NATURE 

a SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 1923. : 

CONTENTS. 
PAGE 
Edward Jenner . 69 
ieee Schools . rc EB sy.) 
an echnology of Ca is. By Dr. 
eCnarien Binge J - 7 71 
Vitalism and inti- Vitalism. By Prof. E. W. Mac- 
Bride, F.R.S. 72 
Early Mathematical Instruments in | Oxtord. (tus: 
trated) . “eres 1 
Our Bookshelf _ F 77 
Letters to the Editor :— 
On the-Missing Element of Atomic Number 72.— 
D. Coster and G. Hevesy 79 
Continental Flotation and Drift ~Prof. J Joly, 
F.R.S. ; Dr. Herbert A. Baker . 79 
The Determination of H of ere Bodies. — 
C.F. A. Pantin . 81 
Divided Composite Eyes. —Dr. ry. W. Heslop 
Harrison; A. Mallock, F.R.S._. 81 
Science and Armaments.—Dr. L. C. Martin. ora pee 
Waterspouts, (///ustrated.)—D. Brunt; H. -— 
Hornby . 82 
The Cause of Anticyclones. —R. M. Deeley Thee 5 
Soil Reaction, Water Snails, and Liver F isos: —Dr. 
W. R. G. Atkins and M. V. Lebour 83 
Amber and the Dammar of Living Bees. —Murray 
Stuart 83 
Modern Psilotacese and "Archaic Terrestrial Plants.— 
Prof. B. Sahni d 84 
Action of Cutting Tools. a S. Rowell ‘i 84 
Natural Resistance and the ret of Normal 
Defence Mechanisms. By “ga J. C. G. Leding- 
ham, C.MG., F.R.S. . P x 5 ot BR 
Helium in the United States. ” (Uilustrated.) By Dr. 
Richard B. Moore ; : 4 R #¢ 88 
Current Topics and Events 91 
Our Astronomical Column 94 
Research Items x » 95 
Belgian Botany: a Record of War Time. ‘(Mtus- 
tratea) . 97 
Methods and Costs of Coal-mine Haulage. By Prof. 
Henry Louis . 98 
Science Teachers in Conference. 99 
om ag a" in Meteorological Terminology. By 
3 100 
The tater Astronomical Union 101 
The Haber Process 2 101 
University and Educational Intelligence ; 102 
Societies and Academies . > 3 103 
Official Publications Received . 104 
Diary of Societies . 7 i 104 
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69 

Edward Jenner. 
N January 26, 1823, Dr. Edward Jenner, the 
discoverer of protective vaccination against 
smallpox, died in his home at Berkeley—a village 
of Gloucestershire—where he had lived long and 
practised as a country doctor. For centuries before, 
smallpox had been a terrible scourge in all countries 
and vast numbers of people had been swept away 
in every generation. Based on the observation that 
one attack of the disease confers, on those who recover, 
a lifelong immunity, an attempt had been made to 
imitate the natural disease by artificial inoculation 
of smallpox, in the hope that the artificially-produced 
disease might be mild, while creating at the same 
time a lasting immunity. In England this ancient 
process of inoculation, or as it was called variolisation, 
was introduced from Turkey early in the eighteenth 
century through the instrumentality of Lady Mary 
Wortley Montagu (1689-1762) and rapidly became 
widely disseminated. Its disadvantages were two- 
fold. In the first place, it was impossible to gauge 
how severe would be the effects of the inoculation, 
which in many cases were severe or even fatal ; and in 
the second place, the disease produced was smallpox 
which, like the natural disease, was highly contagious, 
and although the inoculated person might survive 
and become immune he might disseminate the disease 
to others. 
Jenner’s discovery entirely removed these difficul- 
ties. Following up the country tradition that milkers 
who contract cowpox on their hands from infected 
animals are not capable of contracting smallpox, 
Jenner made experiments in which matter was taken 
from infected persons or directly from the cow itself, 
and he inoculated this into human beings, who developed 
what is called vaccinia. That these persons become 
immune to smallpox was shown by Jenner, who sub- 
sequently variolated them without being able to induce 
smallpox. More remarkable still, he showed that 
vaccinia can be transmitted from person to person 
in series without losing its properties. Jennerian 
vaccination is in its essence different from smallpox 
inoculation as previously practised, for the disease 
produced is mild and is not contagious. 
Jenner’s first experiments were made in 1796, and his 
famous “ Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the 
Variolae vaccinae” was published in 1798. The 
process of vaccination was instantly recognised as a 
great advance and rapidly attained a world - wide 
dissemination, largely through Jenner’s own untiring 
efforts. A century has established the fact that 
Jenner’s wonderful discovery must rank among the 
most beneficent known in the history of mankind, and 
