3o6 



NA TURE 



[July 27, 1905 



with Mr. JIarriner as to the importance the latter attached 

 to the comparative narrowness of the tank. 



On the Thursday's sitting Mr. Milton's paper on frac- 

 tures in large steel boiler plates was read and briefly dis- 

 cussed. It gave particulars of the failures, the reasons for 

 which could not be explained, of certain plates, and there- 

 fore were, naturally, attributed to "heat treatment." It 

 is a term of exceeding comfort to the steel maker and the 

 engineer alike, for the former is able to put the blame 

 on the latter, and the latter to put the blame on the 

 former, as no one can prove where the injudicious heat 

 treatment occurred. The controversy is an old one, dating 

 back, at any rate, to the days of the Livadia's boilers. 

 Mr. Milton's paper is a suggestive contribution, and the 

 facts he records may carry us some way towards a solu- 

 tion of the problem in the more or less distant future. 



Mr. William Gray in his paper gave particulars of the 

 performances of certain steamers fitted with Parsons' 

 steam turbines. These were set forth in a table, which, 

 as the author said, " treated the matter from a purely 

 commercial standpoint." The discussion was largely of 

 the same character. 



The only remaining paper was not on the original 

 programme, but was read at the conversazione which 

 brought the proceedings to a conclusion on the Thurs- 

 day evening. It was a contribution by Captain R. H. 

 Bacon, R.N., entitled " Notes on the Causes of 

 Accidents to Submarine Boats, and their Salvage." 

 This paper, in harmony with the circumstances in which 

 it w-as read, was of a popular nature, and was 

 designed to show to the public at large that undue 

 anxiety as to the safety of submarine boats is not 

 warranted by the conditions under which they are 

 employed. Dealing with the probability of water entering 

 the hull through the hatch (the cause of four serious 

 accidents through which these boats have foundered), the 

 author pointed out that the fitting of another water-tight 

 hatch at the base of the tower reduced the chance of 

 accident in the future. The danger from grounding, he 

 said, "was not very great," whilst the risk of the 'hull 

 being crushed by the boat diving to too great depths 

 argued the failure of the diving rudders, or too much 

 water ballast. .As to explosion through leakage of petrol, 

 " in a properly designed system leaks should be prac- 

 tically non-existent." Another possible cause of ex- 

 plosion is due to hydrogen given off when batteries are 

 being charged, but as this operation is carried on only 

 when the boat is opened up for ventilation, " no danger 

 exists. ' Altogether Captain Bacon's lecture was most re- 

 assuring, and it is pleasant to learn that his optimistic 

 views are fully shared by his colleagues in the Service both 

 officers and men. The risk of sinking— involuntary ' sink- 

 ing— being so small, it is of less consequence that only 

 over a limited area near shore is it possible to recover a 

 submarine boat once she has gone to the bottom. For 

 this reason Captain Bacon considers it inadvisable that 

 the Royal Navy should have a salvage plant of its own. 



THE CONGRESS OF THE ROYAL IXSTITUTE 



OF PUBLIC HEALTH. 

 'P HE congress of the Institute of Public Health, which 

 this year was held in London under the presidency 

 of the Marquis of Londonderry, attracted a large number 

 of visitors, and much good work was done in the various 

 sections which met at the Polytechnic and at King's 

 College. ' ^ 



In a brief space it is impossible to deal adequately with 

 the valuable discussions and papers read. 



Sir James Crichton Browne, F.R.S., in his presidential 

 address to the section of preventive medicine, chose as his 

 subject the prevention of senilitv. It was, he declared, 

 on the reduction of the death-rate that the potency of 

 preventive medicine, as hitherto applied, stood forth con- 

 spicuously declared, and that the promise of its future 

 sovereignty might be discerned. Fifty years ago the death- 

 rate of England and Wales stood at 22-5 per 1000 persons ; 

 in 1903 it had dropped to 15-4— a fall of 7.1 per 1000, 

 representing, on the estimated population of 1903, a saving 

 NO. 1865, VOL. 72] 



of upwards of 223,000 lives per annum. As an e.xceptionally 

 low rate of infant mortality had been maintained for 

 two successive years, it mig'ht be hoped that the warnings 

 uttered as regards infant hygiene, and more particularly 

 infant feeding, were beginning to take effect. 



It was, however, during the first half of life that the 

 great fall in the death-rate had taken place. It was a 

 remarkable fact that in men, at all ages from forty-five 

 to seventy-five, there had been a startling rise in the 

 death-rate, and that in women, from fifty-five upwards^ 

 it had been practically stationary. At the ages when we 

 should have welcomed a rise in the death-rate, and at 

 which only, in a hygienic Utopia, death ought to occur — 

 eightj-five and upwards — it had fallen. Some of the 

 nerve centres went on evolving until middle life, e.g. the 

 hand and arm centres. He had ascertained that among 

 certain classes of operatives in Birmingham the hand and 

 arm centres did not reach their full maturity until about 

 the thirtieth year. Similarly with the weavers of Bradford 

 and the potters of Staffordshire. At about forty-five the 

 productiveness of the manufactory hand generally began to 

 diminish, and after that it contracted in an increasing 

 ratio as time went on. The hand-failure of our operatives 

 after forty-five w^as premature, and due to excessive wear 

 and tear of the mechanism regulating manual movements. 

 But there w'ere other centres in the brain which, reaching 

 maturity later, retained their power longer. Orators 

 secured their greatest triumphs between forty-five and fifty- 

 five, and it was with musical expression as with oratory. 



The best antiseptic against senile decay was an active 

 interest in human affairs, and those kept young longest 

 who loved most. The natural evolution of our nerve 

 centres was largely interfered with and too often arrested 

 by unfavourable environment and deleterious habits of life 

 or methods of w-ork. It was a good working hypothesis 

 that the natural life of man was one hundred, and that so 

 far as it fell short of that it was '* curtailed of fair pro- 

 portion." Every man, he thought, was entitled to his 

 century, and every woman to a century and a little more. 



Dr. Francis Galton, F.R.S., in a paper on physical 

 records, suggested that on February 29 in each leap year 

 there should be school reunions at which there might be 

 an opportunity for reviving early friendships, and at 

 which, at the same time, the anthropometric and other 

 records of the pupils might be added to. 



Each old boy would be represented by an envelope stored 

 in the school library. This would contain his anthropo- 

 metric record to date, and he would be given printed 

 forms, containing a few well considered questions — health, 

 profession, preferments, marriage, children, and general 

 remarks — and would be asked to forward the filled-in forms 

 to the school. 



Many papers were read on infantile mortality and on 

 municipal milk depots. 



In the unavoidable absence of Sir William Broadbent, a 

 discussion on sanatoria for consumptives was opened by 

 Dr. T. N. Kelynack, physician to the Mount Vernon 

 Hospital for Consumption. To illustrate the enormous 

 economic waste to the community caused by pulmonary 

 tuberculosis. Dr. Kelynack mentioned that in the metro- 

 politan district alone 40,000 people died of the disease every 

 year, and the monetary loss to London had been estimated 

 at 4,000,000!. 



The provision of adequate assistance for the consumptive 

 poor demanded urgent attention. Sanatoria or hygienic 

 hospitals undoubtedly secured the best conditions for the 

 arrest and alleviation of the disease. At present we were 

 just muddling along, w-ith no satisfactory organisation of 

 our resources and no rational cooperation. 



A resolution was unanimously adopted urging the 

 Government to appoint a commission to deal with the 

 subject of the sanatorium treatment of the poor. 



The presidential address in the section of chemistry and 

 bacteriology was given by Prof. R. T. Hewlett. It was 

 a plea for the recognition of the place of the specialist in 

 the various departments of public health. Proper adminis- 

 tration required a medical officer and his sanitary staff, a 

 bacteriologist, a chemist, and an engineer, all working 

 cordially together to a common end. For the smaller 

 districts such a staff could be secured by grouping. Could 

 they expect effective action if the medical officer was a 



