August 14, 1913] 



NATURE 



609 



as a pioneer in this field. But when all credit is 

 accorded to the skill and success of surgeons, we 

 must acknowledge that it will be better to use 

 salvarsan early, which means having; ever fewer 

 patients in need of it, than to operate, however 

 skilfully, upon cerebral syphilis ; and it will be 

 a great day, certainly, though too slowly ap- 

 proaching, when the principles of "chemio- 

 therapy " can be brought to bear upon the cells 

 of malignant tumours, in the brain and anywhere 

 else. The debate on cancer at the congress was 

 undoubtedly disappointing. Devoted, laborious, 

 and valuable work has been done, very notably by 

 Dr. E. F. Bashford, who was the first reporter 

 upon the subject, and his associates of the Im- 

 perial Cancer Research Fund, but the goal is not 

 yet reached. The work of Dr. Freund, of Vienna, 

 who followed him, and who has found substances 

 in malignant cells which are toxic to normal cells, 

 and vice versd, is very promising, and it may be 

 surmised that the views as to specific ferments 

 respectively favouring and disfavouring the 

 chemical processes of the malignant cell, which 

 were advanced by Dr. John Beard, of Edinburgh, 

 some years ago, on the basis of Pasteur's funda- 

 mental stereo-chemical discovery, are nearer the 

 line of effective advance than was at the time 

 supposed. Prof. Ehrlich, who worked at cancer 

 in past years, may perhaps return to the subject 

 now and surpass himself. Meanwhile, the results 

 of surgery, and very notably of radium, that 

 astonishing agent, which certainly produces cancer 

 under some conditions, and certainly cures it 

 under others, are very welcome, and improve 

 rapidly every year. 



Prof. Simon Flexner could not come, and so we 

 did not hear from his own lips about his work 

 on the ultra-microscopic organism of infantile 

 paralysis. But there was an important debate on 

 "filter-passers," and the time is coming when bio- 

 logy and our views of protoplasm and living 

 matter in general will have to face the strange 

 results of recent research into this subject. 



On Wednesday, with a lofty appeal for peace 

 in the name of medical science, from the lips of 

 the president, the congress was brought to a 

 close. Its record, its numbers, its knowledge, 

 have never been equalled, and will most surely 

 and soon be utterly surpassed ; but mankind will 

 have ceased to care at all about health and disease, 

 sanity and madness, life and death, before the 

 visit of Prof. Ehrlich, the merciful records and 

 (lie illimitable promise of his creative genius, at 

 the International Medical Congress of London, 

 1913, are forgotten, or without homage, wonder, 

 and gratitude remembered. C. W. Saleeby. 



The following is the official list of delegates from 

 foreign Governments to the congress : — United States 

 of America, Dr. William Thayer; Austria, Prof. 

 Ritter von Haberler ; Argentina, Dr. Eliseo Segura ; 

 Belgium, Prof. Heger; Brazil, Prof. Marcos Caval- 

 canti ; China, Dr. Wu ; Cuba, Dr. Aristides Agra- 

 monte ; Denmark, Dr. Madsen ; France, M. Landouzy ; 

 Germany, His Excellency Prof. v. Schjerning ; Guate- 

 mala, Dr. Azurdia ; Holland, Dr. Rijnberk; Hungary, 

 NO. 2285, VOL. 91] 



Prof. Emil de Grosz; Italy, Prof. Bianchi ; Japan, 

 Dr. Takamina ; Mexico, Dr. Jose Larumbe.; Monaco, 

 Dr. Caillaud; Nicaragua, Dr. Alejandro Cesar; Nor- 

 way, Prof. Dr. Uchermann ; Portugal, Dr. Luiz 

 de Freitas Viegas ; Russia, General Dr. Rapschew- 

 sky; Servia, Dr. Subbotitch; Spain, Dr. Recasius; 

 Switzerland, Prof. Sahli ; Sweden, Prof. Essen Moller. 



On August 6, in connection with the congress, the 

 Royal College of Surgeons conferred its honorary 

 fellowship upon Prof. R. Bastianelli, Rome ; Prof. A. 

 Bier, Berlin; Mr. F. D. Bird, Melbourne; Dr. G. W. 

 Crile, Cleveland, U.S.A. ; Dr. Harvey Cusbing, Har- 

 vard ; Dr. von Eiselsberg, Vienna ; Dr. E. Fuchs, 

 Vienna; Dr. H. Hartmann, Paris; Prof. W. Korte, 

 Berlin; Dr. W. J. Mayo, Rochester, U.S.A.; Dr. A. 

 Monprofit, Paris; Dr. J. B. Murphy, Chicago; Dr. J. 

 Nicolaysen, Christiania ; Dr. F. J. Shepherd, Mon- 

 treal ; and Prof. T. Tuffier, Paris. 



At the closing meeting it was announced that the 

 Permanent Commission of the International Congress 

 had unanimously decided to accept the invitation of 

 the Bavarian Government and of the town and Uni- 

 versity of Munich to hold the next Congress of Medi- 

 cine in that town in 1917. 



The commission further accepted the recommenda- 

 tions of the committees appointed to award the con- 

 gress prizes as follows : — 



(a) The Moscow prize, awarded to Prof. Charles 

 Richet, of Paris, for his work on anaphylaxis. 



(b) The Paris prize, awarded to Prof. A. von 

 Wassermann, of Berlin, for his work on experimental 

 therapy and on immunity. 



(c) The Hungary prize, awarded to Prof. A. E. 

 Wright, of London, for his work on anaphylaxis. 



The committee of the Permanent Commission has 

 been elected as follows : — 



President. — Prof. Dr. Friedrich von Miiller, of 

 Munich (president-elect for the eighteenth congress). 



Vice-Presidents. — M. Caiman Miiller, of Budapest 

 (president of the sixteenth congress) ; Sir Thomas Bar- 

 low, of London (president of the seventeenth con- 

 gress). 



Secretary-General. — M. H. Burger, of Amsterdam. 



Assistant Secretary. — D. Ph. van der Haer, of The 

 Hague. 



Member. — M. L. Dejace, of Li£ge (president of the 

 International Association of the Medical Press). 



The following resolutions sent up by the sections 

 of congress will be considered by the commission : — 



(A) That, sensible of the ravages wrought by 

 syphilis in the health of the community, and deploring 

 the inadequacy of existing facilities for checking its 

 dissemination, the International Medical Congress 

 calls upon the Governments of all the countries here 

 represented — 



(1) To institute a system of confidential notifica- 

 tion of the disease to a sanitary authority, wherever 

 such notification does not already obtain. 



(2) To make systematic provision for the diagnosis 

 and treatment of all cases of syphilis not otherwise 

 provided for. (Submitted by the combined sections 

 of dermatology and syphilogrnphy and of forensic 

 medicine.) 



(B) (a) That the section is of opinion that beri-beri 

 among natives who live principally on rice is brought 

 about by the continuous and too exclusive use of 

 rice submitted to a too complete milling, which re- 

 moves the cortical and subcortical layers of the grain. 



(b) The section urges all authorities charged with 

 the health of native communities to restrain by every 

 means in their power the use of this rice in the dietary 

 of coolies. 



(r) Tn view of the proved non-infectiousne^s of beri- 

 beri the section suggests that all port and sanitary 



