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again in the proportion of three to one as before. The

pure dominants were to the cross-bred dominants as one

is to two. Mendel considered that his facts pointed to

the conclusion that in the cross-bred each of its pollengrains and each of its egg cells was either a pure dominantor a pure recessive and that on the average there were equalnumbers of each kind for each sex. If the assortmentof pollen grains and egg cells was then supposed to takeplace at random, the most probable percentage result was25 D : 50 D R : 25 R. But as cross-breds resembled dominantsin appearance the apparent result was 3 D : 1 R at each

successive self-fertilisation of cross-breds. Analogous experi-ments have been made by Professor Correns, by Professorde Vries, by Professor Tschermak, Mr. Trevor Clarke, andby the authors of the memoir, the plants experimented onbeing the common stock, lychnis, atropa, datura, and otherplants. The essential result is the evidence that the germcells or gametes produced by cross-bred organisms may inrespect of given characters be of the pure parental types,and consequently incapable of transmitting the oppositecharacter, and that when such pure similar gametesof opposite sexes are united together in fertilisationthe individuals so formed and their posterity are

free from all taint of the cross ; that there may be, Iin short, perfect, or almost perfect, discontinuity betweenthese germs in respect of one of each pair of oppositecharacters. Mr. Bateson and Miss Saunders, in the first

part of their memoir, give the details of a large numberof experiments which they have made on various plants,and these appear to support the statements of Mendel. Inthe second part of the memoir the authors took poultry asthe subjects of their experiments, matching Indian gamewith brown Leghorn, white Leghorn, white Dorking, and awhite Wyandotte hen. The results again appeared to supportMer-del’s statements. The new views naturally require anomenclature, and this is introduced to the reader inthe following terms. ’’ By crossing two forms exhibitingantagonistic characters cross-breds are produced. The gene-rative cells of these cross-breds are shown to be of two

kinds, each being pure in regard to one of the parentalcharacters. This purity of the germ cells and their inabilityto transmit both of the antagonistic characters is thecentral fact proved by Mendel’s work. We thus reachthe conception of unit characters existing in antagonisticpairs." Such characters Mr. Bateson and Miss Saunders

propose to call ’’ allelomorphs and the zygote formed by the

union of a pair of opposite allelomorphic gametes they calla ,. heterozygote.

" Similarly the zygote formed by the unionof gametes having similar allelomorphs may be spoken of asa "homozygote."

"

Many facts are given, many authoritiescited, and many conclusions drawn in the memoir for whichwe have no space, but the extracts which we have made will

show the general trend of the authors’ work.

SMOKY CITIES.

WE were recently compelled to remark unfavourably uponthe smokiness of Manchester and the injury which therebyaccrued to both public health and public buildings. In

doing so we were by no means unmindful of the fact that ILondon is far from being as free from dirty smoke as it

should be. The Public Health Acts and the efforts of the

Coal Smoke Abatement Society have done, and are doing,something to make the atmosphere of London a little purerthan it was in the middle of the last century, but still muchremains to be done. This point has been brought forciblybefore the notice of Londoners by a remark of General LukasMeyer who, on being interviewed as to his impressions ofEngland, said : "Everything in England, so far as I havebeen able to see it, is pleasing except the soiling of yournns city buildings by black smoke.’’ The factory chimney

has been attacked with success, but there still remain

offenders in the shape of electric lighting shafts, the

chimneys of restaurants and hotels, the chimneys of sma]}bakehouses, and in greater numbers than all the chimneysof private dwelling-houses. It would be impossible to

reform all the domestic grates at present in use, but surelythe County Council, which is the building authority forLondon, might make it compulsory for every new house thatis built within the metropolitan area to be fitted with a gratewhich at all events is calculated to emit as little smoke as

possible. There is no perfect domestic grate, but the testsinitiated by the Coal Smoke Abatement Society which weredescribed in THE LANCET of May 10th, p. 1342, show con-clusively that some grates are much better as regards theemission of smoke than are others. We cannot hope thatwe shall ever get a South African atmosphere in Londonbut a good deal might be done to free town-dwellers fromthe f1l’llL1l1n strepiticvzue which, if they annoyed Horace inRome, would do so ten times more if he were with us in

London. ,

THE DISTRIBUTION OF PLAGUE.

THE weekly return of the Director-General of the Sani-

tary Department in Egypt shows that for the week endingJuly 2’7th there were 8 new cases admitted, 1 of which

occurred in a European. The deaths numbered 5, the re-

coveries 1, and 19 cases remained under treatment. With

respect to sanitary measures, 15,696 rooms were disinfectedand 613 were lime-washed, 173 sacks of effects were dis-

infected, and 1432 sacks of rubbish were burnt. The numberof rats killed and burned was 995.

TYPHOID SPINE.

THE term "typhoid spine was applied in 1899 by Gibneyto a condition resembling Pott’s disease, which occasionallyfollows typhoid fever. 1 29 cases have now been recorded.

Gibney thought that the condition was due to inflammationof the structures surrounding the vertebras—perispondylitis.In the Boston 141edical and Surgical Jotcrnal of July 17thDr. G. W. Moorehouse has recorded the following case. Aman, aged 28 years, had a severe attack of typhoid feverwith a relapse. He entered hospital at the beginning ofthe second week of the attack and was discharged onJune 10th, 1899, after a period of 10 weeks. Widal’sreaction was obtained. While in bed there were no’

symptoms referable to the back but when he sat up or

walked about the back felt weak and ached. 10 days afterhis discharge the pain rapidly increased and occurred inattacks lasting for an hour or two, with intervals of threeor four hours of comparative relief. Movement was liable to

bring on an attack but one often occurred without assignablecause. The attacks were more frequent in the night than inthe day. The pain was localised in the lower lumbar andsacral regions and in the buttock-most commonly in the

right, sometimes in the left, but never in both buttocks.Periods of a few days of normal temperature alternatedwith similar periods of pyrexia in which the temperaturesometimes rose to 103° F. On August 23rd, when the patientwas readmitted to hospital, the pain had diminished andwas confined to the lower lumbar region. He was some-what emaciated. There was no spinal deformity or tender-ness. The Widal reaction was negative. The temperaturein the first month varied between 98° and 99’5°. Then it

began to rise and on Sept. 25th reached 103’6°. The febrile

period lasted two weeks. On Oct. 2nd the spleen, which

was said to be of normal size on re-admission, was felt belowthe ribs and Widal’s reaction was obtained. In the lastweek in October slow and steady improvement began. He

1 New York Medical Journal, 1899, vol. i., p. 596.

373

was discharged on Dec. 13th, having still some trouble with Ihis back. He was soon free from pain, but his back felt Iweak and on several occasions he feared a relapse. He did

..not attempt to return to work in his office until May, 1900.13 months after the onset of the typhoid fever. During thewhole summer the back felt very sore for a day or two afterany mis-step or over-exertion. He is still liable to this

soreness but in less degree.

THE PREVALENCE OF SMALL-POX.

THE following figures show the number of patientsadmitted to the various hospitals of the MetropolitanAsylums Board for the dates mentioned. On Saturday,August 2nd, there were 6 fresh cases ; on Sunday, the 3rd,’there were no fresh cases ; on Monday, the 4th, there were 7fresh cases : on Tuesday, the 5th, there were 10 fresh cases ;and on Wednesday, the 6th, there were 2 fresh cases.

THE CLOSING SCENE AT NETLEY.

Ix the present number we give a short account of the pro-ceedings at the last distribution of prizes in the ArmyMedical School at Netley. The next session of the school 1will commence in London on Sept. lst and will be attendedby the medical men on probation for both the Royal Army.Medical Corps and the Indian Medical Service. The aboli-

tion of the Army Medical School is not the only momentous ichange taking place at Netley, for it has been determined

that the office of assistant-adjutant-general shall not be

refilled-an excellent arrangement, for the principal medicalofficer will now reign supreme in every portion of the greatestablishment and will for the first time assume the extensive

’responsibilities and position which should always have beenhis. Lord Roberts, who has the enviable faculty of alwayssaying the right thing at the right time, recalled in his.address to the newly-appointed officers the good works oftheir fathers in the Indian Medical Service. There is,perhaps, no greater incentive to good work than for a manto feel that he belongs to a body with traditions. The

’Indian Medical Service is one of which we are all proudand we doubt not that its great traditions will be still

further handed on by the most recently appointed membersof that service.

A TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE.

MR. MALCOLM M. McHARDY, professor of opthalmology atKing’s College, has recently passed through a thrillingexperience, fortunately, however, attended with no worse ’’,result than that of a broken rib. He was yachting with a ’’

friend, Mr. Philip Herbert, in the Channel and on July 26thMr. McHardy and Mr. Herbert, together with a paid hand,’!left Netley for the Essex coast in a 10-ton decked yawl,All went well until a gale sprang up at night when on aheavy sea striking the yawl Mr. McHardy was jerkedoverboard. He was wearing oilskins, heavy clothing, andsea boots, so that his chances of escape seemed small.

Although not an expert swimmer he is a stout man and there-fore he did the best thing possible under the circumstances-namely, turned on his back and floated. Mr. Herbert, onmissing his friend, turned the yawl round and sailed her backon her old course as nearly as he could guess. Mr. McHardysaw the yawl and hailed her, upon which he momentarilysank. Mr. Herbert then left the yawl in charge of the third,hand, cast off the dinghy, and pulled toward Mr. McHardy.He was unable to get him on board, so he fastened a lineunder his arms and towed him back to the yawl. With greatdifficulty Mr. McHardy was got on board, the dinghy mean-while having sunk. His watch had stopped at 9.17 o’clockand it was 10.27 when he was finally got into the saloon, but’except for his broken rib, which,probably was fractured by his

being jammed between the yawl and the dinghy, he is, weare glad to say, none the worse. We congratulate him andthe other members of the crew upon the pluck and presenceof mind which they displayed. To be thrown into a stormysea with heavy clothing on is by no means a pleasant situa-tion, and yet perhaps the fact of Mr. McHardy’s clothingbeing so thick saved him from death when he was nippedbetween the yawl and the dinghy. Mr. Herbert is, weunderstand, a skilled seaman, but this in no way detractsfrom his pluck in going to the rescue in a small boat. The

resolution which he displayed in his successful effort to savehis friend’s life is past all praise.

MANCHESTER ROYAL INFIRMARY POLL.

THE voting papers for or against rebuilding the infirmaryon the present site were returned on Saturday last and havenow been counted. 1248 papers were issued, of which 757were returned ; 199 trustees voted in favour of the motion torebuild in Piccadilly, 550 voted against it, and eight paperswere irregular. The majority against rebuilding on the pre-sent site was therefore 351, a very decisive majority. Whether

the board will accept the mandate of the trustees and adopta scheme for placing the infirmary elsewhere, or-whatwould be very unfortunate-resign as a body, remains to beseen. It is to be hoped that having been beaten they willstill work loyally for the interests of the charity and helpforward the building of an enlarged infirmary at Stanley

I Grove, or on a more convenient and better site if one can befound.

THE medical excursions to German watering-places andhealth resorts, to which reference was made in THE LANCETof July 19th, p. 171, are intended to give medical men anannual opportunity of visiting localities interesting from abalneological point of view. Dr. W. H. Gilbert of Baden- ,

Baden, the general secretary, now announces that applica-tions from gentlemen desirous of joining this year’s excursionwill be received up to August 15th.

THE Select Committee appointed to inquire into the

ventilation of the Houses of Parliament has presented aninterim report in which the chemical and bacteriologicaltests made in the debating chamber during the session are

referred to. At this stage, however, the committee isnot prepared to draw up any recommendations and it is

proposed to continue the inquiry during the autumn.

AT a meeting of the American Congress of Tuberculosisheld in New York on June 3rd, 4th, and 5th a suggestion tohold a World’s Congress of Tuberculosis in St. Louis in 1904was approved, and steps are being taken to advertise thisfact and to secure the aid of medical journals, societies,physicians, and scientific men in making the movement asuccess.

___

MESSRS. M. N. ROTHSCHILD and Sons have given .81000and the Leathersellers’ Company E250 towards the .6100,000required for cancer research by the Cancer ResearchCommittee.

FACTORY GIRLS’ COUNTRY HOLIDAY FUND.-Anurgent appeal on behalf of this fund has been issued by thecommittee. No class of workers need an annual holidaymore than do the factory girls of our great city. As the com-mittee point out, " The factory girls of London need a breakin their lives-not for their own sakes alone, but for thehealth and stamina of those who come after them. To con-tribute to this holiday fund is thus indirectly a contributionto imperial defence." Subscriptions and donations shouldbe sent to the honorary treasurer, Mrs. Bedford, St. Peter’sRectory, Saffron-hill, London, E. C.