February i?. tgig 



NATURE 



469 



be present at these meetings are invited to communi- 

 cate with the secretan of the institution, 28 Victoria 

 . \\ 1 stminstei , S.W.i. 



Im 1 1 enz \ is now • piii. tin, in Vusti 

 in Victoria and South Australi 1 tended with 



.1 considerabli mortality In South Africa influenza 

 is stated to ba\ e 1 leath of u ,731 



and 1 , 



m 11/. i, ii has bei n sui - 

 mis. J ... lius oi Pfeiffer 



ma) n iut that an exces 



sivelj mini! 



ui, ;mii evidi iui oi this vi( 



ghi forward h I ien. Sir J. Ri si Bradford 



and Capts. I'.. I . Bash ford and J. A. Wilson [Lai 

 February 1, [919, p. 169). Thi present minute, 



round <■■>■ t >< n 1 i > - mi asm ing o-i 01 



in diameter, Gram positive, .. resisting heat- 



ing i thirt) minu 



Berkefeld N and \ filters and a Massen porcelain filter. 

 I In organisms have been isolated from the blood, 

 sputum, and pleural fluid, and obtained in cultivation 

 1I1. I ])• cultures inoculated into 

 animals produce illness in gu 3 ind monkeys 



with pneumonia .mil haemorrhages. Similai experi- 

 ments havi ed out with trench fever and 

 nephritis, and organisms ol thi sam< type ha\< been 

 isolated in these diseasi s, cultures of which on inocula- 

 tion produi - 11. 1 nephritis. 

 In the case of trench fever, the same organism was 

 isolated from infected lice. 



\\'|. havi received the first annual reporl ol the 

 In.lusi1i.1l Reconstruction Council, a pur el) educa- 

 tional with Sii Wilfrid Stokes as presi- 

 dent and Mr. Ernest J. P. Benn as chairman. Prof. 

 W. Ripper, Vice-Chancellor oi the University ol Shef- 

 field, is treasurer and Prof. \. W. Kirkaldy, of Bir- 

 mingham, a member of thi executive, so that educa- 

 tion of universit) grade is w ell 1 epi esi nted. The object 

 id the council, which was established in December, i< 1 17, 

 is id contribute to the solution of the problem of 

 labour unrest by supplying information on industrial 

 alike to employers and employed by means 

 uf lectures, -. and the distribution of printed 

 matter, and, in particular, to make widely known 

 the proposals (it the Whitle) Committee with reference 

 in the self-government of industn b\ means ol indus- 

 trial councils and interim committees, and to urge thi 

 organisation of all trades, both employers and em- 

 1, so as to make the formation of industrial 

 councils possible, ["o this end the council has held 

 public meetings in the largest cities, and sent lec- 

 turers to address tradi and other societies in more 

 than fortv centres. Sum. of the larger gatherings' havi 

 been addressed b^ thi Minister of Reconstruction, the 

 Minister ef Labour, the President of the Board of 

 Trade, and the chairman of thi Department of 

 iii. ,md Industrial Research. Since last 

 mber fortnightly lectures have been given on 

 Wednesday afternoons in Saddlers' Hall, kindb. len'l 

 In th. Saddlers' Company, and fortnightly conferences 

 have been held mi Tuesda\ evenings in tne ball ol thi 



Institute of Journalists. Sixty thousand copies of the 



council's pamphlet nn "Trade Parliaments" have been 

 distributed, besides much other literature. The offices 



of the count il arc at 2 'I ill 1 • < 4 



hul. uf Bengal, in unveiling a 



bust ol ^i' Leonard Rogers at the Calcutta School .>i 



d Vfedil in. , paid a g( n. tolls tribute to tile work 



performed by that eminent physiologist. To him is 



due the succi ssful treatment of the disease known as 



kala-azar, long a scourge in tin- Assam Valley. In 

 NO. 2572. VOL. 102] 



connection with this investigation, In- initiated a new 

 treatment for dysentery, ami discovered a vaccine used 

 in i;w - .,1 spru< •! Leonard Rogers's industry in 

 thesi 1 . 1 ;. sidi - important 



books, lie has publ ; i 1 1 mi 150 scien 



-, and he lias u, mi hesi 

 world thi results ol hi- I.. -in-. In Sir Leonard 



hment, and p. 

 priaie for the loi ation ol th. bi . » orker 



who has madi mpoi 1 . ; 



mitigation of various form- oi di 



In a review on the subject . upon 



the report of the Central Control B. Wace 



- ..us. I 1, ,.i.. "-For 

 aged in wiitn.. 

 a; night, and w hen 

 and foui o'clock in t!;,- morning, rm brain wa 



ed for sleep; but a crust of bread and a little 

 would give 1 

 My exp jvhich 



ha- now extended to eig] has b 



alcohol is had to work upon, hut invaluable in 



upon. h has enabled 1 somi line S to do 



literary work at night after being engaged .. greal 

 part ..I th.- da) on the duties of nn profession; hut 

 only on condition of tm interposing a sort of senti- 

 ment between the two employments, b two or three 

 hours' rest after dinner, with .1 -nod nap. There may 

 be many modifications of this kind in th,. U se of 

 alcoholic drinks; hut the) an- always mere variations 

 of the principle which, after the verdict of this 

 s. i. ntilic jury, max- now be taken to be firml) estab- 

 lished thai the chief effect and use of alcohol is to 

 promote rest, and the reinvigoration which rest 

 brings" (Quarterly Review. No. 45*. fanuary, p. 63) 



In the issue of Scientia for September, 1918, Prof, 

 f-'rasei Harris publishes an interesting papei din. tine 

 attention to the functional inertia and momentum of 

 living matter. By this Prof. Harris understands those 

 properties in virtue of which the effect of a stimulus 

 is not at once manifested, nor does the result cease 

 immediately on cessation of the stimulus. The state- 

 ment applies in a certain sense to all matter, and the 

 key is doubtless, as the author points out, the inertia 

 of the carbon atom. But it seems doubtful whether 

 it is justifiable, or even illuminating, to place this 

 propem as an antagonist to that of excitabilitv or 

 the capacity of responding to the action of an external 

 force. There seems to be a suggestion of the ancient 

 confusion of thought in which in. rtia is regarded as a 

 force. The manifestations of it. however, plav an 

 important part in physiological phenomena. 



Interesting "Notes on Myriapoda," by Hilda and 

 Graham Brade-Birks, furnish the Dartford Naturalists' 

 Field Club with an occ.isi.-n.il paper "reprinted from 

 the Lancashire and Cheshire Naturalist, September 

 and October, 1918." The authors assign to Kent 

 twelve species of Chilopoda, of which four are 

 luminous, and eight species ,,l Diplopoda. Their 

 notes mi synonym) would havi been mon serviceable 

 had they appended dates to thi genera and spi 

 inst.-ad of relegating them to the concluding biblio- 

 graphy. Th " " Svstema Naturae" .printed 

 " Systema Natura ") is undated, as though then 

 onb one edition of that famous work. In these days 

 of expensive printing the enumeration of evi 1 so man) 

 places where specimens have been captured could well 

 have been spared, and the space devoted to concise 

 definition- of the various items of classification: This 

 would probably have been an eas} ask to thi si capable 

 writers, and would have gone far to "prove an incen- 



