DISCOVERY 



139 



trouble, but actually inviting it to assault him. Mr. 

 Patrick, however, very wisely ignores the motives of 

 those who are trying to popularise a belief in fairies, 

 and relies for his e\-idence of fraud on the published 

 photographs themselves. They look \-ery genuine and 

 the fake is very cleverly done. But fakes they are. 

 In one entitled " Iris and the Dancing Gnome," he finds 

 from the shadows that the strongest light is falling on 

 Iris from the right, while the gnome is lighted mainly 

 from the left. This is not possible. There is clear 

 evidence also that the photograph is too artistically 

 beautiful to be the snapshot it professes to be. The 

 genome's proportions are not human. Probably he has 

 been sketched on to a positive enlargement from the 

 negative of Iris, and the whole then rephotographed on 

 to a quarter-plate. 



***** 

 In other photographs, " Alice and the Fairies " and 

 " Alice and the Leaping Fairy," the fairies appear to 

 be human in proportions. They show a sharpness of 

 outline which the human figure in the photograph lacks, 

 also they are illuminated from behind while the human 

 figure is illuminated from the side. Probably children 

 suitably dressed have been photographed. The back- 

 ground has been cut out (hence the sharpness of outline), 

 and the photos of the children have been pasted on to 

 an enlargement of that of the human figure, and the 

 whole rephotographed. Thus it seems to be. 

 ***** 

 There are several interesting articles in a little book 

 entitled The Fight Against Disease (Macmillan, 6d.) 

 issued by the Research Defence Society. One refers to 

 the advances recently made towards the discovery of a 

 protective treatment against tuberculosis, such as at 

 present exists against typhoid. Dr. Calmettc has been 

 working on the Protection of Cattle from Tuberculosis 

 at the Pasteur Institute. His work is founded, of 

 course, on Pasteur's discovery of the attenuation of 

 virus ; the gradual bringing-down, point by point, of 

 the virulence of the germs of a disease, by growing 

 them, in pure culture, in test-tubes, under certain 

 conditions which have a lowering effect on them : 

 growing them, through a long series of such cultures, in 

 successive test-tubes, from generation to generation, 

 and then using them, thus weakened, to protect 

 animals against the disease at its natural strength. By 

 this discovery, Pasteur was enabled, in iSSi, to protect 

 animals against anthrax. 



***** 

 Calmette has discovered how to attenuate the germs 

 of bovine tuberculosis, by growing them in pure culture, 

 through many generations, on a special medium of 

 glycerine and bile. By this discovery, he has been 

 enabled to protect animals against the disease at its 

 natural strength. One of his experiments may be 



described here. He took ten heifers, proved free of 

 tuberculosis. He kept four of them as " controls," 

 without any treatment ; he treated six with a protec- 

 tive dose of germs attenuated through seventy genera- 

 tions of pure culture. All ten heifers were then stalled 

 in the company of cattle which were tuberculous. This 

 experiment was kept up for more than three years. 

 Then the heifers were tested with tuberculin. The six 

 protected animals came out free of the disease : but 

 three of the four controls had acquired it. 



His work is bound to move slowly, but those who 

 know his value, and his high place in the scientific 

 world, have reason to think well of this new research. 

 ***** 



The article concludes : " Some day, we shall have in 

 our hands the inestimable gift of a protective treatment 

 for our own children against the germs of human 

 tuberculosis. Take, for example, the case of a family 

 in which there is a strong tendency to consumption. 

 Imagine it possible, by a protective treatment, to be 

 able to help the children to tide over the susceptible 

 years ; imagine them enabled to put up more of a fight 

 against adverse conditions. It seems already put in 

 our hands." 



***** 



Is' there a professor of Dactylography anywhere ? 

 A bi-monthly magazine with this subject for its title 

 is to appear on the ist of July. It will deal chiefly 

 with the evidence for criminal and other identifications 

 by means of finger-prints ; but attention will be given 

 also to a study of the detective aspects of foot-prints — 

 including boot-prints — tattoo marks, deformities, and 

 the like. Consideration will also be given to such 

 evidence as is usually called for from police experts 

 regarding the minute texture of paper and other fabrics ; 

 the microscopical, chemical, and biological qualities 

 of blood smears ; poisons ; evidence from wounds ; 

 attitudes and condition of the dead ; the nature of the 

 weapons used, and so on. It is intended to make this 

 journal quite intelligible and useful to all who have 

 to do with the detection and judicial investigation of 

 crime. 



Man and His Pasi,^ by Mr. O. G. S. Crawford, a 

 noted archaeologist and geographer, is a book I have 

 enjoyed reading. It has a freshness about it, a 

 breadth and an optimism which one views with 

 pleasure in a book dealing with anthropology and 

 archseology. The main theme of the book is the need 

 for the study of man's past, because of the demon- 

 strably great but often overlooked importance of 

 the past upon our present. It is cordially recom- 

 mended to readers, especially to those interested in 



history. 



' O.xford University Press, los. 6d. 



