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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVIII. No. 9S0 



the first generations and without reference to 

 the strain of the visible microorganism. On 

 the other hand, in this fluctuation of patho- 

 genicity the cultures imitate the action of the 

 virus as contained in human materials, 

 namely, nervous tissue, secretions from the 

 nasopharynx and intestinal washings, in 

 which the virus, either known or believed to 

 be present, may yet fail to be demonstrated 

 by reason of the want of infectious power for 

 monkeys or for the particular monkey inocu- 

 lated in a given instance. Moreover, it is a 

 common experience in bacteriology to find 

 even among the ordinary bacteria lack or 

 rapid loss of virulence among saprophytic cul- 

 tures, while virulence is not only retained, but 

 may be increased in rapid passage's from ani- 

 mal to animal. 



In view of these considerations it would 

 appear that an etiological relationship has 

 been shown to exist between the cultivated 

 microorganism and epidemic poliomyelitis as 

 it occurs in human beings or in monkeys. 

 There remains merely a single other possibil- 

 ity, already indicated, namely, that two fac- 

 tors are present in the cultures, the one an 

 invisible because ultramicroscopic organism, 

 the other the globoid bodies described. On 

 this basis it would have to be supposed that 

 the former but hypothetical factor is the es- 

 sential agent of infection. As against this 

 supposition it may be urged that an instance 

 of symbiosis of this nature is not known to 

 animal pathology. Regarding the cultivated 

 minute but visible microorganism itself, it 

 may be held on the basis of the data pre- 

 sented that it fulfills the conditions hitherto 

 demanded for the establishment of causal re- 

 lation between an extraneous parasite and a 

 specific disease. The microorganism exists 

 in the infectious and diseased organs; it is 

 not, as far as is known, a common sapro- 

 phyte, or associated with any other patholog- 

 ical condition; it is capable of reproducing, 

 on inoculation, the experimental disease in 

 monkeys, from which animals it can be re- 

 covered in pure culture. And besides these 

 classical requirements, the microorganism 

 withstands preservation and glycerination as 



does the ordinary virus of poliomyelitis 

 within the nervous organs. Finally, the an- 

 aerobic nature of the microorganism inter- 

 poses no obstacle to its acceptance as the 

 causative agent, since the living tissues are 

 devoid of free oxygen and the virus of polio- 

 myelitis has not yet been detected in the 

 circulating blood or cerebrospinal fluid of hu- 

 man beings, in which the oxygen is less firmly 

 bound; nor need it, even should the micro- 

 organism be found sometimes to survive in 

 these fluids. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



At the celebration of founder's day at Le- 

 high University, on October 3, the degree of 

 doctor of laws was conferred upon Dr. Mans- 

 field Merriman, from 1878 to 1907 head of 

 the department of civil engineering, and on 

 Professor Edward H. Williams, Jr., head of 

 the department of mining and geology from 

 1881 to 1902. 



Professor Eliaeim Hastings Moore, head 

 of the department of mathematics of the Uni- 

 versity of Chicago, was recently elected by 

 the council as a corresponding member of the 

 British Association for the Advancement of 

 Science. 



Dr. Arthur Shipley, professor of zoology 

 and master of Christ's College, of Cambridge, 

 will make one of the addresses at the formal 

 opening of the graduate college of Princeton 

 University, on October 22. 



De. a. F. Blakeslee, who has been spending 

 a year's leave of absence in research work 

 in the Carnegie Station for Experimental 

 Evolution at Cold Spring Harbor, L. I., has 

 returned to the Connecticut Agricultural Col- 

 lege, Storrs, Conn., where he is in charge of 

 the department of botany. 



Last summer the U. S. Weather Bureau, in 

 cooperation with the Smithsonian Institution, 

 made a series of balloon ascensions in south- 

 ern California, with Mr. W. E. Gregg in 

 charge of the field party. The latter part of 

 July was spent at Catalina Island, and the 

 first twelve days of August on the summit 

 of Mount Whitney. 



