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THE CONGRESS OF GERMAN PHYSICIANS AND NATURALISTS AT WEISBADEN.
680 of Cowsheds, Dairies, and Milkshops," and on "Localised Outbreaks of Typhus Fever and InfantileDiarrhcea.’’ The Conference then concluded.
Supervision
by Mr. E. W. Hope
sending subscriptions at once to the treasurer or any of the by whom they will be most thankfully acknowledged. The later months of the year are always the worst for getting in subscriptions, and the committee officers of the Fund,
find that the
THE CONGRESS OF GERMAN PHYSICIANS AND NATURALISTS AT WEISBADEN. OF all the addresses delivered at this gathering, whict closed on the 22nd ult., Professor Virchow’s proved the most memorable, and its publication will be awaited with muct interest in the scientific world. Its subject was " Transformismus." Its tenour may be inferred from the following brief indications. The law of heredity, in spite of all reservations, must be admitted to be universally shared by all beings endowed with life-a law on which, beyond doubt, depends the continued existence of the living world. But science will always yearn to know how life, as a whole, has originated, though attempts to satisfy this longing through the dogma of the eternity of the living world have hitherto invariably broken down. There remain only the dogma of creation and the dogma of self-production (Urzengung). Neither of these can be an object of research, tor never yet has a living being, or even only a living element, been found of which iu could be said, " This is the first of its kind." Professor Virchow proceeded to show that from whatever point the question is approached it invariably eludes the grasp. He announced himself as the friend, not the opponenr, of transformism-as having at all times approached the " immortal Darwin" not aggressively, but amicably. He has always, however, observed a practical distinction between the friend and the follower. As a friend he could welcome and support a scientific hypothesis even before it has established its truth
by facts; but until these are forthcoming and conclusive he could never fall into the ranks as a follower. " us how to grow a "Spaltpilz" Whoever," he said, can teach out of a Schimmel-pilz " will have achieved more than all the heralds of the genealogical tree of man. Among the other papers of most interest to the physician were those of Dr. Meiner of Dresden on the Influence of the Atmospheric Temperature on Infantile Diarrhoea; of Herr Wollmar, an apothecary (also of Dresden), on the Rational Disinfection of Latrines; of Dr. Poehl of St. Petersburg, on the Chemical Properties of Water and their Relation to the Life-activity of Micro-organisms; of Dr. Gerlach of Biebrich, on Peptones; of Dr. Bockhardt of Wiesbaden, on a New Preparation for furnishing a Stable Nidus for the Culture of Micro-organisms; and of Dr. Lender of Berlin, on Medical Climatology considered in Relation to the Treatment of Malaria (an admirable bit of exposition). Professor W. Detmer’s paper on Plant Life and Plant Respiration was among the most esteemed of the non-medical contributions. Before the Congress rose Cologne was approved as its next place of meeting, when Professor Virchow’s suggestions as to certain fundamental alterations in the statutes will be discussed. Heidelberg was proposed for the Congress of 1889, but this was left open to change.
,
cases
generally worse
in
come
character,
department
ROYAL SOCIETY. AT a recent meeting of the Society, Mr. Victor Horsley, communicated a paper by Mr. G. F. Dowdeswell, M.A., on Rabies, of which the following is an abstract :In this investigation conducted in the laboratory of the Brown Institution, commenced early in 1885 during the outbreak of rabies in London, the first experiments, made by subcutaneous inoculations with the saliva of rabid street dogs, all failed to produce infection. Subsequently, adopting the methods described by M. Pasteur, Mr. Dowdeswell found-1. That the virus of rabies and hydrophobia resides in the cerebro-spinal substance and in the peripheral nerves, and is not confined to the salivary glands, as hitherto supposed. 2. That by inoculation of this substance upon the brain of another animal by trephining, infection follows much more quickly and certainly than by subcutaneous inoculation. 3. That rabies, however produced, in both dogs and rabbits, is essentially a paralytic affection, the same disease in both animals, and that there is no constant distinction between the so-termed "dumb" and "furious" rabies. 4. That the initial virulence of street rabies is usually increased, and becomes remarkably constant, by passing through a series of rabbits. 5. That the activity of the virus is shown by the duration of the incubation period, to which it is inversely proportionate. 6. That the tissues of an infected animal do not themselves become infective till towards the end of the incubation period. 7. That of a large number of drugs that were tried, both germicides and those acting specifically upon the cerebro-spinal system, none materially modify the action of the virus in the rabbit. 8. That by a series of subcutaneous inoculations with virus treated by the methods of M. Pasteur, immunity, even against subsequent infection, cannot be conferred upon the rabbit; and that the extreme and unexpected constitutional refractoriness of the dog to infection with rabies by any method of inoculation-as the author found it in the limited number of experiments he had been able to perform with this animal-renders it extremelv difficult to determine the effect of such remedial or prophylactic measures in it; and that it is by the statistics of the treatment alone that their effect with man can be decided; but that, judging from the results of the experiments of others, the principle of the method as affirmed by M. Pasteur appears to be established, though unquestionably the "rapid" or "intensive" treatment, as Mr. Dowdeswell had found, is liable to produce infection.
BRITISH MEDICAL BENEVOLENT FUND. THE first monthly meeting of the committee of this Fund after the vacation was held on Tuesday last, and a long list of cases, the accumulation of two months, was submitted, They numbered twenty-four, eight being first applications, and were disposed of as follows :-Grants of from .65to X18 were made to eighteen applicants; one had died, aged eighty, since her application was received; five were postponed for further information or informality; and one application was refused. In one instance the sum of .610 was offered by the committee on condition that a subscription of .650 was raised on behalfof a member of the profession, aged seventyone, and hopelessly paralysed. A sum of ae200 in all was voted, and the balance at the disposal of the committee entirely used up. Such a position for so useful a charity is very deplorable, and the committee venture to appeal to those members of the profession who possess the means to assist them by
which
before them at that time to add to the additional reason for more liberal grants in the winter season. As a rule, the committee order the grants to be paid in monthly instalments, thus spreading the benefit of the assistance over as long a period as possible, and ensuring the utmost value for the donations of subscribers. During this year 139 applicants have already been relieved by the donation at a cost of .1533. are
VITAL
STATISTICS.
HEALTH OF ENGLISH TOWNS.
IN twenty-eight of the largest English towns 5706 births and 2872 deaths were registered during the week ending 24th. The annual rate of mortality in these towns, which had steadily declined in the preceding six weeks from 23’7 to 18-0, further fell last week to 16 2, and was lower than the rate in any week since the end of September, 1885. During the first twelve weeks of the current quarter the death-rate in these towns averaged 20’7 per 1000, and was 0’3 below the mean rate in the corresponding periods of the ten years 1877-86. The lowest rates in these towns last week were 10’0 in Derby, 10in Bolton, 13’5 in Nottingham, 13-8 in Leicester, and 14’4 in London. The rates in the other towns ranged upwards to 20’9 in Newcastle-uponTyne, 22-5 in Sunderland, 23-5 in Manchester, and 26-4 in The deaths referred to the principal zymotic Blackburn.
September
Supervision
by Mr. E. W. Hope
sending subscriptions at once to the treasurer or any of the by whom they will be most thankfully acknowledged. The later months of the year are always the worst for getting in subscriptions, and the committee officers of the Fund,
find that the
THE CONGRESS OF GERMAN PHYSICIANS AND NATURALISTS AT WEISBADEN. OF all the addresses delivered at this gathering, whict closed on the 22nd ult., Professor Virchow’s proved the most memorable, and its publication will be awaited with muct interest in the scientific world. Its subject was " Transformismus." Its tenour may be inferred from the following brief indications. The law of heredity, in spite of all reservations, must be admitted to be universally shared by all beings endowed with life-a law on which, beyond doubt, depends the continued existence of the living world. But science will always yearn to know how life, as a whole, has originated, though attempts to satisfy this longing through the dogma of the eternity of the living world have hitherto invariably broken down. There remain only the dogma of creation and the dogma of self-production (Urzengung). Neither of these can be an object of research, tor never yet has a living being, or even only a living element, been found of which iu could be said, " This is the first of its kind." Professor Virchow proceeded to show that from whatever point the question is approached it invariably eludes the grasp. He announced himself as the friend, not the opponenr, of transformism-as having at all times approached the " immortal Darwin" not aggressively, but amicably. He has always, however, observed a practical distinction between the friend and the follower. As a friend he could welcome and support a scientific hypothesis even before it has established its truth
by facts; but until these are forthcoming and conclusive he could never fall into the ranks as a follower. " us how to grow a "Spaltpilz" Whoever," he said, can teach out of a Schimmel-pilz " will have achieved more than all the heralds of the genealogical tree of man. Among the other papers of most interest to the physician were those of Dr. Meiner of Dresden on the Influence of the Atmospheric Temperature on Infantile Diarrhoea; of Herr Wollmar, an apothecary (also of Dresden), on the Rational Disinfection of Latrines; of Dr. Poehl of St. Petersburg, on the Chemical Properties of Water and their Relation to the Life-activity of Micro-organisms; of Dr. Gerlach of Biebrich, on Peptones; of Dr. Bockhardt of Wiesbaden, on a New Preparation for furnishing a Stable Nidus for the Culture of Micro-organisms; and of Dr. Lender of Berlin, on Medical Climatology considered in Relation to the Treatment of Malaria (an admirable bit of exposition). Professor W. Detmer’s paper on Plant Life and Plant Respiration was among the most esteemed of the non-medical contributions. Before the Congress rose Cologne was approved as its next place of meeting, when Professor Virchow’s suggestions as to certain fundamental alterations in the statutes will be discussed. Heidelberg was proposed for the Congress of 1889, but this was left open to change.
,
cases
generally worse
in
come
character,
department
ROYAL SOCIETY. AT a recent meeting of the Society, Mr. Victor Horsley, communicated a paper by Mr. G. F. Dowdeswell, M.A., on Rabies, of which the following is an abstract :In this investigation conducted in the laboratory of the Brown Institution, commenced early in 1885 during the outbreak of rabies in London, the first experiments, made by subcutaneous inoculations with the saliva of rabid street dogs, all failed to produce infection. Subsequently, adopting the methods described by M. Pasteur, Mr. Dowdeswell found-1. That the virus of rabies and hydrophobia resides in the cerebro-spinal substance and in the peripheral nerves, and is not confined to the salivary glands, as hitherto supposed. 2. That by inoculation of this substance upon the brain of another animal by trephining, infection follows much more quickly and certainly than by subcutaneous inoculation. 3. That rabies, however produced, in both dogs and rabbits, is essentially a paralytic affection, the same disease in both animals, and that there is no constant distinction between the so-termed "dumb" and "furious" rabies. 4. That the initial virulence of street rabies is usually increased, and becomes remarkably constant, by passing through a series of rabbits. 5. That the activity of the virus is shown by the duration of the incubation period, to which it is inversely proportionate. 6. That the tissues of an infected animal do not themselves become infective till towards the end of the incubation period. 7. That of a large number of drugs that were tried, both germicides and those acting specifically upon the cerebro-spinal system, none materially modify the action of the virus in the rabbit. 8. That by a series of subcutaneous inoculations with virus treated by the methods of M. Pasteur, immunity, even against subsequent infection, cannot be conferred upon the rabbit; and that the extreme and unexpected constitutional refractoriness of the dog to infection with rabies by any method of inoculation-as the author found it in the limited number of experiments he had been able to perform with this animal-renders it extremelv difficult to determine the effect of such remedial or prophylactic measures in it; and that it is by the statistics of the treatment alone that their effect with man can be decided; but that, judging from the results of the experiments of others, the principle of the method as affirmed by M. Pasteur appears to be established, though unquestionably the "rapid" or "intensive" treatment, as Mr. Dowdeswell had found, is liable to produce infection.
BRITISH MEDICAL BENEVOLENT FUND. THE first monthly meeting of the committee of this Fund after the vacation was held on Tuesday last, and a long list of cases, the accumulation of two months, was submitted, They numbered twenty-four, eight being first applications, and were disposed of as follows :-Grants of from .65to X18 were made to eighteen applicants; one had died, aged eighty, since her application was received; five were postponed for further information or informality; and one application was refused. In one instance the sum of .610 was offered by the committee on condition that a subscription of .650 was raised on behalfof a member of the profession, aged seventyone, and hopelessly paralysed. A sum of ae200 in all was voted, and the balance at the disposal of the committee entirely used up. Such a position for so useful a charity is very deplorable, and the committee venture to appeal to those members of the profession who possess the means to assist them by
which
before them at that time to add to the additional reason for more liberal grants in the winter season. As a rule, the committee order the grants to be paid in monthly instalments, thus spreading the benefit of the assistance over as long a period as possible, and ensuring the utmost value for the donations of subscribers. During this year 139 applicants have already been relieved by the donation at a cost of .1533. are
VITAL
STATISTICS.
HEALTH OF ENGLISH TOWNS.
IN twenty-eight of the largest English towns 5706 births and 2872 deaths were registered during the week ending 24th. The annual rate of mortality in these towns, which had steadily declined in the preceding six weeks from 23’7 to 18-0, further fell last week to 16 2, and was lower than the rate in any week since the end of September, 1885. During the first twelve weeks of the current quarter the death-rate in these towns averaged 20’7 per 1000, and was 0’3 below the mean rate in the corresponding periods of the ten years 1877-86. The lowest rates in these towns last week were 10’0 in Derby, 10in Bolton, 13’5 in Nottingham, 13-8 in Leicester, and 14’4 in London. The rates in the other towns ranged upwards to 20’9 in Newcastle-uponTyne, 22-5 in Sunderland, 23-5 in Manchester, and 26-4 in The deaths referred to the principal zymotic Blackburn.
September