1308

W. W. STARLING have lately pointed out theease with which carotene appears. to form adsorp-tion compounds when treated with iodine. Ifvitamin A were simply a substance adsorbedon carotene, one would expect that the absorptionspectrum usually regarded as characteristic of it,with a band at 328 fL fL in the ultra-violet, wouldbe visible together with that of carotene ; butit is not, although in naturally occurring mixturesof carotene and vitamin A, such as butter, the328 fL fL band is visible (R. A. MORTON and 1. M.HEILBRON). This band, or one very near it, is

possessed by a certain colourless substance derivedfrom carotene (dihydrocarotene), but evidenceof its biological activity is conflicting. B. AHMADand J. C. DRUMMOND 5 found it gave irregularresults but with little real evidence of biologicalactivity, while EuLER and his co-workers 6 foundit definitely active, but not apparently in dosessmall enough for it to appear likely that it couldbe vitamin A itself. Lastly, from America comesa statement that liver tissue contains an enzymecapable of converting carotene into vitamin A in vitro,as evidenced by the disappearance of the caroteneand the appearance of the absorption band charac- I

5 Jour. Soc. Chem. Ind., 1931, 1., 183T.6 Helv. Chim. Acta, 1931, xiv., 838.

teristic of vitamin A (H. S. OLCOTT and D. C.MCCANN 7).A and D are the only two vitamins about whose

chemistry we have any solid body of knowledgeand it is obvious how incomplete their story stillis. A report is to hand that vitamin C has beenisolated by a Scandinavian worker, but untila scientific account of the work is available nocomment can be offered. As regards vitamin B1,the antineuritic vitamin, B. C. P. JANSEN andW. F. DONATH in 1927 prepared from rice

polishings, by very elaborate fractionation, a

crystalline substance which they believed to bethe hydrochloride of the antineuritic vitamin,but it is noteworthy that the substance chosenas a standard for vitamin Bl, by the League ofNations committee on vitamin standardisation,was an adsorption product on fuller’s earth ofan extract of rice polishings. Of vitamin B2there is nothing to be said, save that it appears topossess a close and curious association with protein.The problems still are legion, but the progress

is none the less remarkable since the time, onlysome ten years ago, when vitamins A and D werenot distinguished as separate entities.

7 Science, 1931, lxxiv., 414. Quoted in Jour. Amer. Med.Assoc., Nov. 28th, p. 1628.

ANNOTATIONS

LONDON SCHOOL OF HYGIENE AND TROPICAL

MEDICINE.

THE seventh annual report of the London School ofHygiene could have no other opening than a mentionof its great loss in the death of its Director, Sir AndrewBalfour. His passing has signalised a certain changein the management of the School, which is now a schoolof the University of London, but one which hasimperial and international responsibilities of a moredirect kind and in greater degree than are usuallyfound in university schools. The board of manage-ment felt that the School should have regard to

university tradition and university standards, andthe post left vacant has not therefore been filledby the appointment of another director, but theduties have been entrusted to a member of the pro-fessorial staff acting as dean. Prof. W. W. Jamesonwas appointed dean for five years from May, 1931.His first report shows the immense amount of workcarried out in the School. There are now six depart-ments, some of them with subdivisions : publichealth ; bacteriology and immunology ; biochemistry,with chemistry as applied to hygiene ; epidemiologyand vital statistics ; clinical tropical medicine; andmedical zoology, with helminthology, protozoology,and entomology, while the Institute of AgriculturalParasitology at the St. Albans farm forms another

department in close touch with the work of theSchool. Almost a separate division, though at

present included under public health, is the depart-ment of medical industrial psychology and appliedphysiology, which is enabling the School to play a largepart in the revolution that is taking place in psycho-logical training. The students have given an excellentaccount of themselves in examinations, and a list oftheir countries and destinations emphasises once

again the cosmopolitan field influenced by the School.

An agreement has been made with the Seamen’sHospital Society whereby members of the medicalstaff of the Hospital for Tropical Diseases form thestaff of the new division of clinical tropical medicineat the School. This places the valuable clinicalresources of the Society at the disposal of the students.

Through the special programmes of instructionand study tours, the whole health organisation ofGreat Britain is laid open by the School for theinformation of students from overseas, and the

dean’s report shows throughout that the conception .

of the School as a great centre of teaching andresearch is being realised.

So great an international service naturally involvesa large budget. When at least :E10,000 per annummust depend on voluntary support, and particularlywhen great employers of labour are suffering fromgrave industrial depression, the position naturallycannot be free from anxiety. The School has nofunds whatever to finance research work except thead hoc grants for particular investigations providedby such bodies as the Medical Research Council,the Empire Marketing Board, and the Departmentof Scientific and Industrial Research. Additionalfunds are needed at the earliest possible moment ifthe great programme which the School has set itselfis not to be curtailed.

____

HÆMORRHAGIC BRIGHT’S DISEASE.

IN the Thayer lectures 1 in clinical medicine,delivered before the Johns Hopkins Medical Society,Dr. Thomas Addis recapitulates the natural history ofthat form of Bright’s disease which is more commonlyknown as glomerulo-nephritis, and has recently beennamed nephritis acris.2 For a considerable number

1 Bull. Johns Hopkins Hosp., 1931, xlix., 203, 271.2 Med. Research Council Spec. Rep. Series No. 142, 1929.