March 9, 1899] 



NA TURE 



435 



are observed in solutions of different concentration are 

 discussed at length. The second section is on the con- 

 nection between the optical rotation and the chemical 

 constitution of carbon compounds, in which the original 

 observations of Pasteur and the theory of the asymmetric 

 carbon atom of Van 't Hoff and Le Bel are fully described, 

 a subject on which a vast amount of work has been re- 

 cently done. The third section is on the relation between 

 the magnitude of the rotation and chemical constitution, 

 and accounts are given of the rotations of isomeric bodies, 

 of bodies belonging to homologous series and the effect 

 of multiple bonding of carbon atoms. 



The last chapter of the book is by Dr. O. Schonrock, on 

 the relation between the electromagnetic rotation of solid 

 and liquid bodies and their chemical composition ; it 

 extends over seventy-three pages, and was finished in 

 1S98. The observation made by Faraday in 1846, that 

 the plane of polarisation is rotated when the beam is 

 passed through a transparent substance placed in a 

 powerful magnetic field has led to valuable researches, 

 principally by Perkin, on the rotation produced by 

 various chemical compounds. The mode of calculating 

 the molecular magnetic rotation and the influence of 

 solvents are first mentioned, and then the effects pro- 

 duced by inorganic acids and salts and the atomic 

 rotation of the elements. The periodic character of the 

 magnetic rotation of some of the metals is pointed out. 

 The ne.\t part deals with fatty substances, and numerous 

 tables are given showing the variations which occur 

 with change of composition, and the influence of the 

 various radicals is calculated. 



The volume concludes with an index of twenty-three 

 pages, divided into sections corresponding to the nine 

 chapters of the book ; by this means the physical 

 characteristics of the chemical substances can at once 

 be found. 



The whole volume has evidently been compiled with 

 great care, and brings together a large amount of 

 valuable information distributed in the Transactions of 

 societies and other periodicals, thus saving the investi- 

 gator desiring to make use of these researches, a great 

 deal of time and labour in referring to the original 

 papers. It will also enable the chemist to appreciate 

 the great assistance that he may obtain from the study 

 of the physical properties of compounds in his endeavours 

 to ascertain their constitution and their relation to one 

 another. H. M. 



THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF VACCINATION. 

 Vaccination: its Natural Historv and Patholoi^y. By 

 Dr. S. M. Copeman. Pp. x -f 257. (London : Mac- 

 millan and Co., Ltd., 1S99.) 

 "T^HE iMilroy Lectures on the Natural History and 

 -L Pathology of Vaccination, delivered last year 

 before the Royal College of Physicians, are now at an 

 opportune moment given to the public. The Vaccination 

 .'\ct of 1898 has practically abolished compulsory vac- 

 cination. On the other hand, it aims at improving the 

 administration of vaccination and at removing all ob- 

 jections that can, with the least show of reason, be 

 brought against it. Without in any way admitting the 

 existence of adequate grounds for giving up compulsory 

 NO. 1532, VOL. 59] 



vaccination, which we look upon as a grave national 

 misfortune, it must be acknowledged that opposition to 

 the compulsory law has been in a measure based upon 

 administrative defects. To do away with that opposition 

 the first thing wanted is much greater care in the methods, 

 employed. Illness and death from vaccination ought to 

 be as rare here as in Germany. To attain this end two- 

 things mainly are wanted : a scientific study of the 

 cjuality of the lymph used, and a rigid and minute ad- 

 herence to antiseptic principles on the part of the 

 vaccinator. A lymph which is pure, in a bacteriological 

 sense, and aseptic conditions from first to last, as regards 

 the wounds made, ought to do away with all vacccination 

 accidents. 



Dr. Copeman's book deals mainly with the first of these 

 subjects. In the early chapters he reviews the history 

 of vaccination, of various lymph stocks, and of the 

 relationship between variola and vaccinia. He relates 

 the experiments made from 1801 to the present time, to 

 prove experimentally the truth of Jenner's original thesis 

 that vaccinia is small-pox of the cow. The experiments 

 detailed are those of Gassner (1801), Viborg (1807), 

 Thiele (1836 and 1838), Ceely (1839), Badcock (1840), 

 Adams and Putnam (1852), Simpson (1885 and 1892), 

 Fischer (1886 and 1890), King (1889), Hime (1892), 

 Haccius and Eternod (1893), and Klein (1892). All 

 these observers succeeded in inoculating human small- 

 pox into a cow or calf, and in developing cow-pox as the 

 result. Dr. Copeman's own experiments date from 1892. 

 He was successful in one out of four attempts. The 

 transformation of sniall-pox into cow-pox seemed in most 

 of the successful experiments to require a series of 

 inoculations from one cow or calf to another, and not to 

 be an immediate result on first inoculating the con- 

 tagium into its new conditions. It was probably from 

 not knowing this fact that Chauveau, in 1865, and 

 Martin, of Boston, in i860, reproduced human small-pox 

 by vaccinating from cows who had been the subjects of 

 variolous inoculation. The variolous poison had, in 

 these cases, not had the time required for its trans- 

 formation into vaccinia. There remains, however, much 

 still to learn as to the conditions under which the change 

 from variola to vaccinia is accomplished. 



With regard to the bacteriology of vaccine lymph, a 

 subject on which much laborious investigation has been 

 expended. Dr. Copeman comes to the conclusion that 

 from lymph taken from matured vesicles " inoculation 

 of plates or tubes of nutrient material usually result in 

 abundant growths of micro-organisms." Dr. Copeman 

 succeeded, however, in growing the small-pox contagion 

 as a pure culture, by using hen's eggs as the culture 

 medium. " For the purpose of such inoculations I em- 

 ployed variolous crusts. . . . These crusts were rubbed 

 up in a small glass mortar with a minimal c|uantity of 

 water . . . and the inoculation was carried out. Finally 

 the small hole in the egg was closed up." The eggs 

 so inoculated were kept in the incubator for a month, 

 and calves were then inoculated with the egg culture, 

 and after being passed through a series of calves the 

 resulting lymph was successfully used for the vaccination 

 of children. Drs. Copeman and Blaxall have since 

 obtained pure cultures of "the same organism on the 

 surface of agar plates, and this not only when vaccine 



