AUGUST I, 1912] 
NATURE 
567 
profession, which is often regarded as very conserva- 
tive, is efficiently organised for medico-political action 
upon trade-union lines. The representative meeting 
has no executive functions, but its resolutions, con- 
firmed in general meeting, are binding upon the coun- 
cil, which is elected by a postal vote upon a propor- 
tional representative basis. The association has about 
25,000 members, the number of medical men in the 
United Kingdom being about 33,000. 
The provision of sanatorium benefit met with less 
unfavourable consideration, the working conditions of 
this portion of the Act being in part determined by 
those of existing institutions, and being therefore less 
unacceptable to the members; nevertheless, the opinion 
was freely expressed that the advantages to consump- 
tives anticipated by the lay Press would prove to be 
largely illusory. 
The scientific business of the association, which did 
not commence until July 24, extended over three days, 
during which period, however, only the mornings were 
occupied with sectional meetings. The time of the 
sectional meetings was largely occupied with discus- 
sions on subjects of interest, the number of papers 
read being somewhat small. The difficulties attending 
medical research work were abundantly illustrated, 
as was also the important part played by the Univer- 
sity of Liverpool in the advancement of medical know- 
ledge, particularly in the domain of physiology, patho- 
logy, and tropical medicine. 
To give an adequate idea of the character and 
extent of recent scientific advances in medicine, as 
exhibited in the proceedings of the sections, is impos- 
sible within the limits of the present article, but by 
way of illustration brief reference may be made to the 
work of two of the sections. 
In the Section of Physiology, Prof. Benjamin Moore, 
F.R.S. (Liverpool), contributed a paper dealing with 
the importance of substances present in minute amount 
in food, the value of which cannot be estimated by 
the amount of heat energy which they contain and 
can yield to the body on oxidation. This was first 
observed in respect of inorganic salts, which were at 
one time regarded as inert constituents, or even as 
protein impurities, but are now known to be im- 
portant activators to the functions of the organic con- 
stituents, without which these become inert. In the 
hormones, or internal secretions of the body, organic 
substances are found which, in minute amounts, stimu- 
late and activate in a very specific way definite tissues 
and cause changes in nutrition out of all proportion 
to their mass. From recent researches it would 
appear to be a general rule, especially seen in man, 
that some form of stimulus is almost essential, and 
that, if abstinence or restriction is practised in one 
form, some other form must be substituted. The 
various cereal foods which appear so simple in nature 
also contain basic bodies in minute quantities which 
exert a powerful stimulant action upon the nervous 
tissues, and in their complete withdrawal certain well- 
marked results appear which are intimately connected 
with diseases of nutrition. These substances appear 
to be formed in the peripheral layers and are removed 
in certain methods of preparing the cereals. The effect 
of removal upon a diet of cereals is exhibited by beri- 
beri in man and by the now well-known rapidly fatal 
illness, characterised by muscular paralysis and in- 
coordination, first shown by Eijkman to be readily 
producible in pigeons. In both cases the addition of 
the defective substance is speedily followed by re- 
covery. One of the active substances concerned in the 
case of rice has been isolated by Casimir Funk (Lon- 
don), and has been shown to be of relatively simple 
chemical constitution. 
Considerable interest was exhibited in the Section 
NO. 2231, VOL. 89] 
of Tropical Medicine, where a series of papers, illus- 
trating incidentally the small beginnings of exact 
knowledge, were contributed by Stephens and Fantham 
(Liverpool), Kleine (South Africa), Mesnil (Paris), 
Kinghorn and Yorke (Rhodesia), and Wolbach and 
Bruger (Boston), dealing with’sleeping sickness, which 
at the present time, as is well known, seriously 
menaces the future of colonial development in tropical 
Africa. Another series of researches, also cosmopoli- 
tan in character, by Duval (New Orleans), Bayon 
(London), Marchoux (Paris), Dean (Aberdeen), and 
Minett (Demerara), dealt with the organisms which 
have been isolated from leprous lesions, the relation of 
which to human leprosy and to rat leprosy is now 
receiving the attention of scientific investigators. 
Considerable diversity of opinion, in respect of the 
significance of experimental investigations, was observ- 
able, due in part to the limitations of research. 
An excellent exhibition of scientific apparatus and of 
synthetic products was provided, the interest of which 
was considerably augmented by the scientific know- 
ledge possessed by many of the exhibitors. 
PHYSIOGRAPHY OF THE PRAIRIES AND 
NORTH-EASTERN AUSTRALIA. 
agEe much-debated problem why the prairies of the 
United States are treeless is, according to an 
article by Mr. B. Shimek in the Bulletin of the State 
University of Iowa, new series, No. 35, essentially 
one for the botanist, since, despite variation in 
surface-conditions, there is comparative uniformity in 
the flora throughout the area. Summarising the 
available evidence, the author concludes that exposure 
to evaporation, as determined by temperature, wind, 
and topography, is the primary factor in the develop- 
ment of the treeless condition, and that the flora 
persists in the exposed areas because of its xerophytic 
character: On the other hand, rainfall and drainage, 
although important as determining the amount of 
moisture in air and soil, are only a secondary factor, 
as they may be equal in the forested and treeless 
areas; while the nature of the soil and the geological 
formation affect the matter only so far as they induce 
conservation of water. Prairie-fires* were an effect 
rather than a cause, and when they did act in the 
latter sense were but local, while seed-dispersal, 
although accounting for the growth of plants, will 
not explain the origin and presence of the flora as a 
whole. Finally, such agencies as the bison and the 
action of the sea do not enter into the problem at all. 
Passing from the prairies of the Wild West to the 
coast districts of north-eastern Australia, reference may 
be made to a remarkably interesting article on the 
physiography of that area communicated to the 
Sitzungsberichte der kgl. bohm. Ges. der Wissen- 
‘schaften for 1911, art. 32, by Dr. J. V. Danes, who 
recently spent several months in the country. As is 
well known, this part of Australia is remarkable on 
account of the fact that the great ‘‘ Divide’’ is on the 
rim, instead of in the heart, of the continent, where 
it is formed by the uniform littoral wall of an old 
peneplane inclining slightly to the west, and abruptly 
falling to the eastern coast; and likewise for the 
sudden flexures in the river-valleys, and_ their 
abnormal slope, accompanied by waterfalls, as they 
approach the sea. ‘ 
Another feature is the presence of shallow lakes in 
an undulating area, which have been regarded by 
other observers as indicative of the recent formation 
of a new ‘divide, being, in fact, “cut-offs"’ from 
the head-waters of the original rivers. 
While admitting 2 former great extension of the 
