November 17, 1904J 



NATURE 



67 



Principal Griffiths, vice-chancellor of the University of 

 Wales, presided, and in his opening address submitted the 

 points which it was most important that the conference 

 should decide. Briefly they were these : What were the 

 real demands of the Principality, and how far were they 

 met by existing institutions? Was Wales to import the 

 shortage of teachers, or to increase her own production ? 

 In what manner could the schools be best utilised as train- 

 ing grounds without injuring the schools? and should 

 local education authorities undertake the training of 

 secondary teachers? To these questions no uncertain 

 answer was suggested, although the conference abstained 

 from passing formal resolutions until an opportunity had 

 been accorded the members to consider the verbatim report, 

 which it was decided to publish at an early date. 



.At the second session Mr. Lloyd George,' M.P., presided, 

 and a paper was read by Lord Stanley of .\lderiey, chair- 

 man of the Anglesea Education Committee, and late chair- 

 man of the London School Board, on " The Point of View 

 of the Local Authorities." The debate was opened by Mr. 

 S. J. Hughes, county alderman of Glamorganshire. Both Lord 

 Stanley and Alderman Hughes emphasised the paramount 

 importance of training for the elementary school teacher. 

 In summing up the debate, Mr. Lloyd George replaced the 

 sword by the trowel, and emphasised the need for addi- 

 tional accommodation and for subsidising the buildings and 

 the staffs. Enthusiasm was required, he said, to meet the 

 increased burden on the rates, but he believed that the 

 enthusiasm would be forthcoming. At this stage the only 

 resolution of the conference was passed. This was moved 

 by Principal Griffiths, and asserted " That it is the duty of 

 the Principality to undertake the training and supply of 

 teachers sufficient to meet the requirements of the Princi- 

 pality." 



At the third session, which was presided over by Sir 

 John Gorst, " The Special .Aspects of the Problem of the 

 Training of Elementary Teachers " was considered, a paper 

 being read by Mr. T. John, vice-president of the National 

 Union of Teachers. The experiments already being tried in 

 the utilisation of the intermediate schools of Wales for the 

 training of pupil teachers were described in detail, but the 

 general opinion of the conference was unmistakable — that 

 any half-time system should be a temporary expedient only. 



As regards the question of the concurrent instruction of 

 primary and secondary teachers, it was agreed that it is 

 necessary for the separation of the primary teacher's pro- 

 fessional training from his general education, and that 

 under certain conditions it is possible and desirable that 

 primary and secondary students should be trained together. 

 The important question of the further training of those 

 acting teachers whose qualifications are incomplete was 

 introduced by Mr. Badger, director of higher education 

 for Monmouthshire. 



The relations between the various qualifying examina- 

 tions were considered, and there was practical unanimity 

 that matriculation should be a condition of entering the 

 primary training departments of the three university col- 

 leges of Wales. 



Mr. Humphreys Owen, M.P., chairman of the Central 

 Welsh Board, presided over the fourth session, which was 

 devoted to the " Special Aspects of the Problem of 

 Secondary Training. " Two papers were read, by Miss E. P. 

 Hughes, late principal of the Cambridge Training College 

 for Secondary Teachers, and Mr. Trevor Owen, Swansea, 

 who acted as the official spokesman of the Association of 

 Welsh County Schoolmasters. The conference was decidedly 

 of opinion that secondary training should be post-graduate 

 and completely differentiated from the degree course, but 

 that the training college should be essentially attached to 

 the university college. Representatives of the Association 

 of .Assistant Masters also addressed the conference and 

 endorsed the views expressed by the readers of the papers. 



There can be no doubt that the ultimate result of the 

 conference will be far-reaching and beneficial. The inter- 

 change of ideas always makes for good, and it is not too 

 much to hope that from the deliberations there may be 

 devised a scheme which will be workable for all parts of 

 the Principality, and will in time produce a supply of fully 

 trained teachers of all grades, which, like her system of 

 secondary education already established, will be a lasting 

 and tangible proof of the enthusiasm of the Welsh people 

 for education. 



NO. 1829, VOL. 71] 



THERAPEUTIC BACTERIAL INOCULATIONS 

 ^LTHOUGH the majority of diseases are produced 

 directly or indirectly by the invasion of microbes, it 

 has come to be generally recognised that the soil in which 

 they grow plays a cardinal part in determining the ultimate 

 effect or fate of the microbe. The finding of a pathogenic 

 microbe, and even the accessory disposing factors of a 

 disease, are, however, after all only the beginnings of the 

 greater problem which is the end 'and aim of all medical 

 science, viz. the cure of the disease. 



To attack the causal agent is manifestly a solution of 

 the problem, and this was the method originally advocated 

 by Lister, who may be regarded as the founder of the 

 doctrine of the a;tiological curative principle. Experience 

 has, however, shown that the attempt to destroy by means 

 of ordinary chemical poisons the microbes in the living body 

 is fraught with danger, for long before the protoplasm of 

 the microbe is destroyed the cells of the body are irreparably 

 damaged. Internal antiseptic therapy is a thing of the 

 past. To-day we must rely on the stimulus produced by 

 bacteria in the body whereby the cells of the latter elaborate 

 substances which are antagonistic to these same bacteria. 

 These substances — germicidal in the widest sense of the 

 word — differ considerably in their mode of action. Some 

 neutralise the bacterial poisons, others produce a solution 

 — a lysis — of the bacteria. In other cases, again, 

 Metchnikoff claims that the destruction takes place by a 

 kind of digestion in the interior of certain cells of which 

 the chief representatives are the wandering corpuscles of 

 the blood. 



The inoculation of a living microbe for the purposes of 

 prophylaxis dates from the time of Edward Jenner, whose 

 work was widely extended by Pasteur. It is not even 

 necessary to use living bacteria, dead bacteria being like- 

 wise capable of conferring immunity. In any case, with 

 the exception of diphtheria antitoxin, previous attempts have 

 aimed at prevention rather than cure. The authors of the 

 papers before us are the first who have utilised bacterial 

 inoculations as a curative agent. Dr. A. E. Wright, late 

 professor in the Army Medical School, is already widely 

 known for his method of the preventive inoculation against 

 typhoid fever — a method which is admitted to have led to 

 a marked diminution of this disease in the British Army. 

 His most important work, however, has been the discovery 

 of therapeutic inoculation. To introduce bacteria into an 

 individual already infected with the same bacteria would 

 at first sight appear to be a paradox, but the results obtained 

 justify the means. By the invention of accurate methods of 

 testing the effects produced in the body by the inoculations, 

 Dr. Wright has been able to demonstrate that the elabor- 

 ation of protective substances follows a general law, 

 characterised at first by a negative phase and followed by 

 a positive phase in which the protective substances in the 

 blood are increased in quantity. 



In a series of papers he has likewise shown that in so- 

 called phagocytosis there is really a cooperation of the cells 

 and fluids of the body, and that in the latter there are sub- 

 stances — opsonins — which in some way or other act upon 

 the microbes and prepare them for subsequent destruction 

 by the leucocytes. This opsonic type of immunity is applic- 

 able to a number of diseases, but the present researches 

 show that the mere presence of these opsonins is not 

 sufficient to induce immunity. They must be in the proper 

 place and at the required time if they are to exert their 

 action, and a great deal of art is required on the part of 

 the inoculator to create the most advantageous conditions 

 for his patient. The methods advocated by Prof. Wright 

 are so new that it is difficult to foresee how far they may go, 

 but the striking curative results obtained justify one in 

 prophesying that the time is not so very far distant when 

 the abilities of the physician will be judged by his successes 

 as an immunisator, for it must not be imagined that 



1 " On the .Action exerted upon the Staphylococcus pyogenes by the 

 Human Blood Fluids, and on the Elaboration of Protective Eler 

 the Human Organism in response to Inoculations of a Staphy 

 Vaccine." By Dr. A. E. Wright and Capt. Stewart R. Douglas 

 (Proc. Roy. Soc, September, igo^t). 



" On the Action exerted upon the Tubercle Bacillus by the Hums 

 Fluids, and on the Elaboration of Protective Elements in the 

 Organism in response to Inoculations of a Tubercle Vaccine." 

 same Authors (/'roc. Roy. Soc, September, r9o4). 



I. M.S. 



n E'ood 

 Human 

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