October i, 1908J 



NA TURE 



565 



of plague itself, so that an epizootic has only to reach a 

 certain intensity in order to bring about its own decline. 

 It is difficult to estimate the decrease in rat population 

 caused by an epizootic, but the systematic trapping carried 

 out in the Punjab villages of Kasel and Dhand gave results 

 which seem to indicate that this decrease may be con- 

 siderable. An increase in the proportion of immune rats 

 has a double action. First, it obviously connotes a 

 decrease in the available number of susceptible rats ; 

 secondly, these immune rats actually protect their 

 susceptible companions. For consider an infected flea 

 which has just left a rat dead of plague. Such a flea is 

 dangerous only so long ns he carries living plague bacilli 

 in his stomach. But the Commission has shown that the 

 destruction of plague bacilli within the flea's stomach is 

 largely effected by the activity of the rat's leucocytes, taken 

 in at each fresh meal. But efficient phagocytosis depends 

 on efficient opsonisation, so that if the infective flea chances 

 to take a meal from an immune rat, the opsonic power 

 of the blood of which is generally above normal, the 

 phagocytic process will be hastened, and the flea will be 

 less dangerous to his next susceptible host. This deduction 

 was tested in an experiment in which fleas were first 

 infected and then fed for twenty-four hours, one series on 

 immune rats and another series on susceptible rats. The 

 two lots of fleas were then allowed to feed on normal 

 guinea-pigs, of which the immune-fed fleas infected only 

 four out of eleven, while the others infected- eight out of 

 eleven. But we are led to expect further experiments on 

 this interesting topic. 



The number concludes with some brief remarks of the 

 differetitial diagnosis of B. pcstis. L. Noon. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



London. — A course of eight lectures on " .\lgal Flagel- 

 lates and the Lines of Algal Descent " will be begun by 

 Dr. F. E. Fritsch at University College on October 26. 

 During the second term a course of eight lectures on 

 " Physical Chemistry and its Bearing on Biology " will be 

 delivered by Dr. J. C. Philip, and in the third term a 

 course of eight lectures on " Recent Advances in the Study 

 of Heredity " will be delivered by Mr. A. D. Darbishire. 

 A course of four lectures on " The Geological Structure 

 of the Area of the Vosges " will be delivered at Bedford 

 College by Miss C. A. Raisin, beginning on November 16, 

 and in the second and third terms courses will be given 

 at University College by Dr. A. Smith Woodward, F.R.S., 

 and Prof. E. J. Garwood on, respectively, " The Use of 

 Fossil Vertebrata in Stratigraphical Geology " and " The 

 Geology and Physiography of Arctic Europe." Beginning 

 on January 22, Dr. W. N. Shaw, F.R.S., will give a 

 course of lectures on " The Climates of the British 

 Possessions." On October 20 Dr. F. S. Locke will deliver, 

 in the physiological laboratory of the L'niversitv, a course 

 of lectures on " Some Problems of General Physiology, 

 more Particularly those Associated with Muscle," and in 

 the second and third terms courses will be given bv Prof. 

 A. D. Waller, F.R.S., and Dr. A. Harden on, respectively, 

 " General Physiology of Nerve " and '* Chemical Biology 

 of the Veast Cell." On February 2 Dr. L. C. Parkes will 

 begin, at University College, a course of four lectures on 

 " The Medical Aspects of Recent Advances in Hygiene as 

 Connected with Sewering." Prof. E. A. Minchin will in 

 the third term give, at the Lister Institute, a course of 

 lectures on protozoology, and in the first term Mr. R. 

 Lydekker, F.R.S., will deliver three lectures on " The 

 Living and Extinct Faunas of, Africa and South America." 

 Details as to the time and place of the delivery of the last- 

 named course will be announced later. All the lectures 

 referred to will be addressed to advanced students, and no 

 charge will be made for admission. 



University College. — The delivery of the following intro- 

 ductory public science lectures has been arranged for : — 

 October 6, " Davy and Graham," by Sir William Ramsay, 

 K.C.B.. F.R.S. ; October 8, " Personal Religion in 

 Egypt." by Prof. W. M. Flinders Petrie, F.R.S. ; 

 October 8, " Gleanings in the Babylonian East," by Dr. 

 T. G. Pinches ; October q, " Recent Developments in 



NO. 2031, VOL. 78 J 



Philosophic Thought," by Prof. G. Dawes Hicks; 

 October 9, "School Hygiene," by Prof. H. R. Kenwood; 

 October 14, " The Scientific Principles of Radio- 

 telegraphy," by Prof. J. A. Fleming, F.R.S. 



Bedford College. — .\ course of lectures and demonstra- 

 tions for teachers, and persons qualifying to be teachers, 

 will be given on "The Hygiene of Common Life," by 

 Dr. J. S. Edkins. The opening lecture tthe admission to 

 which will be free) will be delivered on October 13. 



Oxford. — In a Convocation to be held on October 8 it 

 will be proposed to confer the degree of Doctor of Science, 

 honoris causa, upon Dr. Svante August Arrhenius and Dr. 

 A. G. Vernon Harcourt, F.R.S. 



Mr. Matthew Monie has been appointed lecturer on 

 geology at the Glasgow .'Agricultural College. 



Dr. H. Bvron Heywood has been appointed assistant 

 lecturer in the mathematical department of the East 

 London College. 



The gt.'neral prospectus of the day and evening classes 

 to be held at the Battersca Polytechnic during the session 

 which has just begun provides careful guidance for intend- 

 ing students. New classes have been arranged for 

 advanced students in hygiene, geology, and bacteriology, 

 and new trade classes in wheelwrights' work and gas- 

 fitting have been inaugurated. It is satisfactory also to 

 find that coordinated courses have been drawn up in 

 engineering, chemistry, physics, mathematics, and other 

 main branches of work. A building grant from the 

 London County Council has made it possible to set about 

 extending the laboratories for mechanical and electrical 

 engineering, and to undertake extensive alterations and 

 additions in the chemistry department. 



The Board of Education has issued the following list 

 of candidates successful in the competition for the Whit- 

 worth scholarships and exhibitions, igo8 : — /. Scholarships 

 (125/. a year each, tenable for three years) : W. H. Mead, 

 Southsea'; W. White, Portsmouth ; W. H. Stock, Swindon ; 

 E. Bate, London. //. E.xhibitions (50L, tenable for one 

 year) : A. H. Gabb, Swindon ; .\. McKenzie, Devonport ; 

 R. Bassett, Devonport; S. L. Dawe, Devonport; .\. J. 

 Triggs, Devonport; A. C. Lowe, Harrogate; J. R. Pike, 

 Portsmouth; H. R. Allison, Gillingham ; .\. E. Heal, 

 Sheerness ; C. R. Kemp, London; H. L. Guy, Penarth, 

 Glamorgan; H. G. Stephens, Leicester; F. E. Rowett, 

 Chatham; C. E. Haddy, Torpoint, R.S.O., Cornwall; 

 W. E. Tong, Gosport ; G. W. Bird, Plymouth ; C. W. Lim- 

 bourne, Plumstead ; W. G. Pitt, Plumstead ; E. J. Cox, 

 Gosport ; G. H. Reid, Stonehouse, Devon ; D. Watson, 

 Swindon; J. E. Burkhardt, Newcastle-on-Tyne ; P. R. 

 Higson, London; .\. J. Sear, Portsmouth; E. O. Hale, 

 Sta'ntonbury, Bucks; F. C. Ham, Plumstead; .\. R. C. 

 Winn, Hornchurch, Essex; J. Scobie, London; F. Bray, 

 Devonport ; C. P. T. Lipscomb, Plumstead. 



The second section of the new buildings of the Glasgow 

 and West of Scotland Technical College was used for 

 the first time on Tuesday, September 22, on the occasion 

 of admitting to the associateship of the college the students 

 who had gained the college diploma at the close of last 

 session. Dr. G. T. Beilby, F.R.S., chairman of the 

 governors, presided at the meeting held in the examina- 

 tion hall, and in the course of an address described the 

 relations of the college to the reform in methods of coal 

 consumption. The college was the first institution in the 

 United Kingdom to establish special laboratories for the 

 teaching and study of everything connected with fuel and 

 combustion. The 'most recent knowledge on these subjects 

 shows that in the great majority of cases smoke and dust 

 are quite unnecessarv concomitants of industry. The 

 inquiries of the recent Royal Commission on Coal Supplies 

 have made it abundantly' clear that the present inefficient 

 consumption of coal in Great Britain not only leads to the 

 waste of from forty to sixty million tons per annum, but 

 that this inefficiency is also responsible for the greater 

 proportion of the smoke and dirt from which the nation 

 suffers. It has been estimated that on the total British 

 consumption 30 per cent, might be saved if the best-known 

 means of consumption for each purpose were employed. 

 The college has as its most obvious duty the education 



