268

ANNOTATIONS

MICROBIOLOGISTS IN CONGRESS

THE international congress of microbiologistsbeing held throughout this week at UniversityCollege has achieved the vivid success that had beenprophesied for it in advance by all who glanced atthe names of the executive committee responsiblefor its organisation and the preliminary programmepublished many months ago. But few could haveforeseen the degree of enthusiasm, almost excite-

ment, that pervaded the reception hall from 10 A.M.on July 25th, or the helpful efficiency with which thedemands on the secretariat and bureau were met. This

was partly due to the fact that the ladies’ committee,largely composed of well-known scientific workers,having completed their business of arrangingentertainments, did not entrust the task of

reception to uninterested hands, but themselvesstood behind the counter and distributed literature,tickets, and badges to old and new friends.The new series of congresses, of which this is the

second, came into being, as Prof. J. C. G. Ledingham,F.R.S., reminded the members at the openingceremony, through the efforts of the Health Sectionof the League of Nations in 1927 to reconstitutethat free and friendly exchange of scientific opinionwhich a world war had broken. The scope of its

programme represents the direct continuation ofthose sections of hygienic microbiology which forover forty years figured largely in the business of theInternational Congresses of Hygiene and Demography,of which the fifteenth and last took place in

Washington in 1912. The London congress of 1891had, not only a distinguished section of hygienicmicrobiology with Sir Joseph Lister as its presidentand a whole galaxy of renowned pioneers participatingin its business, but also an equally important sectionwhich dealt with the relation of diseases of animalsto those of man. It is unlikely, as Prof. Ledinghamremarked, that these vast congresses of hygiene wouldhave survived, at any rate in their accustomed form,even had the world upheaval not intervened. The

extraordinary development of bacteriology and ofmicrobiology generally would undoubtedly haverendered necessary their separation from a programmealready top-heavy with the multifarious ramificationsof hygiene in its more practical and public aspects.This week’s programme, however, caters fully notonly for hygiene, but also for many another economicactivity, in so far as it depends for its very existenceon knowledge of microbic action. It is impossibleto do more than indicate the scope of the discussions,for they are distributed over eight sections, eachof which has several meetings and the 400 abstractsof communications published in advance make a

book of almost as many pages. We print on p. 274 abrief report of one of the discussions and some accountof the speeches at the opening ceremony which was agathering not only impressive in itself, but madebrilliant by orders and decorations-welcome evidencethat in the modern world the man of science doesnot always escape public recognition.

1 Prof. Ledingham, F.R.S., Dr. P. Fildes, F.R.S., Prof. A.Fleming, Sir Patrick Laidlaw, F.R S., Mr. P. Hartley, D.Sc.,Mr. F. C. Minett, D.Sc., Dr. G. F. Petrie, Prof. H. Raistrick,F.R.S, Dr. W. M. Scott, Dr. J. Henderson Smith, Dr. C.M.Wenyon, F.R.S., Dr. J. T. Duncan, hon. treasurer, and Dr. R.St. John-Brooks, hon. secretary.

THE HEALTH OF THE INDUSTRIAL WORKER

THE function of the Industrial Health ResearchBoard is to suggest problems for investigation, andto advise upon or carry out schemes of researchreferred to them from time to time by the MedicalResearch Council. The problems with which theyare specially concerned are the promotion of betterknowledge of the relations of methods and conditionsof work, to functions of the human body, havingregard both to the preservation of health among theworkers and to industrial efficiency ; and theyendeavour also to secure the cooperation of industriesin making widely known such results of this researchwork as are capable of useful application to practicalneeds.The Board’s activities in this wide field over the

year ending June 30th, 1936, are reviewed in thesixteenth annual report just issued, and range fromproblems of the ventilation of the House of Lords(an occupational hazard ?) to the incidence of gastriccomplaints in London’s omnibus workers. Clearlythere can be no narrow limit to the work theypromote. Good physique and adequate nutrition,hygienic and comfortable surroundings, easy methodsof work, the use of abilities and temperaments tothe best advantage, adequate, incentives and justrewards, are all among the important ingredientswhich go to produce good health in the body and abalanced outlook in the mind and all come undertheir purview.The year’s work has led, amongst other things,

to the issue of two notable reports. One dealingwith the sickness rates experienced in industry (byMay Smith and her colleagues) was referred to indetail in our columns last week. The other, byT. Bedford, marks the completion of a prolongedinvestigation into the problems of warmth andcomfort in factories. The suggested working rangeof air temperature by ordinary thermometer is 60° F.to 68° F., but the observations show distinctly thewide diversity of opinion that exists as to whatconstitutes " comfortable warmth." Even underthe most favourable conditions only the greatesthappiness of the greatest number can ever be achieved.Work on noise and its possible effects on industrialproduction is being continued by H. C. Weston. Itwas hoped to extend inquiry to clerical workers in

noisy offices, but a suitable place for investigationand suitable measures of the results of reducingnoise have so far not been found. A survey of indus-trial deafness is also under consideration. Throughthe newly established Association of IndustrialMedical Officers an attempt is being made to collatethe records of various firms on the physical condi-tions found in applicants for work. So far very littleinformation has been published on the principalcauses of rejection, and it is not known whether theconditions are such that if detected earlier theymight have been prevented or found amenable totreatment. E. Farmer and E. G. Chambers havecontinued their work on accident proneness andhave paid particular attention to road accidents.Records of the accidents of private motorists showthat such individual differences are important factors.Tests are now being made of a new piece of apparatusdevised by E. Schuster to measure the time taken toreact accurately to a danger signal when driving acar. The possible effects upon health of exposure

1 London: H.M. Stationery Office. 1936. Pp. 42. 9d.

OPENING AND CLOSING THE EYES

to various dusts and also to volatile organic com-pounds used in industry with increasing frequencyare also being investigated.The problem of misfits, the Board conclude, is

almost certainly the most important human problemin industry and affects chiefly those at the top andat the bottom : " the former because many peoplein authority can do so much harm, the latter becausethere is still time to direct their capacities into otherchannels." This is the justification, if indeed justi-fication be needed, for the continuation of theresearches into vocational problems that are outlinedin this report. During the year under review fiveof the Board’s reports have been issued, but theactivities of its workers cannot be adequately assessedfrom this output. Many of the investigations theycarry out involve the careful analysis of thousandsof records-e.g., inquiries into sickness incidence orrecords of output under changed conditions of work ;others can only be solved after years of observation-e.g., the results of vocational guidance or the effectson health of new toxic solvents. There can be noshort cuts to knowledge and rarely any crucialexperiments in this field.

OPENING AND CLOSING THE EYES

INTEREST in the mechanism of opening and closingthe eyes was inspired in most of us when we werevery young by its correlation with postural variationsin our sister’s best doll. Even if this interest has longbeen dormant it will be reawakened in those who readthe account of observations made on the subjectby Sir Arthur Hall.l He gives first an excellentclassification of the types of eye closure, startingfrom the simple distinction between bilateral andunilateral closures. The former, subdivided into

blinking of various kinds and closures of rest, are thendiscussed in detail. The bulk of the paper deals withthe question of what position is taken up by the eye-balls when the eyes are closed, and some hundredsof observations under varied conditions on infants,normal adults, and patients with lesions of the VIIthnerve are described. Some popular fallacies are

exploded ; several published accounts of apparentlyanomalous movements of the eyeballs are explainedin retrospect and the explanation is shown to hold

good for similar cases followed up by the author.Importance of the relation of the position of the pupilto that of the eyelids is emphasised, and all the

analytical observations are found to fall in line withthe actual sequence of events during the act of eyeclosure. This last has been investigated by means of thecinematograph, and the strips of photographs repro-duced are most instructive, not only on this pointbut on many others. Sir Arthur’s statements aresubstantiated in detail by the illustrations which hesupplies, and the only misconception which the readeris in danger of carrying away is one of the apparentsimplicity of the investigation.

BODY AND SPIRIT

THERE are a good many plain facts of medical I

experience which are difficult to analyse because it ,

is not easy to reduce them to experimental terms. I

The beneficial effects of rest of a great variety of :

tissues under many adverse conditions where tissuerestoration is needed is a conspicuous instance.

-

Another is the influence of mind or at any rate of .

the central nervous system on disease, and from

1 Brit. Jour. Ophthal., May, 1936, p. 257.

time immemorial it has been recognised that a cheer-ful doctor and patient will make a much better jobof an illness than a gloomy pair. It is now some timesince Metalnikoff and others made observations,more convincing perhaps to themselves than to

others, suggesting that immunity reactions mightbe reducible to conditioned reflexes, and recentlyDrs. Schambouroff and Belikowa of Moscow havepursued the matter rather further. Rabbits havetheir ears scratched and immediately afterwardsreceive an injection of cholera vaccine which leadsto a leucocytosis a few hours later. This procedureis followed daily for two or three weeks, after whichthe stimulation of the ear without any injectionleads to a similar increase in the leucocytes. In otherexperiments, scratching the ear or back was replacedby blowing a horn and in the majority the sameresult was obtained. The leucocyte response there-fore cannot, the authors argue, be due to the stimu-lation of the bone-marrow by the antigen, but mustbe due to some action of the central nervous system,and this they think is the essential thing also in theexperiments where antigen is given. If this is so,it should be possible to inhibit the reflex and thisthe authors affirm may be done by faradising thefeet or giving the animal ammonia or camphor tosmell. Those who accept the reality of the influenceof the mind on the tissues will have little difficultyin believing the experiments to be satisfactory;those who are more sceptical and trust nothingwhich is not explained will not be convinced, forit must be confessed that the observations are not

very numerous, and it was obviously an unfortunatechoice to measure the response, whether to antigenor trumpet, by such a notoriously labile quantityas the leucocyte count. The whole business deservesmore, and more careful, examination.

STUDENTSHIPS AND FELLOWSHIPS IN CLINICAL

SCIENCE AND EXPERIMENTAL PATHOLOGY

WE commented a month ago on the institution of" learning posts " for prospective research workersin tropical medicine, in the form of fellowshipsoffered by the Medical Research Council. TheCouncil now announce a decision to institute a seriesof studentships and fellowships to encourage youngBritish medical graduates of special ability and

original mind towards becoming investigators inthose branches of medical science which are concerned

directly with disease as it occurs in human beings.This field of research includes investigations intodisease or manifestations of disease in patients,together with experimental work of an immediatelyrelevant kind. Six post-graduate studentships are

therefore offered for medical graduates who havealready held house appointments and are stronglyinclined to a career in clinical science or experimentalpathology. Each selected student will receive aninclusive grant at the rate of E200 per annum, duringa period not exceeding 12 months, for his maintenancewhile undertaking approved courses of study in thiscountry calculated to advance his training in methodsof research. This study may include modern languagesand such advanced physiological, pathological, andspecial clinical work under recognised teachers as

may be regarded as forming a suitable preliminaryto serious research work to be undertaken later ;but the approved course may not include studiesof which the purpose is to enable the student to passfurther examinations. The Council also offer four

1 Ann. de l’Inst. Pasteur, June, 1936, p. 700.

269