664 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 408. 



matical teachers last year resulted in the 

 appointment of a very strong committee to 

 inquire into the matter. The report of 

 this committee and the discussion upon it 

 amply justified Professor Perry's action. 

 Both professor and schoolmaster came for- 

 ward to advocate reforms in secondary 

 schools suggested in the report; definite 

 constructive proposals have been made as 

 to the curriculum and conduct of examina- 

 tions ; and, though it is obvious that reform 

 cannot stop at this stage, a valuable step 

 in the right direction has been taken. ' The 

 Teaching of English, ' which the great pub- 

 lic schools, accepting the traditional classic- 

 al curriculum, have seriously neglected, 

 received considerable attention. Mr. P. J. 

 Hartog, in an able paper, drew attention 

 to the method of teaching style in composi- 

 tion adopted in the principal French 

 schools, and urged that the classical master 

 is wrong in assuming that the only method 

 of teaching English composition and style 

 must be through the medium of Greek and 

 Latin, of which languages the average 

 school boy has not obtained a real grasp. 

 The training of teachers is, undoubtedly, 

 the problem of paramount importance in 

 educational affairs to-day, and the debate 

 on this subject was valuable in directing 

 attention to the shortcomings of existing 

 arrangements for training. Miss Walter's 

 plea for a secondary school career for the 

 future teachers of primary schools is one 

 admitted by every one dealing with pri- 

 mary schools. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 



ehrlich's seitenkettentheorte. 

 The recently published work of Professor 

 Aschoff (Ehrlich's ' Seitenliettentlieorie und 

 ihre Anfwendung auf die Kiinstlichen Im- 

 munisierungsprozesse ') will be of great use 

 to those who desire to keep abreast with the 

 progress of science in this fruitful field of 

 investigation. It is, indeed, an intelligent 

 review of the whole subject of acquired im- 



munity, and includes a statement of the prin- 

 cipal facts which have been de-^eloped by ex- 

 periment, as well as a discussion of the vari- 

 ous theories wliich have been advanced in 

 explanation of these facts. The great interest 

 attached to the subject and the extent of the 

 field of investigation which has been developed 

 since the epoch-making discovery of the anti- 

 toxins of diphtheria and of tetanus by Beh- 

 ring and Kitasato (1890) are shown by the ex- 

 tent of the literature given by Aschofi at the 

 close of his review (' Zusammenfassende Dar- 

 stellung'). This covers 41 pages and includes 

 nearly 900 titles. Of these Ehrlich has con- 

 tributed no less than 22. His first paper, 

 published in 1891, demonstrated the remark- 

 able fact that animals can be made immune 

 against certain vegetable poisons (ricin and 

 abrin), and that the blood serum of such ani- 

 mals contains an antitoxin which has a spe- 

 cific action in neutralizing the toxic effects of 

 these poisons, when injected into non-immune 

 and susceptible animals. In prosecuting his in- 

 vestigations Ehrlich has had the advantage 

 over many others who have devoted them- 

 selves to similar researches in the fact that he 

 is a most accomplished chemist, and has given 

 special attention to that difiicult branch of 

 organic chemistry which is concerned with 

 bodies of the class to which the antitoxins 

 belong. 



" In a paper published in 1897 Ehrlich 

 advanced his ' side-chain ' theory. He consid- 

 ers the individual cells of the body to be 

 analogous, in a certain sense, to complex or- 

 ganic substances, and that they consist essen- 

 tially of a central nucleus to which secondary 

 atom-groups having distinct physiological 

 functions are attached by ' side chains ' — 

 such as chemists represent in their attempts 

 to illustrate the reactions which occur in the 

 building up or pulling down of complex or- 

 ganic substances. The cell-equilibrium is sup- 

 posed to be disturbed by injury to any of its 

 physiological atom-groups — as by a toxin — • 

 and this disturbance results in an effort at 

 compensatory repair during which plastic 

 material in excess of the amount required is 

 generated and finds its way into the blood. 

 This Ehrlich regards as the antitoxin, which 



