NATURE 



[August 28, 1913 



By the will of Prof. Emil Chr. Hansen and his 

 wife a fund bearing his name has been established. 

 At intervals of two or three years, beginning in 1914, 

 a gold medal bearing his effigy and accompanied by 

 a sum of at least 2000 kroner is to be awarded on 

 May 8 to the author of a meritorious publication on 

 some microbiological subject, and recently published in 

 Denmark or elsewhere. In 1914 the medal will be 

 awarded to a worker in the field of medical micro- 

 biology. The president of the board of trustees is 

 Prof. S. P. L. Sorensen, the Chemical Department of 

 Carlsberg Laboratory. Copenhagen, from whom all 

 information may be obtained. 



On the closing day of the International Congress of 

 Medicine, an address on the relationship between 

 medicine and public health was delivered by the Presi- 

 dent of the Local Government Board, the Right Hon. 

 John Burns, M.P. He surveyed the saving of life 

 which has been effected by the application of sanitary 

 measures, the decline in such diseases as enteric and 

 typhus fevers, which are due to local insanitary condi- 

 tions, and the stages in the registration of disease, 

 which has proved so powerful an agent in its control. 

 Finally, a tribute was paid to the nursing profession, 

 and the interesting fact noted that Florence Nightin- 

 gale, who initiated our present nursing system, re- 

 ceived her preliminary training in a German institu- 

 tion, the Deaconess's Institute at Kaiserworth, on the 

 Rhine. 



We see by The Townsville Daily Bulletin (Queens- 

 land) that the Australian Institute of Tropical Medi- 

 cine at Townsville was officially opened on June 28 

 bv Sir William MacGregor, the Governor of 

 Queensland, in the presence of many men of 

 science and medical men. In the course of an 

 inspiring address, Sir W. MacGregor traced the 

 evolution of the movement for the foundation of the 

 institute, giving especial credit for work done to the 

 Rt. Rev. Dr. Frodsham, formerly Bishop of North 

 Queensland, and to Prof. Anderson Stuart, dean of 

 the faculty of medicine in the University of Sydney. 

 He then spoke of the work to be done by the institute 

 in the following words:— "The field that lies open to 

 this institute for investigation is vast and varied, 

 covering as it does not only different races of men in 

 health and disease in the tropics of Australia, in 

 Papua, and in the Pacific Islands, but also all other 

 creatures in the same great area, for in these times 

 the transmission of many diseases from other beings 

 to man is well known, typical of which is the ' Rossa 

 Cycle' in malaria; but there are many others, such 

 as the Guinea worm, from a small cyclops ; yellow 

 fever, flaria, and dengue, from mosquitoes; tape- 

 worm from domestic animals, &c. Research work in 

 this institute will, however, not be limited to animal 

 organisms, but will also embrace the vegetable king- 

 dom, especially in the forms of foods and poisons ; 

 and now, in view of the researches of Dr. Erwin 

 Smith on cancer in plants, caused by the Bacterium 

 tumefaciens, and of the remarkable conclusions of 

 Johnson, that the bud rot of the cocoanut palm is 

 caused by B. coli, the pathology of the vegetable king- 

 dom will demand much greater attention than has 

 NO. 2287. VOL. 91] 



hitherto been given to that subject. The institute will 

 also concern itself with such elementary things as 

 earth, air, water, and sunshine ; in short, with every- 

 thing that influences the physical life of man in tin 

 tropics. Researches in this institute will also embrao 

 questions that concern industrial life in our tropics. 

 Dr. Breinl's work on nodules has already been of such 

 a character as to demonstrate that the institute will 

 be of much service to our flocks and herds, and be 

 important in our economic pursuits." He then 

 touched upon the investigations that will be carried 

 out with reference to the effect of climate on the 

 white race in tropical Australia ; the proper kind of 

 houses to be erected for their use; the most suitable 

 forms of food and clothing for them ; the study of 

 insect and bacterial life in disease ; the economic work 

 which will be undertaken, and the value of such an 

 institution to the medical man who has to deal with 

 diseases peculiar to the tropics. 



A second report (the first was issued in 1910) on 

 infant and child mortality, by the medical officer of 

 the Local Government Board, Dr. Newsholme, has 

 been issued by the Board. The task of the present 

 report has consisted mainly in setting out the facts 

 as to incidence of mortality, and in attempting to 

 render conspicuous the experience of those towns or 

 parts of towns in which an excessive sacrifice of 

 child-life occurs. A great saving of child-life has been 

 effected in the last few years, and a large portion of 

 this decline has occurred in the towns now under 

 report. It is satisfactory to find that this saving of 

 life cannot be attributed merely to favourable climatic 

 conditions, but to some degree at least is the result ot 

 improved sanitary and housing conditions. In the 

 first part of this report the detailed facts as to inci- 

 dence of infant and child mortality are set out. In it<= 

 second part the close interrelationship between defec- 

 tive sanitation, poverty and intemperance, and exces- 

 sive mortality is discussed. In its third part, a 

 preliminary statement as to child welfare work is 

 given. 



It is announced in The Times that Mr. Peter Waite, 

 of Adelaide, South Australia, is sending a collection 

 of animals to the Scottish Zoological Park. The col- 

 lection includes two kangaroos, four Bennett's walla- 

 bies, four rock wallabies, two emus, two opossums, 

 two eagles, two Tasmanian devils, two black swans, 

 two magpie geese, and two ibises. The Adelaide 

 Zoological Garden is sending two dingos, and Mr. 

 S. S. Ralli, of Adelaide, two giant kingfishers. Mr. 

 E. J. Robertson Grant, of Edinburgh, who is at pre- 

 sent in the Argentine, has also intimated that he is 

 getting together a collection of animals for the Zoo- 

 logical Park, and will bring them with him when 

 he returns to Scotland in November next.. 



Hungary possesses a Governmental institution for 

 the scientific study of ornithology, the Magyar Kiralyi 

 Kozpont, or Koniglich Ungarische Centrale, to which 

 has recently been added an anatomical department, 

 the staff of which publishes its researches in the 

 periodical Aquila. Dr. Greschik, one of the assistants, 

 has made a renewed study of the microscopic structure 

 of the rectum of some sixtv kinds of native birds 



