere satisfaction to them, and especially to Dr. 

 Batty Tuke, the prime mover in its organization, to 

 know that no laboratory in the Kingdom can show for the 

 same space of time a record of so much good work in so 

 many directions, of which a large part would never have 

 been undertaken had this laboratory not been established. 



In many respects the present volume exhibits marked 

 improvement as compared with its predecessors. While 

 composed of more than a dozen papers, these only re- 

 present but a portion of the investigations that have been 

 completed, and all of them contain matter of permanent 

 interest ; others whose interest is of a more temporary 

 nature have, I think wisely, been excluded. The value 

 of the volume is further enhanced greatly by the fact that 

 the majority of the reports appear here for the first time. 

 Among these may be mentioned Dr. Helme's important 

 contribution to the physiology of the uterus ; Dr. Gul- 

 land's heterodox papers upon leucocytes and adenoid 

 tissue ; Noel Paton and Balfour's very full studies upon 

 the composition and physiological action of the human 

 bile ; Woodhead and Cartwright Wood's observations 

 upon bacterio-therapeutics ; and a short but important 

 communication by Cartwright Wood and Maxwell Ross 

 on the influence which the process of inflammation 

 exerts upon the course of infectious disease. 



Taking these in order. Dr. Helme's paper is of especial 

 value, not only clinically, from the light it throws on the 

 mode by which certain drugs act upon the uterus, and 

 from the consequent indications it affords as to the 

 conditions under which they may wisely be administered, 

 but also as a contribution to the physiology of non-striped 

 voluntary muscle. Employing the iiberlebende organ — 

 the organ removed with all precautions immediately after 

 the death of the animal (a sheep) — and continuing the 

 circulation through it artificially. Dr. Helme has been 

 able to study its slow rhythmic contractions apart from 

 the influence of the central nervous system and of the 

 changes in the blood supply. From a physiological point 

 of view, his most important observation is perhaps that 

 which brings out the striking difference existing between 

 striped and non-striped muscle as regards the relationship 

 between contraction and blood supply. Whereas a 

 striped muscle during contraction becomes hyperaemic, 

 the uterus, the largest mass of unstriped muscle in the 

 body, becomes during contraction relatively anaemic. 

 NO. I 126, VOL. 44] 



It is impossible to pass Dr. Gulland's articles upon the 

 nature and varieties of leucocytes and upon the develop- 

 ment of adenoid tissue without bestowing on them not a 

 httle adverse criticism, and this, while appreciating fully 

 the long months spent in laborious preparation and 

 examination of tissues, and in studying the literature of 

 the subject, of which they bear ample witness. That Dr. 

 GuUand bases his conclusions upon the view that the 

 leucocytes are symbiotic, and shows at the outset that he 

 totally misconceives the nature of symbiosis, is quite 

 sufficient to render fuller criticism of his views unneces- 

 sary. Yet, that it may not be said that I misrepresent his 

 views, it may be as well to quote his words upon this 

 subject :— 



"There are still" (in the Metazoan) " many functions 

 to be performed which can only be discharged by cells 

 possessed of Protozoan characteristics. ... To perform 

 these functions it is necessary that a certain number of 

 cells should continue to be practically Protozoa, and these 

 cells are what we call ' leucocytes,' so that we may regard 

 them morphologically as representing those members of 

 the primitive Metazoan colony which escaped dijfferentia- 

 tion, and have remained unaltered Protozoa through the 

 whole series of Metazoa " (the italics are mine). 

 Such inconsequent theorizing goes far to neutralize the 

 minute and careful observations which Dr. Gulland has 

 made into the histology of his subject. 



That the formation of bile solids is more closely asso- 

 ciated with the general metabolism than with the changes 

 of digestion is the conclusion drawn by Dr. Noiil Paton 

 and Mr. Balfour, though somewhat unexpectedly they 

 find that in fever, where the general metabolism is 

 greatly increased and the digestive processes reduced, 

 the amount of bile solids excreted is diminished. All 

 studies of cases of biliary fistula in man are of value, and 

 such full observations as those here described are rare. 

 Of drugs they find calomel and salicylate of soda active 

 in increasing the flow of bile. Whether they are right in 

 looking upon the bile as an excretion, rather than as at 

 the same time a secretion playing an essential part in diges- 

 tion, is open to doubt. Even if with bile excluded from the 

 intestine only 30 per cent, of the fats ingested pass out 

 unused, that nevertheless is a proportion large enough to 

 demand consideration, and to support the assumption that 

 as a secretion, as well as an excretion, the bile is of de- 

 finite importance. The ingenious method devised for the 

 estimation of the bile pigments (p. 197) deserves a more 

 extended trial. 



At a time when Koch's endeavours to cure tuberculosis 

 by means of injections of products of growth of the 

 tubercle bacilli have brought the whole subject of bacterio- 

 therapeutics prominently to the fore, the full discussion of 

 this by Drs. Woodhead and Wood is very acceptable, 

 based, as it is, upon their own important discovery that 

 the invasion of the organism by the bacillus of anthrax 

 may be prevented by injections of the sterilized fluid in 

 which the Bacillus Pyocyaneus has been grown. Space 

 forbids that I should do more than indicate that those 

 interested will here find a full account of our present 

 knowledge of a subject which is occupying the energies 

 of every leading bacteriologist. 



Of allied interest is the communication by Dr. Wood 

 and Mr. Ross. It has long been known that the advance 

 of erysipelas can often be successfully combated by 



