Appointments
1
896 ready to come to the aid of all who sought his assistance. His ability for clear reasoning, sound judgment, and eagerness to render necessary practical help were outstandingly obvious. He had a profound love of children, especially the handicapped, and his colleagues knew the extent of his concern for the well- being of the 400 children at Lingfield (to whom he referred as ’the kids ’) and for their parents. His personal letters to the parents of his patients revealed the depth of his understanding of their problems. His interests were wide and his hobbies varied. He was one of the first men in Dublin to have an amateur radio-transmitting licence; he was an accomplished engineer, a keen photographer, and an ardent caravanner. " It is natural to regard the new and improved buildings and the modern facilities at Lingfield as Denis Kennedy’s memorial, but perhaps an even greater, though less tangible, memorial is the happiness afforded to a vast number of children who, as a result of his work, are now leading happy and useful lives." In 1944 Dr. Kennedy married Miss Rita Vere, who survives him. JULES BORDET M.D. Brux. IF Professor Bordet had died forty years ago, it would have been correct to say that his death signalised the pass- ing of an era; but he, alone among many, survived long after that era had come to an end. He was one of the band of European workers who created the science of immun- ology. Taking over from their forebears the crude experi- ence of vaccination, they studied not only the mechanism that underlay the resistance of the body to disease but also the far wider phenomenon of the reaction of living tissue to foreign substances. Metchnikoff, Buchner, von Behring, Richard Pfeiffer, Ehrlich, Nuttall, and Bordet, to name only some of the principals, toiled and strove and fought to establish the fundamental laws of immunity. So successful were they that within a period of a little over ten years, between 1890 and 1901, all the major reactions on which our present serological technique is based were discovered. It was a period of triumphant activity, analogous to the period of bacteriological dis- covery in the ’70s and ’80s, and in it Jules Bordet played one of the leading parts. At the age of twenty-five he published his study of the properties of a bacteriolytic antiserum, showing that in its interaction with the bacillus two separate substances took part-one thermolabile and unaffected by the process of immunisation, the other thermostable and greatly increased by immunisation. Three years later he found that the same mechanism held for the lysis of red-blood corpuscles by an antiserum. Along with Gengou he introduced in 1901 an indirect method for detecting the absorption of the thermolabile element (complement) by sensitised bacteria. This depended on the simple obser- vation of the lysis of red-blood corpuscles in place of the more difficult microscopical demonstration of bacterial lysis. The complement-fixation test, as it came to be called, was found to be applicable to all the various antigen-antibody reactions in which complement was concerned. It formed the basis of the Wassermann reaction, and is now one of the most widely used tools in bacteriology and virology. With the study of the con- glutination reaction in 1909, Bordet’s work on serology was virtually complete. In his attempt to explain the phenomena that he had observed, on the basis of adsorption by colloids, Bordet came into conflict with Ehrlich, who regarded the antigen- antibody reaction more in the nature of a firm chemical union. This is not the place to review the controversy. As subsequent work has shown, both views were partly correct, and the discrepancy between them has now been. largely resolved. In the whole dispute, however, Bcr::: was actuated by the spirit of a genuine seeker after truch putting forward his explanations with great modesy:and affording an example in behaviour to all experts who find themselves in disagreement with each other. Jules Jean Baptiste Vincent Bordet was born in 1870 Soignies in Belgium. His university education was in Brussel He studied at the Institut Pasteur in Paris from 1894 to and then returned to Brussels to found an Institut Pasieu:; where he remained for the rest of his working life. In 1906 he published with his collaborator Gengou an account of the cultivation and properties of the whooping-cough bacillus, and in 1910 he published his observations on the organism of pleuropneumonia, which confirmed those of Nocard. From 1907 he was professor of bacteriology in the University at Brussels. He was elected a foreign member of the Royal Society in 1916, and awarded in 1919 the Nobel prize in the section of physiology and medicine. He died on April 6 at his home at Ixelles at the age of 90. Bordet’s main contributions were made in the short space of twenty years while he was still a young man, but he lived to see the application of his discoveries to a more extensive field than he could ever have visualised. He was a great scientist; he will be affectionately remembered by those who had met him; and he will rank among the immortals. G. S. w. Dr. S. HOWARD ARMSTRONG N. H. M. writes: " I knew Howie in those golden years at Harvard and we e had kept in touch ever since. To give the texture of the man, may I recall two happy memories ? The first, a party in his home in Boston 48 hours after I had arrived. Such was the diversity of his friends and the splendour of his hospitality that it seemed to me, as night merged into morning, that he must know everyone in the United States and that they were all there, crammed into the house. The second, a lovely day in Boston, playing hookey with Howie from Cohn’s laboratory- a feat in itself. Together we completed a magnificently incompetent round of golf at the Brookline country club, fortifying ourselves from hole to hole as required, and returning to the laboratory at 10 P.M. to work, and work hard, till dawn the next day. " In these two vignettes are something of his spontaneous kindness to a stranger, wonderful eccentric companionship, and almost obsessive dedication to science in the service of medicine. He was a splendid friend." Appointments EDWARDS, J. W. L., M.D. Lpool, M.R.C.P.: part-time consultant physical. in allergy, Liverpool Chest Hospital. , FINN, 0. A., M.D. Glasg.: consultant dermatologist, Stirling, Falhrk. and Alloa area hospitals and Stobhill Hospital, Glasgow. GROSSART, K. W. M., M.B. Glasg., D.M.R.D.: consultant radiologist, Stluther- General and associated hospitals, Glasgow, with duties in the surgical unit at Killearn Hospital. , HARRISON, A. R., M.D. Lond., M.R.C.P. : part-time consultant phys:;:-’. St. Peter’s, St. Paul’s, and St. Phillip’s Hospitals, London. LITTLEWOOD, A. H. M., M.B. Cantab., F.R.C.S.: consultant plastic surgean Whiston, Alder Hey Children’s, and Leasowe Hospitals. LLOYD-DAVIES, D. G., F.R.C.S.E., D.L.O.: consultant E.N.T. surgean North Devon Infirmary, Barnstaple. - McKENNA, W. B., M.D. Glasg.: consultant dermatologist, Southern Hospital and Western Infirmary, Glasgow. East Anglian Regional Hospital Board: EVANS, E., M.B., D.C.H.: registrar in psychiatry, Suffolk mental EVANS, T. A., M.B. Lond.: surgical registrar (casualty), Ipswich Suffolk Hospital. JHA, P. N., M.B. Patna, D.T.M. & H.: registrar in geriatrics, West hospital group. KELLY, M. G. C., M.B. Dubl.: registrar in psychiatry, Little hospital group. LAMPLUGH, CATHERINE M., M.B. Leeds, D.OBST.: registrar in obsterri gynsecology, Peterborough hospital group.
Transcript of Appointments
896
ready to come to the aid of all who sought his assistance. His
ability for clear reasoning, sound judgment, and eagerness torender necessary practical help were outstandingly obvious.He had a profound love of children, especially the handicapped,and his colleagues knew the extent of his concern for the well-being of the 400 children at Lingfield (to whom he referred as’the kids ’) and for their parents. His personal letters to theparents of his patients revealed the depth of his understandingof their problems. His interests were wide and his hobbiesvaried. He was one of the first men in Dublin to have anamateur radio-transmitting licence; he was an accomplishedengineer, a keen photographer, and an ardent caravanner.
" It is natural to regard the new and improved buildings andthe modern facilities at Lingfield as Denis Kennedy’s memorial,but perhaps an even greater, though less tangible, memorial isthe happiness afforded to a vast number of children who, as aresult of his work, are now leading happy and useful lives."
In 1944 Dr. Kennedy married Miss Rita Vere, whosurvives him.
JULES BORDETM.D. Brux.
IF Professor Bordet had died forty years ago, it wouldhave been correct to say that his death signalised the pass-ing of an era; but he, alone among many, survived longafter that era had come to an end. He was one of the bandof European workers who created the science of immun-ology. Taking over from their forebears the crude experi-ence of vaccination, they studied not only the mechanismthat underlay the resistance of the body to disease butalso the far wider phenomenon of the reaction of livingtissue to foreign substances. Metchnikoff, Buchner, vonBehring, Richard Pfeiffer, Ehrlich, Nuttall, and Bordet, toname only some of the principals, toiled and strove andfought to establish the fundamental laws of immunity.So successful were they that within a period of a littleover ten years, between 1890 and 1901, all the majorreactions on which our present serological technique isbased were discovered. It was a period of triumphantactivity, analogous to the period of bacteriological dis-covery in the ’70s and ’80s, and in it Jules Bordet playedone of the leading parts.At the age of twenty-five he published his study of the
properties of a bacteriolytic antiserum, showing that in itsinteraction with the bacillus two separate substances took
part-one thermolabile and unaffected by the process ofimmunisation, the other thermostable and greatlyincreased by immunisation. Three years later he foundthat the same mechanism held for the lysis of red-bloodcorpuscles by an antiserum. Along with Gengou heintroduced in 1901 an indirect method for detecting theabsorption of the thermolabile element (complement) bysensitised bacteria. This depended on the simple obser-vation of the lysis of red-blood corpuscles in place of themore difficult microscopical demonstration of bacteriallysis. The complement-fixation test, as it came to be
called, was found to be applicable to all the various
antigen-antibody reactions in which complement wasconcerned. It formed the basis of the Wassermann
reaction, and is now one of the most widely used tools inbacteriology and virology. With the study of the con-glutination reaction in 1909, Bordet’s work on serologywas virtually complete.
In his attempt to explain the phenomena that he hadobserved, on the basis of adsorption by colloids, Bordetcame into conflict with Ehrlich, who regarded the antigen-antibody reaction more in the nature of a firm chemicalunion. This is not the place to review the controversy.As subsequent work has shown, both views were partly
correct, and the discrepancy between them has now been.largely resolved. In the whole dispute, however, Bcr:::was actuated by the spirit of a genuine seeker after truchputting forward his explanations with great modesy:andaffording an example in behaviour to all experts who findthemselves in disagreement with each other.
Jules Jean Baptiste Vincent Bordet was born in 1870 Soignies in Belgium. His university education was in Brussel He studied at the Institut Pasteur in Paris from 1894 to and then returned to Brussels to found an Institut Pasieu:;where he remained for the rest of his working life. In 1906 hepublished with his collaborator Gengou an account of thecultivation and properties of the whooping-cough bacillus, andin 1910 he published his observations on the organism ofpleuropneumonia, which confirmed those of Nocard. From1907 he was professor of bacteriology in the University at
Brussels. He was elected a foreign member of the RoyalSociety in 1916, and awarded in 1919 the Nobel prize in thesection of physiology and medicine. He died on April 6 at hishome at Ixelles at the age of 90.
Bordet’s main contributions were made in the shortspace of twenty years while he was still a young man, buthe lived to see the application of his discoveries to a moreextensive field than he could ever have visualised. He wasa great scientist; he will be affectionately remembered bythose who had met him; and he will rank among theimmortals.
G. S. w.
Dr. S. HOWARD ARMSTRONG
N. H. M. writes:" I knew Howie in those golden years at Harvard and we e
had kept in touch ever since. To give the texture of the man,may I recall two happy memories ? The first, a party in hishome in Boston 48 hours after I had arrived. Such was the
diversity of his friends and the splendour of his hospitality thatit seemed to me, as night merged into morning, that he mustknow everyone in the United States and that they were all
there, crammed into the house. The second, a lovely day inBoston, playing hookey with Howie from Cohn’s laboratory-a feat in itself. Together we completed a magnificentlyincompetent round of golf at the Brookline country club,fortifying ourselves from hole to hole as required, and returningto the laboratory at 10 P.M. to work, and work hard, till dawnthe next day.
" In these two vignettes are something of his spontaneouskindness to a stranger, wonderful eccentric companionship,and almost obsessive dedication to science in the service ofmedicine. He was a splendid friend."
Appointments
EDWARDS, J. W. L., M.D. Lpool, M.R.C.P.: part-time consultant physical.in allergy, Liverpool Chest Hospital. ,
FINN, 0. A., M.D. Glasg.: consultant dermatologist, Stirling, Falhrk. andAlloa area hospitals and Stobhill Hospital, Glasgow.
GROSSART, K. W. M., M.B. Glasg., D.M.R.D.: consultant radiologist, Stluther-General and associated hospitals, Glasgow, with duties in the surgical unit at Killearn Hospital. ,
HARRISON, A. R., M.D. Lond., M.R.C.P. : part-time consultant phys:;:-’.St. Peter’s, St. Paul’s, and St. Phillip’s Hospitals, London.
LITTLEWOOD, A. H. M., M.B. Cantab., F.R.C.S.: consultant plastic surgeanWhiston, Alder Hey Children’s, and Leasowe Hospitals.
LLOYD-DAVIES, D. G., F.R.C.S.E., D.L.O.: consultant E.N.T. surgeanNorth Devon Infirmary, Barnstaple. -
McKENNA, W. B., M.D. Glasg.: consultant dermatologist, Southern Hospital and Western Infirmary, Glasgow.
East Anglian Regional Hospital Board:EVANS, E., M.B., D.C.H.: registrar in psychiatry, Suffolk mental EVANS, T. A., M.B. Lond.: surgical registrar (casualty), Ipswich
Suffolk Hospital. JHA, P. N., M.B. Patna, D.T.M. & H.: registrar in geriatrics, West
hospital group. ’KELLY, M. G. C., M.B. Dubl.: registrar in psychiatry, Little
hospital group.LAMPLUGH, CATHERINE M., M.B. Leeds, D.OBST.: registrar in obsterri
gynsecology, Peterborough hospital group.
