August 4, 1910] 



NATURE 



153 



tory, is fulfilling a useful function in formulating the pro- 

 grammes of work for the various instruments. During 

 the vear, the b-inrh and g-inch transit circles were 

 thoroughly examined for their fitness for fundamental 

 work, and various adjustments and modifications were 

 made. The latitude-variation observations made with the 

 prime vertical instrument were compared with those made 

 with zenith telescopes at Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and 

 ( iaithersburg, and were found to give different values. 

 Ihe cause of this difference between the values given by 

 the two forms of instrument was carefully looked for in 

 the prime-vertical observations, but could not be found. 

 Pi of. Skinner was engaged until the end of the year in 

 preparing material for the discussion of the proper motions 

 of the 8824 stars observed by him, and published in the 

 .'\.G. Zone Catalogue —13° 50' to —18° 10', but the work 

 cannot be carried further until the cataloguing of the 

 Washington zone observations, 1846-52, is completed. 



.Me.asurfs of Douhle St.^k.s. — Prof. Burnham continues 

 his record of double-star measures in Nos. 4426-7 of the 

 ,\stronomisc]xe Nachrichteii, where a large number of 

 measures, made with the 40-inch telescope during 1909, 

 .ire given. Particular attention was paid to doubles 

 ger':ally neglected or little known, also to measurements 

 for the better determination of the proper motions of faint 

 stars and of doubles whej'e the motions are small or 

 uncertain. 



THE BRITISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION IX 

 LONDON. 

 'T'HE seventy-eighth annual meeting of the Kritish 

 ■'■ Medical Association was held in London, for ihi- 

 first time since 1895, °" J^^b' 26-30, in the buildings 

 of the University of London. There was a very large 

 attendance, which included a number of foreign guests 

 and over-sea delegates and members. The Earl of Crewe 

 and the Right Hon. Walter Long, M.P., were elected 

 honorary members. Reference was made to Mr. Long's 

 work, which resulted in the abolition of hydrophobia fro.n 

 these islands. Mr. Henry T. Butlin, the famous surgeon, 

 was elected president. .At the commencement of the pro- 

 ceedings he announced, amid loud cheers, that the Iving 

 had signified his willingness to become patron, as his 

 revered father was before him. The president in his 

 address directed attention to the persevering work of the 

 association since 1S34 in placing the medical profession 

 upon an increasingly satisfactory footing. He referred to 

 the valuable assistance given by the association to the 

 cause of original research. Since 1874, when scientific 

 grants were founded, large sums have been awarded every 

 year for research work. In 1884 two research scholarships 

 were founded to enable men to devote their whole time to 

 particular researches. Mr. Hutlin pointed out that it was 

 desirable to encourage research even though there were no 

 prospect of immediate benefit from the particular line of 

 research taken up, and he instanced cases in which an 

 apparently unproductive investigation had led to results of 

 last practical importance. 



.At the present time the association consists of twenty- 

 two thousand members in seventy branches. The busi- 

 ness of the recent meeting took place in twenty-one 

 sections dealing with particular branches of medical science, 

 and in each section the line of inquiry which is receiving 

 particular attention at the present time was given full dis- 

 cussion, foreign investigators taking a prominent part in 

 I he discussions in many of the sections. In the section of 

 radiology and medical electricity. Sir J. J. Thomson, 

 K.R.S., gave an address in which he pointed out that the 

 .-offer rays given out from an X-ray tube were inevitably 

 absorbed by the glass wall of the tube, and were therefore 

 not available for application in medical treatment. He 

 then directed attention to the researches of Prof. Barkla, 

 of King's College, who found that substances such as 

 metals when exposed to Riintgen radiation emitted 

 secondary rays, the penetrating power of which was specific 

 for the particular metal,, and was independent of the pene- 

 trating power of the rays which impinged upon it. The 

 rule was a simple one, for the hardness of the rav given 

 out increases as the atomic weight of the metal. The only 



NO. 2127, VOL. 84] 



necessary condition is that the rays emitted from the X-ray 

 tube must be harder than the specific radiation of the sub- 

 stance. Only substances the atomic weight of which is 

 greater than that of calcium are found to give out these 

 secondary rays. We have thus the power of using rays of 

 uniform penetration for medical treatment. Thus if silver 

 be used, the secondary rays which it gives off are about 

 equal in penetrating power to the radiation of radium. 

 With iron the radiation is considerably less penetrating, 

 while with tin it is more penetrating ; with iodine, extremely 

 penetrating radiation is given off. A large number of 

 other papers were read bearing on Rontgen-ray diagnosis 

 and treatment, and the great advance that has been made 

 in Rontgen-ray diagnosis came prominently to the fore. 

 Thus the papers of Dr. H. Orion and Dr. A. C. Jordan 

 on phthisis showed this method to be a most valuable and 

 trustworthy means of detecting phthisis in its early stages, 

 and of determining the extent and position of the lung 

 trouble. In the section of medicine. Dr. A. C. Jordan 

 also read a paper on the_ Rontgen-ray appearances of 

 thoracic aneurysm, and the' lantern-slides with which it 

 was illustrated showed very clearly the condition of the 

 heart and great arteries in this disease. In many other 

 sections the value of Rontgen-ray diagnosis was also 

 evident. Thus the first session of the surgery section was 

 devoled to a discussion of the operative treatment of simple 

 fiactures, in which Mr. .Arbuthnot Lane described his 

 method of uniting the severed fragments by means of 

 metallic plates and screws, and in his paper, and all those 

 tliat followed it, the conclusions were founded, to a very 

 great extent, upon the Rontgen-ray appearances of the 

 fractured part. 



The discussion on chronic constipation turned very largely 

 on the Rontgen-ray examination of the large bowel after 

 the patient had taken a meal containing an insoluble salt 

 of bismuth. This discussion was opened by Dr. J. F. 

 Goodhart, who pointed out that constipation in old per- 

 sons was frequently due to failure of voluntary effort. He 

 said he held a brief for the importance and utility of the 

 large bowel in opposition to those who, following the 

 teaching of Metchnikoff. have come to regard the large 

 bowel as a mere place of storage for the waste material 

 of the food, in which poisons were generated which were 

 very apt to be injurious. The large bowel, he stated, is 

 meant to be full, not empty. Mr. Arbuthnot Lane said 

 that in certain cases poisons were actually generated in the 

 large bowel to such an extent that the patient's life was 

 intolerable. In such cases he had removed a part or the 

 whole of the large bowel with great benefit to his patient. 



Drs. Dominici and Wickham came from Paris to discuss 

 the subject of radium treatment. They made it clear that 

 cancer in accessible regions can be greatly reduced in size 

 by radium treatment, and can in certain cases be actually 

 ciired. In the case of large, deeply seated growths, a cure 

 is not to be expected, although great diminution in size 

 mav be effected and much relief afforded. A'arious special 

 forms of apparatus have been devised for applying radium 

 to internal growths such as those of the throat, oesophagus, 

 and stomach. Early detection of the cancer and early 

 application of radium are the most important points. 



In pathology and bacteriology, a number of important 

 papers were read bv those most fitted for the task. Thus 

 Colonel Sir David Bruce, C.B., F.R.S., discussed human 

 trypanosomiasis, while the paper of Prof. Wassermann, of 

 Berlin, opened a discussion on the complement-deviation 

 method in diagnosis — the method which he introduced for 

 the diagnosis of syphilis, and which is now used for this 

 purpose" throughout the world. Its application to certain 

 other diseases is now being worked out, so that it is one 

 of the most important matters before the pathologists at the 

 present dav. A discussion on the lactic acid organisms 

 took place,' at which Prof. Hewlett was among those who 

 took part. There was a most important discussion on the 

 effect of digitalis on the human heart, opened by Prof. 

 Wenckebach, of Groningen. He was followed by Dr. 

 James M.ackenzie, Sir Lauder Brunton, and others. 



The subject of dental decav was given very full _ dis- 

 cussion. It is now taught that both doctors and patients 

 should regard decay of the teeth as a serious danger- 

 signal, and the wholesale decay in young people and in 

 manv families so prevalent at ' the present time requires 



