490 



NA TURE 



[March 26, 1903 



of Major Sykes that they represent villages built along 

 the line of an irrigation canal seems more reasonable 

 than the opinion of the author that they are the remains 

 of a city eighty-five miles long. The ruins, however, 

 certainly require careful examination, and such excava- 

 tion as "may determine their character and history. 



The concluding chapters give a- description of the 

 road from Robat through Nushki to Quetta which has 

 ntly been completed with good rest houses supplied 

 with water. It is very pleasant to read Mr. Landor's 

 appreciative remarks on the manner in which the 

 British officers connected with the road carry out their 

 multifarious duties, and on the high esteem in which 

 they are held by the natives amongst whom they live 

 and work. 



The general impression on reading the book is that 

 Mr. Landor might have conveyed his message from 

 much-travelled Persia and Baluchistan in a less formid- 

 able form than two volumes containing more than 900 

 pages. Still, the work appears at an opportune time; it 

 gives much information in a popular form, and those 

 who are not acquainted with what has been written 

 about Persia will find in it much to instruct and amuse. 

 The illustrations from photographs and sketches by the 

 author are numerous; nearly all of them are good, and 

 some are excellent. C. W. W. 



) i:\NDONMENT OF THE SCHOOL OF 

 MEDICAL RESEARCH AT NETLEY. 



^" > HE extinction of the School of Research in 

 Tropical Diseases in connection with Netley 

 liospital, and the abandonment of prophylactic inocu- 

 lation against typhoid fever, the adoption of which has 

 already resulted* in a marked saving of life, have been 

 noticed with regret by all men of science acquainted 

 with recent advances in scientific pathology. 



Mr. Brodrick's action in placing the Army Medical 

 Service under the Advisory Board, constituted, so far 

 as its predominating civilian element is concerned, 

 of members out of touch and sympathy with medical 

 research, has had a disastrous effect on the future 

 prospects of the development of scientific research in 

 connection with the Service. 



Though a large sum has already been spent on the 

 plans for, and the foundations of, the research labor- 

 atories at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley, and 

 in face of the fact that Parliament had voted 45,000!. 

 for the purpose, the research laboratories at Netley 

 are to be abandoned. More than this, clinical study in 

 tropical medicine has been eliminated from the pro- 

 gramme of instruction for officers entering the Army 

 Medical Service, and the scientific departments asso- 

 ciated with the work of Netley Hospital have been 

 hurriedly transferred to cramped and temporary labora- 

 tories in London. 



The abandonment of the research laboratories at 

 Netley, and their transfer to limited and temporary 

 quarters in London, must be detrimental to the progress 

 of research in tropical medicine. For, whereas the 

 school at Netley was in connection with the Royal 

 Victoria Hospital, which is by far the largest emporium 

 of tropical diseases in the country, in the case of the 

 London school, sick men must be brought from the 

 healthy surroundings of Netley to the unhealthy town 

 atmosphere of London if their diseases are to be made 

 subjects of scientific study. 



The retrograde policy which has thus been inaugu- 

 rated shows a complete disregard for the value of 

 scientific knowledge in medicine. Of bad omen, too, for 



the future of science is the placing of the professoriate 

 under the orders of a Military Commandant, and above 

 all the limitation of the tenure of the professorships 

 to the ordinary three years limit as fixed for staff 

 officers. We cannot state the case better than it is put 

 in a letter by Sir James Martin to Sir James Clark when 

 this question was raised and quashed in connection with 

 the Army Medical School in 1863 — quashed only to be 

 reopened again, after forty years, in 1903. " There is 

 no comparison, I think, between the nomination of 

 military officers to staff offices and that of scientific 

 men as teachers. The duties of the first-named are or- 

 dinary and every-day. The duties of medical officers 

 as teachers of the most difficult of all sciences, includ- 

 ing that of climate, are altogether another affair, and 

 to change such teachers at short terms — men of peculiar 

 and acquired excellences and experiences — would go 

 to destroy any scientific institution whatever." 



The downward course entered upon has been further 

 signalised by the dismissal of Prof. A. E. Wright, pro- 

 fessor of pathology at Netley, on the ground of his ac- 

 ceptance of a post in connection with a metropolitan 

 hospital, a post which competent judges allege would 

 have in no way interfered with his official duties, but 

 might have proved valuable in providing further 

 material for the complete instruction of his classes. 

 But in face of the terrible lessons of the recent war in 

 South Africa, perhaps the most serious result of Mr. 

 Brodrick's action is the proposal to abandon antityphoid 

 inoculation in the Army, and this, too, upon the recom- 

 mendation of a subcommittee of the advisory board 

 which considered it unnecessary either to give Prof. 

 Wright an opportunity of appearing before it or to 

 make for itself any statistical inquiry. 

 ' There is, unfortunately, nothing new in this country 

 in a policy such as that we have outlined. An equally 

 flagrant case of brain starvation is the educational vote 

 included in the Army Estimates, where, as the Times 

 points out, in a total military Budget of 34,000,000!. 

 only 134,000!., or about o'4 per cent., are devoted to 

 education. The lessons which have been learnt in 

 other countries, where men of science are systematically 

 consulted upon all questions the solution of which de- 

 mands scientific knowledge, have led to a marked 

 increase in their national prosperity. The rulers of 

 our Empire will some day understand what immense 

 loss the neglect of science entails, and until this is fully 

 appreciated it is the duty of all who know to explain 

 on every occasion. 



As an indication of the value attached by our fore- 

 most pathologists to the work upon which Prof. Wright 

 was engaged at Netley, we print below a letter from 

 Dr. E. Klein, which he has given us permission to 

 publish. 



NO. 1743, VOL. 67] 



In common with many other physiologists and patho- 

 logists in this country, I have noticed with extreme regret 

 the omission of Prof. Wright from the teaching staff of 

 the Army Medical Service. 



Prof. Wright, by his numerous researches and valuable 

 discoveries of new methods in the study of the physiology 

 and pathology of the blood, by his systematic work on anti- 

 typhoid inoculations, has won for himself the reputation 

 of an original investigator of the foremost rank. More- 

 over, by the eminently practical work of his pupils in the 

 Army Medical Service, he has demonstrated the great value 

 of a research laboratory for the Army Medical Service. 



Everyone interested in the advancement of medical science 

 in general, and of the teaching of scientific pathology to 

 our Army medical officers in particular, will gladly admit 

 the great services which Prof. Wright has rendered while 

 at Netley. E. Klein. 



