238 



NATURE 



[January 9, 1908 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Royal Society, November 7, 1907. — " Further Results of 

 the Experimental Treatment of Trypanosomiasis in Rats : 

 being a Progress Report of a Committee of the Royal 

 Society." By H. G. iPlimmer and J. D. Thomson. 

 Communicated by Sir Ray Lankester, K.C.B., F.R.S. 



The following results carry the work, part of which 

 has been already described, on to October 24, 1907. 



Rats treated with atoxyl and mercury are still living 

 and well at 229, 222, 208, 178, 164,, and 63 days after 

 inoculation ; and a rat treated with atoxyl and iodipin 

 is alive at 218 days. 



The principal pathological lesion in rats which have 

 been treated with atoxyl and some compound of mercury 

 and have lived for a very long time after inoculation, 

 apparently cured of the disease, is a degeneration of the 

 kidneys ; and in most of these rats this was the only 

 lesion found post mortem. 



Considering both the experiments already recorded 

 which have since ended fatally, and the more recent and 

 — as regards dosage — bolder experiments, the authors are 

 bound to conclude that, in small animals at any rate, mer- 

 curv has not given altogether satisfactory results. Perhaps 

 it may be a question of dosage ; they have, however, tried 

 to enlarge the range of dosage as far as possible, from 

 homcEopathic to large ones, without attaining a large 

 percentage of cures. If the dose of mercury be sufficient 

 to aid the atoxyl, they have found, in those cases which 

 have died, chronic kidney, and in a less degree liver, 

 lesions, which seem to be the late result of those more 

 acute changes which have been found in those animals 

 that have died earlier, either from disproportionate 

 dosage, or from some want of resistance to the drug. 



Potassium antimonyl tartrate has been tried, and this 

 was found to be fatal to rats in doses of i centigram. 

 The trypanosomes were observed to be greatly diminished 

 in numbers, but it was also noticed that soon after the 

 injection the rats appeared to be very ill. This was 

 attributed at the time to the potassium in the compound ; 

 probably erroneously, as a similar effect has been noticed 

 in rats treated with the compound described below, when 

 the number of trypanosomes in the blood was very great. 

 The symptoms may have been due to the dissolution of 

 so large a mass of trypanosomes. But they suggested 

 the use of the sodium compound — sodium antimonyl 

 tartrate — with which many experiments have been made. 



This substance in i per cent, solution is that which, 

 of all the various bodies tried, including atoxyl, has 

 the most marked influence upon trypanosomes in the 

 living body. Although the experiments with it are not 

 many, or of long duration, the results so far seemed 

 sufficient to induce the authors to direct the attention of 

 other workers in this field to it. 



The question of dosage is still under observation. The 

 authors have tried many ways, and at present are inclined 

 to think that a full dose (e.g. 0-5 c.c. of a i per cent, 

 solution for a rat of 200 grams or over) should be 

 given when the trypanosomes are fairly plentiful in the 

 blood, and then repeated at intervals of one, two, and 

 three days, up to about four doses, and thereafter in 

 weekly doses for a month. But they have good results in 

 cases in which a dose has been given on four successive 

 days, also when given every other day, and so on up to 

 once every five days, without any recurrence up to as 

 many as 52 days ; but of two cases dosed at five-day 

 intervals, one has recurred and one has not. 



The quickness of the action of sodium antimonyl tar- 

 trate is remarkable. In one rat, the blood of which was 

 swarming with trypanosomes, a dose of 035 c.c. of a 

 I per cent, solution caused their entire disappearance from 

 the blood within half an hour ; and in two other cases, 

 in which the blood contained very large numbers of 

 trypanosomes, after injection of 0-33 c.c, only a few 

 could be found at the end of half an hour, and in one 

 after an hour none could be found, and in the other only 

 one in an ordinary blood preparation. ,\ few trypano- 

 somes can sometimes be found in the liver, and these 

 are extremely active, and in no way inconvenienced by 

 the drug ; whether these are the forms which can persist, 



NO 1993, VOL. yyl 



and need to be tired out by successive doses, cannot be 

 said at present, but their extreme activity, when all the 

 others have disappeared, is suggestive. The authors have 

 not detected any morphological differences in them. 



.\ guinea-pig, moribund with sleeping-sickness, with 

 oedema of eyelids and genitals, entirely unable to stand, 

 and with a large number of trypanosomes in the blood, 

 was given, on September 16, 0^5 c.c. of a i per cent, 

 solution ; on September 17 the trypanosomes had entirely 

 disappeared, and 075 c.c. was given ; on September 19 

 the animal to all appearances was quite well, and on this 

 day and on September 21 and 26, i c.c. was given. The 

 oedema disappeared and it continued to look well, and 

 showed no more trypanosomes. It lived until October 14, 

 when it died; post mortem the organs were congested and 

 the kidneys were inflamed, and the urine in the bladder 

 contained albumen. The fact that the guinea-pig was 

 moribund when the treatment was commenced may 

 reasonably account for the pathological conditions. 



Of 36 rats treated with sodium antimonyl tartrate, 1 1 

 have died, 6 not of the disease, and there remain alive 

 and well : 3 of 52 days, i of 49, 7 of 44, 8 of 43, 4 

 of 31, and 2 of 21 ; and of these 25, 23 have had no 

 recurrence. 



With the view of ascertaining what amount of im- 

 munity, if any, had been conferred on an animal which 

 was considered to be cured, a nagana rat was taken which 

 was inoculated on May 13, and had been afterwards 

 successfully treated with atoxyl and succinimide of mer- 

 cury, and in which no trypanosomes had been found since 

 it had its first dose on May 16, when the trypanosomes 

 were very plentiful in the blood. On October 7, the 

 147th day, the rat was re-inoculated from anuther nagana 

 rat, and on October 11 trypanosomes were present in 

 numbers in the blood ; a dose of sodium antimonyl tar- 

 trate was given, and no trypanosomes have been seen 

 since October 12. This seems to point to the fact that no 

 immunity is conferred. 



December 12, 1907. — " Magnetic Declination at Kew 

 Observatory, 1890-1900. " By Dr. C. Chree, F.R.S. 



The paper deals with the phenomena exhibited by the 

 magnetic declination at Kew from 1890-1900. The 

 magnetograph curves have been measured on every day 

 of this period, whether disturbed or undisturbed, and the 

 data from days of the different species are contrasted. 

 Diurnal inequalities are got out for ordinary days, ex- 

 cluding those of large disturbance, and separately for the 

 highly disturbed days, and the differences between these, 

 and the points wherein they differ from the corresponding 

 inequalities from quiet days, are investigated. 



The disturbed days show a well-marked regular diurnal 

 variation, which differs in many notable respects from 

 that observed on ordinary days. 



When the inequalities are analysed in Fourier series,, it 

 is found that the difference mainly centres in the twenty- 

 four-hour term, the amplitude and phase of which seem 

 both largely influenced by disturbance. The variations in 

 the phenomena presented by disturbances throughout the 

 year are investigated from several points of view. 



The absolute range of the declination (absolute maxi- 

 mum less absolute minimum) was determined for every 

 day of the eleven years, and special attention is given 

 to the variation of this quantity throughout the year, and 

 from year to year. With the view of throwing light on 

 the theories of .\rrhenius. Maunder and others, on the 

 origin of magnetic storms, a minute comparison is made 

 of the relationship between the absolute ranges and 

 (Greenwich) sun-spot areas throughout the eleven years. 

 Whilst the results do not preclude the possibility that 

 Arrhenius's theory may be true of a certain number of 

 magnetic storms, they seem to indicate that it cannot be 

 a complete explanation of the facts. 



Chemicsl Societv. December to, 1907. —Sir William 

 Ramsay, K.C.B., F.R.S., president, in the chair. — 



;8— N ;8 



.\ttempted svnthcsis of | -dinaphthacridine ; con- 



fl— cH-e 



densalion of methylene dichlorlde and i-substituted-2- 

 naphthylamines : .A.'senier and P. C. Austin. By con- 

 densing methylene dichlorlde with derivatives of 0-naphthyl- 



