August 8, 1895] 



NATURE 



000 



last war in Egypt was so complete in this respect that not a 

 single case of infective wound disease occurred during the whole 

 campaign. 



" As a temporary dressing, some form of antiseptic occlusion 

 will prove most generally applicable. The small w(»unds of 

 entrance and exit render this plan comparatively easy of appli- 

 cation, and the chances of septic infection will he diminished by 

 the less frequent necessity for probing or searching for a ludgetl 

 projectile, and. indeed, ihe ascertained presence of the bullet is 

 no sutticienl indication /t'r .ct- to attempt ils removal. The eye, 

 rather than tlie hand, is the best thing to employ at a first dress- 

 ing station, as Fischer has well said. 



' ' I f only asepticity can be ensured — and this is the great difficulty 

 — we may expect a large measure of success to follow the treat- 

 ment of wounds of the soft ))arts, many forms of fracture — 

 notably als(j wounds of the joints, and very especially wounds of 

 the lung." 



.Skciion" of Pubi.ii: Meoicine. 



The proceedings in this .Section were opened by Mr. Ernest 

 Mart, who delivered an address on " Public Health Legislation 

 and the Needs of India." Mr. Hart strongly criticised the whole 

 system of the sanitary service and the medical service of India, 

 and held that it needs to be overhauled and reconstituted. 



" What is urgently needed," he said, " is a Royal Commission 

 or strong Departmental Committee (o inquire into the whole 

 matter, and to institute a radical change. For at present India is 

 decimated by preventable diseases ; the health of our troojis is 

 ruinetl by the same causes. With us lies the reproach of nursing 

 and fostering cholera in what is called its endemic home — a 

 purely ignorant and silly phrase. Until some great change is 

 made in the whole system of the present administration, the great 

 sanitary needs of India will never be met." 



Section oi' Pharmacology .and Therapeutics. 



" In this Section, under the jiresidency of Sir William Roberts, 

 there was a discussion on Sero-Therapeutics, embracing the 

 application of serum treatment, not only to the acute infective 

 disorilcrs, but also to the cure of bites from venomous serpents. 

 In his introductory remarks the President drew attention to a 

 hitherto much neglected alkaloid of opium, generally known as 

 " narcotine," but more properly termed "anarcotine," from the 

 complete absence of narcotic jiroperties. .\ large amount of 

 evidence was available which seemed to show that this alkaloid 

 has very valuable antii^eriodic powers, which, should furllier 

 investigation corroliorate, will render it a valuable remedy in 

 certain cases of malaria in which quinine entirely fails. The 

 discussion on Sero-therapeutics was opened by Dr. Klein in a 

 pajier on the nature of .\ntitoxin. He drew attention particularly 

 to the difterences in action between a protective serum obtained 

 from animals imnuinised by injections of fdlered diplitheria toxin, 

 and i)y tliose treated with li\ing cultures (jf the diphtheria 

 bacillus, lie had found that while the first had an extremely 

 high neutralising power on the chemical jioison se|)arated from 

 the bacilli, it hail not nearly so marked an immunising power. 

 On the other hand, an antitoxin prepared with the aid of 

 living cultures, while it was less active than the other in 

 neutralising toxins, was far more efiicacious as an immunising 

 agent. He also gave brief hints on the advantage of using a 

 dried serum in place of the usual litpiitl form, anil statetl that 

 the use of the former was far less likely to be followed by the 

 appearance of rashes and other complications. 



Other -Sections. 



Dr. Mickle, President of the Section of Psychology, delivered 

 an address on the abnormalities occurring in the form and 

 arrangement of brain convolutions. The Section of Physiology 

 was opened by Dr. Ferrier with an address on the relations of 

 physiology and medicine. In the .Section of .\natomy and 

 Histology, Mr. Henry Morris, in his ])resiilential atldress, gave 

 a brief history of the rise of artistic illustration in its relation to 

 anatomical leaching. 



The presidential address in the .Section of Pathology and 

 Bacteriology was delivered by Dr. Samuel Wilks, F. R.S. In 

 the course of his remarks he drew attention to the fact that every 

 pathological process is accompanied by a corresponding repara- 

 tive process, and lamented that suflicient regard had not been 

 jiaitl to the dislinclion between these constructive and destructive 

 prix-esses. To study these for the sake of discovering the several 

 influences exerted in the production of each is of great practical 



NO. 1345, VOL. 52] 



import ; and a consideration of them also shows that pathology 

 is governeil by the same laws as those which exist in every other 

 department of nature, and therefore must take its place on an 

 equivalent footing with the other sciences. 



Mr. H. Power, the President of the Section of Ophthalmology, 

 remarked on the work that had been done by the founders ot 

 ophthalmology in the past, and the gradual formation of a 

 scientific branch of medicine, of which the methods of diagnosis 

 and treatment were fortunate in being foundeil on jiure science. 

 Owing to its intimate relations with the other branches ot 

 medicine and surgery there was no danger of its separating from 

 the parent stem and becoming barren ; at the same time he 

 advocated a sounder education in the sciences on which oph- 

 thalmology was established, such as mathematics and physics, 

 being required of all candidates for ophthalmic posts in 

 hospitals. 



BacTERIOI.OC.UAI. KXHIIilTS. 



A collection of exhibits brought together to illustrate points 

 of general pathological interest was on view during the meeting. 

 Bacteriological exhibits made up one of the departments of the 

 temporary museum thus formed. Dr. Cautley exhibited cultures 

 and coverglass prejiarations of an organism found in seven out 

 of eight cases of the aftection usually termed iiiHuen/a cold. It 

 was of special interest and importance'^s showing, first, that the 

 disease in question is microbial in origin, thus ex]>laining the 

 frequency with which such colds affect all the members of a 

 household ; secondly, that it po.ssesses a certain relationship to 

 epidemic influenza. The biological characteristics indicated 

 that the organism is allied to the organism of epidemic influenza. 

 Morphologically the organism presented a further point of in- 

 terest, many club-shaped forms, similar to those of the diphtheria 

 bacillus, appearing in the specimens. Some excellent photo- 

 gra[)hs of the specimens accompanied the exhibit, and were 

 taken by Mr. 1%. C. Bousfield. 



The cultivations from the laboratories of the Conjoint Board 

 of the Royal College of Physicians, London, and of the Royal 

 College of Surgeons, England, were permanently fixed by formic 

 aldehyde. This substance arrests the growth almost at once, 

 and after the lapse of two or three days kills the bacilli. Various 

 organisms in culture illustrated this method, and showed its 

 applicability to museitm and other specimens. 



Drs. MacFadyen and Hewlett exhibited from the Bacterio- 

 logical Department of the Briti^h Institute of Preventive 

 Medicine a complete series of cultures of the most important 

 micro-organisms, and Mr. Joseph Lunt exhibited living cultures 

 of various water organisms isolated from drinking w'ater, sewage, 

 air, iS:c., together with some interesting instances of enzymes 

 filtered from both cultures of various organisms, possessing lique- 

 fying and other properties similar to those po.ssessed by the 

 parent organisms. 



Dr. Klein showed a large number of photographic lantern 

 slides representing nearly all known pathogenic bacteria, and, 

 amongst others, duplicates of Mr. Bousfield's work for the in- 

 fluenza and cholera reports, the latter especially showing vibrios 

 with their flagella with wonderful clearness. 



SCIENCE IN THE MAGAZINES. 



I70UR short )iapers on Huxley appear in the Fortnightly 

 ^ AVt'/cjc. The Hon. C. C. Hrodrick, Warden of Merton 

 College, (Jxford, records some jiersonal reminiscences of the 

 man whose loss is so keenly felt. It appears that about thirty- 

 seven years ago, when a I.inacre Professorshi]) of Physiology, 

 coupled with Human and Comparative .\natomy, was founded, 

 Huxley meditaied becoming a candidate for the chair. Before the 

 election took place, however, he made up his mind not to seek 

 the office, which was awarded to the late Prof. Rolleston. The 

 reason he assigned was that his opinions were too little in 

 harmony with those prevalent at Oxford. This opinion he 

 again gave, but with diminished emphasis, when he w.is asked, 

 twenty years later, to accept the chair, upon the death of Prof. 

 Rolleston. His work for the advancement of anthropology forms 

 the subject of a note by Prof. F. B. Tylor. '"Close upon the 

 ^\\i.\ of his life," says Prof. Tylor, " Huxley did his best to .pro- 

 mote the scheme to make anlhiopology at Oxford an examination 

 subject for an Honours ilegree in Natural Science. Writing to 

 me, he said, " If I know anything about the matter, anthm- 



