100 YEARS AGO

It is well known that the shipments of rum from Demerara, especially during the past year, have been “faulty,” and very great pecuniary loss has resulted to the colony. Through the kindness of a friend and the courtesy of the Excise authorities, we received certain samples direct from a bonded warehouse; we were informed that the spirit had been returned at 42 per cent. over proof, equivalent to 74.6 per cent. alcohol by weight. On microscopical examination of a sediment at the bottom of the samples, using a magnification of 1200 diameters, we found chains of small cocci; after the spirit had been kept for some days the cocci were seen to be surrounded with a gelatinous envelope, and after a further interval of time the cocci were found disseminated throughout the liquid, and were rapidly developing and multiplying …. the observation of the existence and multiplication of any micro-organism in a spirit of such alcoholic strength appears to be of so much scientific interest, and the problem of its presence of such technical importance, that we send this note as a preliminary communication.

From Nature 1 July 1897.

50 YEARS AGO

Mr. P. B. Medawar has been elected to the chair of zoology in the University of Birmingham. Not yet thirty-three, he has had a brilliant career at Oxford … and his research lies along two very different lines. In one he is developing the mathematical treatment of animal form and the process of growth and ageing; in this he carries forward the pioneer work of Sir D'Arcy Thompson. [In the other he is studying] the differences between individuals. Here come his valuable researches on mammalian skin grafting, so important in their human application; his approach to the problem is both immunological and genetical. A recent development has been his discovery and investigation of the curious phenomenon of an induced spread of pigmentation when pieces of black skin are grafted into white areas of a piebald guinea-pig. Prof. Medawar has a fertile imagination combined with an ability for putting his ideas for research into practice. We look forward with confidence to the development of his Birmingham school of zoology.

From Nature 5 July 1947.