136 



SCIENCE 



IN. S. Vol. XXVII. No. 682 



be more limited in extent and restricted to 

 certain tissues or locations. Wassermann 

 succeeded in affecting the endothelial cells 

 of the pleura by direct pleural inoculation 

 of typhoid bacilli so as to increase their 

 power to produce antibodies above that of 

 the other tissues of the body, and Noguchi 

 succeeded by localizing a tetanus infection 

 in the subcutaneous tissue of the thigh to 

 make it impossible for tetanus toxin to 

 enter the body from that location while all 

 other avenues of entry were left unaffected. 

 And, as a parallel to these states of im- 

 munity, we see in the phenomenon of 

 Arthus that the subcutaneous tissues of the 

 rabbit can by repeated injections of horse 

 serum be sensitized and thus made to react 

 with a degree of vigor and inflammation 

 which may cause their destruction, the rest 

 of the body meanwhile showing no increase 

 of sensitiveness. 



The hypersensitiveness of the tubercular 

 state would appear to be localized in tissues 

 far removed from the seat of the infecting 

 tubercle bacilli, and probably every part of 

 the tuberculous organism is in a potential 

 Jiypersensitive condition. In any case, the 

 ophthalmo-reaction of Calmette and the 

 cuti-reaetion of v. Pirquet, both of which 

 are yielding good service in the diagnosis 

 of tuberculosis and taking the place of the 

 more serious general reaction of hyper- 

 sensitiveness following upon tuberculin in- 

 jection, show that in the conjunctiva and 

 the skin the cells are sensitized and react 

 rapidly and in a characteristic manner to 

 tuberculinization. 



It will be clear to you that in following 

 the diverse reactions of the body to foreign 

 substances, among which parasitic micro- 

 organisms play in pathology the chief part, 

 there is gradually being discovered a wide 

 range of phenomena, some desirable and 

 beneficial, some objectionable and injuri- 

 ous, which together, constitute the effects of 

 natural disease or of efforts to thwart and 



overcome it. It will become the particular 

 quest of the immediate future to attempt 

 the unraveling of those biological condi- 

 tions which underlie one or the other of 

 these, and to secure to the use of medical 

 practise those effects which may be bene- 

 ficial and to remove from it those which are 

 injurious. Were there still time at hand, I 

 should present to you certain newer facts 

 in protective inoculation with bacteria and 

 of serum therapy which are not without 

 good augury for preventing certain infec- 

 tive diseases of man and animals, and of 

 overcoming them by specific serum ther- 

 apy once they have developed. And then I 

 should try to interest you in the remax'k- 

 able progress which has been made, and is 

 being made almost daily, in the discoveries 

 in specific chemical therapeutics which 

 make the control of certain protozoan dis- 

 easesi— trypanosomiases and spirilloses 

 especially — very hopeful for the future. 

 I must, however, not detain you longer 

 from the enjoyment of the interesting sci- 

 entific program which has been prepared 

 for this hour. 



Simon Flexner 



CHARLES A. YOUNG 



The past five months have brought 

 severe losses to astronomy in the deaths 

 of five of its distinguished men: in Ger- 

 many, Vogel, of Potsdam ; in Prance, 

 Loewy, of Paris, and Janssen, of Meudon ; 

 in this country, Asaph Hall; and now 

 Charles A. Young, who died at Hanover, 

 N. H., on January 3. 



There is some consolation, however, in 

 the fact that all of these men had reached 

 advanced years,^ and had in a measure 

 rounded out their scientific careers, al- 

 though the three first named were still in 

 active service as directors of large ob- 

 servatories. 



Charles Augustus Young was born on 

 ^ Average age, 75 years. 



