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SCIENTIFIC EXHIBITS AT THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION MEETING.
616
Crew, of the Animal Breeding Research famous Norfolk portraits, of the portraits at the of Edinburgh University, assisted by Royal College of Physicians, London, and at the a strong editorial board, will consider original articles Bodleian Museum, and beautiful photographs of the on experimental embryology, genetics, animal ’ skull and the endocranial casts. The scheme for behaviour, the comparative physiology of the lower putting on permanent record the physical aspect of organisms, and the results of cytological, morphological, the author of the Religio Medici is thoroughly and histological investigations which bear directly justified. Sir Thomas Browne has won an individual on matters of current interest to the experimental position as author and philosopher, and this monobiologist. Authors are requested to minimise space graph should find its way to the shelves of all represendevoted to historical introductions and theoretical dis- tative collections. The book has been published by cussions since authoritative reviews of recent progress subscription, and we understand that there are still a in various fields of inquiry will be published from certain number of copies available to purchasers, who time to time. In the first number a critical summary should apply to the secretary of the Biometric of Tissue Culture, by H. M. Carleton, gives no less Laboratory, University College, London, W.C. The than 55 valuable references, though only " the more original price of one guinea is being charged for the important papers have been mentioned," and the remaining copies. author deplores the lack of adequate bibliographical SCIENTIFIC EXHIBITS AT THE BRITISH It is references in many of the articles quoted. ASSOCIATION MEETING. obvious from his conclusions that many of the fundaL mental discoveries in this work are due to an Liverpool correspondent writes : The British observer. The localisation of the factors restraining,’ meeting this year has an added attraction inhibiting, or stimulating the growth of tissues can : for the medical profession in its large collection of approached experimentally through the technique exhibits. These range from meteorology to tissue culture, and such research is in direct contact practical dyeing, and from preparations illustrating with the problems of causal embryology and with the the histology of coal to examples of ultra-modern The original articles in this issue devices in wireless cancer problem. telephony. Of more direct include Studies on Internal Secretion: II., Endocrine interest, however, to the medical man are the exhibits Activity in Foetal and Embryonic Life, by Lancelot T. of the chemical manufacturers and the scientific Hogben and F. A. E. Crew ; Studies on the Com- apparatus of many kinds for both clinical and experiparative Physiology of Digestion, (1) the Mechanism mental work. It is especially noticeable what of Feeding, Digestion, and Assimilation in the Lamelli- advances have been made in the production of heatbranch Mya, by C. M. Yonge; Parthenogenesis in the resisting glass and silicaceous ware. Prices are still Mollusc Paludestrina jenkinsi (Part 1.), by G. C. high, but are beginning to become more reasonable. Robson ; Histological Studies on the Domestic Fowl, It is now possible to buy a good practical Leitz (1) A Microscopic Study of Sex-Reversal and Herm-Jmicroscope for .818, an oil-immersion lens being J65 aphroditism, by Honor B. Fell. The Journal will be1extra. A simpler but still useful student’s instrument published quarterly by Messrs. Oliver and Boyd,with English lenses can be had for between 29 and 210. Edinburgh, the annual subscription being 40s., and we Much attention has been paid to the teaching of wish it a successful career. jmicroscopic work to the student, and some of the apparatus shown would appear to make diagramsand even lantern slides from actual photographsSIR THOMAS BROWNE’S SKULL.1 things of the past. Two small attachments are IT will be remembered that a peculiar controversy exhibited, which enable the teacher to demonstrate a between the Board of the Norfolk and Norwich slide directly to the student. One of these is a Hospital, and the vicar and churchwardens of St. branched eye-piece, which allows two persons comPeter Mancroft Church, Norwich, reached a, satis- fortably to examine the same slide at the same time. factory conclusion some two years ago. The circum- A movable pointer is an added convenience. Even stances were that Sir Thomas Browne, the author of more practical, and at the same time less costly, is a the Religio Medici, who died in 1682, was buried in mirror arrangement which reflects an enlarged view of St. Peter Mancroft, but his skull was stolen from the the field under observation on a sheet of white paper grave some 160 years later and found its way to the laid near the base of the microscope. Both exhibits museum of the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. can be attached in a moment to any microscope. The vicar and churchwardens of that splendid church, To the surgeon the instruments produced in stainless St. Peter Mancroft, were assiduous in attempting to steel, though their manufacture is still in its infancy, have the skull restored to its original resting place, open up attractive prospects of lessened labour and less while the hospital authorities, with a mediaeval regard frequent necessity for replating, repairs, and renewals. for the relic of a scientific saint, were unwilling to part The physician will find the advance of diagnostic with the skull. In February, 1922, however, the skull methods amply provided for by new instruments of was finally restored to the church, but careful measuregreat delicacy and precision, amongst which may be ments, drawings, and tracings of it were made at the instanced an apparatus for rapidly estimating the Royal College of Surgeons, so that a memorial might reaction of small quantities of body fluids in terms of remain of that which is now for ever hidden. There the hydrogen-ion concentration. There are also to has now been published a monograph on Sir Thomas be seen improved and simplified forms of instruments Browne, dealing especially with the skull in relation to that have already stood the test of time, such as its identity and its verification by portraits written by Mackenzie’s polygraph. There is a room devoted to Miss Tildesley, with an introductory note by Sir the most modern X ray plant that makes its appeal to Arthur Keith and a report on the endocranial casts by the clinical worker, as also to the advanced physicist. Prof. Elliot Smith. The monograph is a thoroughly The visitor comes away with an increased realisation sound piece of work. Sir Arthur Keith, who had of the part played by the physicist and the chemist in intended to write it himself, was forced by illness to elucidating industrial problems, and an altogether new hand over the task to Miss Tildesley, who has carried it conception of the r6le of the microscopist in industrial through with enthusiasm and skill-in the words of research. Sir Arthur Keith, " she has exemplified the best kind of ST. MARY’S HOSPITAL POST-GRADUATE scholarship-one which illustrates the right application of laboratory methods to historical inquiry and to COURSE. anatomical pursuits." The monograph is profusely A SPECIAL post-graduate course, open to all medical illustrated, containing reproductions of the three practitioners without fee, will be held in the Clinical 1 Sir Thomas Browne : His Skull Portraits and Ancestry. Theatre of the Unit, St. Mary’s Hospital, on Saturday, By Miriam L. Tildesley, Research Worker, Royal College of Sept. 29th, Sunday, Sept. 30th, and Monday, Oct. 1st. Surgeons’ Museum. With 34 plates, frontispiece, and folding On the first day Mr. D. C. L. Fitzwilliams will discuss pedigree. Reprinted from Biometrika, vol. xv., and issued to subscribers only. Early Diagnosis of Carcinoma of the Breast, at Dr. F. A. E.
Department
____
EnglishIout
beAssociation I ofscientific I
____
Crew, of the Animal Breeding Research famous Norfolk portraits, of the portraits at the of Edinburgh University, assisted by Royal College of Physicians, London, and at the a strong editorial board, will consider original articles Bodleian Museum, and beautiful photographs of the on experimental embryology, genetics, animal ’ skull and the endocranial casts. The scheme for behaviour, the comparative physiology of the lower putting on permanent record the physical aspect of organisms, and the results of cytological, morphological, the author of the Religio Medici is thoroughly and histological investigations which bear directly justified. Sir Thomas Browne has won an individual on matters of current interest to the experimental position as author and philosopher, and this monobiologist. Authors are requested to minimise space graph should find its way to the shelves of all represendevoted to historical introductions and theoretical dis- tative collections. The book has been published by cussions since authoritative reviews of recent progress subscription, and we understand that there are still a in various fields of inquiry will be published from certain number of copies available to purchasers, who time to time. In the first number a critical summary should apply to the secretary of the Biometric of Tissue Culture, by H. M. Carleton, gives no less Laboratory, University College, London, W.C. The than 55 valuable references, though only " the more original price of one guinea is being charged for the important papers have been mentioned," and the remaining copies. author deplores the lack of adequate bibliographical SCIENTIFIC EXHIBITS AT THE BRITISH It is references in many of the articles quoted. ASSOCIATION MEETING. obvious from his conclusions that many of the fundaL mental discoveries in this work are due to an Liverpool correspondent writes : The British observer. The localisation of the factors restraining,’ meeting this year has an added attraction inhibiting, or stimulating the growth of tissues can : for the medical profession in its large collection of approached experimentally through the technique exhibits. These range from meteorology to tissue culture, and such research is in direct contact practical dyeing, and from preparations illustrating with the problems of causal embryology and with the the histology of coal to examples of ultra-modern The original articles in this issue devices in wireless cancer problem. telephony. Of more direct include Studies on Internal Secretion: II., Endocrine interest, however, to the medical man are the exhibits Activity in Foetal and Embryonic Life, by Lancelot T. of the chemical manufacturers and the scientific Hogben and F. A. E. Crew ; Studies on the Com- apparatus of many kinds for both clinical and experiparative Physiology of Digestion, (1) the Mechanism mental work. It is especially noticeable what of Feeding, Digestion, and Assimilation in the Lamelli- advances have been made in the production of heatbranch Mya, by C. M. Yonge; Parthenogenesis in the resisting glass and silicaceous ware. Prices are still Mollusc Paludestrina jenkinsi (Part 1.), by G. C. high, but are beginning to become more reasonable. Robson ; Histological Studies on the Domestic Fowl, It is now possible to buy a good practical Leitz (1) A Microscopic Study of Sex-Reversal and Herm-Jmicroscope for .818, an oil-immersion lens being J65 aphroditism, by Honor B. Fell. The Journal will be1extra. A simpler but still useful student’s instrument published quarterly by Messrs. Oliver and Boyd,with English lenses can be had for between 29 and 210. Edinburgh, the annual subscription being 40s., and we Much attention has been paid to the teaching of wish it a successful career. jmicroscopic work to the student, and some of the apparatus shown would appear to make diagramsand even lantern slides from actual photographsSIR THOMAS BROWNE’S SKULL.1 things of the past. Two small attachments are IT will be remembered that a peculiar controversy exhibited, which enable the teacher to demonstrate a between the Board of the Norfolk and Norwich slide directly to the student. One of these is a Hospital, and the vicar and churchwardens of St. branched eye-piece, which allows two persons comPeter Mancroft Church, Norwich, reached a, satis- fortably to examine the same slide at the same time. factory conclusion some two years ago. The circum- A movable pointer is an added convenience. Even stances were that Sir Thomas Browne, the author of more practical, and at the same time less costly, is a the Religio Medici, who died in 1682, was buried in mirror arrangement which reflects an enlarged view of St. Peter Mancroft, but his skull was stolen from the the field under observation on a sheet of white paper grave some 160 years later and found its way to the laid near the base of the microscope. Both exhibits museum of the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. can be attached in a moment to any microscope. The vicar and churchwardens of that splendid church, To the surgeon the instruments produced in stainless St. Peter Mancroft, were assiduous in attempting to steel, though their manufacture is still in its infancy, have the skull restored to its original resting place, open up attractive prospects of lessened labour and less while the hospital authorities, with a mediaeval regard frequent necessity for replating, repairs, and renewals. for the relic of a scientific saint, were unwilling to part The physician will find the advance of diagnostic with the skull. In February, 1922, however, the skull methods amply provided for by new instruments of was finally restored to the church, but careful measuregreat delicacy and precision, amongst which may be ments, drawings, and tracings of it were made at the instanced an apparatus for rapidly estimating the Royal College of Surgeons, so that a memorial might reaction of small quantities of body fluids in terms of remain of that which is now for ever hidden. There the hydrogen-ion concentration. There are also to has now been published a monograph on Sir Thomas be seen improved and simplified forms of instruments Browne, dealing especially with the skull in relation to that have already stood the test of time, such as its identity and its verification by portraits written by Mackenzie’s polygraph. There is a room devoted to Miss Tildesley, with an introductory note by Sir the most modern X ray plant that makes its appeal to Arthur Keith and a report on the endocranial casts by the clinical worker, as also to the advanced physicist. Prof. Elliot Smith. The monograph is a thoroughly The visitor comes away with an increased realisation sound piece of work. Sir Arthur Keith, who had of the part played by the physicist and the chemist in intended to write it himself, was forced by illness to elucidating industrial problems, and an altogether new hand over the task to Miss Tildesley, who has carried it conception of the r6le of the microscopist in industrial through with enthusiasm and skill-in the words of research. Sir Arthur Keith, " she has exemplified the best kind of ST. MARY’S HOSPITAL POST-GRADUATE scholarship-one which illustrates the right application of laboratory methods to historical inquiry and to COURSE. anatomical pursuits." The monograph is profusely A SPECIAL post-graduate course, open to all medical illustrated, containing reproductions of the three practitioners without fee, will be held in the Clinical 1 Sir Thomas Browne : His Skull Portraits and Ancestry. Theatre of the Unit, St. Mary’s Hospital, on Saturday, By Miriam L. Tildesley, Research Worker, Royal College of Sept. 29th, Sunday, Sept. 30th, and Monday, Oct. 1st. Surgeons’ Museum. With 34 plates, frontispiece, and folding On the first day Mr. D. C. L. Fitzwilliams will discuss pedigree. Reprinted from Biometrika, vol. xv., and issued to subscribers only. Early Diagnosis of Carcinoma of the Breast, at Dr. F. A. E.
Department
____
EnglishIout
beAssociation I ofscientific I
____