455

bacteriology, and biochemistry appear on every page,and it is abundantly clear what an important partthe Society has played. and what a powerful influenceit has exercised in the development of medical science.The British School of Physiology is so famous that itis difficult to realise that it is of comparatively recentgrowth. In the middle of the nineteenth century thecountry which had produced WILLIAM HUNTERseemed to be no longer interested in the exact study ofthe functions of the human body. While BERNARD,MAJENDIE, MuLLER, HELMHOLTZ, and LUDWIG werepursuing their brilliant investigations in France andGermany, in this country the teaching of physiologywas carried out by surgeons and physicians, busy withtheir private and hospital practice, and the scienceof experimental physiology did not exist. But in

University College, London, WILLIAM SHARPEY, whowas professor of general anatomy and physiology,realised the importance of the study of function. Hehimself was not an experimentalist, but he had thevision to appreciate the fundamental importance ofthe experimental method, and he induced MICHAELFOSTER, a former student of University College andhospital, to give up practice and to return to theCollege as professor of practical physiology. The

teaching of physiology at University College,elementary though it was in its early days, soon beganto exercise a profound influence in the other Londonschools. Not only was the teaching improved, butindependent workers were encouraged to carry outinvestigations for themselves. Most of them, like

PAVY, were engaged in active clinical practice, butothers, under SHARPEY’S influence, forsook clinicalwork and devoted themselves wholeheartedly to thelaboratory. BURDON SANDERSON was one of these,and when in 1870 FOSTER was appointed on thesuggestion of HuxLEY to the newly instituted Praelec-torship of Physiology in Trinity College, Cambridge,SANDERSON succeeded him in the chair of practicalphysiology at University College. The foundations ofBritish physiology had been well and truly laid bySHARPEY, and MICHAEL FOSTER at Cambridge andBURDON SANDERSON at University College proceededto develop the two great schools of physiology whichexist in undiminished vigour to this day.

In all branches of human activity the need is felt,sooner or later, of some organisation by means ofwhich workers in similar fields may be broughttogether to their common advantage, and there is nodoubt that the Physiological Society would eventuallyhave been formed. But it is interesting to note thatphysiologists were actually driven to form an associa-tion to protect themselves and, what was more import-ant, the science to which they were devoted. The growthof experimental physiology and pathology necessitatedexperiments on living animals. Before long a wide-spread agitation against vivisection sprang up, anda Royal Commission was appointed to investigate thesubject. This was obviously only the preliminary toParliamentary action, and it became essential thatthose interested in experimental biology should placethemselves in a position to guard the interests ofscientific medicine. BURDON SANDERSON invited themost prominent physiologists of the day to meet athis house to discuss the matter, and suggested in hisletter of invitation the formation of the Society :" It will probably also be proposed at the meeting toform an association of physiologists for mutualbenefit and protection." This suggestion was actedupon, and from this meeting of 19 men has grown theSociety which now has a membership of upwards of400. Sir EDWARD SHARpEY-SciiAFER was one of the

original founders, and we can well understand that

the compilation of this history has been to him, as hesays, a real labour of love. The extracts from theminute books are full of interest and have a personaltouch which is, indeed, characteristic of the Society.Particularly happy are the numerous biographicalnotes. SIMS REEVES attended one of the meetings,but " it is not recorded whether he obliged the

Company with a sonp’." During the same year itwas resolved that the number of ordinary members.should be increased from 40 to 50. The number is nowunlimited, and the original rule that every membershould be a working physiologist has been abandoned,though it is noted in 1925 that some of the meetingswere so largely attended that members had difficultyin seeing the demonstrations. Women were admittedto the Society in 1915 by a fairly substantial majorityon a post-card poll, though it is curious to note thattheir presence was more welcome in the austere

atmosphere of the laboratory than in the more socialsurroundings of the refectory. In 1916 the Societydecided to publish Physiological Abstracts, and in 1926it assumed control of the Journal of Physiology.Enough has been said to indicate the profound

interest of Sir EDWARD SHARPEy-SCHAFER’S compila-tion, and not only the Society, but the whole of thephysiological world must congratulate him on anachievement which could not have been carried outby anyone else, and which called urgently forperformance.

Annotations.

MUTABILITY OF PNEUMOCOCCAL TYPES.

" Ne quid nimis."

IT has long been known that certain species ofbacteria, such as the meningococci and pneumo-cocci, can be subdivided into serological types, and ithas also been recognised that these types are more orless specific serologically, and from a therapeutic pointof view necessitate the use of monovalent sera if thebest results are to be obtained. What these differencesmean and what the relation of one type to anothermay be is far less clear, but recent investigations of theserological types of pneumococcus, by Dr. F. Griffiths, Ihave thrown a certain amount of light on this obscurequestion and given results of considerable significancein other directions. Some time ago Griffiths foundthat the effect of growing pneumococci in immuneserum was to produce so-called " rough " strains,which are avirulent and have lost their serologicalidentity. He now finds that it is sometimes possibleto restore these properties to the organisms by passingthem through the animal body. This is a result byno means easy of achievement, since these attenuatedtypes have little ability to establish themselves in theliving animal ; but it was discovered that the reversionto virulent type took place much more readily if aconsiderable mass of dead culture of pneumococcuswas inoculated along with the living organisms. Thissuggests that there are certain constituents of the deadcocci which the living ones are able to metabolise andwhich are essential for their virulence, and pursuingthis line of investigation in greater detail Griffithsfound that pneumococci whose virulence was restoredby this manceuvre assumed the type of the deadorganism, instead of reverting to their own originaltype. Thus a rough form of Type I. inoculated with adead culture of Type II. became transformed intothe ordinary Type II. These phenomena seem toshow that in the attenuated ’’ rough " state theorganisms are unspecialised and are capable ofdeveloping into any of the virulent fixed types accord-ing to what environmental conditions or pabulum

1 The Significance of Pneumococcal Types. By FredGriffiths, M.B., Journal of Hygiene, 1928, xxvii., 113.

456

may dictate. The possible importance of these findings Iis more than academic, for it suggests not only amechanism by which the virulent types may springinto existence from more lowly vegetative forms, butalso a way in which the virulent organisms maydisappear in the course of recovery and convalescence.It has commonly been assumed that in the lattercondition the organisms died out, but there are

difficulties in the way of universal acceptance of thisview, and Griffiths’s demonstration that in the presenceof immune bodies organisms may mutate into anundistinguished form, suggests that an old and ratherdespised view, that they may lose virulence instead ofdying out, may after all be correct.

THE WAR ON RATS.

Is a world war against rats worth while ? TheDanes and the other Scandinavian countries evidentlythink so, judging from a recent communicationto the French Academy of Medicine by Dr. GabrielPetit, in which he describes the dogged and successfulfight put up by Denmark, and announces an inter-national conference to be held this summer inFrance. The Danish effort began in 1898 with theformation of a national society and a demonstrationof rat destruction in Copenhagen and Frederiksberg(virtually one town) on the premium system. Thiswas imitated in 1900 by the Japanese, as the resultof an outbreak of plague, and by other countries.France made a law in 1903, which was, however,limited to shipping. In 1907 the first Danish ratlaw imposed on district councils the liability ofpaying from d!. to ld. for each dead rat, and inthree years nearly four million rats were killed at acost of half a million’shillings. As Dr. Petit points out,this was a profitable transaction, seeing that it doesnot take a rat long to eat and waste a shillingsworthof grain. As the rats grew scarce the small premiumbecame less attractive and attention was turned toother methods of destruction. The second law (1910)left the choice of the method of destruction to the1200 parishes, and during its five years’ operationabout 1 millions of rats were destroyed at a priceof 200,000 shillings. This rate of destruction wasperhaps only sufficient to counterbalance the naturalincrease of the rat population. The world war causeda lull, but outbreaks of plague in Stockholm in 1919,and in Paris and Marseilles in 1920, revived interest in the matter among the Scandinavians. A third Danish law in 1921 put obligations on seaports totake energetic measures, and also established a general’crusade. Every owner of property became liable to apenalty for failure to conform. The cost of the schemefell on the district councils, and a Government subven-tion of 40,000 crowns was paid, partly as an encourage-ment, partly for dealing with public property."

Ratin," a bacterial poison of the paratyphoidgroup, and

"

ratimin," a preparation of Scilla maritima(rubra) became the accredited poisons. This timeremarkable success crowned the enterprise, and whenthe third law came up for renewal in 1924 it wasreplaced by a permanent law, applying not only toports, but to all towns and commercial establish-ments in Denmark, and the Government subventionwas increased to 60,000 crowns. The Royal Schoolt,f Veterinary Science and Agriculture was put incontrol of the methods of destruction. Dr. Louis sBahr, of Copenhagen, formerly assistant to Prof. C. 0.Jensen, Director of the State Veterinary Service ofthe Serumtherapy Institute of the Royal Schoolof Agriculture and Veterinary Science from 1906onwards, has been responsible for the productionof " ratin " and for seeing that its virulence is keptat a high pitch. As the result of the use of " ratin "

it is estimated that at least 80 per cent. of the ratsdie within 8 to 15 days from enteritis or septicaemiaand that, if destruction is not complete in three weeks,the standardised preparation of squill, which kills in24 hours, will account for the remainder. It was in the

year 1902, at a shipping congress in Copenhagen, thatthe International Society for the Destruction of Rats

was formed, with Mr. Zuschlag, the enthusiasticfounder of the Danish Society, as first president,and Dr. Loir, one of the French delegates, as vice-president. The outbreak of the world war preventedthe proposed international congress in Copenhagenin 1914, so that the French International Congress of1928, with sessions at Paris and Havre, may be regardedas a resuscitation of international effort. The seaportof Havre, with Dr. Loir as the president of its Bureauof Hygiene, has for many years been very active in therat campaign.

In this country a useful booklet on the subjectby Mr. A. Moore Hogarth has recently been issued ;it is called " Rats and How to Kill Them." 1 Thesame house published in 1924 a very complete andauthoritative work on this question, entitled " Ratsand How to Destroy Them," dedicated to LordAberconway and Sir James Crichton-Browne, as

two men who had specially drawn attention tothe rat menace. The author, the late Mr. MarkHovell, F.R.C.S., showed the need for a muchmore complete scheme in this country, underscientific direction, and conducted by the largerlocal governing bodies. The book is a mine of informa-tion. The author refers to the diseases other thanplague which are spread by rats and to the enormousdamage to our food-supply from their depredations.He shows that a pair of rats will eat or waste 5 lb. offlour in a week, that a moderate estimate puts therat population of the country at 40 millions, and thatthe damage done runs into millions and may be asmuch as £1,000,000 a week. As a maritime country,we should be specially interested in a world schemefor rat extermination. In concluding his paper tothe French Academy, Dr. Petit quotes Prof. Calmette,who, after praising the Danish effort and makingreference to the risk to health and the damage to wealthfrom rats, said : " Such misdeeds clamour for reprisals.We can no longer tolerate the ravages of rats. Againstthe serious and continuous menace from theiractivity, cunning, and fecundity we must pit our

brains, our determination, and the scientific weaponswe know how to forge for their destruction. Letus unite internationally our forces and munitions ofwar."

____

CHRONIC INFECTIONS OF THE SEMINALTRACT.

Two papers were published at the close of last yearwhich, under different titles, dealt primarily withthe treatment of chronic infections of the seminal tract.The first of these was a paper by W. T. Belfield andH. C. Rolnick, in the December number of the Journalof the American Medical Association, entitled Observa-tions on the Physiology of the Seminal Duct, and thesecond one by Georges Luys, in the Bulletin of theSociété des Chirurgiens de Paris. In dealing with thephysiology of the seminal tract the American authorsfirst discuss the function of the epididymis. Whyshould the human spermatazoon, whose length isonly l/500th of an inch, be forced to traverse a tractof 20 feet-that is to say, of more than 100,000 timesits own length-before it reaches its destination ?The fact that in quadrupeds the seminal vesicles,if they exist, are solid glands that open directlyinto the urethra, suggests that the epididymis,which is always well developed in these animals,acts as a reservoir for the storage of spermatazoa.From this it is logical to deduce that it performsthe same function in man ; this is certainly not itsonly function. ’’ During the mating season of snakes,birds, and mammals, the epididymis increases greatlyin bulk, its tiny cells become larger and more numerous,and the volume of these greater ; with the passingof the mating season its bulk and secretion subside tothe ante-nuptial dimensions." The provision of asecretion is, therefore, an integral part of its function.The exact nature of this secretion is still unknown,but the chemical analysis of the aspirated contents

1 John Bale, Sons and Danielsson, Ltd. 6d.