56 



NA TURE 



[November 20, 1902 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- 

 pressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake 

 to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected 

 manuscripts intended for this or any other part of NATURE. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] 



Note on the Discovery of the Human Trypanosome. 



We have recently seen in the medical Press several very 

 inaccurate accovnts regarding the authorship of the important 

 new discovery of trypanosomes in human blood, and of the 

 disease caused by them. For instance, the Journal of Tropical 

 Medicine for November I (in giving an anonymous description, 

 supported by an editorial, of a case just observed by Drs. Daniels 

 and Manson) attributes the original discovery to Dr. R. M. 

 Forde. It does not mention even the name of Dr. J. Everett 

 Dutton. Dr. Dutton is an old student and assistant in this 

 Laboratory, and is now away on the West African Coast ; and 

 we are of opinion that he has a claim to be considered in the 

 matter of this discovery. Another periodical, The Hospital 

 for November 8, while also omitting Dr. Dulton's name, 

 states that the discovery was made "within the last few days" 

 by the London School of Tropical Medicine. We believe that 

 such statements are calculated to distort the history of the 

 discovery, and should therefore like to have an opportunity for 

 correcting them promptly in jour pages. 



The facts regarding the history of the discovery — which was 

 made nearly a year ago — have already been publicly and 

 adequately slated both by Dr. Forrie 1 and by Dr. Dutton. - 

 Dr. Forde, Colonial Surgeon, Biiti-h Gambia, tells us that the 

 case in which the parasites were first observed came under his 

 notice in May, 1901 ; that he found in the blood "small worm- 

 like, extremely active bodies, which I prematurely pronounced 

 a species of filaria," although this conclusion " became doubtful 

 after repeated observations of the parasite " ; and that he showed 

 the case in December, 1901, to Dr. J. Everett Dutton, then upon 

 a mission of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine to the 

 Gambia, and that Dr. Dutton "at once recognised " the parasite 

 "as a species of Trypanosoma." Dr. Dutton 's two papers 

 corroborate these statements of Dr. Forde. After the recognition 

 of the new organism, Dr. Forde gave the first records of the 

 case to Dr Dutton. Dr. Dutton it was, as Dr.' Forde says, 

 who recognised that the fever was of a peculiar undulant type ; 

 Dr. Dutton it was who positively excluded malaria as the cause 

 of the symptoms; it was he who saw that those symptoms 

 roughly resemble those of tsetse-fly disease and surra ; it is he 

 who has published accurate and able descriptions, drawings and 

 charts of the parasites and of the case ; and it is he who is now, 

 with Dr. Todd, investigating the subject in West Africa for the 

 Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. 



Dr. Forde is undoubtedly deserving of great credit for his 

 part in the matter, and we think his name should be associated 

 with the discovery. But, until Dr. Dutton was called in, he 

 published no account of the case and did not recognise the nature 

 of the parasite, or the peculiarity of the symptoms. In order to 

 make a discovery, it is not sufficient merely to see an object ; it 

 is necessaiy also to recognise the nature of the object seen and 

 to publish accurate and adequate descriptions of it. For 

 example, Virchow and others long ago saw the parasites of 

 malaria without recognising their parasitic nature ; but it is to 

 Laveran, who did recognise their nature, that science gives the 

 credit for the discovery of them. It is certain that Dr. Dutton 

 was the first clearly to observe and to signal the existence of 

 trypanosomes in human blood, and the first to give accurate 

 descriptions of the new organism ; and it is to him that science 

 will give the principal credit for the new observation. 



It seems to us particularly unfortunate that the Journal of 

 Tropical Medicine should have so ostentatiously omitted the 

 name of Dr. Dutton at the moment when it was engaged in 

 giving great prominence to a case of Drs. Manson and Daniels, 

 which, after all, would probably have escaped notice but for the 

 previous work of Dutton. We may mention also — and this is 

 another point which the Journal of Tropical Medicine appears 

 to have forgotten — that before his departure for Africa, Dr. 

 Dutton gave at this Laboratory a detailed demonstration, both 

 of the parasite and the clinical features of the case, to Drs. 



1 Journal of Tropical Medicine, September 1. 



-"Thompson Yates Laboratory Reports," vol. iv. part ii., May; and 

 Btitish Medical Journal. September 30. 



Manson and Daniels, and to one of the editors of the periodical 

 referred to. The omission, then, appears to be due rather to 

 want of memory than to want of knowledge. The journal also 

 states that while the first case (namely, that of Dutton and 

 Forde) was regarded only as a "curiosity," the " discovery of a 

 second case" (namely, that of Daniels and Manson) "opens 

 up a new field for investigation and elucidation," and so on. 

 This view of the relative importance of an original discovery and 

 of a mere confirmation of that discovery is somewhat novel. 

 But the case of Drs. Manson and Daniels is not the second case 

 at all. The second case — also discovered by Dr. Dutton — was 

 that of a child in British Gambia. 



It is unnecessary, after what has been said, to deal with the 

 statement made in The Hospital. It affords, however, an 

 instance of the curiously rapid manner in which such errors are 

 often propagated in the Press. 



We should note that Barron and Nepveu have also claimed to 

 have found flagellates in human blood ; but, as will be seen from 

 their writings, their descriptions are so inadequate as to fail 

 to convince us of the accuracy or even the nature of their 

 observations. 



rubert boyce, 



Ronald Ross, 



Ch. S. Sherrington. 



Thompson Yates Laboratories, 

 University College, Liverpool. 



NO. I725, VOL. 67] 



The Secular Bending of a Marble Slab under its own 

 Weight. 



Just east of the old brick church in the Rock Creek Ceme- 

 tery near the Soldier!,' Home in Washington is a phenomenon 

 which, so far as I know, is unique. A marble slab, originally 

 plane and resting on four posts at the corners, in the course of 

 about half a century has gradually bent under its own weight 

 and a section of it assumed the figure of a catenary. Careful 

 measurement shows the slab to be 2 inches thick, 35 inches wide 

 and 70 inches long ; the posts supporting the slab are y$ by 

 6 '75 inches in horizontal section, and so placed that the inner 

 edges (which now furnish the support) are 52 inches apart. The 

 stone has bent so much that the ends of the slab are tipped up 

 one inch above the outer edges of the posts on which they 

 formerly rested. At a distance of 12 inches from the ends, the 

 bending is 1 '25 inches ; at a distance of 24 inches, the bending 

 is 2*50 inches ; and at the centre (distant 35 inches from either 

 end), the bending is 3^05 inches. The stone is a little rough 

 from the effects of atmospheric decomposition, and. of course, 

 the hundredth of an inch is hardly to be depended upon in 

 these measures. 



Inquiry as to the epoch of erecting the stone did not lead to 

 definite information, but the inscription gave a date of 1853, 

 thus indicating that it has probably been in position approxi- 

 mately half a century. The superintendent of the grounds has 

 been there some twenty years, and he assured us that the 

 bending of the stone had become much more decided in recent 

 years. 



The slab is composed of white marble, of about the texture 

 of the material used by sculptors, and appears sufficiently 

 crystalline and homogeneous to take a polish. On the under 

 surface, the stretching of the material has given rise to a 

 number of small cracks, such as develop in plaster where it 

 bends. The chief interest in the phenomenon arises from the 

 evidence it furnishes that marble is in reality a fluid of 

 enormous viscosity. This has, of course, some bearing on the 

 question of the* rigidity of the rocks composing the crust of 

 the earth and the gradual adjustment of the earth's figure under 

 gravity. T. J. J. See. 



Washington, D.C., November 3. 



November Swallows. 



Since the end of October I had not seen a single swallow. 

 This afternoon, however, between four and five o'clock, I saw 

 a party of six, or more, leisurely hawking over the trees and 

 house-tops. It was occasional appearances such as this, after 

 the general exodus, which led Gilbert White to believe that 

 swallows did not all migrate. On seeing some on November 4, 

 netr Newhaven, he writes : — ■ 



" I am more and more induced to believe that many of the 



