June ii, 1891] 



NA TURE 



125 



Baker, Dr. Farquharson, M.P., Sir William Thomson, 

 Sir James Bain, Sir Joseph Fayrer, Sir Philip Magnus, 

 Sir Jacob Wilson, Prof. Dewar, Sir Douglas Gallon, Sir 

 Archibald Geikie, Sir William Houldsworth, M.P , Sir 

 George Humphry, Mr. Haldane, QC, Mr. Seager Hunt, 

 M.P., Sir Guyer Hunter, M.P., Prof. Ray Lankester, 

 Prof. Norman Lockyer, Mr. Blundell Maple, M.P., Sir 

 Lyon Playfair, M.P., Sir Robert Rawlinson, Sir Henry 

 Roscoe, M.P., Sir George Gabriel Stokes, M.P., Prof. 

 Burdon Sanderson, Sir Henry Trueman Wood, Prof. 

 Victor Horsley, Dr. Armand Ruffer, Mr. Priestley, Sir 

 Henry Simpson, and other members of the Royal, the 

 Linnean, and other scientific Societies. 



The following letters were read from Prof. Tyndall and 

 Prof Huxley :— 



*'■ Hind Head, Haslemere, /une 3, 1891. 



" Mv DEAR Sir Joseph, — The battered remnant of four 

 deadly assaults, 1 am still a prisoner in my bed. Were I a free 

 man, I should deem it a privilege to join your deputation to Sir 

 Michael Hicks-Beach on June 5. I entirely sympathize with 

 the movement. 



" Let me here record a small experience of my own. Last 

 summer, while crossing from Dover to Calais on my way to the 

 Alps, I noticed, huddled up in a corner of the steamer, a poor 

 English boy. He seemed lonely and depressed, and I spoke to 

 him. ' Where are you going, my boy ?' I asked. ' To Paris,' 

 was the reply. 'And what are you going to do in Paris?' 

 ' Well, sir,' said he, 'I have been badly bitten by a mad dog, 

 and I am now on my way to Mr. Pasteur, who I hope will save 

 my life.' 



"The case prompted sad and bitter musings. Here was 

 wealthy England, with the amplest means at her disposal, with 

 some of her ablest men ready to investigate and apply those 

 means, insanely forbidding such investigation, and compelling 

 her children to resort to a foreign country to have themselves 

 rescued from the most horrible of deaths. As I spoke to the 

 lad, the virulent rabic virus was probably already in his blood, 

 and his chance of life depended on the promptness with which 

 Pasteur's vaccine could be introduced to combat and destroy 

 that virus. Every hour lost in the collection of money for the 

 hoy's journey and in making arrangements with Pasteur for his 

 reception — every hour lost in his transport from England to 

 France — was so much time given to the virulent virus to pursue 

 its fatal work, and to ruin the chances of the boy's rescue. This 

 is the state of things to which we in England are forced to sub- 

 mit ; this is the condition to which we are reduced, through the 

 deference paid by English statesmen to a noisy and an ignorant 

 faction. 



" But while the investigation and treatment of hydrophobia 

 confer immortal honour on Pasteur, this malady is but a small 

 item in the array of disorders now demanding investigation. 

 Suspected from time to time by men of genius in the past, the 

 fact that all communicable diseases are due to micro-organisms, 

 which increase and multiply after the manner of living things, 

 has, in the opinion of our first authorities, been now reduced to 

 demonstration. Your proposed institute is to be devoted to the 

 investigation of such organisms — to the study, that is, of the 

 science of bacteriology. In regard to questions of life and 

 health, such an institution is the most pressing need of England 

 at the present hour. A good deal of the weary time which I 

 have been forced to spend in bed during the last six months 

 has been devoted to making myself acquainted with what is 

 being done by the staff of the Hygienic Institute of Berlin, an 

 institute of which the German nation may well be proud. I 

 have occupied myself in drawing up an account of the researches 

 recently carried out in connection with the institute. In regard 

 to our most fatal disorders, these researches will effect a revolu- 

 tion, not only in public knowledge, but also in the thoughts and 

 practice of medical men. It would, in my opinion, be a 

 lamentable mistake on the part of an English statesman to place 

 himself in official antagonism to the eminent and illustrious men 

 who on June 5 will advocate the founding of a similar institute 

 in England. 



" It is, I think, fortunate that you have in Sir Michael Hicks- 

 Beach a statesman not likely to fall into the extravagances of 

 sentimentalism. The overwhelming preponderance of English 

 intellect will be represented by the deputation. He may rest 

 assured of it that this preponderance will become more and more 



NO. II 28, VOL. 44] 



conspicuous, until finally the misguided opponents of a true 

 philanthropy will cease to engage the attention, much less enlist 

 the sympathy, of the English people. 



" Believe me, dear Sir Joseph, most faithfully yours, 



"John Tyndall. 



"Sir Joseph Lister, Bart." 



*' Hodeslea, Eastbouine, /une 2, 189 1. 



"Dear Sir Joseph Lister,— I am very sorry that I am 

 unable to join your deputation on June 5. 



" If I could have been with you, I think I should have asked 

 to be permitted to point out to the President of the Board of 

 Trade that medical science is not excepted from the rule which 

 holds good for other branches of natural knowledge, and that it 

 can be advanced only by reasoning based upon observation and 

 experiment, and constantly controlled by both, especially by the 

 latter. 



" Further, that by working in this fashion a marvellous 

 improvement of medical science has been effected during the 

 last half-century, and that the harvest of what Bacon called 

 'fruits,' which is now waiting for the gatherer, might fully 

 occupy half a dozen such institutes as that in which we are 

 interested. 



"Starting from the unquestionable facts that the work we 

 propose to undertake is of supreme public utility, and that the 

 number and extent of the problems of pathology are enormously 

 great in proportion to any existing means of dealing with them, 

 I should have ventured to ask why we should be refused the 

 only privilege we seek— namely, that official recognition by the 

 Board of Trade which will afford the institute security against 

 the possible misuse of its funds in future? 



"No doubt, however, all these points will be much more 

 effectually put by yourself and other members of the deputation. 

 " I am yours very faithfully, 



"T. H. Huxley. 



"Sir Joseph Lister, Bart., F.R.S." 



Sir Henry Roscoe, M.P., in introducing the deputation, said 

 that it represented not only the whole body of medical men in 

 this country, but also, without exception, all the scientific 

 elements amongst scientific men, and also a large number of 

 others who were interested from the national point of view in 

 the establishment of an institute of preventive medicine for 

 this country, and for which it was proposed to obtain incorpora- 

 tion under the Board of Trade. He need not go into the ques- 

 tion as to the national importance of an institution of this kind. 

 There was no civilized country in Europe, and scarcely any- 

 where else, in which this subject had not awakened the interest 

 and claimed the attention, not only of the scientific men, but 

 also to a great extent of the Governments of those countries. 

 What they asked was that Sir Michael Hicks-Beach would be 

 good enough to enable them to found and to carry on a British 

 Institute of Preventive Medicine, analogous and of a similar 

 form to those great institutes which existed in France, Germany, 

 Russia, and in a great number of other countries. They were 

 sorry to find that the object which they had in view and the 

 request that they made to Sir Michael had not met altogether 

 with the success which they had hoped. They learnt from the 

 answer which he had given to Major Rasch in the House of 

 Commons that the refusal to grant what they requested was 

 based on objections received by the Board of Trade. They 

 merely asked that the institution should be registered under the 

 Limited Company Act, with the omission of the word " limited," 

 in order to impress the public with the fact that the institute 

 was not established for the purpose of gain, but purely for 

 sanitary and scientific objects. The objections wer«* based upon 

 the fact that a part of the work would include experiments on 

 animals. In reply to this they had the opinion of counsel that 

 the Board of Trade had only to satisfy themselves that the 

 object was charitable, and that the promoters were persons 

 whose position was a sufficient guarantee of the high character 

 of the proposed institute. 



Sir Joseph Lister said the object of their deputation was to 

 request Sir Michael Hicks-Beach to reconsider his decision, and 

 to grant the licence under the Board of Trade which was really, 

 as it would seem, almost essential to the prosperity, if not indeed 

 to the very existence, of the instuute. It was essential, in order 

 that they might hold money in trust, that they should be incor- 

 porated. They had been promised a large sum of money, the 

 receipt of which would be essentially dependent upon their in- 

 corporation, and if they were incorporated as a limited liability 



