Fesruary 4, 1897 | 
NATURE 
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rescue patients from otherwise hopeless conditions, Let any 
one picture to himself the case of a young wife after her first 
confinement afflicted with this dreadful puerperal fever, and 
doomed under ordinary treatment to certain death. The prac- 
titioner makes an injection of this serum under the skin, with the 
result that the lady rapidly recovers, and in a few days is perfectly 
well. Let any man conceive such a case as this, and all objections 
to the investigations necessary to bring about such a state of things 
must vanish into thin air. So soon as our poor selves are 
directly concerned our objections disappear. Ifa tiger threatened 
to attack a camp, who would care much about what kind of a 
trap was set for it, or what suffering the trap caused the animal, 
so long as it was caught? When the matter affects only the 
welfare of others, including generations yet unborn, the good 
done does not appeal to the individual, and the objector sees 
only the horrors of modern scientific investigation ; of which 
horrors, however, he quickly loses the sense as soon as he 
becomes personally concerned. 
On the occasion of the funeral of that illustrious investigator 
to whom I have before referred, I visited the Institut Pasteur, 
and there was shown preparations of the microbe -of the plague 
discovered at Hong Kong in 1894 by M. Yersin. And I was told 
by M. Roux, that Yersin, whom he knew intimately as formerly 
his colleague, had lately been treating in China several cases of 
that fearful disease with serum prepared at the Institut Pasteur 
on the same lines as that used for diphtheria. Cultures of the 
plague bacillus had been taken to Paris, and at the Institut, 
under the most rigorous precautions, the serum had been pre- 
pared. At the Institut they did not think they had succeeded 
in producing a very powerful serum, judging from its action on 
animals ; but in the human subject it seems to have proved most 
potent. M. Yersin obtained serum sufficient for the treatment 
of twenty-six cases of the plague. The mortality from the 
disease at the time was above 80 per cent. The first case 
which he treated was that of a young man, in whom a “ bubo,” 
characteristic of the disease, was present, and the patient, 
already delirious, was completely despaired of. A little of the 
serum was introduced, and, to M. Yersin’s absolute amazement, 
on the following day the young man was well, the bubo having 
almost entirely disappeared. And, moreover, of the twenty- 
six cases in which M. Yersin used the serum, twenty-four 
recovered ; while in the remaining two Yersin felt that he 
was called in so late that their cases were hopeless. I 
would not have referred to these facts did I not know that 
the person from whom they were obtained was absolutely 
trustworthy. We cannot tell how soon the plague may 
visit these shores. We know that in one of our great de- 
pendencies—Bombay—it is already prevalent in a very severe 
form, and has already cost many lives. We know that a ship 
may carry the disease; that rats are liable to contract it, and 
_that a rat making its escape from a ship coming from Bombay, 
say, to the Thames or to Belfast Lough, may carry the plague 
ashore, and that the taint may be communicated to human 
beings, with dreadful results. I would not say that there are 
not slums in the city of Belfast which might harbour the plague. 
So you can easily recognise how vastly important it would be to 
have means at hand whereby, in the simple way I have described, 
the disease may be combated. I have, I think, said enough to 
show the vast importance of an institute of such a character, 
and I look forward to the time when you will have such an 
establishment thoroughly equipped for its beneficent work. 
There is another department in connection with medical 
education in this city about which I cannot speak in the same 
terms of praise as I can with reference to the new laboratories, 
and that is the hospital. No doubt the Royal Hospital, which 
I had the honour of visiting for the first time yesterday, is a fine 
institution ; but it is altogether inadequate to the requirements 
of this great and rapidly-growing city. It is inadequate, 
whether for affording means of clinical instruction to students or 
for dealing with the diseases of your large and increasing popu- 
lation. But I am glad to know that there is a prospect of better 
' things before long. I understand that it has been not merely 
contemplated, but determined, to build a large new hospital 
provided the requisite funds can be obtained; and I have been 
informed that within six weeks of the initiation of the movement 
more than half the necessary sum has been raised. I have no 
doubt that the munificence of the merchant princes of Belfast 
will soon provide the balance. Therefore, whichever way I 
look at this jubilee, I feel that the College, more particularly 
with regard to its medical school, is entering upon a new era of 
NO. 1423, VOL. 55 | 
prosperity. I rejoice with you in the fact, and I have felt it a 
great privilege to take part in your celebration. 
[Since this address was delivered, the last number of the 
Annales de ? Institut Pasteur has appeared, containing a paper 
by M. Yersin, describing his experience above referred to. The 
details which he gives of the cases confirm in a remarkable 
manner the conclusion which the mere numbers suggest. Just 
as in diphtheria, and exactly as must occur if the antidote is 
really efficacious, the cure was most rapid when the treatment 
could be commenced on the first day of the disease ; speedy 
also, but less so, when it was begun on the second day; and so 
from day to day till the fifth. Four patients were treated at 
this very late period, and the only failures were in two of these. 
More of the serum also was required in the more advanced 
cases. 
Equally striking was the manner of recovery. In none of the 
twelve cases in which treatment commenced within two days of 
the onset of the complaint did the bubo suppurate. And in 
those of a later period in which matter did form, the abscess 
closed rapidly after being opened, instead of healing tediously, 
as it does when recovery takes place without this treatment. 
And the patients, instead of having a lingering convalescence, 
were healthy men and women in a time which was always 
relatively short, and astonishingly so when the treatment had 
been commenced early. These details are so extraordinarily 
confirmatory that, small though the number of cases is, they 
carry conviction to my own mind, 
It gives me the most profound satisfaction to be able to state 
on the authority of the India Office, that the Bombay Govern- 
ment intend to employ M. Yersin, now on his way to the 
stricken region, to give a full trial to his method, and I have 
also learned through another channel that within a fortnight 
from this time (February 1) the serum treatment will probably 
have begun in Bombay. LISTER. 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 
Oxrorp.—The election to the Professorship of Geology will 
take place during the present term. 
This term the usual courses of lectures are being given in the 
various departments of Natural Science. Prof. H. H. Turner 
is lecturing on Elementary Astronomy, Prof. Odling on Organic 
Chemistry, and Profs. Vines and Gotch are continuing their 
advanced courses in Botany and Physiology respectively. 
Prof. H. A. Miers is giving a series of lectures on the Rela- 
tion between Chemical Composition and Crystalline Form. 
In the: Department of Comparative Anatomy, Prof. Ray 
Lankester is lecturing on Reptiles and Birds, Mr. R. W. T- 
Giinther on Brachiopoda and Polyzoa, Mr. Barclay Thompson on 
the Osteology of the Sauropsida and on Sauropsidan Palaon+ 
tology, and Mr. G. C. Bourne is conducting a class for the study 
of Vertebrate Histology. In the Hope Department, Prof. 
Poulton will give a series of lectures on the Age of the Earth. 
Prof. Tylor is lecturing on the Early Stages of Knowledge, 
and Mr. Balfour on Realistic and Decorative Art of Primitive 
Peoples. ' 
Elementary courses in the different departments are being 
given by Profs. Gotch and Vines, Dr. Benham, and Messrs. 
Churchill, Baynes, Watts, and Vernon Harcoutt. 
CAMBRIDGE.—The Gilbey Lecturer in the History and 
Economics of Agriculture will give four lectures this term on 
Fridays, at two o'clock, beginning on February 12. His subject 
is Ancient and Medizeval Agriculture. ‘ 
At the matriculation on January 28, eighteen additional 
Freshmen were entered, bringing the total for the academic year 
) to 923- 5 
= Maw Gardiner, F.R.S., has resigned his University 
Lectureship in Botany on his appointment as Bursar at Clare 
College, of which he is a Fellow. o 
Dr. T. E. THORPE, F.R.S., will distribute the certificates in 
science subjects to evening students at the East London Tech- 
nical College, People’s Palace, on Monday, February 8. 
Mr. Garrett A. Hopart, Vice-President-elect of the United 
States, has given to his ada mater, Rutger's College, 5000 dols. 
for the general expenses of the college. 
