November 6, 1902] 



NATURE 



21 



kilogrammes of fixed ingredients annually are due to an entirely 

 different cause. Carlsbad, it ought to be remembered, stands 

 on a spathic lode of horn stone. Whether its hot waters in the 

 depth still precipitate heavy metals and are active in building 

 up a metallic vein, reaching finally daylight in an impoverished 

 state, or whether the conditions of to-day do not admit of such an 

 activity, it is impossible to say. The presence of arsenic, anti- 

 mony and zinc, indeed, favours the former conclusion. 



The Congress held general meetings in which very interesting 

 communications were made. Thus, Prof. Weber, Amsterdam, 

 had much to say upon the Malay Archipelago and the history of 

 its fauna. He reconstructed, so to speak, the great bridge 

 between the people of East Asia and Australia. Again, Prof. 

 Voller, director of the Electrotechnical Institute of Hamburg, 

 explained the foundation and methods of electrical wave 

 telegraphy. Communications showed that very substantial 

 progress has recently been made, thanks to the theoretical study 

 of the subject by Prof. Braun, of Strassburg, and the practical 

 experiments of Prof. Slaby, of Charlottenburg. Some practical 

 demonstrations of what has been called the Slaby-Braun system, 

 for which the Congress was indebted to the General Electrical 

 Company, of Berlin, and the Society for Wireless Telegraphy 

 (by the Braun and Siemens-Halske process), of Berlin, helped 

 to make the matter very much clearer. 



The Carlsbad Congress, which was, according to established 

 usage, held in a number of distinct sections — 28 in all — was 

 opened with a very interesting address on the constitution of 

 the molecule iof albumen, by Prof. Hofmeister, of Strassburg. 

 Investigation of this important subject is beset by difficulties. 

 However, in spite of this, modern science has, by means of 

 continued inquiry, succeeded in establishing certain valuable 

 facts which promise to lead to a clear knowledge of the subject. 

 Thus it has been ascertained that glycocol, which is derived 

 from albuminoid bodies, becomes transformed into urea. There- 

 fore the road to further discovery must, one would think, lie 

 across glycocol, and we can unconstrainedly trace back the other 

 principal nitrogenous final products, just like urea, to the 

 splitting up of the molecule of albumen, and vice versa we 

 might reconstruct the molecule of albumen from the final 

 products. 



Prof. Emil Fischer, of Berlin, in the Section of Chemistry, 

 spoke on practically the same subject in an intensely interesting 

 way. He was able to state that he succeeded in obtaining 

 albuminoid substances by synthesis the possibility of which had 

 so far only been dreamed of. 



Furthermore, Prof. Leube, of Wiirzburg, reviewed the whole 

 question of physiological albuminuria (both "manifest" and 

 "latent"). He showed that in some healthy individuals albumen 

 passes in the urine regularly after standing, whereas it disappears 

 when the persons affected alter their position to sitting or lying. 

 Muscular exertion may also be productive of albuminuria, but 

 only in a standing position. Food of itself causes no albumin- 

 uria. It may, indeed, result, after the eating of raw eggs, but 

 only when the person eating them has been standing. Such 

 disposition to albuminuria is probably owing to an innate 

 greater transfusibility of the filtrating membrane of the kidney. 

 It is innocuous. Prof. v. Eiselsberg, of Vienna, dealt with the 

 subject of the thyroid gland. His paper showed that goitre is 

 caused bysome mineral constituents occurring in certain geological 

 formations and transmitted by water. In all probability, 

 cretinism is due to similar causes, made effective through the action 

 of the thyroid gland. Prof. v. Wettstein, of Vienna, made 

 "Neo-Lamarckism " his subject, and explained the great import- 

 ance of " selection " in the development of species, showing 

 that by " selection " alone is it possible to account for the 

 remarkable variety of forms to be observed in the same scale of 

 organisation. The argument is, however, manifestly incom- 

 plete. For "selection" cannot account for the progress of 

 development which, on the other hand, " direct accommodation " 

 does explain. 



Prof. Penck, of Vienna, in his paper on prehistoric man, 

 proved that the interval between the older and the younger Stone 

 age can only have been a very short one. In future, therefore, 

 we will have to consider rather an advance of the culture of the 

 younger Stone age than an immigration of Neolithic people, 

 bearing in mind that, according to the present standard of our 

 knowledge, Europe is the scene of a prehistoric culture the 

 beginning of which lies a few hundred thousands of years 

 back. 



So much for the general meetings. The sectional gatherings 



NO. I 723, VOL. 67] 



proved no less interesting and instructive. In the Pedriatric 

 Section, Dr. Moser, of Vienna, threw new light upon the theory, 

 still to be proved, of the unity of species of the streptococci in 

 scarlet fever. He has used a mixture of bouillon-cultures of 

 streptococci from various cases of scarlet fever for immunising 

 animals. In this way he has obtained a serum from horses 

 which was shown to possess a specific curative value in scarlet 

 fever when tried in the pedriatric clinic of the University (Prof. 

 Escherich). The serum, which was prepared in the Serothera- 

 peutical State Institute (Prof. R. Paltauf), has been used in the 

 clinic since November, 1900. Of 699 scarlet fever cases of St. 

 Anna Hospital, the worst were picked out and 81 received in- 

 jections. It is the clinical aspect which in all these cases speaks 

 for the specifically curative effect of the serum. If the injection 

 is made on the first or second day there is no death ; at a later 

 period the result is less certain. The effect of the injection is 

 that the fever vanishes or subsides, the general feeling improves 

 in a remarkably short time, the nervous disturbances disappear 

 very rapidly, the children feeling surprisingly better. Up to 

 now it has proved necessary to inject the serum in considerable 

 quantities, and the effect has sometimes been that sensitive 

 children have suffered in consequence from eczema. This, how- 

 ever, passes away speedily without causing any injury. In the 

 St. Anna Hospital it was found possible to lessen mortality to 

 8 '9 per cent, out of almost 400 cases, whereas in the other 

 hospitals of the town the average mortality was i,V°9 per cent. 

 Yet these results were obtained under partial application of the 

 method, owing to the insufficient quantities and low concentra- 

 tions only of the serum being available, so that only a fraction 

 of the sick could be subjected to this treatment. Prof. Escherich 

 spoke energetically of the favourable action obtained with the 

 serum. Prof. Paltauf expressed regret that the quantity of 

 serum necessary cannot yet be precisely determined, as is the 

 case with the diphtheria serum. The Government has, however, 

 granted the Serotherapeutical Institute an exceptional subsidy 

 of 10,000 kr. so as to produce this scarlet fever serum in sufficient 

 quantities. 



In the Section of Dentistry, Dr. Sickingen furnished really 

 astounding material illustrating the necessity of paying careful 

 attention to the teeth of soldiers. As a result, an appeal was 

 made to the Ministry of War recommending that garrison dentists 

 should be appointed in the army. Furthermore, the Section of 

 Hygiene adopted a resolution urging that as a means of raising the 

 general hygienic condition of the people, special district dentists 

 and school dentists should be appointed by the State and 

 prohibited from engaging in private practice. Dr. Sternberg, 

 in the Section for Pathological Anatomy, related that dead tubercle 

 bacilli may bring about the same anatomical changes as living 

 ones, causing the death of the animals experimented upon. Dr. 

 Kraus, Vienna, spoke of the action of immune-hcemolysine (the 

 serum of rabbits treated previously with canine erythrocytes) ; 

 small quantities of such serum have been found to produce a 

 grave disease which has been characterised as hceglobinaemia, 

 hemoglobinuria, grave anaemia or possibly icterus. Prof. 

 Takahasi (Tokio) spoke on poisonous fish. Of such he showed 

 the Tetrotone (called " Tugu " in Japan) to be the most poisonous 

 of all. Its ovary contains most of the poison, the next dangerous 

 being the liver ; the muscles, on the other hand, are entirely 

 free from the poison. Accordingly, a police regulation has 

 been enforced, permitting the sale of this fish only after the 

 internal organs have been removed. 



Prof. Frick, Zurich, spoke of the treatment of feverish 

 diseases without alcohol, and aroused considerable interest in 

 view of the bearing of this matter upon the anti-alcoholic 

 movement. He said that the popularity of alcohol is entirely 

 due to its quality as a narcotic. Alcohol, however, possesses a 

 number of qualities which make its use seriously contra- 

 indicated in the ward altogether, and more particularly in 

 febrile diseases. Moreover, the power of resistance against 

 infectious matter is abated in the animal organism by the con- 

 sumption of alcohol, and this is the reason why drinkers show 

 in any kind of infectious disease a lesser power of resistance than 

 people who practise abstinence. 



Another question of great interest raised in the proceedings 

 was that of the "circuit of nitrogen." Among the highly in- 

 structive communications which were made on the subject, space 

 will permit me here to mention only one. Prof. Meyer, of 

 Gottingen, began his paper with these words : — " Cellulose must 

 become a food stuff." He pointed out the necessity for 

 nitrogen both in vegetable and animal life, and the importance 



