_ Marcu 17, 1923] 
































fore, that the marriage ceremony must have been a 
very important one in ancient Egypt. Egyptian 
women marry early in life, sometimes at Io or 11, 
oftener at from 12 to 14 years of age. No doubt 
the same custom prevailed in ancient times. At 
13, or even earlier, a girl may be a mother, and from 
40 to 45 she becomes incapable of bearing children. 
When she becomes incapable of bearing children 
the husband often takes a new wife : this may perhaps 
explain why the Sed festival was called the 30 years’ 
festival; for if a girl is married, say at 12, she ceases 
to be able to bear children at 42, just 30 years after 
her marriage, and her husband takes another wife. 
If the hereditary princess predeceased her husband, 
then it must have been necessary for the king to 
marry again so as to retain the kingship: this would 
explain the fact that the Sed festival was sometimes 
celebrated in years earlier than the 30th year of a 
king’s reign. It also explains why a king sometimes 
married his own eldest daughter. If the hereditary 
princess survived her husband, then Mr. Newberry’s 
theory explains why she is sometimes married to 
her husband's successor. This theory would also 
give a reason for it being a kind of repetition of the 
king’s coronation and for its procuring for the king 
a new lease of power. 
There is yet another fact which suggests the theory 
that the Sed festival was a marriage festival. It 
was celebrated in a booth or tent (called Sed) raised 
high above the ground; and with Semitic peoples the 
tent plays a very important part in marriage cerc- 
monial, as Robertson Smith notes in his ‘‘ Kinship 
and Marriage,” p. 198 ff. 

Chemistry in Industry.! 
ATURAL science—and in this connexion 
chemistry must be given a position of great 
rominence—is by far the most important dynamic 
tor in human progress. Notwithstanding its 
liability to abuse, its discoveries have, on the balance, 
made enormously for the greater good and greater 
happiness of the human race. 
e direct utilisation by the State of the services 
of the professional chemist is a matter not only of 
immediate concern to chemists themselves, but also 
of high importance to the community at large, and 
it is one of the functions of the Institute of Chemistry 
to ensure that the relations between the appointing 
authorities and those who hold official chemical posi- 
tions are of a satisfactory character. Unfortunately, 
some public bodies do not appear to be aware of the 
lengthy and expensive nature of the chemist’s training 
or of the difficulties and responsibilities connected with 
his work, and consequently the advertised conditions of 
some public posts are not commensurate with the 
importance of the services demanded. There is a 
tendency on the part of local authorities to utilise 
the services of unqualified or imperfectly trained 
persons for carrying out what are regarded as simple 
routine processes, a practice against which the council 
of the Institute has protested vigorously on the ground 
that it constitutes a serious danger to the community 
and involves a waste of public money. 
The disinterested zeal of the scientific worker is 
without parallel in the whole world, but it is not 
wise for any country to presume too much on this 
disinterestedness. Science is one of the greatest and 
freest of all givers, but it has a right to demand that 
recognition in the councils of the nation to which 
it is entitled. The indirect effect of proper State 
treatment is very great and the rulers of Germany 
know this well. A leading German industrial chemist 
2 From an address delivered to the Institute of Chemistry at the annual 
general meeting on March 1, by Mr. A, Chaston Chapman, F.R.S. 
NO. 2785, VOL. 111 | 
NATURE 
379 

said recently that notwithstanding Germany’s position 
of virtual bankruptcy, the State, at the instigation 
of the commercial committee of the Reichstag, had 
come to the help of the great chemical and physical 
societies, particularly to that of the Kaiser Wilhelm 
Institute, and if the State could not continue financial 
aid, the German people themselves must give their last 
mark to maintain science. 
Although the supply of qualified chemists exceeds, 
for the moment, the demand, there is no cause for. 
serious alarm. The profession attracted a larger 
number of young men during the last four years 
than in any previous corresponding period. Notwith- 
standing the increased output from the colleges and 
the intense industrial and commercial depression, the 
new members of the profession are being steadily 
absorbed. This absorption may be taken as a definite 
indication that chemistry is more highly valued by 
the manufacturer than formerly, and that the leaders 
of industry and commerce are turning more and more 
to science to assist them in the solution of their 
various problems. 

An Intestinal Parasite of Man. 
WE understand that Sir Ronald Ross is engaged at 
the Ministry of Pensions in the investigation of 
Giardi intestinalis, often known as Lamblia intestinalis, 
which, of the three or four common flagellates inhabit- 
ing the intestine of man, has the greatest claim to 
pathogenicity. Moreover, it differs from the others 
in being an inhabitant of the duodenum and upper 
part of the small intestine instead of the large intestine. 
It is probably the first parasitic protozoan to have 
been observed, for, as Dobell has pointed out, the 
famous Dutch observer Leeuwenhoek saw it in his 
own stools so long ago as 1681. From that time down 
to the present day there has been much controversy 
as to the significance of its presence in the human 
intestine. Some regard it as a definitely harmful 
organism, while others believe that it does not damage 
its host in any way. 
The frequent occurrence of the flagellate in enor- 
mous numbers in certain cases of mucous enteritis 
seems to suggest that it may sometimes be patho- 
genic, though, like parasitic amcebe and bacteria 
which are known factors in disease, it often occurs 
in perfectly healthy individuals, who are to be 
regarded as carriers. American workers have 
brought forward evidence that Giardia intestinalis 
may invade the bile duct and gall bladder and cause 
irritation in these organs. Flagellates belonging to 
the same genus occur in domestic animals, such as 
dogs, cats, rats, and mice, but it appears that these 
are distinct from the human form, though Grassi and 
others believed that human beings became infected by 
ingesting the encysted forms of the flagellate which 
escape in large numbers in the dejecta of these 
animals. Careful experiments have, however, shown 
that it is not possible to infect animals with the human 
parasite, and slight morphological differences point 
to the existence of a number of distinct species. 
Reproduction of the flagellate is by a complicated 
process of binary fission. The organism also becomes 
encysted in ovoid cysts within which division into 
two takes place. These cysts are found in the dejecta, 
and are responsible for the spread of infection. It is 
only during periods of diarrhoea that the free- 
swimming flagellates occur in the stool, so that 
infection of human beings is generally recognised by 
the discovery of the cysts. There isno known method 
of ridding a human being of infection, and if it is 
correct that the flagellate may sometimes damage its 
host, the outlook for these unfortunate individuals 
is not a bright one. 
