444 



NA TURE 



[September 5, 1895 



which has just been issued, the titles of no fewer than fifty-nine 

 original communications to be brought before the meeting. It 

 is hoped that Britbh otolc^- will be well represented, as it is 

 intended to inWte the next congress to meet in London, either 

 in 1898 or 1S99. Full particulars as to terms of membership, 

 routes, hotels, &c., may be obtained from Dr. St. Clair Thomson, 

 28 Queen .-^nne-street, \V. 



An International Congress of Technical, Commercial, and 

 Industrial Education is being organised by the Societe Philo- 

 mathique of Bordeaux, and is to be held at Bordeaux from 

 September i6 to 21. The programme is, we understand, a full 

 one, and contains many items of interest and importance. 



AFEATi'RF.of the annual meeting of the Yorkshire Naturalists' 

 Union, which is to take place at \'ork on October 30, will be an 

 exhibition of specimens, photographs, v\;c., showing work done 

 during the |)ast year in all departments of the Union. It is re- 

 quested that all members who intend to exhibit will communi- 

 cate direct with the Local Secretary, at the Museum, York, on or 

 before October 21. 



The various medical schools will be reopened at the begin- 

 ning of October, and at most of them introductor)- addresses 

 will be delivered to the students. On October i , at St. George's 

 Hospital, the speaker will be Mr. George D. Pollock ; at the 

 .Middlesex Hospital Dr. \V. Julius Mickle, and at the West- 

 minster Hospital Dr. Moncklon Copeman. At the latter 

 institution Viscount Peel will distribute the prizes. The intro- 

 ductory address at University College will be delivered by Prof. 

 J. Rose Bradford, and the annual dinner of old and present 

 students will take place at the Hotel Mctropole on October i, 

 under the chairmanship of Sir Richard Quain, Bart. .Mr. A. P. 

 Laurie will give the address at St. Mary's, and the annual 

 dinner will be held the same evening at the Holborn Restaurant, 

 Mr. Malcolm Morris occupying the chair. At St. Thomas's 

 Hospital the prizes will be distributed, on October 2, by Sir 

 Edwin Arnold, K.C.I.E. At Guy's there will be no formal 

 introductory address, but on the evening of October 1 Mr. J. 

 De'.-Vth will read a paper at the opening meeting of the Physical 

 Society, on " Our Profession, our Patients, our Public and our 

 Press." The annual dinner will take place in the Club Dining 

 Hall, Dr. J'ye-Smith in the chair. .\t the Yorkshire College, 

 Ixieds, Prof. D. J. Leech will, on October i, distribute the 

 prizes and deliver an address. Prof. Victor Horsley is an- 

 nounced to speak at the Sheffield School of Medicine, Mr. 

 Jonathan Hutchinson at University College, Liveri>ool, and 

 Prof. F. H. Napier at St. Mungo's College. At Mason College, 



Birmingham, Prof. Percy Frankland will deliver the address, 

 taking .is his subject " Pasteur and his Work." 



The Council of the Institution of Civil Engineers has issued 

 a list of suggested subjects for |>apers during the session 1895-96, 

 for which the undermentioned prizes may be awarded : ( I ) The 

 Telford Fund, left " in trust, the interest to l)e expended in 

 annual premiums, under the direction of the Council."' The 

 liequcst (with accumulations of dividends) produces a gross 

 .•imunnl of /;23S annually. (2) The Manby Donation, of the 

 value of about /lo a year, given " to form a fund for an annual 

 premium or premiums for pai>ers read at the meetings." (3) 

 The Miller Fund, which, with accumulations of dividends, realises 

 n-:.i!- ■■ 1 40 per annum. Out of this the Council has established 

 .called "The .Miller Scholarship," and is prepared 

 .; such, not exceeding /40 in value, each year, and 

 tcnalile for three years. Competitors for this scholarship must be 

 under the .igc of twenty-five years. (4) The Crampton Bequest 

 of £.(po, (he annual income of which amounts now to /fl3 14S.1 

 is dcvulc<l to the foundation of " The Crampton Prize," lor " pre- 

 sentation to the author of the best paper on the Construction, 



NO. 1349. VOL. 52] 



Ventilation, and Working of Tunnels of Considerable Length, 

 or failing that, then of any other subject that may be selected." 

 (5) The balance of the Trevilhick Memorial Fund oi£i(Xi os. gd., 

 the interest of which is £z 15s. a year. The list of suggested 

 papers, although not exhaustive, is far too long for us to print, 

 but may be had, with further information, upon application to the 

 Secretary of the Institution. 



The Royal Academy of Medical, Physical, and Natural 

 Sciences of Ilavannah, at a meeting held on April 28, decided 

 to ofl'er amongst other prizes, mostly for medical essays, one — 

 the Caiiongo Prize, value 250 dollars in goUl — for the best essay 

 on " The Pharmacological Study of the Fluid Extracts." The 

 competition, which is open to any person whether belonging 

 to the medical profession or not, will be closed on March 19, 

 1S96, by which date all pajjers must be sent in, written in 

 French or Spanish, and sealed, with a motto on the internal 

 envelope, and in another envelope bearing the same motto the 

 author's name and address. The adjudication will take place on 

 May 19, 1S96, when the prizes will be distributed to the suc- 

 cessful competitors. Further particidars may be obtained by 

 writing to the Secretary, Dr. Vicente de la Guardia, Havannah. 



Under the active presidency of the Earl of Derby, a vigorous 

 effort is being made by the British Dairj- Farmers' .\ssociation 

 to give a helping hand to one of the most important branches of 

 agriculture, dairy farming, and its allied industry of poultry 

 raising. At the twentieth annual London Dair)' Show, to be 

 held at the Royal Agricultural Hall in October next, prizes to 

 the value of ;f25l5, in addition to 142 gold, silver, and bronze 

 medals, are offered for competition in 451 difierent classes, in 

 many of which a keen contest is already assured. 



An interesting memoir has been recently published liy Dr. 

 Max Muller, on the ctTect of fever temperature upon the growth 

 and virulence of the typhoid bacillus. In view of the conflicting 

 opinions which have from lime to time prevailed on the manner 

 in which a high temperature aflects the agent of infection in 

 cases of typhoid fever, these results are of some consiilerable 

 practical interest. Thus in 18S2 we find Jorgensen ventilating 

 the idea that the development of the morbific material in the 

 system in cases of typhoid fever might be retarded by greatly 

 reducing the temperature of the body, whilst other authorities 

 have as confidently staled that the feverish rise in temperature 

 was capable of destroying the typhoid organism, or, at any rate, 

 hindering its development. Both of these opinions are based on 

 very slender experimental evidence. Dr. Max Muller has car- 

 ried out a series of researches in which he has carefully recorded 

 the growth of the typhoid bacillus at various temperatures, and 

 he slates that when preserved at about 40° C. this microbe takes 

 five minutes longer to proliferate, or produce a new generation, 

 than when it is kept at a temperature of from y]'^ to 38'0° C. 

 respectively ; that is to say, in the absence of all adverse circum- 

 stances, under the most favourable conditions, as many as forty- 

 five generations of typhoid bacilli may proceed in one day from 

 a single parent bacillus at the normal temperature of the body, 

 whilst at about 40° C. thirty-nine such generations may be 

 el.iboraled. In considering these appalling figures it must, 

 however, be remembered that such an uninterrupted multiplica- 

 tion of the typhoid liacillus does not necessarily take place in 

 the human system ; the conditions which surround it in the 

 Latter case are of a far more complicated and subtle character 

 than those which obtained in Dr. Miiller's laboratory culture- 

 lube ! But these results show ihal a fever leniperalure of about 

 40° C. is not able to destroy the typhoid bacillus, or to affect its 

 growth to any considerable extent ; even higher temperatures of 

 4I'S* to 42'o"' C. were also incapable of annihilating this 

 microbe, and typhoid bacilli kept for sixty-two days at 42'o°C. 

 showed subsequently no abatement of their vitality. ./\s regards 



