Medicine: Old Man’s Pleasures

Toward the end of each year members of the Rockefeller Institute like to get into print as many scientific reports as possible. This custom fattens their annual bibliographies and pleases old Mr. Rockefeller. Last week, a fortnight before the deadline, two items were notable:

Dr. Alexis Carrel stated that he can detect cancer by studying the shape and behavior which certain white blood corpuscles, called monocytes, assume in serum from a suspect’s veins. He can also detect anemia, eczema, starvation.

Drs. Peter Kosciusko Olitsky and Herald Rea Cox found that a few drops of diluted tannic acid in a mouse’s nostrils would temporarily ward off a horse disease called encephalomyelitis.