100 YEARS AGO

Under the title of “The Case for Vaccination,” Mr. C. E. A. Winslow gives an admirable survey of the statistical data in favour of the efficacy of vaccination (Science, July 24, p. 101). It points out that a single vaccination greatly reduces the probability of an attack of small-pox, postpones it to a later period of life, and renders it less dangerous if it does ensue. To ensure absolute protection revaccination is required. During the small-pox epidemic of 1871, of 734 nurses and attendants in the Metropolitan Asylums Board Hospitals 79 were survivors from small-pox attack, and escaped infection; 645 were revaccinated on entrance, and all escaped; 10 were not revaccinated, and all took small-pox. Mr. Winslow concludes, “if statistics ever proved anything, those quoted prove the protective influence of vaccination.”

From Nature 31 December 1903.

50 YEARS AGO

Scientific centenaries in 1954. The modern use of a surname is so well established that it is worth recalling that, as late as the fifteenth century, hereditary surnames were by no means general, it being the custom to add to the baptismal name the place of the owner's birth or residence, or his occupation or some peculiarity that would identify him. Thus we find that Hermann, an eleventh-century monk, was known as Hermann of Reichenau, after the abbey in Switzerland where he spent most of his life, or Hermann the Cripple, on account of the paralysis which had afflicted him from youth. Hermann, born in 1013, has been described as one of the most learned men of his age, and interests us particularly because he was devoted to the study of mathematics and astronomy... He died in 1054, at the castle of his father, Count Wolferad of Alshausen... The year 1954 marks the five hundredth centenary of the birth of the Italian astronomer Domenico Maria di Novara... Passing from Italy to Germany, we note the death in 1554 of Jerome Block, the herbalist... His great herbal, “New Kreütter Bůch”, which appeared first in 1539, is remarkable because Bock was the first botanist to attempt descriptions, from direct observation, which would render illustrations unnecessary. To obtain his material he made long journeys on foot, dressed as a peasant, to avoid undue attention. Illness and misfortune clouded his later life, and he died when only fifty-six, predeceased by eight of his ten children.

From Nature 2 January 1954.