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rapidly. The thought of our age was separated from present house, and since then among its eminent that of previous ages by the doctrine of evolution, Fellows the names of Richard Bright, Addison, and which had done at least as much to stimulate the Thomas Watson are prominent. studies of the historian as to guide the researches of Dr. Arnold Chaplin, the Harveian Librarian, then the biologist. The whole of evolutionary teaching gave an account of the library, enumerating some of might be summed up in the phrase that organic the special treasures contained in it, and commenting products are the outcome of their history, and can on the fact that every branch of learning was only be understood when their history is known. represented therein. No great system such as that of modern could be understood without reference to its past. The political history of civilisation had always formed the main topic of school and university education, IMPERIAL CANCER RESEARCH FUND. yet the study of the conditions which had made that civilisation possible, the origin and development of THE twentieth annual of this Fund was scientific had until been report thought, recently neglected. presented at the annual meeting on July 19th. It Dr. to discuss the achievements in Singer pro-ceeded was announced that the gift from Lord Athelstan of the of the of Medicine of some of department History 22000 a year for 10 years is to be allocated to an more of the in this the eminent exponents subject extension of the on the infective their President of Sir investigations country, including Honour, sarcomata (dogs and fowls) with a view to defining the Norman Moore, and Sir , as showing difference between these and true neoplasms. The that first-class historical work could be produced in donation of 24000 from Mr. and Mrs. Todman’ will be the intervals of a busy professional life. He referred available at the end of this month. The free- also to the two other active of the exponents history masonry between workers in research laboratories of medicine, Sir D’Arcy Power and Mr. W. G. Spencer, is shown by the fact that the Director has supplied to whose efforts the of this was holding Congress material during the year to workers in Glasgow, largely due. Their work had demonstrated the Leicester, Vienna, Amsterdam, Buenos Aires, and to humane and educational value of the history of other laboratories in . medicine. The need for teachers of this special Dr. J. A. Director of the subject had become and he that Murray, laboratories, in apparent, hoped a account the before the Congress met again this need would be his report gives considered of work the past year and of its on more adequately and more widely met throughout published during bearing the civilised world. the main problems awaiting solution. Afternoon Session. Vitamins and Cancer. On the work of Dr. W. Cramer and Dr. The afternoon session was held at the important Royal College A. H. in collaboration with Dr. 0. Mottram of Sir Drew J. . , welcoming Radium with the the members of the the (of the Institute), dealing function Congress, conveyed good and tissue in wishes of Sir Norman Moore, Harveian of the lymphocyte lymphoid nutrition, formerly we commented at the time of its Librarian and President of the whose publication in College, promi- THE LANCET.2 Since then these workers have con- nent part in promoting the study of medical history in this had been tinued their studies on vitamin deficiency in investi- country appropriately recognised by the effect of A-vitamin in and his as President of Honour of the gating. deficiency rats, position Congress. their to 3 Sir Humphry Rolleston recalled that Linacre, have presented results the Royal Society. Just as the diminution in measures the the most learned man of his obtained lymphocytes perhaps time, effects of B-vitamin of A-vitamin the Royal Charter for the College of Physicians on deficiency,deprivation is associated with a diminution of blood- from VIII. at a time when progressive Sept. 23rd, 1518, Henry The characterised the medicine was little more than a mechanical art and platelets. infections, by presence of to there were no societies, other than religious founda- micro-organisms non-pathogenic normally-fed tions, devoted to the of knowledge. animals, which an animal on a deficiency diet solely pursuit is so on Linacrp, anxious to raise the standard of medicine, liable to contract, clear up rapidly the addition of A-vitamin to the food, and the number of modelled the College on the lines of the Italian Universities, Bologna and ; and accordingly platelets returns to normal or even higher than normal. If the for reason do not increase the Fellows of the were learned men first platelets any early College the condition does not and and then medicine one branch in number, general improve physicians, being only the local infections do not The Director of The of the College was then regress. knowledge. history out that a has been elicited between briefly sketched. During the first 100 years it met in points parallel Linacre’s house in Knight Rider-street, and during A-vitamin deficiency and prolonged, repeated exposure this period , the founder of the science of to the gamma radiation of radium. Here, however, in this did much for the the concomitant effect on the number of lymphocytes country, College necessitates careful and to avoid the and was one of its names. In 1614 the spacing dosage, great College acute which this blood moved to Amen Court, and Harvey, as Lumleian symptoms accompany change. demonstrated the circulation of the The progressive diminution in the platelets thus Lecturer, blood ; induced is the character- but the was burnt down in the fire of accompanied by symptoms College 1666, istic of A-vitamin Dr. Mottram’s and thus lost museum and the whole deficiency. studies, Harvey’s nearly and to show that the of its From 1669 to 1825 the was in experimental clinical, go aplastic library. College anaemia of X and radium workers is Warwick-lane, in a Sir ray secondary building designed by to these in the and and Christopher Wren, the dome of which was described changes lymphocytes platelets, " is the of similar infections with by Garth as a golden globe placed high with artful probably consequence to the distant a This relatively non-pathogenic organisms. skill, seems, sight, gilded pill." On the of the influence of A-vitamin period of the College was notable for its distinguished question possible Fellows : Sir , President of the Royal deficiency on cancer the Director reports as follows :- Society, whose collections formed the basis of the Repeated attempts have been made to ascertain whether British Museum; Mead; Garth, the author of " The A-vitamin deficiency has any influence on the growth of Dispensary " ; Arbuthnot, who invented the character malignant tumours. Unfortunately it is difficult to keep " a severe of Sir animals alive for any length of time after degree of John Bull " ; Freind, the historian ; George this has been established. In the who discovered that lead caused the Devonshire deficiency experiments Baker, carried out so far the tumours take in the same percentage colic ; Matthew Baillie, " the first medical writer to as in the control animals and grow progressively, even when treat morbid anatomy as a subject by itself " ; the rats are moribund. The enhanced liability to otherwise W. Heberden, of " the Commentaries " ; and Thomas innocuous bacteria frequently ends these experiments

Young, who described the undulatory of light. 1 theory THE LANCET, 1922, i., 1111. In 1825, under the auspices of Sir H. Halford, 2 THE LANCET, 1921, ii., 1202 and 1228. President for 24 years, the College was installed in its 3 THE LANCET, 1922, i., 1006. 199

prematurely, but the results give no encouragement, to the tain normal tissues, notably kidney, showed such a idea that withholding A-vitamin could usefully assist in the gaseous exchange as indicated the combustion of control of the of cancer in man. growth They emphasise carbohydrate, while slowly growing tumours gave the dangers of the insidious debility which A-vitamin the combustion of deficiency induces. respiratory quotients indicating fats. as in recent the emulsions of The progressive atrophy of the cells and organs forming When, experiments, lymphocytes and blood-platelets respectively, which results the latter group were made with solutions of glucose from the absence of A- and B-vitamins in the food, and which and certain other sugars, the respiratory quotient causes ill-health, is also produced by exposure to X rays and rose nearly to unity, showing that their parenchymata radium. This is, in fact, one of the effects on the body as a were able to oxidise these if present the of of these in carbohydrates, whole which limit degree application rays in sufficient concentration. The was made of new If blood attempt the treatment growths. these changes subcutaneous of such radiation must be and the patient by injection sugar solutions, develop, interrupted to allowed to recover. This recovery is materially assisted by into animals bearing tumours, find out whether an ample supply of vitamins in the diet, which stimulate the in this way the rate of growth could be influenced. production of lymphocytes and platelets. No alteration was found to be produced. These observations succeed in combining the F,xperime7zlut Prodtictioit of Cancer. of animal with the precision experiments practical The experiments on the production of skin cancer clinical application which is their ultimate aim. by the external application of tar 6 are being continued In Vitro Culture of Tissues. by the Director. They have resulted in the produc- tion of a number of tumours, The made Dr. Drew in the culture of large many exhibiting progress by a high degree of malignancy, as evidenced by spon- normal and malignant tissues in vitro is also recorded. taneous lymphatic and blood-stream dissemination. For continuous growth outside the body all tissues Dr. Russell has carried out an experiment on the effects of require, in addition to the ordinary food substances, inoculation of small of coal tar in rats and certain substances available at in fresh repeated quantities only present mice. Two sarcomata were produced at the site of inocula- embryonic extracts. Extracts of adult tissues, and tion, one in a rat and one in a mouse out of 50 mice and 40 possibly tumours, contain this activating principle in rats inoculated. Autoplastic and homoplastic transplanta- much lower concentration. Its nature is still unknown; tion were successful with both these tumours, and metastases it is destroyed by heating, and it cannot be replaced were found in the lungs of the primarily-affected rat. by glutathione, a sample of which was supplied to the The production of a sarcoma, in contrast to the Fund by Prof. F. G. Hopkins for experimental purposes. carcinomata which follow painting of the skin with marks the the same irritant Dr. Drew has been able to prepare a liquid medium tar, production by applied to and to connective tissue of a carcinoma in which tissues can be cultivated, thus eliminating the epithelium and a sarcoma and shows the use of blood-plasma, which has been a great hindrance respectively, clearly to in this kind of work. Cell-division and inadequacy of any theory of cancer formation which progress fails to take into account the essential of differentiation can in this medium, similarity proceed normally all the essential peculiarity of which is a definite colloidal neoplastic growths. condition of the calcium salts. The Director comments A final paragraph in the Director’s report deals with the recent in the on Dr. Drew’s work in the following hopeful terms :- trenchantly correspondence lay press. He says :- observations have been made on the conditions Interesting The recent in the on cancer and which determine differentiation of normal and correspondence lay press malignant cancer research a distraction with which the cells. cells when alone in culture exemplifies Epithelial growing pure worker on this has to contend. None of the more remain undifferentiated. When connective tissue cells are subject or less writers of the with the added to such differentiation sets in with distinguished letters, exception pure cultures, of H.E. the with the little keratin in the Aga Khan, displayed any acquaintance delay, squamous epithelium producing results of the of the last 20 The facts familiar form of concentric work years. already corpuscles, mammary epithelium known as to the occurrence of cancer in different races of acinous even when producing branching structures, originally and in different of in derived from a undifferentiated alveolar mam- mankind, species animals, published practically the and third scientific of this Fund carcinoma. These which are at first, second, reports mary experiments, only were treated as non-existent." their beginning, break new ground in the experimental control of the behaviour of metazoan cells. It must, indeed, be disheartening for those who Intimately bound up with this problem is the curious fact cannot hope to achieve much progress even in a that the continued culture in vitro of malignant cells life-time spent at cancer research, so complex are encounters difficulties not met with in the experiments with the problems involved, when they are called upon to If are to be normal tissues. degenerative changes prevented reiterate the established and facts which are the former must be transferred to fresh nutrient accepted frequently the fruits of labour. Not but even medium. The exhausted fluid is found to have a poisonous past only laymen medical men on other lines are not action on the tumour cells, but normal cells can grow, working always apparently without damage, in these fluids. These results fully conversant with the present position of cancer give the greatest encouragement to the hope that by this research. The scientific reports of the Imperial Cancer method of experiment the fundamental differences between Research Fund are classical documents which should normal and malignant growth will finally be elucidated. be studied by all those who have the trepidity to enter In this connexion, it is interesting to note that the into controversy on one of the most intricate branches piece of connective tissue isolated from the heart of a of medical research. chick in 1912, on which we commented 4 when it It is gratifying to see from the reportof the Treasurer, was 8 years old, has now reached the tenth year of its Sir George Makins, that by rigid economy the expendi- life in vitro.5 It is obvious that the difficulties ture of the past year is nearly met by the income of the attendant on the in vitro culture of malignant tissues Fund, and that in a time of financial stringency like are even greater than those met with in such normal the present, public-spirited donors have made it cultures and the precise differences may well form the possible for the Committee to face the increasing starting-point of important new work. demands of the immediate future with confidence. Respiratiora of Tissues, Normal and 1lIalignant. 6 Seventh Scientific Report, and THE LANCET, 1921, ii., 1117. In another respect a comparison between the LITERARY INTELLIGENCE. - Messrs functions of normal and malignant tissues seems likely Longmans, to Green and Co. announce the forthcoming publication of yield useful results in the hands of workers at the " Imperial Cancer Research Fund laboratories. Dr. The Smokeless City," by Mr. E. D. Simon (Lord Mayor of B. Manchester) and Miss Marion Fitzgerald, with preface by R. G. Russell has continued his researches on Lord Newton (chairman of the Departmental Committee respiration of normal and. malignant tissues, in the on Smoke Abatement).-Mr. Humphrey Milford announces period of survival after removal from the body. The the following forthcoming publications : ., Respiration," by Director recalls that Dr. Russell in earlier experiments Dr. J. S. Haldane, F.R.S., a volume based on the Sillinian at Yale " Greek and demonstrated that rapidly growing tumours and cer- lectures delivered University ; Biology Greek Medicine," the first volume of a section of the 4 THE LANCET, 1920, i., 335. World’s Manuals dealing with the history of science, of which 5 Soc. of Expt. Biol. and Med., xix., April, 1922. Dr. is general editor.