55° 



NA TURE 



[April 5, 1906 



MEDITERRANEAN FEVER} 



""THE reports of the commission for the investigation of 

 Mediterranean fever, part iv., recently issued, contains 

 a number of important papers. It is shown that in 86 per 

 cent, of patients the Micrococ'cus melitensis is present in 

 the peripheral blood, but usually not in large numbers 

 (Staff-Surgeon Gilmour, R.N.), that it can be recovered 

 from most of the organs and tissues post mortem, and 

 from the urine, but not from the saliva (Captain Kennedy, 

 R.A.M.C.). A critical examination of the blood for the 

 agglutination reaction, by Fleet-Surgeon Bassett-Smith, 

 R.N., shows that the blood in 14S cases, other than 

 Mediterranean fever, gave an agglutination reaction only 

 in four. The four latter had recently returned from Malta, 

 and, though suffering from other affections at the time, 

 had had the fever. The agglutination test is therefore per- 

 fectly trustworthy. Three papers deal with the possible 

 propagation of the disease by insects; Mosquitoes, Gulex 

 pipiens and Stegomyia fasciata, were proved to be capable 

 of carrying infection; in one case it was highly probable 

 that a human being had been infected in this way, and 

 experimentally one monkey was thus infected (Major 

 Horrocks and Captain Kennedy). In view of the observ- 

 ations recorded in a previous reporf ol the natural in- 

 fection of goat- with the .1/. melitensis, the further in- 

 vestigations in this direction are of great interest, Majoi 

 Horrocks and Captain Kennedy find that 41 per rent, of 

 Hi- nil, in Malta are infected, and that 10 pel cent, 

 supplying milk excrete the .1/. melitensis in their milk, 

 and monkeys and goats can lie infected by feeding with 

 111.' infected milk. Cows, bullocks, mules, and in on.. 

 in-lain c .1 dog, are oilier animals proved occasionally to be 

 infected. Like goats, cows may transmit the micro- 

 coccus in their milk I Staff-Surgeon Shaw, R.N., and 

 Captain Kennedy). These results suggest that a very 

 important source of human infection is from domestic 

 animals, particularly vi& milk. Ambulatory cases in man 

 and the excretion of the micrococcus in the urine are also 

 sources by which infection may lie transmitted both 1.. 

 man and animals. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



A 1 the University of Messina, Profs. G. Bagnera and 

 E. Bortolotti have been appointed to chair- for higher 

 analysis and calculus respectively. 



At the annual graduation ceremonial of the University 

 of St. Andrews, on Tuesday, the honorary degree of LL.D. 

 was conferred upon Dr. A. C. L. G. Giinther, F.R.S., 

 Prof. J. Cook Wilson, professor of logic in the University 

 of Oxford, and Prof. A. H. Young, professor of anatomy 

 in Victoria University, Manchester. 



At Lehigh University a course in electrometallurgy has 

 been established. In its main outline it is similar to the 

 course in metallurgy, but differs from it in omitting assay- 

 ing and geology. The time thus gained is devoted to 

 electrical engineering. There an- thus two courses of four 

 years each offered in the department of metallurgy. 



Some interesting data relating to the heating of uni- 

 versity buildings are contained in a paper by Mr. H. W. 

 Spangler in the Journal of the Franklin Institute of Phila- 

 delphia (vol. clxi., No. 3), in which he describes the 

 system of heating and lighting the dormitories of the 

 University of Pennsylvania from a central station about 

 1200 feel away. 



In addition to the Clift-Courlauld and Pfeiffer scholar- 

 ships to lie awarded in June, the council of Bedford Coll.-, 

 for Women offers a Deccan scholarship in science, value 

 60/., for three years, on the result of the entrance scholar- 

 ships examination. The scholarship will be awarded only 

 to candidates who wish to qualify themselves to earn a 



1 "Reports of the Commission appointed by the Admiralty, ihe War 

 Office, and the Civil Government of Malta for the Investigation of Mediter- 

 ranean Fever, under the Supervision of an Advisory Com in' t tee of the Royal 

 iociety." Part iv. Pp. r8 7 . (London : Harrison and Sons, 1906.) Price 





NO. 1901, VOL. Jl,] 



living, and cannot obtain their university education with- 

 out pecuniary help. 



A PRIVATE view of the i- \b ilii t ion of students' work will 

 be held at the Borough Polytechnic Institute on April 7. 

 In view of the attention which is being directed to the 

 work done on the Continent and in America in the direction 

 of industrial training for apprentices, many men of science 

 interested in educational problems may be glad tu learn 

 more of the work of an institute which has made in- 

 dustrial training, combined with a good educational 

 foundation, one of its strongest features. 



A preliminary meeting in connection with the second 

 International Congress on School Hygiene, to be held in 

 London in August, 1007, was held at the University ol 

 London on March 30. Sir Lauder Brunton, F.R.S., presi- 

 dent of the congress, announced that French educationists 

 and medical men have determined to do all in their power 

 to make the congress in London a complete success, and 

 other countries have taken the matter up. A gratifying 

 reception has been accorded to the idea of an international 

 congress both in Canada and in South Africa, and it is 

 hoped that at the congress there will be a thoroughly 

 representative gathering, not only of the colonies, but of 

 every civilised country in the world. The congress, Sir 

 Lauder Brunton said, promises to be one of the largest 

 and mosl important ever held in London. Resolutions 

 were adopted approving the idea of holding the second 

 congress in London, asking the King to extend his Royal 

 patronage to the congress, approving the steps already 

 taken to initiate the arrangements for the congress, and 

 inviting the cooperation of educational .and municipal 

 authorities, societies, and other representative bodies 

 interested in education and the health .and development of 

 children during school life. 



The annual dinner ol the Bristol University College 

 Colston Society was held on March 30. The president, 

 Mr. J. YV. Arrowsmit'n, announced the receipt of a cheque 

 for 500/. from Lord Strathcona, who was unable to attend. 

 He added that for the past six years an anonymous donor 

 ha- sent the college 1000/. annually lor it- sustentation 

 fund. The Hon. Mrs. Whittuck, of Bath, has offered 

 15002. to form part of the endowment of a chair of 

 economic science, provided the council of the college sees 

 its way to establish such a chair. It has been determined 

 to take up in earnest the task of establishing a university 

 for Bristol, and a committee has been formed, covering 

 the counties of Wiltshire, Somerset, and Gloucestershire. 

 Lord W'interstoke has offered 10,000/., Mr. J. S. Fry 

 10,0001., and Sir Frederick Wills and Mr. F. J. Fry 

 5000/. each, thus making up 30,000/. Altogether from 

 150,000/. to 200,000/. are wanted. Mr. Whitelaw Reid, 

 the United States Ambassador, and Mr. Birrell, President 

 of the Board of Education, both responded to the toast 

 of " Our Guests." Mr. Reid described American experi- 

 ence in the founding of universities. The people of the 

 United States began by copying Oxford and Cambridge, 

 the only two English universities in 1833 ; but in time 

 they found that the demands of a new people, and of a 

 continent that had to be subdued to the uses of civilisation, 

 called more and more for some higher education of a 

 different kind. Thus while the great English schools still 

 adhered chiefly to the humanities, theirs began a diver- 

 gence, which every year found more decided, towards 

 science and its applications. The most notable tendency 

 as yet in recent higher educational development in America 

 is towards scientific and technological study with a special- 

 isation always growing more precise, if not also more 

 narrow, in reference to the student's intended pursuits in 

 life. After describing the development of schools and 

 institutions of higher education since the Civil War, Mr. 

 Reid went on to say that none of these schools has money 

 enough, though many of them have considerable amounts. 

 First, of course, stands the Leland Stanford with its 

 princelj endowment, from one man and his wife, of 

 between seven and eight million pounds. Next comes 

 Columbia with more than six million pounds, then Harvard 

 with about five and a half millions, Chicago with nearly 

 four millions, and Cornell with nearly three. The 

 great work of Yale has been done with true Connecticut 



