AucustT 6, 1914] 
NATURE 
595 
THE ABERDEEN MEETING OF THE 
BRITISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
fe the meeting of the British Medical Association 
held in Aberdeen during the last week of July, 
the presidential address was delivered by Prof. Sir 
Alexander Ogston, the distinguished surgeon, whose 
classical reseaches on the organisms of suppuration 
constitute a landmark in the history of bacteriology in 
this country. Prof. Ogston described the foundation 
in Aberdeen of the first medical schocl in the United 
Kingdom, and paid a tribute to the sagacity of Bishop 
Elphinstone, who in planning the university provided 
for a faculty of medicine. 
The sectional addresses were of the usual character, 
surveys of progress in the various departments of 
medical and surgical science. 
To the proceedings of the various sections several 
interesting contributions were made. In the course 
of a discussion on the cause of death under chloroform, 
Prof. MacWilliam stated that so long ago as 1887 he 
had pointed out that the cause of sudden cardiac 
failure under chloroform was due to _ ventricular 
fibrillation. With continuous administration of 
chloroform there was no danger of fibrillation and 
sudden collapse, but with intermittent administration 
the case was otherwise. Fibrillation was due to 
sudden increase of chloroform vapour during the 
sensitive stage. Omnipon and choral previously ad- 
ministered gave no protection. Dilatation of the 
heart was not protective. With normal and increased 
vagus control, fibrillation is prevented. Removal of 
vagus control is apt to lead to fibrillation, afferent 
impulses then constituting a danger. The acapnia 
hypothesis of Henderson did not meet the facts. 
During the discussion on the pathology of heart 
function Dr. Lewis brought forward evidence to prove 
that fibrillation was due to independent action of the 
muscular fibres of the heart. In the case of heart- 
beats, either in response to normal physiological im- 
pulses or in response to a weak faradic current, if 
two pairs of contacts were placed on the heart one 
above the other and in close proximity to each other, 
string galvanometer curves taken during the contrac- 
tion of the cardiac muscle from both pairs gave electro- 
cardiograms of similar pattern. But in auricular or 
ventricular fibrillation tracings from the same leads 
showed no similarity of pattern. Consequently he 
concluded that in fibrillation the adjacent muscle 
fibres were acting independently of each other. 
Dr. Ivy Mackenzie, discussing the anatomy of the 
primitive specialised cardiac tissue in birds, pointed 
out that there was no sino-auricular node and no 
auriculo-ventricular bundle similar to the Bundle of 
His. 
A muscular connection between auricle and ventricle 
did exist on the right side of the heart near the 
coronary sinus. In the heart of the guillemot a node 
of specialised tissue could be demonstrated at the 
junction of the inferior vena cava and right auricle. 
During a discussion on carbohydrate metabolism, 
Dr. MacLean demonstrated a valuable method of 
accurately and quickly estimating the amount of sugar 
in about 2 c.c. of blood. 
Prof. MacLeod (Cleveiand), discussing the glyco- 
genic function of the liver, stated that although the 
Claude Bernard doctrine regarding the fate of the 
glycogen stores of the liver no doubt holds true for 
strictly physiological conditions, this was not the case 
in certain experimental conditions such as hydrazine 
and phosphorous poisoning. Evidence was brought 
forward to show that even in the typical forms of 
hyperglvcogenolysis much of the glycogen also be- 
comes discharged into the blood of the hepatic veins 
NO. 2336, VOL. 93] 
~_— 
| as a colloidal (dextrinous) body and in the condition 
of local asphyxia of the liver as lactic acid. The 
lactic acid content of the blood leaving the liver was 
; assayed by the method of von Firth and Charnass. 
Dr. Cathcart gave a short communication of much 
interest on the réle of carbohydrate in nutrition. He 
pointed out that it was no longer possible simply to 
assess the value of a diet on its caloric content. It 
had, of course, always been admitted that there must 
be a sufficiency of protein present, but it was generally 
believed that fats and carbohydrates were mutually 
replaceable in isodynamic amounts. Dr. Cathcart 
stated, as regard carbohydrate, it might be accepted 
as an established fact that a certain proportion of this 
material must be present in a diet. In support of this 
he gave an account of a series of experiments in 
which the degree of protein catabolism was investi- 
gated on diet consisting of olive oil and varying 
amounts of pure glucose. He maintained that his 
results showed conclusively that although carbo- 
hydrates and fats were mutually replaceable to a cer- 
tain extent, this replacement could not be carried out 
to the complete exclusion of carbohydrate. 
In the neurological section Dr. James McIntosh 
pointed out that the failure of antisyphilitic remedies 
to influence the conditions known as parenchymatous 
syphilis was due to their not being able to pass through 
the capillaries of the brain to the nerve substance 
proper. The cerebro-spinal fluid was not the lymph of 
the brain, and these remedies did not reach the brain 
by this channel, as had been suggested. He had 
failed to find any improvement in cases treated by 
intrathecal injections of salvarsanised serum or of neo- 
salvarsan, and did not believe this newer method 
would have any permanent vogue. 
In the bacteriological section, Drs. Hort and Ingram 
discussed the cocco-bacillus they had recently isolated 
from typhus patients, which on injection into the 
Bonnet monkey in several cases produces a high con- 
tinued fever after an incubation period. 
THE HAVRE MEETING OF THE FRENCH 
ASSOCIATION. 
are forty-third congress of the French Association 
for the Advancement of the Sciences, which has 
just been held at Le Havre, was noteworthy for the 
invitations extended by that association (1) to those 
members of the British Association who did not attend 
the Australian meeting, (2) to the delegates of the 
Corresponding Societies of the British Association. 
Both invitations were accepted by a number of English 
visitors, who were accorded a very hospitable recep- 
tion. At the opening meeting of the congress, held in 
the Havre Theatre. ‘‘God save the King’’ was played 
by the orchestra, the whole assembly rising in honour 
of the English national anthem. M. Armand Gautier 
presided, and (after speeches of welcome had been 
delivered by M. Morgand, the maire of Havre, and 
M. Jules Siegfried) called upon Sir William Ramsay, 
as the principal delegate of the British Association, to 
address the meeting. This he did in a discourse 
which was felt to be charming and sympathetic. He 
referred to the community of races between the French 
and the English, to the ninety-nine years of peace 
that have subsisted between the two nations, and to 
the illustrious men of science that each has pro- 
duced, associating the immortal names of Pasteur and 
of Lister, both of whom had saved more lives than 
the most sanguinary of wars had destroyed. M. 
Gautier then delivered his presidential address, in 
which he referred to recent studies in hydrology and 
oceanography, with especial reference to their bearing 
upon the welfare of the town in which the meeting 
