November 5, 190SJ 



NA TURE 



THE SCIENCE FACULTY OF THE 

 UXIVERSITV OF LONDON. 



A T the meeting of the faculty of science on October 30, 

 ■^ which was held in the lecture-room of the physio- 

 logical laboratory of the London University, Prof. J. 

 Millar Thomson, F.R.S., was unanimously elected dean 

 of the faculty in succession to Ur. Augustus D. Waller, 

 F.R.S., who gave the following address in vacating this 

 office. Dr. Waller said : — 



"In vacating the chair that I have had the honour to 

 hold during the last four years as dean of the faculty of 

 science, it may be e.\pected of me that I should review 

 the work of the faculty during that period. 



" I shall not, however, attempt to draw up any elaborate 

 digest of the proceedings recorded in our minutes. I shall 

 limit myself to directing your particular attention to two 

 subjects that in iny opinion are calculated to be of cardinal 

 importance in the future development of the faculty, and 

 that have been prominent before my mind during my term 

 of office. 



" The first of these two subjects relates to the faculty 

 board, composed of the representatives of its several boards 

 of studies. In the constitution of the University, as re- 

 formed ten years ago, the oflicial organs of intermediation 

 between the teachers and the Senate are the boards of 

 studies, and the several faculties m relation to those boards 

 on the one hand, and to the Senate and academic council 

 on the other, have been purely consultative, occasional, 

 and of little significance. The official and regular func- 

 tion of the faculties is little more than electoral; every 

 four years it elects two representatives on the Senate. 



** It is recognised by those responsible for the develop- 

 ment of the University that each faculty is properly the 

 place of convergence at which the particular interests and 

 requirements of its boards of studies should be united, 

 coordinated, and promoted. Under the present constitu- 

 tion the official utterances of individual boards are liable 

 not to produce their due effect in the councils of the 

 University. The faculty itself is too large and in other 

 ways unsuitable for the adequate discussion of practical 

 details. Vet if the influence of its boards of studies is 

 not to be frittered away piecemeal, it must be united and 

 unified by means of the faculty. It is this unification of 

 educational interests that will be the principal function 

 of the faculty board, composed as it is of representatives 

 of all the boards of studies concerned. 



" The full remedy of subdivision of influence is not 

 possible under the present statutes of the University, but 

 a very considerable step in the right direction can be taken 

 if full use is made of the faculty board, at which the 

 opinion of each particular board of studies can be con- 

 sidered and modified if need be, and reinforced by the 

 opinion of related boards. Full expert discussion of educa- 

 tional requirements at the faculty board, and, if need be, at 

 the faculty itself, would promote the interests common to 

 all studies far more effectually than is the case at present. 



" The second subject to which I wish to invite the 

 attention of the faculty relates to the organisation of means 

 for the advancement of science and learning. We know 

 this University as an organ of examination. We are assist- 

 ing at the consolidation and development of its teaching 

 side at its colleges and schools and at the University 

 itself. 



" The highest function of education is the fostering of 

 initiative, in which the acquisition of further knowledge 

 by the teachers of already acquired knowledge is the prin- 

 cipal factor. 



" The University can fulfil its statutory duty to ' pro- 

 mote research and the advancement of science and learn- 

 ing,' not only by its fostering care of its colleges and 

 schools, but by itself acting as a focus of light and lead- 

 ing, served by the collective efforts of all its college 

 teachers, serving thereby the collective interests of all its 

 colleges. 



" The room in which we are now met represents an out- 

 come of that tendency. We are attempting to accomplish 

 in physiology a typical concentration of its best elements 

 such as we believe to be desirable in the case of all the 

 principal subjects, belonging to letters as well as to science. 



" During the past si.x years all the teachers of physio- 

 logy in London, as well as several teachers of physiology 

 belonging to the great provincial and colonial schools, have 

 contributed of their best knowledge in this lecture-room. 

 I do not propose to weary you by proclaiming to the 

 faculty the special requirements or the special merits of 

 any one branch of science. .All that I feel justified in 

 doing is to indicate to the faculty of science a concerted 

 effort within the domain of that subject that I believe to 

 be worthy of consideration in other provinces of science 

 and learning. 



" I shall, however, lay stress in conclusion upon what 

 I conceive to be the most special and most hopeful sign 

 of merit in this six-year-old object-lesson in the organisa- 

 tion of learning. The principal concern of this lecture- 

 room consists in knowledge at first-hand, knowledge in 

 the nascent state and in the making. The best teachers 

 and many of the best students of practically all the colleges 

 and schools of the University have assisted in its work. 

 The colleges have given of their best, knowledge at first- 

 hand communicated by the men who have gathered it. 

 .And the gift has augmented the wealth of the givers. 



" I shall be confirmed by every physiologist when I 

 state that during the last few years physiological educa- 

 tion has been promoted by the special courses of advanced 

 lectures in physiology, that have become established in 

 Ihe colleges as well as at the University itself. 



" The gift of the colleges to the University has been to 

 the gain of the University and to the gain of the colleges. 



" Shall I be held as too sanguine if, in conclusion, I 

 venture to hope that in the great efforts required of the 

 University to fulfil its function as a seat of learning the 

 feeble effort made during the last six years in a limited 

 province within the faculty of science may not prove to 

 have been quite fruitless? " 



NO. 2036, VOL. 79] 



ENTERIC FEVER IN INDIA. 



'T'HE subject of enteric or typhoid fever is of consider- 

 able importance in India, particularly to the British 

 troops stationed there, and the Indian Government has 

 therefore been well advised to institute an inquiry into 

 the factors influencing the occurrence of the disease.' The 

 work has been carried out under the direction of Lieut. - 

 Colonel Semple, I. M.S., and Captain Grieg, I. M.S., at the 

 Central Research Institute, Kasauli. The problems to be 

 solved were : — (1) What is the nature and duration of the 

 saprophytic life of the Bacillus typhosus? (2) What is the 

 duration of the life of the Bacilhts typhosus within the 

 human host? (3) How are epidemics produced? .As a 

 result of a large series of experiments and observations, 

 evidence is brought forward to show that (i) the Bacillus 

 typhosus continues to be excreted for long periods in the 

 urine and faeces of a certain percentage of patients con- 

 valescent from enteric fever, the number in the urine being 

 very large, and the excretion being markedly intermittent ; 

 (2) the " chronic bacilli carrier " exists in different units 

 in India, and can cause epidemics and cases of enteric 

 fever; (3) enteric fever orderlies may become "chronic 

 bacilli carriers "; (4) in India the saprophytic existence of 

 the Bacillus typhosus outside the human host is short. 

 Thus in faces and in urine kept at 80° F. in the dark, the 

 typhoid bacillus had died out in ninety-six hours and 

 seventy-two hours respectively, and an exposure to the 

 sun of thin cotton and of blanket soaked with urine contain- 

 ing typhoid bacilli for two hours and six hours respectively 

 proved fatal to the organism. 



The general conclusion arrived at is that the problem of 

 the prevention of enteric fever among the British troops 

 in India is the detection and isolation of the individual 

 harbouring the Bacillus typhosus. We should have ex- 

 pected, however, -iome reference to anti-typhoid vaccina- 

 tion in this connection. 



The report is a very valuable one, and contains the 

 details of the experiments performed and tabular state- 

 ments of the cases investigated. 



1 .Scientific Memoirs bv Officers of the Medical and Sanitary Departments, 

 of the Government of India. No. 32. (Calcutta, 1908.) 



