January 9, 1908J 



NA TURE 



taining- eight double benches (ii feet by 5 feet), so that 

 sixty-four students can work simultaneously ; adjoining are 

 balance rooms and a combustion room. The laboratories 

 are well provided with fume cupboards, placed in the 

 window recesses, and ventilated by two main electric 

 " blowers " placed in dormers at the ends of the build- 

 ing. On the same floor is the departmental library 

 (2b feet by 15 feet), which contains complete sets of all 

 the more important English and foreign chemical 

 periodicals, in addition to important general works of refer- 

 ence. The main lecture theatre is situated at the back of 

 the building on the first floor ; it is provided with lift-up 

 seats for 130 students, and adjoining it are the preparation 

 room and museum. 



On the ground floor are the following rooms : — the 

 physical chemical laboratory, the director's private room 

 and private laboratory, distillation room, two dark rooms, 

 general stores, special stores, porter's room, demonstrator's 

 private laboratory, lecture room with accommodation for 

 fifty students, and two small research rooms. In the base- 

 ment are a small metallurgical laboratory, extra stores, a 

 fire-proof room, a small dynamo room, and a mechanic's 

 room. 



The physical chemical laboratory has a central table 

 \j. teet by 5 feet, with no reagent shelves, .'\round the 

 walls are slate slabs and wooden tables. The slate tables 



when the main gas supply is shut off for the night. The 

 general heating is by means of hot-water pipes, and the 

 lighting by means of tantalum lamps. 



The laboratories are especially arranged to give students 

 a sound training in the various branches of chemical study, 

 and are also admirably suited for the carrying out of 

 original investigations, kt present about eighty students 

 are working in the laboratories, and of these five are 

 engaged in research work, mainly on the relationship 

 between constitution and the velocity of reaction of 

 carboxylic acids. 



' Edward Davies " Chemical Laboratori< 



are provided with several thermostats regulated for 

 different temperatures. The room also contains a fume 

 Clipboard for electrolytic work, and a main accumulator 

 board. This board carries the terminals of twenty Tudor 

 cells placed in the adjacent room. The cells are charged 

 from a small motor generator in the basement, and are 

 in groups of one, two, and four. The accumulator board 

 also carries the terminals of eight working positions, four 

 in the physical chemical laboratory and four in one of the 

 large laboratories, and, in addition, three main terminals 

 for the lecture theatre and the motor generator terminals. 

 The terminals are so arranged that any position in the 

 theatre, large laboratory, or physical chemical laboratory 

 can be connected to any group or combination of groups of 

 cells, and also, if necessary, to the motor generator 

 terminals. 



The distillation room has no gas connections, but has 

 a long slate slab provided with water, steam, current (220 

 volts), and waste. It is used for the distillation of large 

 quantities of inflammable liquids, and the source of heat 

 is either steam or electric current. The fire-proof room 

 is furnished with slate slabs and an iron fume cupboard. 

 Experiments necessitating the use of gas during the night 

 are conducted in this room. The gas connections for this 

 room and for the chemical physical laboratory are so 

 arranged that flames may be left burning In these rooms 



NO. 1993, VOL. 'J']'^^ 



SCIENTIFIC WORK OF THE LOCAL 

 GOVERNMENT BOARD. 



'X'HE supplement to the thirty-fifth annual report of the 

 Local Government Board, 1905-6, contains the report 

 of the medical officer for 1905-6. The contents of this 

 valuable volume are briefly summarised in the excellent 

 introduction contributed by the principal medical officer, 

 Mr. Power. 



An account of the general administrative business of 

 the medical department is given in Appendix A, which 

 includes reports on the outbreaks of enteric fever at 

 Basingstoke and at Lincoln. 



Appendix B contains an account of 

 the auxiliary scientific investigations 

 carried out for the Board, of which 

 three are contributed by Dr. Klein, and 

 deal with plague. The first and 

 second of these form a further contri- 

 bution on the value of a new plague 

 prophylactic prepared from the dried 

 organs of plague-infected animals, as 

 previously detailed by the author, who 

 concludes that it would appear that 

 the injection of rats with efficient 

 material — the raw or the heated filtrate 

 of emulsions of dried plague organs — 

 in appropriate doses has proved pro- 

 tective in as short a period as seven 

 days against subsequent cutaneous in- 

 oculation of virulent B. pestis, that is, 

 against plague infection administered 

 in the most effective manner. Further, 

 it appears that the protection thus 

 afforded, though inducible so speedily, 

 may be trusted to persist many days, 

 and even weeks. The prophylactic 

 having been proved to protect rats was 

 also tested on monkeys in order to 

 ascertain whether or not there was 

 promise of its application to the 

 human subject proving salutary and 

 justifiable, and 25 milligrams of dry 

 material sufficed to protect against a supra-lethal dose of 

 virulent plague bacilli. As regards the rat. Dr. Klein 

 finds that various species of rat are differently susceptible 

 to the B. pestts, the Norway rat apparently being less 

 susceptible than certain other races. 



Dr. Gordon reports on the micrococcus of epidemic 

 cerebro-spinal meningitis (" spotted fever "), with special 

 reference to its identification in the upper respiratory 

 passages. The morphological and other characters of the 

 meningococcus are fully described, and its differentiation 

 from other somewhat similar cocci by means of fermenta- 

 tion reactions on various sugars is detailed. 



Dr. Sidney Martin has continued his studies on the 

 chemical products of micro-organisms, and reports on the 

 products of the Bacillus enteritidis sporogenes. The ex- 

 periments show that the poisonous products of this 

 organism do not consist of an endo-toxin, but of a soluble 

 chemical and non-protein substance which is formed by the 

 bacillus by its action on proteins. Dr. Wade contributes 

 an exhaustive experimental inquiry on sulphur dioxide as 

 applied in the destruction of rats and in disinfection on 

 shipboard. The conclusion is formulated that a modifi- 

 cation of the Clayton apparatus (described in the report) 

 to supply dilute sulphur dioxide will prove the best adapted 

 to practical requirements. 



The last paper, by Drs. Andrewes and Gordon, discusses 



