January 5, 1905] 



NATURE 



237 



versity to realise the need of "better directed measures," 

 there was a change of policy. The farmer's educational 

 requirements were studied, suitable courses were devised, 

 and research in his interests was begun. The success of 

 this changed policy is testified to by every chapter of the 

 report, and is strikingly shown by the material progress of 

 the institution. When the present director took charge in 

 18S0 the buildings consisted of a dwelling house and two 

 barns, worth about loooi. ; the present buildings are worth 

 more than 60,000/. In 1881 the income of the agricultural 

 <lepartment was represented by the salary of the professor 

 and a grant of about 1000/. for experiments. In 1903 the 

 College of Agriculture had an income of 10,000/. for 

 administrative and teaching purposes, and of 6000/. for re- 

 search ; and in addition free instruction in languages, 

 mathematics, and pure science was provided for agricultural 

 students in other departments of the university. 



But the " better directed measures " of the regents of 

 Wisconsin University have had an influence outside the 

 College of Agriculture. At the jubilee of the uni- 

 versity last summer, Prof. Chamberlin, of Chicago, de- 

 livered an address on " The State University and Research." 

 In this address it was argued that " the fundamental pro- 

 motion of education lies in an increase in the intellectual 

 possessions of a people, and in the mental activities and 

 attitudes that grow out of the getting, the testing, and 

 the using of these possessions " (Experiment Station Record, 

 .\vi., 3). As an illustration of the effects of properly directed 

 research on a community, the work of the Wisconsin Experi- 

 ment Station was referred to in the following words : — 

 *' It was my privilege to compare the Agricultural con- 

 ventions of this State at two periods separated by a decade, 

 within which the experiment station became a potent in- 

 fluence. The dominant intellectual and moral attitude of 

 the earlier period was distinctly disputatious and dogmatic. 

 ... In the second period the dominant attitude was that 

 of a scientific conference. . . . The whole was character- 

 ised by a notable approach to the methods of approved 

 scientific procedure. The intellectual and moral contrast of 

 the two periods was one of the most pronounced expressions 

 of advance in the higher education in a great mass of people 

 in the midst of a practical life which it has ever been my 

 privilege to witness." 



The educational value of research may be traced here and 

 there in our English shires, where agricultural experts 

 have won the confidence of farmers by conducting well 

 devised experiments in their midst. But our education 

 authorities still view research with suspicion, and one finds 

 agricultural experiments, for example, labelled " demon- 

 strations " for no other reason than to satisfy the county 

 auditor ! One wishes that our education committees, 

 entrusted as they are with funds for the encouragement 

 of agriculture, would study the " better directed measures " 

 •which have been so successful in Wisconsin, and not in 

 Wisconsin only, but throughout the States. They would 

 probably find in the American institutions confirmation of 

 a view expressed by Prof. Chamberlin in the above quoted 

 paper. 



He remarks that while it is a good thing to provide 

 technical instruction in agriculture, it is " a much higher 

 and truer function to develop the science of agriculture, to 

 increase the intellectual activity of every farmer, to improve 

 the agricultural art on every farm, and by such improved 

 art to furnish better and safer food to every citizen." 



T. H. MiDDLETON. 



SCIENTIFIC REPORTS OF THE LOCAL 

 GOVERNMENT BOARD.' 



A S is customary, the report under notice is divided into 

 three portions, (i) an e.xcellent digest by the principal 

 medical officer, Mr. Power, of the contents of the volume ; 

 (2) statistics of vaccination and details on outbreaks of 

 disease investigated by the board's inspectors; and (3) the 

 reports of scientific investigations carried out for the board, 

 and of the board's vaccination department. 



It is reassuring to learn that abstention from vaccin- 

 ation seems to be steadily diminishing, the percentage of 



1 Supplement containing the Repjrt of ihe Medical Officer for 1902-03. 

 (Thirly-second Annual Report of the Local Government Board, 1902-03.) 



births remaining unvaccinated being 208 in 1899, 199 in 

 igoo, and 17-3 in igoi. The epidemic of small-pox which 

 raged in London in 1901-2 again directs attention to the 

 danger of small-pox hospitals in disseminating this dis- 

 ease in their vicinity. Practically all the London cases 

 were removed to the hospital ships moored in the Thames 

 at Long Reach, opposite to which is the village of Purfleet, 

 containing a number of unvaccinated persons, and an 

 excessive incidence of small-pox prevailed there attributable 

 to aerial conveyance of infection from the ships. The 

 populations of Purfleet garrison and of the training ship 

 Cornwall close by were, however, thoroughly vaccinated 

 and re-vaccinated, and not a single case of small-pox 

 occurred in these communities, another instance of the pro- 

 tective power of vaccination. The report by Dr. Bulstrode 

 on outbreaks of typhoid fever at Winchester and South- 

 ampton attributable to infected oysters has already been 

 noticed in these columns (see Nature, vol. Ixviii. p. 303). 



An outbreak of throat illness at Lincoln attributable to 

 milk was the subject of investigation by Dr. Mair. 

 Although bearing considerable resemblance to scarlatina 

 the outbreak was conclusively proved not to be one of this 

 disease. From a few of the cases a yeast was isolated from 

 the throat by Drs. Klein and Gordon which proved patho- 

 genic to mice, and reproduced on inoculation some of the 

 features of the human disease. 



Dr. Bulstrode's report on the excessive incidence of 

 typhoid fever at Bridgend (Glamorgan) supplies an instruc- 

 tive instance of the superiority of properly conducted 

 bacterioscopic e.xamination over chemical analysis for de- 

 tecting a slight degree of pollution of water supplies. 

 Turning to the scientific investigations carried out for the 

 board, it is difficult in a short space to give adequate notice 

 of their contents and importance. 



Dr. Klein records some observations on the bacteriological 

 diagnosis of plague, and the manifestations of this disease 

 in the rat. He regards the natural disease in this animal 

 as one of slight virulence and feeble infectivity, and con- 

 siders that it is spread from rat to rat mainly through their 

 fighting propensities. Dr. Klein, in continuation of his 

 study of agglutinins, also details experiments made to test 

 the ability of two or more agglutinins to coexist in the 

 blood of the same animal. Cultures of B. typhosus and 

 B. enteritidis (Gartner) injected siinultaneously in an animal 

 were found to produce agglutinins corresponding to each 

 of these microbes. But if the cultures were injected not 

 simultaneously, but in sequence, the agglutinin of the first 

 microbe was to a large extent replaced by that of the second 

 microbe injected. 



Dr. Sidney Martin has continued his investigations of the 

 toxic substances elaborated by diarrhoea-producing bacteria, 

 dealing in the present instance with those of the Proteus 

 vulgaris. He finds the toxin to be proteid in nature, but 

 not albumose, and readily extractable from the bacterial 

 cells by distilled water. An injection of the toxin produced 

 diarrhoea with depression of temperature. 



The report by Dr. Mervyn Gordon on a bacterial test for 

 the estimation of pollution of air is one of great interest 

 and importance. First examining the natural bacterial 

 flora of the saliva, he found that a streptococcus having 

 the power of producing acid in glucose and in lactose media, 

 acid and clot in milk, and of changing the colour of an 

 anilin dye neutral red, was extremely abundant, no less than 

 10,000,000, and in some cases 100,000,000, being contained 

 in I c.c. of saliva, and by using a neutral red broth and 

 incubating anaerobically minute traces of saliva may be 

 detected. By placing, therefore, dishes of neutral red broth 

 at varying distances from a speaker, and subsequently in- 

 cubating and examining, the distance to which particles of 

 saliva may be carried can be ascertained. It was found 

 that particles of saliva were present in the air no less than 

 40 feet in front of and I2 feet behind the speaker during 

 loud speaking. Dr. Houston has carried out an exhaustive 

 study of the bacterial flora of human dejecta, with special 

 reference to the colon bacillus. He finds that not less than 

 90 per cent, of the total number of this organism present 

 have the characters of the typical B. coli. 



The same observer details the results of the chemical and 

 bacteriological examination of Tunbridge Wells deep well 

 waters, and, in conjunction with Dr. Klein, reports on the 

 use of nutrose agar for the identification of the typhoid 

 bacillus. 



NO. 1836, VOL. 71] 



