1. The symptoms and autopsy findings in guinea-pigs following intravenous injection of antisera prepared against guinea-pig serum or serum fractions are described. Two types of reaction were observed, acute and delayed, similar to those described in direct anaphylaxis.

2. The alterations in systemic blood pressure, pulmonary arterial pressure, and bronchial resistance, were investigated and found to simulate closely those observable in ordinary anaphylactic shock.

3. The antisera have the power of stimulating contraction of the isolated uterus of the guinea-pig, either in the presence or absence of excess guinea-pig serum. The reaction, like that observed in direct anaphylaxis, is therefore cellular.

4. Antisera prepared against guinea-pig serum proteins contain, in addition to precipitins, agglutinins for the red cells of that species, and Forssmann antibody. Neither of the last two antibodies, however, is responsible for the shock phenomena here described. It appears that the potency of a serum to produce shock in guinea-pigs is dependent on several factors, of which the most important is the content in precipitins reacting with the guinea-pig serum proteins. These precipitins give rise to the reactions following intravenous injection into guinea-pigs, not merely as a result of humoral combination with homologous antigens, but largely, if not wholly, as the result of an immune reaction with antigens in the protoplasm of the tissue cells.

1. Group A haemolytic streptococci produce two distinct varieties of streptolysin:

(a) Streptolysin O which is oxygen sensitive.

(b) Streptolysin S which is serum extractable.

These two streptolysins are neutralized by separate antibodies which appear to be entirely unrelated.

2. Neutralization experiments in vitro with group A antistreptolysin O show that streptolysin O is formed by strains belonging to groups A, C (human) and G; it is not formed by strains belonging to groups B, C (animal), D, E, H and K. The relation of group F strains to streptolysin O is at present uncertain.

3. Group A strains of different serological types all produce streptolysin S neutralizable by group A antistreptolysin S. Strains belonging to groups B, C, D, E, F, G, H and K do not produce streptolysin S neutralizable by group A antistreptolysin S. The neutralization is therefore group-specific but not type-specific.

1. A group of rats has been fed on a poor human dietary supplemented with milk and green food. A further group has been given the same dietary supplemented with Ca and P as salts, equivalent in amount to that present in the milk and green food. The experiment has been continued over three generations.

2. The diet supplemented with Ca and P salts has been found to be as effective as that containing milk and green food in promoting reproduction, calcification and tooth formation; it has induced growth as effectively in the first generation of rats but is unable to maintain this growth rate as effectively over several generations. It is obvious that Ca and P are of the chief deficiencies in the poor diet. The addition of these elements greatly increases the nutritive value of this diet, but they are inferior in this respect to milk and green food supplements.

3. Under conditions of Ca and P lack, tooth formation is much less adversely affected than is skeletal ossification.

THe experiments recorded here were initiated following upon the occurrence in this country of foot-and-mouth disease in a cow, which a short time previously had been injected for the purpose of inducing oestrus with a pituitary extract imported from the Continent. Mr D. A. E. Cabot, M.R.C.V.S., Chief Veterinary Officer of the Ministry of Agriculture, made reference to this interesting case in a discussion on foot-and-mouth disease at the First Imperial Veterinary Conference held in London (1938). Confirmation of the nature of the infection was obtained by the inoculation of test animals under experimental conditions with suitable material collected from the injected animal. Further investigations were made. Three ampoules containing pituitary extract were obtained from the distributors in London of the imported commercial preparation under discussion. These ampoules belonged to the same batch as the ampoule with the extract from which the cow had been inoculated. Messrs A. Eccles, M.R.C. V.S. and A. M. Graham, M.R.C.V.S., at the Experimental Station of the Foot-and-Mouth Disease Research Committee at Pirbright, tested this material for virus infectivity by the inoculation of cattle and guinea-pigs. They reported that all three samples of pituitary extract were contaminated with the virus of footand-mouth disease. In addition they produced evidence that the immunological type of the virus recovered from the extract in the ampoules was the same as that of the virus recovered from the cow, viz. Vallée and Carré 0. This and additional information left no doubt that the outbreak of the disease had been produced by the inoculation of the pituitary extract, and further that this extract had been prepared from the pituitary glands of cattle, which were very probably in the early stages of infection with foot-and-mouth disease at the time of slaughter.

1. The history of a typical sanguineus-borne human case of typhus is given, together with the results of intraperitoneal inoculation of material from the initial lesion into guinea-pigs.

2. This material in the earlier inoculations caused a high mortality rate among guinea-pigs, and is characterized from the other material obtained from rats and fleas by the swing of temperatures between morning and evening.

3. Three cases of non-lesion typhus occurred in a brewery heavily infested with rats and fleas, the patients affirming they had been bitten only by fleas.

A high rat infestation was noted and a Xenopsylla index of 15·0 per rat.

4. Inoculation into guinea-pigs of emulsified brain and testicle material from Rattus rattus trapped at this typhus focus, and of emulsified fleas from the rats, resulted in the establishment of a strain of virus which produced a typhus-like syndrome in guinea-pigs.

5. Infection of guinea-pigs with strains of virus from rats, ticks and fleas, has been secured without any difficulty in Kenya, and it has not been found necessary to keep guinea-pigs on vitamin-deficient diets.

6. Typical scrotal reaction has been observed in the majority of guinea-pigs inoculated. The onset is generally sudden and coincides with the rise in temperature. Subsidence of the swelling and inflammation is gradual over about 3 days.

7. Loss in weight is not a marked feature of the forms of virus encountered in Kenya.

8. Post-mortem appearances in the rat-and flea-forms differ from those of the tick-type mainly in less ascites and slight enlargement of the spleen.

A fresh examination has been made of data obtained some years ago when observations were made of the relation between subjective impressions of freshness and the temperature, velocity and humidity of the air. The results are described, and the bearing of certain other factors on freshness impressions is also discussed. The requirements for a pleasant and invigorating atmosphere are stated.

An examination was made of 200 Wassermann sera, thirty-eight sera from typhoid, twenty-five from paratyphoid B and thirty-one from tuberculous cases, for somatic agglutinins to a range of Salmonellas representative of the O groups then available.

In the Wassermann sera O agglutinins, except to Bact. typhosum and Bact. paratyphosum B, were rare, and the titres against these organisms were low, attaining a titre of 1: 80 against Bact. typhosum in one serum only.

The sera of the enteric cases mostly possessed agglutinins to both Bact. typhosum O and Bact. paratyphosum B O. Cross-relations with Bact. paratyphosum A, Bact. london and, to a less extent, Bact. paratyphosum C, were common in the typhoid sera. Otherwise there was no evidence of relation amongst the somatic groups tested.

The response to T.A.B. inoculation of fifteen individuals suggested also the relation of some organism in the vaccine to Bact. london and its probable lack of relation to the other somatic groups.

There was no evidence of increased frequency of Salmonella agglutinins in tuberculous cases.

The cross-relations of the Salmonellas was found to be due to the possession of minor antigenic components and not to possession of X antigen, which was absent from the suspensions used. X agglutinins were not more frequent in the pathological than in the Wassermann sera.

The relation of these findings to the diagnostic agglutination test is discussed, and the possibility of error consequent upon the use of suspensions containing X antigen is pointed out.

In June 1935, certain problems arose concerning the fumigation of houses with hydrogen cyanide for the destruction of bedbugs. Workmen reconditioning houses in Rochester, which had been given the customary 24 hr. aeration after fumigation with hydrogen cyanide “disks”, had complained of sickness during their work. The walls, cavities and floor spaces of some of these houses had been tested by Mr Topping, the Chief Sanitary Inspector of Rochester, who, using benzidine acetate-copper acetate paper, had obtained a strong positive reaction indicative of the presence of hydrogen cyanide after 24 hr. aeration.

In a recent report (Greenwood et al. 1936) we included a short discussion of the few scattered observations that we had made on the effects of the dispersal of an infected herd (pp. 189–92). Briefly, we had found that the division of a herd, in which an epidemic due to Bact. typhi-murium was under way, into small isolated groups was followed by a greatly decreased rate of mortality in those groups when the dispersal was carried out at the beginning of the beginning of the epidemic period. Reaggregation of the groups resulted in a fresh spread of the disease, but the final mortality was lower than in a similar herd which had not been dispersed during the earlier stages of cage life (Topley, 1922). In a subsequent experiment (Topley & Wilson, 1925) dispersal was carried out at a later stage of epidemic spread, and very different results were obtained. For the first three weeks or so after division into small groups there was no material difference between the mortality experienced by the dispersed and not-dispersed mice. But at about the 25th day the death-rate in each of the dispersed herds showed a definite decline, while that in the undispersed herds continued unabated for some further length of time.

In spite of the voluminous literature, much of it of a polemical rather than scientific nature, on the immunity relationships between variola and vaccinia, comparatively little work has been carried out on experimental animals, and the results of different workers are not altogether concordant. Even in the important article by Blaxall (1930) in the System of Bacteriology only a few lines were devoted to a discussion of the existing experimental evidence, and also in the more recent article by Gastinel (1938) this particular problem has been very briefly treated.

The female percentage figures for Rattus for the three years are 57.8, 57.7 and 57.5 respectively. Pregnancy records were obtained by counting embryos sufficiently advanced to be recognizable to the naked eye. The average number of embryos per pregnant female agree closely for the three years, and the error of underestimating invisible embroys appears to be constant. There is a slight suggestion of two enhanced breeding periods for Rattus in the area, both periods being coincident with higher rainfall and the growing season. The main interest in these figures lies in the large number of embryos recorded over the nipple provision, the greatest number observed being seventeen.

The average number of fleas per rat shows that the period of their maximum incidence agrees closely with the higher incidence of plague.

The number of traps set out daily in huts has remained constant over the three years. Little reliance could be placed on detailed trapping figures as the trapping varies considerable from village to village and even hut to hut, and gross figures only can be employed. Not only do these figures demonstrate that endemic areas have a much higher Rattus density and higher breeding rates than plague-free areas, but they indicate that the incidence of plague, both in man and rats, is more closely associated with rat population densities than any other factor.

The globe thermometer was designed by H. M. Vernon as a simple instrument that will give a more reliable measure of the comfort of a room than the ordinary wall thermometer. When the room is heated by some system of low-temperature radiation, such as hot-water pipes, and when the amount of air movement is not excessive, the globe thermometer is probably as good as any single simple instrument can be. But it has never come into general use because there are conditions under which its indications may be very misleading to the layman.

HArris & LEong (1936) found that vitamin B1; adsorbed from urine, could be measured by the rat bradycardia method of assay. The amount of vitamin B1 excreted was found to correspond in general with both the dietary intake and the physiological state of the subjects.

1. The use of Esch. coli alone as an index of faecal pollution for shellfish, and the correlation between the 44° C. MacConkey test and citrate tests are discussed.

2. The mercury-toluene thermo-regulator used in these experiments, which gives a maximum variation of ± 0.1° C., is discussed briefly and illustrated.

3. Experiments are described in which 522 colonies from polluted shellfish were isolated, inoculated into MacConkey's broth and incubated at temperatures of 37° C. and at successive 1° intervals from 41 to 46° C., in accurately controlled water-baths. An almost perfect negative correlation was found to exist between 44° C. incubation and the citrate test.

4. It appeared that temperatures above 44° C. are detrimental to the growth of Esch. coli.

5. Certain cultures of citrate-negative lactose fermenters at 37° C., which were inhibited at 44° C., were found on further investigation to be mostly intermediate types.

During the period November 1936–November 1937 the vitamin C excreted in the urine by adults and children was investigated in a number of places in Palestine. The pronounced influence of the citrus season (winter and spring) with its greater consumption of citrus fruit was noted in all the population groups investigated. In the summer, however, when the supply of fresh vegetable sources of vitamin C is remarkably poor, much lower, partly subnormal, excretion values are to be found.

The lower average excretion of vitamin C in the urine samples taken from children probably indicate a higher requirement by the growing than by the adult body.

1. Silver nitrate or sodium merthiolate can be used for the sterilization of suspensions of B. typhosus and neither have any immediate destructive effect on the Vi, O or H antigens.

2. Two methods of employing silver nitrate as a sterilizing agent are described.

3. Physiological saline solution with silver nitrate added is bactericidal for B. typhosus and the staphylococcus but has no inhibitory action on the growth of moulds.

4. Vaccines sterilized and preserved with silver nitrate after storage for 6 months at 7° C. were found to have retained their Vi antibody stimulating properties.

5. A vaccine sterilized and preserved with “katadyn” after storage for 18 months at 7° C. still contained some Vi antigen and was superior as an immunogenic agent to a freshly prepared heat-killed-phenolized vaccine.

6. It would appear that the stability of Vi antigen is increased by the addition of silver within certain limits, but this effect is only obtained if low temperature storage conditions are maintained.

7. A vaccine sterilized and preserved with sodium merthiolate after 6 months' storage at 7°C. failed to stimulate any Vi antibody in the rabbit.

1. The effects of morphine, heroin, codeine, dilaudid, dicodid and eukadol upon the caecum and colon are described.

2. Small quantities of morphine produce a rapid increase in tone and amplitude of movements lasting many hours. Large doses result in a spastic contraction of the intestine with diminution of peristaltic movements.

3. The effects of heroin closely resemble those of morphine; it usually produces a greater increase in tone than morphine but the movements are not so great. Heroin is about 30% more active than morphine.

4. Codeine appears to be the weakest member of the series. It causes a slight increase in tone and peristaltic movements which never last very long.

5. Dilaudid produces effects which closely resemble those of morphine and heroin but it is approximately 7.5 times more potent than morphine. Intestinal tone is increased at first but may be subnormal at the 3 or 4 hr. stage. The maximum amplitude of peristaltic movements is seen at the 3 hr. stage.

6. Dicodid increases the tone, and particularly the peristaltic movements. The effects upon the general tone are moderate, much less than those of morphine, heroin or dilaudid. The increase in the amplitude of the movements is, however, much greater than with any other of the drugs. It differs from the others in producing its effects only after a long latent interval of 1–2 hr.

7. Eukadol increases the peristaltic movements in a marked way and is more active in this respect than either morphine or heroin, but is inferior to dicodid. Its effects upon tone are very transient and never very marked.

8. The effects of all these drugs upon the tone and peristaltic movements are at once abolished by adrenalin or atropine. Except morphine and eukadol, these drugs failed to produce their effects when administered after full doses of atropine.

9. The injection of hypophysin during the phase of increased muscular activity following the injection of these drugs, always causes an immediate abolition or diminution of the peristaltic movements and loss of tone to a subnormal level. There is however a rapid recovery from this state and approximately 5–10 min. later the movements are increased to an amplitude far in excess of that seen perior to the injection of hypophysin.

1. The paper records, for the first time, the isolation of Bact. paratyphosum C in Egypt.

2. It has been isolated from the urine of nine patients and the faeces of two patients suffering from enteric fever during the summer of 1937 and the early part of the present year.

3. Its frequency is comparable with that of Bact. paratyphosum A, and may exceed that of Bact. paratyphosum B.

4. Its inclusion in prophylactic vaccines, along with the usual “T.A.B”. vaccine is worthy of serious consideration.

1. A new test for the stability of emulsions of oils or fats is described. It is based on the observation that, when stable emulsions of oils and fats in a fine state of division are mixed with lethal quantities of bacterial toxins and incubated for 30 min. at body temperature, and the mixtures when injected into guinea-pigs do not cause death.

2. Emulsions of olive oil (50%) made with either egg yolk or Irish moss do not protect animals against the effects of lethal doses of bacterial toxins, and are therefore regarded as unstable as judged by this standard.