DISCOVERY 



143 



HAR\'ARD COLLEGE OBSERVATORY 

 Bulletin 785 



" Results from Australian Eclipse. — A night letter 

 received at the Harvard College Observatory April 12 

 from Professor W. W. Campbell, Director of the Lick 

 Observatory, states that three pairs of the Australia- 

 Tahiti eclipse plates, measured by Campbell and 

 Trumpler, with sixtj'-two to eighty-four stars on each 

 plate, and with five of the six measurements com- 

 pletely calculated, give values between i".59 and i".86 

 for the Einstein deflection. The mean observed value 

 of the deflection is i".74. 



" The value predicted by Einstein, for the deflection 

 of stars at the limb of the Sun, is i".74. 



" Harlow Shaplev." 

 Cambridge, !NL\ssachusetts. 

 April 13. 1923. 



Every congratulation is due to the skilled observers 

 who have obtained such a satisfactory result. The 

 British expedition met with ill-fortune on their attempt 

 to verify Einstein's predictions, since cloudy weather, 

 as is described in Science Progress for April 1923, 

 interfered with their plans. It appears, however, that 

 we may have to modifj' our attitude towards these 

 terribly involved questions of the natiu-e of light and 

 gravitation. At present it is too early to form a 

 definite opinion, but it is at least possible that the 

 fact that Einstein was proved so completely right 

 shows him to have been in some respects wrong ! In 

 the main, his theories hold the field, but the work of 

 Professor Eddington, of Cambridge University, has 

 led to some radical alterations in his original attitude. 



:f: * * * * 



It is a familiar fact, and not altogether a surprising 

 one, that it is possible to grow several generations of 

 bacteria and other minute primitive forms of life on 

 artificial foods — meat extracts, sugar, and jellies. 

 The actual essentials of diet for these creatnres are, 

 however, very few in number, and in many cases life 

 has been sustained without the aid of any food-stuffs 

 so complicated as those we have mentioned — by the 

 use of a few selected inorganic salts, and simple nitrogen 

 compounds. It is less generally known, however, that 

 for some years the actual ceUs which form the bodies 

 of animals have been grown, in a very similar manner, 

 for many generations, separated from the body in 

 which they once grew. To those who are not familiar 

 with the mysteries of the growth of the structural 

 elements of our bodies, perhaps the most striking 

 element in these tissue-cultures is the fact that some 

 tiny fragments of the body can in this way continue 

 living, almost indefinitely as far as can be seen, while 

 the whole, of which the\' once formed a part, has 

 long been dead. We know that primitive creatures, 

 whose reproduction takes the form of a simple division 



into two parts, seem to have the gift of immortality — 

 each is as old as its neighbour ; each is new-born with 

 the birth of its progeny. The reproductive cells of 

 higher animals, the " gonads," which on uniting de- 

 velop into the mature form, show this same property 

 of immortality. But, since by careful attention it has 

 proved possible to grow glands, nerves, and heart 

 fragments for indefinite periods, it would seem that 

 this immortality is the property of all living matter, 

 and we return to the theories of those who have 

 believed that death was an accident, and immortality 

 within our grasp. It must be admitted that up to 

 the present we can only persist as minute isolated 

 fragments — a privilege little happier than that which 

 the inhabitants of Central Asia believe their relations, 

 who have been eaten by vultures, and thus become 

 living matter again, to enjoy. 



^ >i; ^ ^ ^ 



Dr. A. H. Drew, D.Sc, of the Imperial Cancer 

 Research Fund, has described the technique of this 

 exciting research, and some of its more suggestive 

 results, in the Lancet of April 28, 1923. Those who 

 have had an opportunity of seeing, through a micro- 

 scope, a minute part of a heart, beating vigorously 

 without any blood to circulate, or a number of cells 

 from the cartilage of a joint, dividing up before our 

 ej^es, " foaming " and putting out little tentacles, 

 will be convinced that the study of these marvellous 

 happenings cannot fail to be of immense importance 

 to many branches of medicine. For years fierce 

 battles were fought over the question of the origin of 

 the heart-beat — was it controlled by nerves, or did it 

 beat of its own accord ? Tissue-cultiu-e proves that 

 the heart certainly beats of its own accord, however 

 much nerve control may vary its beat. Agam, 

 "fatty degeneration " of the cells of the body is a 

 morbid condition familiar to pathologists, but very 

 obscure in its nature. It has been imitated in tissue- 

 culture. Perhaps, however, the most important results 

 have been obtained in connection with the study of 

 cancer cells. It has been found that they contain, 

 ready made, growth-stimulating substances which 

 other cells only provide when they are broken up. A 

 tissue-culture whose growth is slow may be speeded up 

 by the addition either of broken-up ordinary cells, or 

 by living cancer cells. This fact seems to us among 

 the most significant discoveries which have been made 

 up to the present in this connection. We have fre- 

 quently drawn attention in these notes to the great 

 importance to humanity of any new fact which can 

 be produced in relation to the terrible plague of 

 cancer. Tissue-culture, we are convinced, offers 

 unique opportunities for the investigation of the 

 problem, and we look forward with great interest to 

 the further researches of Dr. Drew, and of other 



