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NA TURE 



[August 19, 1922 



Lord Haldane had arranged to give an address in the 

 afternoon, but unfortunately he has had to cancel 

 all public engagements for reasons of health. Two 

 important meetings will be held on Friday, September 

 8. In the morning there will be a joint meeting with 

 the Psychological section for the discussion of psycho- 

 analysis in relation to the school. The opening 

 speakers will be Dr. C. W. Kimmins, Dr. Crichton 

 Miller, Prof. Pear, and Dr. R. G. Gordon. In the 

 afternoon, addresses on Imperial Citizenship will be 

 given by the Rt. Hon. Lord Meston and the Rt. 

 Hon. Sir Joseph Cook (High Commissioner for 

 Australia). Bishop Welldon will also speak. On 

 Monday, September n, there will be a paper on 

 international students' organisations, by Mr. Iveson 



S. Macadam (President of the National Union of 

 Students), and a discussion on English as the basis of 

 national education, at which the speakers will include 

 Mr. G. R. Pocock (Dartmouth College), Prof. Edith 

 Morley, and Dr. F. S. Boas. The morning of Tuesday, 

 September 12, will be devoted to local educational 

 work, and the papers will be on the movement 

 towards individual work in schools, with special 

 reference to experiments in Hull, by Miss F. Sayer ; 

 and on the Dalton Plan, by Miss C. T. Cumberbirch. 

 In the afternoon there will be a joint discussion with 

 the engineering section on the effect of reformed 

 methods in teaching mathematics, to be opened by 

 Prof. P. T. Nunn and Mr. R. C. Fawdry (Clifton 

 College). 



The Imperial Cancer Research Fund. 



THE executive of the Imperial Cancer Research 

 ■*■ Fund can look with satisfaction on twenty 

 years of steady progress towards the understanding 

 of the nature of tumours. In the twentieth annual 

 report, lately issued, the director, Dr. J. A. Murray, 

 records once again a tale of sound and solid work in 

 a field which is rather particularly liable to be overrun 

 with hasty and slipshod frontal attacks and premature 

 attempts to find a cure for cancer. 



Of chief interest perhaps are Dr. Drew's experi- 

 ments on the growth of normal and malignant tissues j 

 in vitro. Observations on the transplantable tumours 

 of mice have shown that malignant tissue has no 

 natural duration of life, the same tumour growing 

 continuously under favourable conditions for a period 

 far longer than the normal life of the animal in which 

 it arises. Similarly, experiments on the continuous 

 culture of normal tissue in vitro show, with a certainty 

 which will increase with further lapse of time, that they 

 too may achieve an analogous immortality. The funda- 

 mental functional characteristic of tumours is theirinde- 

 pendence of, and dissociation from, the rest of the body 

 in which they grow. If normal tissues are subjected 

 to the same dissociation by isolation in artificial 

 cultures, they too appear to be capable of continuous 

 life without the intervention of sexual regeneration. 



Dr. Drew has now analysed this question of the 

 influence of different tissues on one another to a 

 further point. He finds that epithelial cells when 

 growing in pure culture remain undifferentiated. 

 When connective tissue cells are added to such 

 cultures, differentiation sets in with little delay, 

 squamous epithelium producing keratin in the 

 familiar form of the concentric corpuscles so well 

 known in human epitheliomata and mammary 

 epithelium growing into branching acinous structures. 



The form of the cells depends, then, more on where 

 they are than on their origin, and the facts form an 

 interesting commentary from the experimental side 

 on the views of Dr. G. W. Nicholson on hetero- 

 morphosis in tumours put forward in his essays in 

 recent numbers of the Guy's Hospital Reports. Dr. 

 Drew has discovered also the curious point that 

 malignant cells quickly make the fluid in which they 

 grow unsuitable for further multiplication, though 

 normal tissue will still grow in it readily. Continuous 

 culture of malignant cells requires more frequent 

 transplantation than do normal tissues, exemplifying 

 the observational fact that human tumours are less 

 resistant than normal tissues to all sorts of harmful 

 influences — infections, poisons such as arsenic, radia- 

 tion of different kinds, and so forth. They are 

 superior to normal tissues only in their capacity to 

 override the rules governing normal growth differentia- 

 tion and morphology. 



Drs. Cramer Drew and Mottram have continued 

 their studies of vitamin deficiencies. Defect of 

 vitamin A produces characteristically a diminution in 

 the blood platelets, just as absence of vitamin B 

 leads to almost complete disappearance of lymphoid 

 cells. Similar changes in the blood elements may be 

 induced by X-rays and radium. No success was 

 obtained in attempts to influence the growth of 

 transplanted tumours by vitamin deficiencies. In 

 continuation of the production of malignant epithelial 

 tumours by the repeated irritation of the skin 'by tar 

 and similar substances, Dr. Russell now records the 

 generation of malignant tumours of connective tissue 

 by its subcutaneous administration. He also records 

 further progress in his study of the respiratory 

 exchange of tumours. 



European Fish in New Zealand Waters. 



A VERY useful account of the Marine Biological 

 ^ Station and Fish Hatchery at Portobello in New 

 Zealand has been prepared by the Hon. G. M. 

 Thomson and the late Mr. Thos. Anderton, and is 

 published as Bulletin No. 2 of the Board of Science 

 and Art of the Dominion. There is an appreciative 

 note about Mr. Anderton, a man of great practical 

 ability, who began life as a mercantile marine officer 

 and then became a marine zoologist : he organised 

 the Portobello Station with conspicuous success. 

 The work of this institution is remarkable for the 

 very original experiments carried out in connexion 

 with it, having in view the naturalisation of European 



NO. 2755, VOL. I 10] 



fishes and other marine edible animals in New Zealand 

 waters. These attempts are well known in a general 

 way, but it is well to have detailed records of their 

 methods and results. 



The main object was to introduce the European 

 herring, turbot, edible crab and lobster. The 

 herring was taken over in the form of large numbers 

 of fertilised ova and the turbot in the form of small 

 immature fishes. Undismayed by unfavourable 

 reports by various ichthyologists, a number of 

 preliminary experiments were made in order to 

 discover whether the rate of development of herring 

 ova could be retarded by the employment of low 



