January 26, 1905J 



NA TURE 



307 



placement of the whole of the lines in the star spectrum 

 would be measured simultaneously. He proposes to photo- 

 graph the spectrum of the star, with the terrestrial com- 

 parison spectrum alongside it, as usual, and then to photo- 

 graph the solar spectrum and the same comparison with 

 the same instrument. The two negatives are then placed 

 in a specially devised measuring machine, and the solar 

 plate moved by the micrometer screw until the similar lines 

 in both the solar and the stellar spectra coincide. Then 

 the solar plate is again moved by the screw until the 

 lines in the comparison spectrum on it coincide with the 

 analogous lines in the comparison spectrum on the stellar 

 spectrogram. The difference between the two settings 

 gives the displacement of the stellar lines, from which the 

 radial velocity is. computed. In the reduction, which is 

 simple, the only assumption made is that the lines have 

 the same wave-lengths in the solar and the stellar spectra, 

 and this is permissible, at least with second-type stars for 

 which the method was primarily devised {Astrophysical 

 Journal, vol. xx.. No. 5). 



A^ 



MEDICAL RESEARCH IN EGYPT.' 



N interval of three years has elapsed since the first 

 volume of these " Records " was published. The pre- 

 sent series of papers would alone afford abundant evidence of 

 the activity of the members of the staff in the intervening 

 period. But it is still more satisfactory to recollect that 

 this does not represent the total output of research, for 

 many other memoirs from the same source have already 

 appeared elsewhere. There are evidently many problems of 

 both local and general importance which require investi- 

 gation, and the standard of excellence reached in the 

 " Records " already published arouses a desire that succeed- 

 ing volumes should appear more frequently. 



The papers are naturally chiefly concerned with problems 

 of special local importance. The three scourges of Egypt 

 are said to be the inalarial parasite, Ankylostoma and 

 Bilharzia. The last seems to bring an extraordinary 

 number of cases under the care of the surgical staff, some 

 16 per cent, of all surgical in-patients suffering directly 

 from lesions produced by this parasite. From the patho- 

 logical report by Dr. Symmers, it would appear that 

 about 7 per cent, of the deaths are directly due to 

 Bilharzia. In 100 consecutive admissions to the medical 

 wards, 35 were found to have the eggs in their urine, 

 though only two of these were suffering in any way from 

 the infection. The surgical aspects of the disease are 

 discussed in two interesting papers by Mr. Madden and 

 Mr. Milton ; they find that many pathological conditions 

 turn out most unexpectedly to be due to the worm. At 

 one period of life or another practically the whole of the 

 native population is said to be infected. Unfortunately, no 

 material progress has been made in elucidating the extra- 

 corporeal history of the parasite ; it is therefore impossible 

 to take any direct preventive measures. 



Dr. Phillips contributes an article on the relation of 

 ascites to malaria. In at least one-third of the cases of 

 ascites in Kasr-el-Ainy no cause could be found other than 

 malaria, but the jetiological connection is not very clearly 

 established. A definite malarial cirrhosis occurs in a 

 certain number of the cases, but it is not always present, 

 and the conditions found appear to be very variable. 



Of ankylostomiasis there is nothing in this volume 

 ■beyond incidental mention. But, as is well known, the 

 most important recent contributions to our knowledge of 

 this destructive world-disease have come from the Cairo 

 Medical School. Dr. Looss, in a long series of papers, 

 has most ably carried on the investigations begun by 

 Griesinger in the same school fifty years ago, and we are 

 disappointed to find here no sequel to his account of the 

 Sclerostomid£E of horses and asses which appeared in the 

 first volume of the " Records." 



Dr. Wilson follows up his observations on the poisons 

 •of spiders by a very interesting study of the venom of 

 Egyptian scorpions. An aqueous extract of the poison 

 gland is treated with excess of alcohol, and from the 

 1 "Records of the Egyptian Government School of Medicine," Vol. ii., 

 '004, Edited hyH. B. Keatlnge, M.B., Director. Pp. i6g + plates. (Cairo: 

 National Printing Department, 1904.) 



NO. 1839, VOL. 71] 



precipitate thus obtained a substance may be extracted 

 with normal saline which possesses to.xic properties of a 

 very high order. The toxic value is about ten million, 

 that is, I milligram will kill 10 kilograms of guinea-pig 

 — a figure of the same order as that obtained for similar 

 preparations from the venoms of the more poisonous 

 serpents. A full-grown specimen of the common Egyptian 

 species (Buthtis quinque-striaUis) contains about 35 milli- 

 grams of this (impure) " toxin." If the susceptibility of 

 man is the same as that of the laboratory animals, it 

 follows that a single sting can kill at the utinost 35 kilo- 

 grams. These calculations correspond very well with the 

 fact that fatal cases of scorpion sting in adults are 

 extremely rare, though the mortality in young children 

 reaches 60 per cent. Scorpions are in this way on a 

 different level from many of the poisonous snakes; as 

 Captain Lamb has shown, the amount of toxin normally 

 injected by a vigorous cobra is many times the minimum 

 lethal dose for an adult man. Dr. Wilson finds that 

 certain animals living in the desert (including the hedge- 

 hog) are naturally immune (at any rate relatively) to the 

 venom ; and Dr. Tallart has immunised goats and obtained 

 an anti-toxic serum with curative properties. 



An article by Dr. Tribe shows that phthisis in Egypt 

 does not differ very much in frequency, incidence on 

 rural and urban populations, and type from the same 

 disease in western Europe ; and Dr. Sobhy gives a curious 

 account of the obstetric customs of the natives, which 

 seem to have undergone no material change since very 

 remote times. The volume concludes with the first instal- 

 ment of what promises to be a monumental contribution 

 to the morphology of the human brain, by Dr. Elliot 

 Smith. The present section, which is fully illustrated, 

 deals with the occipital region, and contains a great deal 

 of original matter on the vexed questions of the signifi- 

 cance and homologies of the convolutions. 



The general printing of the volume is excellent, though 

 the inevitable misprint has crept in here and there. The 

 illustrations are good and useful, but we are sorry to see 

 that the coloured plate illustrating Dr. Symmers's case 

 of secondary sarcoma of brain could not be printed in 

 Eg.vpt. A. E. B. 



A 



WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY IN WAR. 

 VERY interesting account of the working of the 

 wireless telegraphic war correspondence of the 

 Times during the early part of the Russo-Japanese war 

 was given by Captain James at a meeting of the Society 

 of Arts last week. This is the second occasion on which 

 the Times has played a prominent and important part in 

 the practical development of wireless telegraphy. The first 

 was when, shortly after Mr. Marconi had established com- 

 munication between America and England, a regular 

 correspondence was started between the two countries by 

 means of wireless telegraphy — a correspondence which was 

 not, however, destined to last for very many days. Very 

 soon after its inception something went wrong, and 

 though since that time the Marconi Company has greatly 

 developed its Transatlantic signalling and has effectively 

 demonstrated its utility and convenience for communicating 

 with liners, the shore to shore correspondence has not 

 been renewed. 



The second case in which the Times intervened was 

 also only of short duration ; but here the cessation 

 was due to its having met with too great success, the 

 results achieved having demonstrated not that wireless 

 telegraphy is useful for war correspondence, but that it 

 is too effective to be permissible. 



The system selected for the equipment of the Haimiiii 

 was that of Dr. de Forest, a system which had already 

 shown its efficiency during the yacht races of 1903 ; the 

 reasons that led to the choice of this system were its 

 freedom from interference and the speed at which it could 

 be worked, it being possible to transmit thirty to thirty- 

 five words a minute, as against ten to twelve words by 

 any other system. The experiences of Captain James 

 seem certainly to bear out the claim of freedom from 

 interference. In spite of the fact that four other systems 

 were at work in close proximity to the Haimun — the 



