50 Years Ago

Hospital Infection: Causes and Prevention. A systematic approach to the causes and prevention of hospital infection is much to be welcomed. Accurate records are meagre and the problem is one which belongs to everybody and, consequently, to no one. Since streptococcal infections now cause no real difficulties—they still respond to penicillin and have acquired no resistance to the drug—the book is mainly concerned with the staphylococcal infections which, because of their resistant strains, are the main source of infection and worry in hospitals today... The text is clear and logically presented, and adds to the value of a book which should be useful not only to pathologists and bacteriologists but also to surgeons, paediatricians, sister tutors, hospital administrators, and equally important, hospital architects.

From Nature 8 April 1961

100 Years Ago

Dr. A. C. Johansen gives a summary account of the recent investigations on plaice and plaice fisheries in Danish waters... It includes an account both of the market statistics of plaice landed and of the special scientific investigations and experiments which have been carried out. The market conditions in Denmark are exceptional ... the chief demand is for fish that are landed alive... [As] there is a size limit (25.6 cm.) below which they are not allowed to be landed, and the fish under this size are returned to the sea, the actual destruction of small fish is insignificant. It appears that since the introduction of the size limit the Danish plaice fisheries in the North Sea have increased, and the report speaks in favour of an international size limit for plaice for all countries carrying on fisheries in the North Sea.

From Nature 6 April 1911