28o 



NATURE 



[July 21, 1904 



adult tissues into modified reproductive or " gametoid " 

 tissue. This, however, does not completely explain 

 malignancy ; there may possibly be in addition con- 

 jugation of cells or of nuclei. Let us hope that before 

 long Dr. Bashford and his colleagues may give us 

 further information on these and other points so 

 necessary for the complete solution of the cancer 

 problem. 



The reports of the cancer research laboratories of 

 the Middlesex Hospital ' contain several papers which 

 are, however, for the most part of purely medical 

 interest, e.g. cancer in certain organs, and various 

 methods of treating the disease. A report by Prof. 

 Karl Pearson on cancer statistics collected by Messrs. 

 Hillier and Tritsch is of considerable interest. For 

 this the histories of 3000 cases of cancer were care- 

 fully analysed, and the results of Prof. Pearson's 

 mathematical analysis are : — (i) as regards age in- 

 cidence frequencies, that cancer is far more likely to 

 occur in childhood in the male than in the female ; 

 (2) as regards a family history of cancer (that is, 

 heredity in cancer), there seems to be a slight corre- 

 lation between a case of cancer and a family history 

 of cancer, but this is so slight as to be within the 

 probable error of random sampling ; and (3) that there 

 is little or no relation between the presence of cancer 

 and a tubercular family history, but there is a relation 

 between the presence of cancer and the presence of 

 tuberculosis. 



The first report of the Liverpool Cancer Research 

 Fund - has also recently been issued. This fund has 

 been instituted \>y Mr. Sutton Timmis, who has vested 

 in two trustees a sum of lo.oooL, which is administered 

 by a committee empowered to spend lOooL to 1500L 

 per annum until the fund is exhausted or the cause of 

 cancer discovered. A cytolytic milk has been prepared 

 by injecting a cow with carcinomatous material, but 

 the cases treated with it are not yet sufficiently 

 numerous to allow an expression of opinion as to its 

 value. Investigations are also being made into 

 malignant growths of man and animals by Dr. Albert 

 Griinbaum, who has been appointed director of these 

 researches. 



Mr. Cecil H. Leaf in a booklet^ discusses the 

 clinical causes and prevention of cancer of the breast, 

 with an analysis of 100 cases. Of the 100 cases, 84 

 were married and 16 single, and the author thinks 

 that very early marriages and errors in lactation may 

 act as exciting causes. In 35 of the cases there was 

 a definite history of injury, and unsuitable corsets are 

 suggested as taking some share in the production of 

 mammary cancer. Diet, e.g. excessive meat eating, 

 use of alcohol, and of salt, could not, as has been 

 suggested by some, be ascribed as a cause of the 

 disease. Finally, some suggestions are made with the 

 view of prevention. R. T. Hewlett. 



ELECTRICAL TRANSMLSSION OF PICTURES 



AND SCRIPT.'' 

 'I 'HE problem of distant electrical vision is one to 

 ' which much speculation and experimenting have 

 been devoted. Before this problem can be attempted 

 with any hope of success, however, the preliminary 

 one of the electrical transmission of photographs over 

 a distance has to be solved. This problem, it may be 



1 " Archives of the Middlesex Hospital. Vol ii. Second Report from 

 the Cancer Research Laboratories." Edited by Alex. G. R. Foulerton, 

 F.R.CS. (Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1904.) 



2 ' First Annual Report of the Liverpool Cancer Research (The Mrs. 

 Sutton Timmis Memorial Fund), Albert S. Griinbaum, M.D., Director." 

 (University Press of Liverpool, i()04.) 



3 "The Clinical Causes of Cancer of the Breast and its Prevention." 

 By Cecil H. Leaf, M.A., M.B., F.R C.S., Assistant Surgeon to the Cancer 

 Ho.spilal. Pp.64. (Archibald Constable and Co., 1904.) Price2i.net. 



■• "Elektrische Fernphotngraphie und Aehnliches." By Dr. Arthur 

 Korn. Pp. 66. (Leipzig ; S. Hirzel, 1004 ) Price i mark. 



NO. 18 I 2, VOL. 70] 



stated at once, has been mastered, and it is now 

 possible to transmit photographs in this manner, and 

 successful results have been obtained over telegraph 

 and telephone lines 800 kilometres long. 



It does not need much consideration to see how 

 important such a process would be for journalistic 

 and police work if it could be industrially exploited, 

 and it were possible simply to hand a sketch or photo- 

 graph in at the telegraph ofifice and send the same as 

 one now sends an ordinary telegram. The evening 

 papers would be able then to publish photographs 

 taken at the seat of war in Korea on the same day. 

 Unfortunately, with the apparatus at present to be 

 had, the time taken to transmit a half-plate photo- 

 graph is half an hour. The cost of the use of a tele- 

 graph line of any length for half an hour would be 

 it is needless to point out, prohibitive. The lessen- 

 ing of the required time of transmission is, however, 

 simply a matter of further development, and no good 

 reason can be seen why in a few years' time the process 

 should not be an adjunct to every existing telegraph 

 line. 



The author of the present work has devoted con- 

 siderable time to this subject, and his booklet consists 

 of an exact description of the apparatus and processes 

 he has worked out. The author is to be commended 

 on the very precise and careful way in which he has 

 described every detail, so that it would be possible for 

 anybody, with the help of this book, to reproduce, 

 without any original work, the same results as he has 

 obtained himself. 



The method shortly consists of the following : — A 

 ray of light is made to pass systematically all over 

 the transparent film to be transmitted. After passing 

 through the film it impinges upon a selenium cell the 

 resistance of which varies proportionally to the 

 amount of light which passes through the photo- 

 graph. These varying currents pass through the 

 line and are received in a moving coil galvano- 

 meter the pointer of which, in moving, inserts or takes 

 out resistance in a high tension circuit, according as 

 the current flowing in the moving coil changes. In 

 the high tension circuit a small vacuum tube is con- 

 nected, and it follows that the illumination of this 

 tube is proportional to the light passing through the 

 plate at the transmitting end of the line. This vacuum 

 tube now passes over the sensitised photographic paper 

 in synchronism with the ray of light over the trans- 

 mitted plate, and thus a reproduction of the same is 

 obtained. The transmitted film and sensitised paper 

 are each wrapped on a glass cylinder. These cylinders 

 are rotated by motors, and synchronised once each 

 revolution. Only one wire is needed for the trans- 

 mission, with, of course, an earth return. 



In the case of the transmission of handwriting and 

 half-tone illustrations, the same are got up on metal 

 foil with electrically non-conducting ink. A conduct- 

 ing point then travels over the metallic foil, and closes 

 and opens the sending circuit according as it is 

 travelling on a marked or an unmarked place. The 

 receiver used by the author is a modification of that 

 described above, the essential point being the use of 

 the vacuum tube fed with the Tesla currents. The 

 speed reached is 500 written words per hour. For a 

 half-tone illustration a strip h cm. wide and lo cm. 

 long can be sent in 100 seconds. 



It would seem that there is not very much practical 

 value in the transmission of handwriting; the type 

 printing telegraph of to-day fulfils all ordinary re- 

 quirements, and it would be only very seldom that 

 a transmission of handwriting would be required. It 

 is to be hoped, however, that this electrical " distant 

 photography " will make rapid progress. 



C. C. G. 



