1890.] Scientific News. 1225 
SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 
Preventive Inoculations Against Tuberculosis.—At the 
recent meeting of the International Medical Congress, in Berlin, Dr. 
Robert Koch made an address in which he asserted that he had discov- 
ered a method by which animals ordinarily very susceptible to con- 
tract tuberculosis from inoculations of the bacillus were made capable 
of resisting such inoculations. The details of his method he did not 
make public. Stimulated apparently by this announcement, which is 
calculated to attract widespread attention, Drs. Grancher and Martin, 
of Paris, announced in the Bulletin Medical, August 20, 1890, that 
they also had devised a method by which these results could be 
obtained. 
In the Medical and Surgical Reporter Professor Samuel G. Dixon, 
of Philadelphia, presents a short article in which attention is called to 
the fact that a year ago—October 19, 1889—he had proposed the lines 
upon which preventive inoculations against tuberculosis might be ex- 
pected to be successfully carried out, and that he had already succeeded 
in a certain number of instances in producing immunity against the 
disease in animals. The announcement antedates by so much the 
announcements ef Koch, and Grancher and Martin, that American 
medical men must feel an interest in maintaining the priority which 
. belongs to this country. 
In this particular matter it may be pointed out that Dr. Dixon in 
his announcement gives some indications as to the method by which 
he obtains the attenuated virus used in his experiments, Intimations 
of this sort are totally lacking in the communications of Koch, Gran- 
Cher and Martin 
President Charles A. Schaeffer, of the Iowa State University, 
Was the recipient for the university of a valuable gift from a Sioux 
City gentleman. The gift consists of the entire scientific collection 
and library of D. H. Talbot. Mr. Talbot is an old resident of Sioux 
City, living north of the city on a farm, where he has for years carried 
on the study of natural history and of science. His farm is stocked 
‚with animals of all kinds, and he has made a special study of their 
habits. He has also made a remarkable collection of preserved speci- 
mens. These specimens and his library are conveyed to the state 
university for the benefit and advancement of science, The library 
will remain with him until his death, but the specimens will at once be 
taken to the state university at Iowa City. 
