214 
NAT ORE 
[ DECEMBER 27, 1906 
years the mortality from this disease has been reduced to 
nearly one-fifth the former rate. 
The most stupendous task to which the medical pro- 
fession has ever put its hands is the crusade against 
tuberculosis, the preeminence of which as the leading cause 
of death in all communities is already threatened. Sufficient 
knowledge of the causation and mode of spread of this 
disease has been gained within the last quarter of a century 
to bring within the possible bounds of realisation the hopes 
of even the most enthusiastic, but it will require a long 
time, much patience, and a combination of all the forces 
of society, medical, legislative, educational, philanthropic, 
sociological, to attain this goal. 
But great and rapid as the progress has been, it is small 
in comparison with what remains to be done. The new 
fields which have been opened have been explored only in 
relatively small part. There still remain important in- 
fectious diseases the secrets of which have not been un- 
locked. Even with some the causative agents of which are 
known, notably pneumonia and other acute respiratory 
affections and epidemic meningitis, very little has yet been 
achieved by way of prevention. The domain of artificial 
immunity and of the treatment of infections by specific sera 
and vaccines, so auspiciously opened by Pasteur and by 
Behring, is still full of difficult problems the solution of 
which may be of immense service in the warfare against 
disease. Of the cause of cancer and other malignant 
tumours nothing is known, although many workers with 
considerable resources at their disposal are engaged in its 
study. With the change in the incidence of disease, due 
at least in large part to the repression of the infections 
of early life, increased importance attaches to the study of 
the circulatory, renal, and nervous diseases of later life, 
of the underlying causes of which we are very imperfectly 
informed. There are and will arise medical problems 
enough of supreme importance to inspire workers for gener- 
ations to come and to make demands upon all available 
resources. 
In full recognition of the dependence of success in the 
warfare with disease upon increase of knowledge, the 
Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research was founded by 
the enlightened munificence of Mr. John D. Rockefeller, to 
whom grateful acknowledgment is made. Likewise to the 
broad sympathies and active interest of his son, Mr. John 
D. Rockefeller, jun., the origin and development of this 
institute are largely indebted. 
May the hopes of the founder and of those who have 
planned this institute be abundantly fulfilled! May it con- 
tribute largely to the advancement of knowledge, and may 
the streams of knowledge which flow from it be “ for the 
healing of the nations.” 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 
A RECENT report of President Butler, of Columbia Uni- 
versity, refers to the salaries paid to the professors and 
adjunct professors of the University. This part of the re- 
port was reprinted in Science for November 23. President | 
Butler says that these salaries are inadequate, and that 
the effects of this inadequacy are deplorable. The report 
shows that the present average salary paid to a Columbia 
University professor is but one-half of the sum fixed as 
necessary thirty years ago, and that the cost of living has 
meanwhile increased between 10 per cent. and 20 per cent. 
The purchasing power of the average salary of 1906 is, 
therefore, hardly more than 40 per cent. of the purchasing 
power of the salary established in 1876. In other words, 
the great expansion of the University, which has been 
brought about by the labours of the university teachers, 
has also been brought about at their expense. In President 
Butler’s judgment the most important need of Columbia 
University at the present time is an addition to the endow- 
ment fund sufficient to enable the establishment and main- 
tenance of a proper standard of compensation to members 
of the teaching staff. There are 119 professors and thirty- 
nine adjunct professors, 158 in all. To increase the salary 
of each by only 200]. on an average—not at all an adequate 
amount—would absorb the interest at 5 per cent. on a 
capital sum of more than 600,000]. The need is so impera- | 
NO. 1939, VOL. 75] 
tive and the public interests 
the report states, that the 
bring the needed sum, great 
men and women who are 
wealth. 
affected by it are so important, 
mere statement of it ought to 
though it is, from the American 
the large-minded possessors of 
Tue scheme for the establishment at Bristol of a uni- 
versity for the west of England is now taking definite 
shape. The sum of 40,0001. has already been promised, 
and with the buildings of University College, which are 
worth about another 50,000l., the scheme may be said to 
have made a good start. There was a difficulty in arriving 
at an arrangement between the Merchant Venturers’ work 
in higher education and that of University College, But we 
understand that the Merchant Venturers have practically 
accepted the principle of the proposed university, and 
though details remain to be settled, there is good reason 
to believe that the movement will now go forward with 
every promise of success. Speaking at the Merchant 
Venturers’ Technical College, Bristol, on December 20, 
Prof. M. E. Sadler referred to the energy with which the 
Merchant Venturers had furthered the work of technical 
instruction, and expressed the hope that it would be found 
possible to unite the Technical College with the University 
College, and thus to form the nucleus of a great University 
of Bristol. Under modern conditions universities should 
combine opportunities for advanced technological, com- 
mercial, and professional training with the highest tradi- 
tion of literary and philosophical culture. There is still 
room, in spite of other recent foundations, for a new 
university in England with its seat at Bristol; but the 
nation will not gain by the establishment of a university 
weak because ill-endowed and insufficiently equipped with 
teachers, laboratories, libraries, and the buildings indis- 
pensable to the social side of university life. The rapid 
growth of Bristol in recent years encourages the hope that 
its citizens will emulate the example of Manchester, Liver- 
pool, Birmingham, Leeds, and Sheffield in the building up 
of a great modern university. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
LONDON. 
Royal Society, November 8.—‘‘On the Occurrence of 
Encystation in Trypanosoma grayi, Novy, with Remarks 
on the Method of Infection in Trypanosomes Generally.’” 
By Prof. E. A. Minchin. Communicated by Prof. Ray 
Lankester. 5 
In a former communication to Nature (November 15, 
p- 56) an account was given of the results obtained by the 
Sleeping Sickness Commission at Entebbe, Uganda, with 
regard to the transmission of the Trypanosoma gambiense 
of sleeping sickness, and other trypanosomes, by Glossina 
palpalis, the dusky tsetse-fly.* It was shown (1) that the 
infection was a ‘‘ direct mechanical ’’ transmission by the 
proboscis, and that no “‘ cyclical ’’ infection, comparable to 
that of malaria, could be discovered; (2) that T. gambiense 
appeared to die out in the intestine of the fly after ninety- 
six hours; (3) that besides T. gambiense, the fly carried 
two other species of trypanosomes, named T. grayi and 
T. tullochii respectively. 
Since the article referred to was written, it has been 
found that T. grayi becomes encysted in the hind-gut of 
the fly, and all analogies with other Protozoa suggest that 
the cysts are destined to be cast out and infect fresh 
hosts, probably, in this case, the vertebrate hosts from 
which the fly obtains the trypanosomes. This suggests the 
occurrence of a hitherto unsuspected mode of infection by 
trypanosomes, in which the parasites, when taken up from 
the blood of the vertebrate by the blood-sucking inverte- 
brate, pass, in the gut of the latter, through a develop- 
mental cycle, which ends in the parasites becoming 
encysted. In this condition they are cast out and re-infect 
the vertebrate host by contaminating its food or drink. 
Such a mode of infection is termed ‘‘ contaminative,’’ as 
contrasted with the ‘‘ inoculative ’’ method seen in malaria, 
and hitherto vainly sought for in these trypanosomes. 
1 Mr. E. E. Austen, of the Natural History Museum, has suggested to: 
the author that Glosstaa palpalis should be distinguished in this way from 
the other seven known species of tsetse-flies. 
