Jani ary 27. 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



153 



specimens in water or in alcohol give good 

 images. A pithed frog, cut open, shows, the 

 beating of the heart and the peristaltic move- 

 ments. Furthermore, the demonstrator can 

 not only point to the parts on the object itself, 

 but can further separate the organs with the 

 forceps and each movement may be distinctly 

 observed by all in the room. 



It is obvious that the apparatus is of the 

 highest value in demonstrating before an audi- 

 ence a great variety of solid or opaque objects 

 which could not be shown by lantern slides 

 even were the time and money for preparing 

 them available. A. D. Mead. 



Anatomical Laboratory, 

 Brown University, 

 January 10, 1905. 



QUOTATIONS. 



ANOTHER CANCER SERUM. 



The newspapers last week reported, with 

 scare heads, photographs, photomicrographs, 

 and editorial comments, a new cancer dis- 

 covery from the Gratwick Pathological Labo- 

 ratory at BuiTalo. It is asserted that a num- 

 ber of cures of cancer in mice have been 

 effected by means of a serum prepared at the 

 laboratory and the hope is suggested that the 

 treatment will be equally efficacious in man. 

 According to the New York Herald the can- 

 cerous mice used for the experiments were 

 obtained from Professor Jensen of Copen- 

 hagen. They survived the Atlantic voyage, 

 but expired between here and Buffalo. The 

 cadavera were preserved and inoculations from 

 one of them ' took ' on several live mice, and 

 by repeated transplantation a large number 

 of the animals with cancer became available 

 for further experimentation. Many of these 

 mice recovered spontaneously, and the experi- 

 menters conceived the idea that this fortunate 

 result was brought about by the elaboration 

 of an antitoxin. Having in mind the possi- 

 bility of a successful serum treatment of 

 cancer, they conducted a series of experiments 

 which they think have proved beyond question 

 that the blood of mice which have recovered 

 from cancer possesses an antitoxic quality. 

 This blood, when injected into mice suffering 

 with cancer, arrested the growth, and when 



the tumors were not too large caused their 

 disappearance. 



We have no reason to doubt the accuracy of 

 the observation of the workers at the Buffalo 

 laboratory as regards the fact of the disap- 

 pearance of the tumors in mice treated with 

 serum, and we earnestly hope they may be able 

 to develop their discovery so that it may be- 

 come applicable to man. But the plans of mice 

 and men are proverbially uncertain in their 

 outcome, and it is deplorable that the secular 

 press should have prematurely reported these 

 incomplete results. Even if the highest hopes 

 of the experimenters are eventually realized 

 the announcement of their discovery at this 

 time can but do much harm by inducing many 

 present sufferers to cast away the plank of 

 surgical excision to grasp at what is yet but 

 the straw of serum therapy. Schmidt, Doyen, 

 Adamkiewicz and others whose names we have 

 forgotten have elaborated antitoxic cancer 

 sera, and they have failed to cure. This, of 

 course, is no argument against the possibility 

 of the Buffalo serum being efficacious, but in 

 a matter of such momentous importance to 

 mankind it behooves one to proceed with ex- 

 treme caution and not to ignore the lessons 

 of the past and the present even while dream- 

 ing of a glorious future. Many mountains 

 have been in labor at various times, but, alas, 

 many little white mice have been born. — 

 New York Medical Record. 



SPECIAL ARTICLES. 



A MODEL illustrating HITTORF's THEORY OF 



the jshgration velocities of ions. 



As an aid in explaining the conception of 

 Tlittorf* the model shown in Fig. 1 has been 

 found so satisfactory that a brief description 

 is here given in the hope that it may be of 

 service to those teaching the mechanism of 

 electrolysis. 



Upon a base-board, 50 cm. X two 

 upright supports, FF (3 cm. X 1 c™- — 1^ 

 cm.), are fastened. Through these supports 

 pass two cylindrical wooden rods, EE, 6 mm. 

 in diameter and 47 cm. long. Upon these 



*Pogg. Ann., 89, 177; 98, 1; 103, 1; 106, .337, 

 513. 



