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EXTENSION OF A LONDON SCHOOL
773 to meet the needs of George and his like, and the second is to arrange that any authority charged with the care of a child or young person should be able to represent to the juvenile court that some particular form of treatment is desirable in his interests. Subject to the approval of the court, all forms of treatment (except, of course, the punitive measures reserved for offenders) should be readily available for all such children. He also thinks it wrong that the parents of a child who has been ascertained to be maladjusted or educationally subnormal, and whom the education authority propose to send to a special school, should be able to appeal to no-one but the Minister ; and that they should have no appeal, except to the Home Secretary himself, against a proposal-originating in his own department-to license a child from an approved school and place him with foster-parents or in some other institution. Such appeals, he thinks, should be made to the juvenile court. For what, he says, do these children need ?They need to be helped, and in many cases the court can help them, through the magistrates’ knowledge of their background, and of the conditions encouraging the attitude of mind or weakness of character which is responsible for their behaviour. The magistrates, the probation officer, the teacher, the children’s officer, the psychiatrist, and above all the child, should combine into a team ; and their job is not merely to modify the environment to suit George but to consider the extent to which the George may be expected to modify himself to suit the environment. For success in the second part of this programme the one essential member of the team is George.
special schools
ELECTRON MICROSCOPY OF VIRUS-INFECTED TISSUES THE earliest electron. microscopic studies of viruses directed to the virus rather than to the infected
were
tissue cells. This entailed the isolation of virus in a concentrated and purified state, with the risk that the rough methods of handling (including repeated high-speed centrifugation) might produce distortions in the shape A great advance in and size of the virus particles. technique came from the use of red-cell " ghosts " which The beautiful can adsorb influenza and related viruses. pictures by Chu, Dawson, and -Elfordwere obtained with only the gentlest handling of the virus ; and with the help of simple biological techniques it was possible to identify the virus particles with confidence. The of tissues was an virus-infected obvious, study although difficult, line of inquiry which gave promise of throwing some light on the problem of virus multiplication. Among the first reported studies of this kind were those of Claude et al.,2 Bang and Gey,3 and Wirth and Athanasui4 working with fowl tumour viruses, eastern equine encephalomyelitis, and vaccinia viruses respectively. Later work has been reported from America with influenza, tobacco mosaic, fowl pox, herpes simplex, and vaccinia viruses ; and in this country Flewett and Challice5 have described studies made with tissue cultures infected with fowl plague virus. Wyckoffnow describes the results of electron microscopic studies of chick embryo tissues infected with influenza virus. Masses of filaments and spheres of the same diameter as the virus were found at the surface of infected cells. Wyckoff suggests that the filaments are fragments peeling off from the surface of infected cells, and that these filaments then segment into the spherical forms. The photographs which illustrate his paper are similar 1. Chu, C. M., Dawson, I. M., Elford, W. J. Lancet, 1949, i, 602 ; J. gen. Microbiol. 1949, 3, 298. 2. Claude, A., Porter, K. R., Pickels, E. G. Cancer Res. 1947, 7, 421. 3. Bang, E. B., Gey, G. O. Proc. Soc. exp. Biol., N.Y. 1949, 71, 78. 4. Wirth, J., Athanasui, P. Ibid, 70, 59. 5. Flewett, T. H., Challice, C. E. J. gen. Microbiol. 1951, 5, 279. 6. Wyckoff, R. W. G. Nature, Lond. 1951, 168, 651.
to those shown by Flewett and Challice at the July meeting of the Pathological Society of Great Britain. There are two difficulties in any study of this type. The first is that although great advances have recently been made the techniques of preparing and cutting tissue sections for electron microscopy are still in their youth. Secondly comes the difficulty in interpreting results, particularly in -view of the deeply rooted tendencies to believe what one sees and to see what one believes. The possibilities of error and misinterpretation in work of this kind are so many that it is not surprising that while the microbiologist has been able to dig deep into the ground of new knowledge with his bare hands, the electron microscopist, with all his paraphernalia, is still only scraping the surface. But new and important advances will come from the association of developments of technique in electron microscopy with the experimental approach of the biologist. When the " stills " which the electron microscopist has photographed are replaced by a cinematographic record of virus-infected tissues we shall be nearer to understanding the methods of virus I
multiplication. EXTENSION OF A LONDON SCHOOL AN extension of the Royal’Free Hospital School of Medicine is being opened by the Queen this week. Thepreclinical departments of the school have for many years been seriously overcrowded, and research work has been sorely hampered by lack of space. The new building houses on successive floors extensions of the departments of chemistry, physiology, and anatomy, and the departments of biology and pharmacology, with a well-equipped workshop in the basement, and an animalhouse, cold room, and conservatory on the top noor. For equipment wood has had to be used sparingly ; but the standard-and interchangeable-underbench steel fittings in the research laboratories and private rooms have already proved a useful innovation. The steel in in the which are to its evident turn, shortage is, pillars be found throughout the building. In the single lecturetheatre, however, the " dead-space " from this cause comprises only three or four seats. The floors are of cork, which has already proved pleasantly silent, easy on the foot, and resistant to accidental assault by strong acid. THE NOBEL PRIZEWINNER THE Nobel prize for physiology and medicine is to be awarded this year to Dr. Max Theiler " for his discoveries. concerning yellow fever and how to combat it." The first firm step against this disease was taken at the start of this century when Walter Reed and his fellow workers. established its association with mosquitoes, and notably Aedes egypti. This mosquito, with its domesticated ways, is eradicated fairly easily ; and in Central and South America the eradication campaign which followed Reed’s discovery seemed at first to have also eliminated yellowfever infection. It emerged, however, that only the urban type had been controlled, whereas the jungle type, due to tree-dwelling mosquitoes, continued unabated. It is against this type, where mosquito control is often impracticable, that the vaccine developed by Theiler and his associates has the greatest value. In 1927 Adrian Stokes and his colleagues, working in Nigeria, found that Asiatic monkeys could be infected with the virus. Subsequent work with a killed vaccine proved unsuccessful, and vaccination with virus attenuated by passage through mice by Theiler himself proved unsatisfactory. In 1937 he and his colleagues obtained a variant strain (17D) grown in tissue cultures containing chick embryo from which the brain and cord had been removed. The efficacy of the resulting vaccine was proved in the late war ; between 1940 and 1947 more than 28 million doses were prepared by the Rockefeller Foundation alone, for distribution among the Allies. In 1934 Theiler discovered
special schools
ELECTRON MICROSCOPY OF VIRUS-INFECTED TISSUES THE earliest electron. microscopic studies of viruses directed to the virus rather than to the infected
were
tissue cells. This entailed the isolation of virus in a concentrated and purified state, with the risk that the rough methods of handling (including repeated high-speed centrifugation) might produce distortions in the shape A great advance in and size of the virus particles. technique came from the use of red-cell " ghosts " which The beautiful can adsorb influenza and related viruses. pictures by Chu, Dawson, and -Elfordwere obtained with only the gentlest handling of the virus ; and with the help of simple biological techniques it was possible to identify the virus particles with confidence. The of tissues was an virus-infected obvious, study although difficult, line of inquiry which gave promise of throwing some light on the problem of virus multiplication. Among the first reported studies of this kind were those of Claude et al.,2 Bang and Gey,3 and Wirth and Athanasui4 working with fowl tumour viruses, eastern equine encephalomyelitis, and vaccinia viruses respectively. Later work has been reported from America with influenza, tobacco mosaic, fowl pox, herpes simplex, and vaccinia viruses ; and in this country Flewett and Challice5 have described studies made with tissue cultures infected with fowl plague virus. Wyckoffnow describes the results of electron microscopic studies of chick embryo tissues infected with influenza virus. Masses of filaments and spheres of the same diameter as the virus were found at the surface of infected cells. Wyckoff suggests that the filaments are fragments peeling off from the surface of infected cells, and that these filaments then segment into the spherical forms. The photographs which illustrate his paper are similar 1. Chu, C. M., Dawson, I. M., Elford, W. J. Lancet, 1949, i, 602 ; J. gen. Microbiol. 1949, 3, 298. 2. Claude, A., Porter, K. R., Pickels, E. G. Cancer Res. 1947, 7, 421. 3. Bang, E. B., Gey, G. O. Proc. Soc. exp. Biol., N.Y. 1949, 71, 78. 4. Wirth, J., Athanasui, P. Ibid, 70, 59. 5. Flewett, T. H., Challice, C. E. J. gen. Microbiol. 1951, 5, 279. 6. Wyckoff, R. W. G. Nature, Lond. 1951, 168, 651.
to those shown by Flewett and Challice at the July meeting of the Pathological Society of Great Britain. There are two difficulties in any study of this type. The first is that although great advances have recently been made the techniques of preparing and cutting tissue sections for electron microscopy are still in their youth. Secondly comes the difficulty in interpreting results, particularly in -view of the deeply rooted tendencies to believe what one sees and to see what one believes. The possibilities of error and misinterpretation in work of this kind are so many that it is not surprising that while the microbiologist has been able to dig deep into the ground of new knowledge with his bare hands, the electron microscopist, with all his paraphernalia, is still only scraping the surface. But new and important advances will come from the association of developments of technique in electron microscopy with the experimental approach of the biologist. When the " stills " which the electron microscopist has photographed are replaced by a cinematographic record of virus-infected tissues we shall be nearer to understanding the methods of virus I
multiplication. EXTENSION OF A LONDON SCHOOL AN extension of the Royal’Free Hospital School of Medicine is being opened by the Queen this week. Thepreclinical departments of the school have for many years been seriously overcrowded, and research work has been sorely hampered by lack of space. The new building houses on successive floors extensions of the departments of chemistry, physiology, and anatomy, and the departments of biology and pharmacology, with a well-equipped workshop in the basement, and an animalhouse, cold room, and conservatory on the top noor. For equipment wood has had to be used sparingly ; but the standard-and interchangeable-underbench steel fittings in the research laboratories and private rooms have already proved a useful innovation. The steel in in the which are to its evident turn, shortage is, pillars be found throughout the building. In the single lecturetheatre, however, the " dead-space " from this cause comprises only three or four seats. The floors are of cork, which has already proved pleasantly silent, easy on the foot, and resistant to accidental assault by strong acid. THE NOBEL PRIZEWINNER THE Nobel prize for physiology and medicine is to be awarded this year to Dr. Max Theiler " for his discoveries. concerning yellow fever and how to combat it." The first firm step against this disease was taken at the start of this century when Walter Reed and his fellow workers. established its association with mosquitoes, and notably Aedes egypti. This mosquito, with its domesticated ways, is eradicated fairly easily ; and in Central and South America the eradication campaign which followed Reed’s discovery seemed at first to have also eliminated yellowfever infection. It emerged, however, that only the urban type had been controlled, whereas the jungle type, due to tree-dwelling mosquitoes, continued unabated. It is against this type, where mosquito control is often impracticable, that the vaccine developed by Theiler and his associates has the greatest value. In 1927 Adrian Stokes and his colleagues, working in Nigeria, found that Asiatic monkeys could be infected with the virus. Subsequent work with a killed vaccine proved unsuccessful, and vaccination with virus attenuated by passage through mice by Theiler himself proved unsatisfactory. In 1937 he and his colleagues obtained a variant strain (17D) grown in tissue cultures containing chick embryo from which the brain and cord had been removed. The efficacy of the resulting vaccine was proved in the late war ; between 1940 and 1947 more than 28 million doses were prepared by the Rockefeller Foundation alone, for distribution among the Allies. In 1934 Theiler discovered