October 13, 19 10] 



NATURE 



479 



radio-active matter during tiie expulsion of an a particle 

 was next discussed by Dr. Makower. Experiments made 

 by Dr. Russ, Mr. Evans, and himself on the electric and 

 magnetic deflection of radium B when it recoils made it 

 j)ossible to determine the charge carried by the atoms of 

 radium B, and to determine its atomic weight. The 

 results showed that the atomic weight had approximately 

 the value to be expected on the disintegration theory of 

 radio-active changes. M. Wertenstein followed with a 

 description of his woric on the absorption by air of radium 

 B when it recoils. Dr. Kovarik then gave a short account 

 of his investigations on the absorption and scattering ot 

 3 rays. It was shown how entirely erroneous results 

 might be obtained in determining the absorption of ;3 rays 

 by matter unless certain precautions were taken in making 

 the measurements. Dr. Kleeman next brought before the 

 meeting some theoretical considerations regarding the 

 absorption of o, /3, and 7 rays in passing through matter, 

 after which M. Moulin described his interesting experi- 

 ments on the saturation currents obtained in air ionised 

 by o rays when the electric field is inclined at different 

 angles to the trajectories of the rays. 



It has only been possible to deal even shortly in this 

 article with the papers on radio-activity, which formed 

 perhaps the most important part of the work of the 

 congress ; but communications were presented on almost 

 all branches of modern physics, amongst which some of 

 the most interesting may be mentioned. Dr. Conway 

 gave a paper on the theory of electronic conduction ; Prof. 

 Becquerel described his experiments on magneto-optic 

 phenomena in crystals ; Prof. Wien discussed the exist- 

 ence of positive and negative ions in canal rays ; Prof. 

 Arrhenius dealt with the solubility of the active deposit 

 of actinium ; Prof. Weiss spoke of molecular magnetic 

 fields : and Prof. Exner gave a description of the new 

 Radium Institute at Vienna. 



The papers read before the biological section of the con- 

 gress were so decidedly medical in character that an 

 account of them would scarcely be of interest to readers 

 of Nature. W. M. 



THE OPEXIXG OF THE MEDICAL SESSIOX. 

 'T'HE custom of opening the winter session, the com- 

 mencement of the medical year, at the medical 

 schools with addresses has much to commend it. The 

 attention of the public is directed to the work, scientific 

 and charitable, of the great hospitals ; if the address is 

 delivered by a layman, the lay views on medical education 

 and things medical are expressed, often with advantage ; 

 if by a medical man, the students hear words of wisdom 

 culled from a ripe experience. 



In the absence of the chairman, Prince Francis of Teck, 

 the gathering at the Middlesex Hospital was presided over 

 by Lord Grenfell, and the address was delivered by Lord 

 Kitchener, who naturally dealt w-ith the relation of 

 medicine to the army and with army medical organisation. 

 He directed attention to the improved sanitary condition 

 of the army and to the vast field still remaining for re- 

 search. As regards India, he said : — " That scourge of 

 the army — enteric fever — is now at last definitely yielding 

 to improved sanitary methods and to the system of inocula- 

 tion which has recently become almost universal. Enteric 

 will before long, I feel sure, join the formerly dreaded 

 cholera in total banishment from our barracks. To bring 

 home to \'Ou the measure of success which has attended 

 their work in India, I need only point out that during 

 the last ten years the ratio of ' constantly sick, invalided, 

 and deaths ' has been reduced by no less than 50 per 

 cent. But there still remains in that country a vast field 

 for your energies and painstaking research." 



.As regards army medical organisation, Lord Kitchener 

 pointed out that the training which turns out competent 

 medical men for civil work is quite inadequate in equipping 

 medical officers for the special needs of the army in war 

 time. 



.■\t St. Mary's Hospital Sir Arthur Conan Doyle gave 

 an address to the students on " The Romance of Medi- 

 cine." After relating some of his medical experiences in 

 his early days, he pointed out that " there were, perhaps, 

 some dangers which came from a medical training, but 



NO. 2 1 37, VOL. 84] 



there was a great post-graduate course called life, and in. 

 that course one learnt to correct these weaknesses. One 

 was an undue materialism. He was educated in a 

 materialistic age, before psychical research, scientific 

 hypnotism, telepathy, and other such agencies emphasised 

 the possibilities which lie outside the things that we can 

 see, handle, and explain. They looked upon mind and 

 spirit as secretions from the brain in the same way as 

 bile was a secretion of the liver. Brain centres explained 

 everything, and if you could find and stimulate the centre 

 of holiness you would produce a saint — but if your elec- 

 trode slipped and you got on to the centre of brutality, 

 you would evolve a Bill Sikes. That w^as, roughly, the 

 point of view of the more advanced spirits among them." 



In the concluding portion of his address Sir Conan Doyle 

 dealt with medicine and history and some of the modern 

 developments of medicine, particularly the rdle of opsonins. 

 The starting point of the opsonin investigation was when 

 it was shown that a white corpuscle taken out of the 

 blood plasma would not digest microbes, and would only" 

 renew its activities when it was moistened with that fluid. 

 This experiment showed that in that fluid there was 

 suspended some invisible stuff which increased the activity 

 of the white corpuscle, and made it devour microbes — some 

 sort of sauce, in fact, which made the microbes more 

 attractive to it. This substance was named opsonin. It 

 had been found that, normally, opsonins are present in 

 fixed quantity, but that in microbial infections the opsonins 

 are generally diminished in amount. By the injection of 

 dead microbes the activity of the white blood corpuscles 

 is stimulated, more opsonin is formed, and the disease 

 process tends to be cured. 



At Charing Cross Hospital the Huxley memorial lecture 

 constituted the opening address, and was delivered by Dr. 

 Mott, F.R.S., the subject being " The Hereditary Aspects 

 of Nervous and Mental Diseases." He remarked that in 

 certain nervous diseases it is generally recognised that 

 heredity plays a part, but these are due to characteristic 

 morphological defects. As regards insanity, there are few 

 alienist physicians who do not hold a strong belief in 

 hereditary causation. The matter is now being investi- 

 gated statistically, and a report will shortly be published. 

 Consanguinity does not appear to produce insanity or 

 nervous disease provided both stocks are free from taint. 

 Chronic alcoholism figures largely in the pedigrees of 

 patients admitted to asylums, but the idea that a desire 

 for alcohol is transmitted from parent In offspring is 

 erroneous — what is transmitted is lack of will power and 

 moral sense. 



The Dean of Salisbury delivered the address at L'ni- 

 versity College Hospital. He emphasised the importance 

 of complete development in a sound education. An 

 address on " Woman's Sphere in Medicine " was given 

 by Mr. E. W. Roughton at the London School of Medi- 

 cine for Women. Mr. Roughton said that there were 

 cogent reasons why there should be a female section of 

 the profession. So far as he was able to judge, in suit- 

 ability, adaptability and other characters, and in intellectual 

 capacity, women would compare equally with men in the 

 profession. There were, of course, some divergences 

 between the sexes ; women, for instance, did not, as a 

 rule, seem to be so handy as men in looking after pieces 

 of mechanism. 



At the London Hospital Dr. Robert Hutchison gave the 

 annual " Schorstein " lecture to the students of the medical 

 school, the subject being " Congenital Pyloric Stenosis." 

 Prof. Marett Tims delivered the address at the Royal 

 Veterinary College. He pointed out the growing import- 

 ance of biology with regard to the problems of medical 

 and veterinarv' science, and suggested the establishment 

 of a bureau at the Royal Veterinary College for the collec- 

 tion of statistics, the working out of all questions of 

 inheritance in animals, not only the inheritance of disease, 

 but also of data desirable from the point of view of the 

 breeder, especiallv in the question of horse-breeding. 



Prof. Howard Marsh, master of Downing College, Cam- 

 bridge, distributed the prizes in the University of Leeds. 

 In his address he dealt with the problems of medical 

 education. He said that as medicine had now become a 

 department of biology, its pursuit necessarily demanded a 

 sound acquaintance with the broad principles of those 



