u6 



NATURE 



[July 



1911 



During the last ten years the fall in the mortality 



bei 11. in < rreal Britain, 19 ; 



Ireland, 24; G< rmanj , 18 ; London, 



1 in, .') ; Paris, 3. This period synchro- 



with thai during which the National 



:i for the Pi f ( lonsumption has I 



al work -also with Mr. Burns's term of office at the 

 head 1 I xo\ ernmenl 1 1 >ai d ; bul dui ing the 



same period the drink bill per head of the population 

 in this country has fallen from 4/. us. to 3/. 6s. 3d. 

 In Paris, on the other hand, no such fall has been 

 1 1 his bi a cause or a sympti m 

 i oi the question must n 1 



i ration. Other points were 

 bi iu i forward during the conference, often with 



greai fi ind wealth oi argument. One thing 



which stamped this confei ince a; something out oi 



thi comm >n run of such meetings was the fact that 



enthusiastically as each man spoke of the special 



h oi the subject on which he was engaged, there 



1 ol the "pushing of wares" to the exclusion 



e that lias sometimes characterised 

 such meetings. 



The optimistic note struck by the President of the 

 Local Government Board in his opening address 

 sounded again mid again by later speakers, the most 

 hopeful oi whom looked forward to the extermination 

 of tuberculosis from cattle and man alike within 1 

 next thirty-five or fifty years, maintaining that this 

 could readil) bi effected if a proper apportionment of 

 the resources at the command of those who are deal- 

 ing with the disease can be arranged. The credit of 

 inatorium treatment has "suffered in certain quar- 

 ters from the fact that careless advocates have assigned 

 to it functions thai ii was not Titled to perform, whilst 

 others, opponents, equally careless and uninformed, 

 have not t iken into account the educational function 

 nd and properly directed sanatorium. 

 All are agreed, of course, that it is impracticable to 

 submit all tuberculous patients to ordinary sanatorium 

 treatment, and that the dispensary system must be 

 to assist and supplement the work 

 ol the 1 11. This dispensary system has many 



. and with certain extensions and 

 linking up with the on one hand and 



1 on tlie other there lie within it great 

 potentii 



In connection with the section of preventive work 

 the optimistic spirit that manifested itself throughout 

 threw into stroni;- relief the feeling that far more might 

 in the 1 ' I open-air shelters, for tuber- 

 culous patients attending dispensaries and continuing 

 at work, than has yet been done. Several 'speakers 



ed 1 itiou to the luxurious sanatoria that have 



been erected in various parts of the kingdom, where, 

 to the enormous initial cost and the great ex- 

 pense of administration, the charges must necessarilj 

 b prohibitive except to those well endowed with this 

 world' Vre these costly buildings necessary 



or even desirable? they ask. If tuberculosis is 



v ithin the next thirty or forty years, to 

 whai use can such large and solid buildings be put 

 w lien they have served their primary purpose ? More- 

 would not the pn of era lication of tuber- 

 On much more quickly if the 1 



on these palatial buildings 1 cted to the 



of open-aii' shelters, in 

 eases grouped around more solidly constructed 

 administrative blocks, in others placed at the di p 



nidation of single 

 . 1 ar their own homes? These shi 

 1: xpensive, and, in many cases, might 



: ved their pin 

 1 and comfortable buildings for the 



. 2178, VOL. 8;] 



ion oi patients in the later staj 



w hei e there is little to lie hoped for 

 from treatmi nl except alleviation 1 build- 



ings from w hich shoe 1 iated all n; 



may well 

 lie pri antial out- 



lay, espei 1 .1 1 after they ha\ 1 pur- 



pose lor u hich 1 he) .11 e designed th be eon- 



vei ted into hospital 5 for the reo 

 of patieie , 



The question of different methods of medication is 

 not one to be discussed at a public conference, 

 very judiciously, w-as not taken up. Some ol 



speakers, how evei , refi rred to th. it) foi 



continuance of experimental work. Here- the [10 

 cies of the President of the Local Government B 

 should have some weight in determining the n 

 oi the efforts to be made and the character and 1 

 of financing these efforts. It is certainl) 

 to make provision for permanent endowments for the 

 carrying on of this work. An immediate liberal sub- 

 sidy will be of far greater value in ensuring the d 

 results than a large sum set aside of which only the 

 interest can be used. 



As in the case of shelters, &c, the money available 

 should be utilised to cover as much ground as 

 sible and at once. Extensive and immediate ti 

 ment, both curative and preventive, and well-d 

 experiments carried out as promptly and on 

 large a scale as possible, will do far moi 

 stamp out tuberculosis than will efforti 

 over a longei period, and in the long run fai 

 costly. 



The National Association for the Prevention of Con- 

 sumption has been working" away quietly and syste- 

 matically for some time; much of its work in 

 earlier days of its existence was spadework of a very 

 unobtrusive character, and certain critics, perhaps not 

 ver) kindly disposed, have from time to time been 

 prone to grumble at what they were- pleased to call 

 ils inertness. For several years past, however, such 

 criticism has been seen to be very much beside the 

 mark, and the London conference, which was th 

 ol a long sei ies, has supplied ampl 

 valuable work that has been di 



demonstrating to those most directly concerned "what 

 the) shall do to be saved" from the white pla 

 With the facilities now offered by Mr. Lloyd Gi 

 for putting into force some of the methods rei 

 mended by the conference, with a united efforl made 

 11 millers on which all are agreed, such a shi 

 blow may be struck at tuberculosis as it has no! re- 

 ceived since Koch made the announcement of his 

 epoch the discovery of the tubercli 



bacillus. 



DR. JOHN BEDDOE, F.R.S. 



WE regri rei ord that Dr. John Beddoe, 



the distinguished anthropologist, died on Jul_\ in 



Dr. Beddo was born at Bewdley in [82I . 



the first to make . \act observations on the physical 



will alwaj be 1 ' as the founder oi our know- 



ledge oi the ph] ical itl ropologj ol the living popu- 

 lation ol E1I1 

 So earl\- as [846 he began to maki ons on 



; n I he \\ esl 1 d, and 



thou:, 1 . his fust system unsati factory and 



ih null mi '1 ii he 1 '■ imed the w prk, on th 

 ol a visit to Orkney in 1852, and continued 

 these obsen nd of 1 ctive life when- 



