November 



191 2J 



NATURE 



289 



T' 



OPENING OF THE NEW LABORATORIES 



OF BACTERIOLOGY AND PUBLIC 

 HEALTH OF RING'S COLLEGE, LONDON 



4-lE completion of the arrangement by which 

 primary and intermediate medical studies at 

 Charing Cross Medical bcnool are transferred to 

 King's College, and the public health staff at King's 

 College is atlorded accommodation in their place, was 

 marked on October 31 by the formal presentation of 

 the laboratories by Prof. Simon Flexner, on behalf of 

 the Medical School ComauHLC, 10 the Lniversity ol 1 

 London, f-ving's College. 



Mr. H. A. vV'altrhoubu presided, and in an introduc- 

 tory speech Dr. William Hunter, the Dean of Charing 

 Cross, traced the development of the scheme, and 

 suggested that the new laboratories would forward the 

 ideal of Huxley, namely the progress of biological 

 science. . 



Prof. Flexner expressed his pleasure at bemg 

 present, for in so doing he considered that he would 

 be helping the progress of public health, a science the 

 knowledge of which is essential in all great cities, and 

 especially in London. He spoke of the interest with 

 which this science is regarded in America, and of the 

 large sums of money given in order to forward re- 

 search in that country, and e.xpressed the hope that 

 England, from whom' America has learnt so much, 

 might now follow her e.xample in this respect. 



The Hon. W. F. D. Smith (treasurer of King's 

 College) expressed his agreement with Prof. Flexner's 

 remarks, and said he was convinced that this 

 dav was a great one in the history of public health. 

 He referred to the monumental skill and energy of 

 Dr. Hunter, which had made the opening of the 

 laboratories possible. The day, he argued, marked a 

 stage in the policy of concentration which he was 

 sure was a 'right one, as leading to a saving in labour 

 and expense. The new laboratories would be used 

 for research and for post-graduate teaching. 



Dr. Headlam (principal of King's College) em- 

 phasised the advantages of this policy of reciprocity 

 both to Charing Cross Hospital and to King's College. 

 He supported a policy of concentration because he 

 thought there was danger of money being squandered 

 on new buildings which were not always needed. He 

 reviewed the foundation of the Bacteriological Labora- 

 tory in 1887 by Dr. Edgar Crookshank, the first pro- 

 fessor, and announced that Prof. Crookshank had 

 presented his valuable library to the department. Their 

 hope was that in time they would build up a fitting 

 institute of hygiene within the University. 



Sir Henry Miers (principal of the University) 

 pointed out the need there w-as for willing cooperation 

 of all available forces within the University, and held 

 that Charing Cross and King's College had given a real 

 example of w-hat could and ought to be done in London. 



The new laboratories and several structural and 

 other imDrovements at the Charing Cross College were 

 afterwards inspected by a large number of visitors. 



PROBLEMS IN INFECTION AND ITS 

 CONTROL. 



THE Huxley lecture was delivered at Charing Cross 

 Hospital (where Huxley studied) by Prof. Simon 

 Flexner, director of the liockefeller Institute, New 

 York, who took as his subject " Some Problems in 

 Infection and its Control." 



After a reference to Huxley's work and to his Balti- 

 more lecture in 1876, the lecturer alluded to the fact 

 that we are still ignorant of the causes of several 

 important infective diseases, and after quoting the 

 example of scarlet fever, proceeded to discuss the 

 biological investigation of poliomyelitis, or infantile 

 paralysis. 



NO. 2245, VOL. 90] 



ims disease occasionally occurs in epidemic and 

 pandemic form, and arose in America in the Atlantic 

 coast cities and other places which receive the emigrant 

 population from Europe. On clinical grounds it had 

 been regarded as infectious, but this remained uncer- 

 tain until Landsteiner and Popper in 1909 found that 

 it could be transmitted to monkeys by intraperitoneal 

 injection of matter taken from the spinal cord of a 

 fatal human case. This method of transmission is, 

 however, an uncertain one, but if intracerebral inocu- 

 lation be substituted, the disease is transmitted with 

 certainty to monkeys. No parasite, bacterial or pro- 

 tozoan, can be detected in the diseased tissues micro- 

 scopically, and it is found that the filtrate from an 

 emulsion of the infected cord, filtered through a porce- 

 lain filter, is capable of infecting ; the organism, there- 

 fore, is ultra-microscopic. Some eighteen diseases are 

 now known the micro-parasites of which are ultra- 

 microscopic or invisible with the best optical appli- 

 ances ; these include yellow fever, rabies, and vaccinia. 



The virus of poliomyelitis is resistant to drying, 

 light, and chemical action. Animals which recover 

 from the disease are immune trom a further attack. 

 The poliomyelitis virus can be detected only in the 

 central ne.rvous system, in the mucous secretion of the 

 nose and throat, stomach and intestine, and in the 

 mesenteric glands — nowhere else. The virus probably 

 gains access to the body by the nose and thence to the 

 brain via the olfactory nerves. Carriers, either healthy 

 and unaffected persons, or slight and abortive cases, 

 exist, and serve to transmit the disease. It has been 

 suggested that insects may help to spread the disease, 

 but at present there is no evidence of this, though 

 the virus remains active in the bed-bug for some days. 

 Nor is there any evidence that the domestic animals 

 spread the disease. Proof has been given that the 

 sporadic {i.e. isolated or scattered) cases of infantile 

 paralvsis are caused by the poliomyelitis virus by the 

 fact that the blood of these children contains the same 

 immunising substances as are present in the epidemic 

 form of the disease, and in inoculated monkeys. There 

 appear to be biologicallv different strains of the polio- 

 mvelitis virus. Attempts have been made to devise a 

 ' chemo-theranv for the disease, and urotropin, a drug 

 i which has some antiseptic action and is secreted into 

 the cerebro-soinal fluid, has been found to be of some 

 value in nreventinsr infection exnorim^^tallv. 



METEOROLOGY IN SCOTLAND. 

 R. A. WATT contributes to the Journal of the 

 Scottish Meteorological Society (vol. xv.. 

 No. xxviii.) a valuable discussion of the mean annual 

 rainfall of Scotland. The discussion is accompanied 

 by a table giving for 594 stations the mean annual 

 rainfall and the number of years used, and for 129 of 

 the stations for which records for forty years were 

 available the amount of the maximum and minimum 

 annual rainfall and the years of their occurrence. 1872 

 appears to have been for Scotland, as for Great Britain 

 as a whole, the wettest year, and 1887 the driest. A map 

 showing tfie distribution of mean rainfall over Scot- 

 land, based upon the values given in the table, forms 

 the frontispiece to the volume. The region of greatest 

 rainfall is near to the west coast, north of the Cale- 

 donian Canal, where the width of the high ground 

 from west to east is relatively small, so that east 

 winds as well as west winds can contribute to the rain- 

 fall before they have precipitated their moisture on 

 other mountain ranges. 



Mr. Watt contributes also an interesting note on the 



early davs of the societv, from which we learn that 



I the society was contributing meteorological reports to 



the Ree-istrar-General for S'-otland so long ago as 



' 1856. We note also that for a short period in 1858 



' the late Prof. Everett was the secretary of the society. 



M' 



